“I miss Si Chengie,” Yuta said for the third time since the 127 meeting started. It started at 6:00, and it was now 6:02. 

 

“I miss silence,” Taeil mocked the latter, who was typing on a computer next to him. “I can’t believe I have to type 2000 words for this scholarship, it’s only giving me $500!”

“Hey, $500 is $500.” Johnny took a sip of the soda that Taeyong had brought for the group today. He didn’t plan on being productive today. “Let me tell you, y’all think tuition is bad here in Korea? In the US it’s way worse.”

 

“This is why we should all go to college and get a good education to get good careers and destroy capitalism and the patriarchy,” Doyoung said, doing his homework while at the same time writing an essay on the computer. Who knows, it was probably too smart for them to understand, anyways.

 

“Hmm, okay boomer,” Johnny continued, taking another sip.

 

Doyoung frowned. “I’m younger than you.”

“That sounds like something a boomer would say-“

“Johnny, you’re the one who was actually going to eat a tide-pod,” Yuta reminded him. “Until Ten stopped you and called you an idiot.”

The seven of them (Si Cheng was not there, since he decided to watch a movie instead of suffering like the rest of them; Mark and Haechan also didn’t show up since they thought doing karaoke was a much better use of their time) were in the classroom like usual, not doing what they had originally planned – well, only three of them were doing it. Not even Taeyong himself, as he was too busy staring at a blank document on his laptop and has been in that position for five minutes. 

 

Jaehyun took a bite of the Pocky that he had brought with him before poking Taeyong’s cheek with it. “Hey, you good?”

 

Taeyong jolted in his seat before realizing it was Jaehyun. “Yeah, sorry, I’m just stuck on this assignment.”

“A feeling I can relate all too well,” Jaehyun agreed. “Do you want-“
 

A pounding on the door interrupted everyone’s conversations in the room. 

 

The door must have been locked by accident because of Jungwoo, since he went to a drink of the water fountain ten minutes before, so Taeyong got up from his seat to open it. It must have been someone from the Dream or WayV units. 

 

His guess was confirmed when he opened the door, revealing to be a very out of breath Kun, who continued to gasp for air. “Taeyong,” he managed to sputter out, taking another few seconds before saying his next words. “You don’t happen to have the keys to the nurse’s office, do you?”
 

***

 

It has been only five minutes into karaoke, and there was already a fight. 

 

Well, it wasn’t really a malicious fight,  more like Jaemin and Jeno trying to wrestle each other for the one and only caramel popcorn bag that Renjun brought. Chen Le had gone up first, singing some NEX7 song in Chinese, and Jisung was the only one paying attention to him. Donghyuck usually would have sang along, but he doesn’t even know what Ni Hao means, so he and Mark took turns grabbing Pocky sticks (there had been a sale at the supermarket the other day) while watching the Jeno vs Jaemin fight. 

 

“This is way better than doing homework and college with the boomers,” Donghyuck said, grabbing one of the matcha Pocky sticks. He would literally kill Ten for a Pocky stick at this rate. 

 

“True, true.” Mark wrapped the blanket that was covering them two tighter around them. “$5, who do you think will eat it-“

“Oh, definitely Jeno,” Haechan answered. “He takes a weights class for his PE requirement-“

Right at that moment, the YouTube video that they had been using to play the songs showed a no internet signal, causing Chen Le to cry out and everyone to stop and stare.

 

“Right when it was about to end, gosh dang it!” He slammed the microphone on the teacher’s desk, which was next to the whiteboard where he was standing; they had been using the projector to display the lyrics. “The internet at this school .”

Jisung got up from his spot on the desk and went to the computer, refreshing the page. The dinosaur on the chrome page appeared, meaning that there was no signal. “Uh, guys, there’s no internet.”

“Don’t worry, we can just play it on our phones.” Donghyuck took out his phone from his pocket and opened up the YouTube app, showing a white screen with the refresh button. “, I don’t have signal!”
 

“Does anyone have signal?” Jaemin said, taking his hands off Jeno. Jeno used this opportunity to grab the caramel popcorn bag and started eating some pieces.

 

“No signal here,” Renjun said, waving his phone in the air. “Wait-“

All seven phones in the room started vibrating, playing a loud chime before the screen turned black. 

 

“That was the worst thing I ever heard,” Jisung said. “Now my phone won’t even turn on!”

Mark sighed, throwing the blanket off him and Haechan before getting up. “Looks like we have to investigate, the school’s internet router might be acting up.”

Donghyuck reached over to grab the last of the Pocky that he and Mark brought, disappointed that karaoke night was ruined. “I’ll go with you, I want to get more snacks from the vending machine.”
 

“Bring me a twix!” Chen Le shouted, opening his backpack. “Hey, maybe my IPad will turn on-"
 

Renjun pouted, crossing his arms across his chest. “I want a snickers.”

 

“I want a Milky Way-“ Jeno started to say before Jaemin covered his mouth.

“Well, clearly, I look like an ATM, here,” Donghyuck through his backpack at Jeno, heading to the door with Mark. “I have cosmic brownies, have fun, guys.”

“ the cosmos,” Jisung yelled before taking the bag from Jeno.

Jaemin gasped. “Language!”
 

***

 

“It’s been ten minutes, where in the world are Kun and Xiaojun?” Hendery yelled, slamming his head on the chalkboard. The door had been left unlocked by the teacher when school ended, so they were able to wait inside, but the latter two have yet to make an appearance. 

 

“Maybe they finally confessed their love to each other,” Ten said, filing his nails again as he sat at his usual desk. "Kun's literally been eyeing the new guy since he first saw him."

 

"Nah, Kun probably thinks you got to wait until marriage to hold hands," Yangyang argued, continuing his chalk drawing of a robotic dinosaur shooting eye lasers at flying pirates. "Does Kun even know how to hold hands?"

 

"You guys exaggerate so much, they probably had to do something real quick," Si Cheng said, typing away on his phone.

 

"If he doesn't come in five minutes I'm going straight to the 127 meeting and hanging out with Jungwoo," Lucas pouted, crossing his arms. "He's probably having fun."

 

A sharp piercing sound of a ringing interrupted the group, with Si Cheng throwing his phone on the ground, displaying a black screen when the ringing stopped.

 

"What the was that?!" He yelled, extending his foot to reach his foot.

 

" for you," Ten said, pulling out his own phone. "It also seemed to have come from my phon- hey it won't turn on."

 

"Looks like aliens are about to invade earth," Yangyang said, added aliens and a moon to his drawing. "All because of the flat-earthers."

 

"You need to stop smoking crack," Ten yelled at him, grabbing his charger from his backpack and heading to the wall to plug it in. "Now let me borrow your phone."

 

"I would never do drugs!" Yangyang yelled, grabbing the chalk eraser and rubbing it over the board. "Drugs are bad and yeet your intelligence."

 

"You're definitely on drugs- Lucas what the are you doing?"

 

Said Lucas had jumped out of his chair and walked towards the door. "I'm hungry, I want to get a snack."

 

"I'm literally right here," Ten argued.

 

"Damn, Ten tryna cheat on Johnny," Si Cheng said, tossing his phone on the ground. "What am I supposed to do now?"

 

Lucas walked out of the room, but the group heard his boisterous voice two seconds later. "Kun, what the are you doing-"

 

He ran back into the room and shouted at the WayV unit. "Kun is dragging a body through the hallway with Taeyong and Jaehyun!!"

 

"LITERALLY WHAT DRUGS ARE YOU GUYS ON?!" Ten shouted before running out of the door. The group could hear Ten yelling back and forth with said Kun. 

 

"I always thought Kun's first murder would be one of you three," Si Cheng said to other three in the room before Ten came back in. "Yo, what's going on?"

 

Ten locked the door before coming back in. "Kun said that someone was trying to kill Xiaojun, he's taking him to the nurse's office with Taeyong and his boyfriend, he said not to leave for now."

 

"Is Xiaojun all right?!?" Yangyang asked, walking to where the door was. "We have to see if he's okay!!"

 

"What part of there's murderers outside do you not understand?!" Ten yelled back at him. "As co-leader, no one's leaving the room until I say so, I don't want to be responsible for taking your asses to the emergency room."

 

Hendery grabbed the phone off the teacher's desk, putting it to his ear before slamming it down five seconds later. "Line's been disconnected."

 

"Phones are off too," Si Cheng said. "We can't even call 119."

 

***

 

Xiaojun woke up with a pounding headache and his body full of pain.

 

Well, the lights actually woke him up, but they were probably the reason why his headache seemed to be in more pain. 

 

He blinked open his eyes, squinting against said harsh light, noticing a figure seated across from him, squeezing his hand. When the initial blurriness went away, he discovered it to be Kun. 

 

The latter must of notice him awake because Kun soon let go of his hands, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks. "You're awake."

 

Xiaojun pushed himself up, lying his back against the wall as he tried to ignore the growing headache. "What happened?"

 

"You were being attacked," Kun explained. "I saw you enter the woods and I tried to fight the thing off, but…" he trailed off, looking away.

 

That's when Xiaojun noticed the blood stains covering Kun's white T-shirt, his left arm bandaged. There were scratches decorating his face as well. 

 

He sat up straighter to get a better look at Kun. "Are you okay, it looks like you lost a lot of blood."

 

"Oh, this?" Kun pointed at his own shirt. "This is your own blood."

 

It was his what?!?

 

Xiaojun threw the blanket that was covering his body off of him and was shocked to see his clothing. His beloved black and red sweater had been torn from the bottom, exposing some of his abdomen which was covered in gauze. From newly made holes, he could see bruises decorating his arms. He didn't even want to see his legs. 

 

"What caused this?" Xiaojun asked, not believing he was injured. "What thing were you fighting, anyways?"

 

"Well, it was a person, but…"

 

Xiaojun shrugged. "What about it?"

 

Kun waved him off. "Nothing, just weird, I don't know why he was hurting you."

 

"Was he a tall, muscular dude or a short middle-aged man?" Xiaojun asked. 

 

Kun frowned. "Nooo… Why would you ask that?"

 

"So it's not my ex or my dad," Xiaojun said. "Well, I got nothing."

 

"I don't know who it was, but it was definitely not a student," Kun reassured him. He opened up his backpack and pulled out a water bottle to hand to Xiaojun. "Here, drink this, you lost a lot of blood. What's your blood type, by the way?"

 

Xiaojun shrugged, taking the water bottle from Kun. "No clue."

 

"Well, I'm B and Jaehyun was A, Taeyong didn't know his either so they went to find someone who was O negative, just in case. I would text them, but-" Kun lifted up his phone, pressing the on button but not getting a response. "Phones aren't working, they released a loud noise before shutting down when we were in the hallway, no idea why."

 

"Thanks for everything," Xiaojun said. "I can't believe I was almost… you really think they were going to murder me?"

 

"Probably, I dragged you to the school and took almost an hour trying to stop the bleeding, I'll never see my sweatshirt again." Kun laughed for a bit but his face turned serious again. "You did lost a lot of blood, though, I'm glad you're okay."

 

Xiaojun smiled. "Really, thanks."

 

***

 

"Are these woods safe?" Jihoon said, following Soonyoung into the forest. 

 

Soonyoung had parked the rental car at the high school's parking lot and was now dragging Jihoon to the forest behind the school.

 

"Jihoon, it's broad daylight, nothing's going to happen," Soonyoung said. "Plus, people here aren't crazy like the US, though the justice system is still ty."

 

Jihoon was still hesitating to go in but didn't like Soonyoung going in alone, so Soonyoung grabbed Jihoon's hand and pulled him in, the two following the information Soonyoung had entered on his phone. They didn't even make it for five seconds, though, when Soonyoung noticed a tree covered in…

 

"Is that blood?" Soonyoung asked, letting go of Jihoon's hand to inspect the tree. It looked fairly new, made today, and there were smears of it on the tree and ground as well. 

 

"That's it, I'm going to the car," Jihoon said, turning around only for Soonyoung to grab his hand again. 

 

"No, no, no, you're not leaving me alone, you know what I feel about death and people dying," Soonyoung said before realizing what he said. 

 

Jihoon rolled his eyes, shaking off Soonyoung's hands. "Figured. My apologies for having given you that experience, you're the one who entered my house."

 

"That's not what I meant, look-hey, come back here." Soonyoung grabbed his hand for the thrift time in a row before a loud ringing interrupted them.

 

Jihoon pulled out his phone, realizing it was coming not only from there but from Soonyoung's as well. "Hoshi, your-" he managed to say before the screen turned black. "What?"

 

Soonyoung took out his phone from his back pocket, realizing it won't turn on. "Weird, maybe a glitch shut it down. Probably won't restart until we charge it."

 

"How are we going to do that, you don't have the charging adapter for cars," Jihoon asked, stuffing his phone back into his pocket. 

 

"Hey, we still have the regular chargers, let's go inside the school and charge them there," Soonyoung said, walking back to the school, tiny Jihoon struggling to follow him.

 

"How do you know the school is open, it's like past six," Jihoon said, practically jogging.

 

"There's cars here, probably after school students," Soonyoung said, stopping to let Jihoon catch up. "I doubt they would mind."

 

They walked around the school to where the main entrance was, which was unlocked, as expected. There, they could see what they assumed was the main office, the lights already on . 

 

"Look, there's outlets," Soonyoung said, plugging his phone on the wall beside the guest chairs, sitting down on one of them. "Let's just wait a few minutes and continue. Actually, maybe we should just get dinner-"

 

Soonyoung stopped when he saw two men enter the main entrance as well through the first set of double doors, only their faces looked completely blank and were staring straight at them. They also had red stains covering their clothing, and it didn't take long for Soonyoung to put two and two together. 

 

He snatched his phone off the wall and stuffed it in his pocket in record time, dragging Jihoon with him to where the hallway was with lights when Jihoon also noticed the men who were now trying to open the second set of double doors to where they were.

 

"Uh, Soonyoung-"

 

Soonyoung ran into an opened room with it's lights one, dragging Jihoon inside as well before successfully closing and locking the door, managing to feel it slam on one of the other guys.

 

They backed away from the door, hearing the two men continue to pound on it.

 

"Who the hell are you?" They turned around to see two students, one lying on a small bed and the other sitting beside him. 

 

This must be the nurse's room, Soonyoung thought, only why the two were covered in scratches and bandages were questions for another day.

 

"Uh, I think those people want to hurt us, they had blood on them," Soonyoung answered, trying to zone out the continuing pounding. 

 

"No, no, no, Jaehyun and Taeyong were suppose to come back here," the one sitting down said. "If only our phones worked-"

 

"Your phones don't work, too?" Jihoon said, taking his out. "Ours screeched and turned off, we came inside the school to charge it-"

 

Just then, one of the guys managed to make a hole in the door with his hand.

 

", , !!" Soonyoung pushed Jihoon towards the other side of the room, where the healthier student grabbed the other one out of the bed and stood in front of him.

 

Jihoon tried to ramble trough the drawers, trying to find a weapon while Soonyoung picked up the long metal bar behind the nurse's desk and raised it above his head. "Jihoon, hide!!"

 

"I can't, they know I'm already here-"

 

The poundings against the door stopped, the arm that went through going limp. 

 

No one moved for a couple of seconds until they heard someone tell outside. "Kun! Xiaojun! You okay?"

 

"That's Jaehyun," one of the students said, running to open the door where they found the two creepy men on the ground, one with a knife behind his back and another with some green oozing out of his head, with three students standing in place. "Guys, you okay?"

 

"Yeah, we're fine," one of them said; a chair laid broken beside him, which he must of used to hit the creepy men. "We brought Taeil, he was the only one with O blood."

 

"Who are these, Kun?" The one called Jaehyun said, pointing to Soonyoung and Jihoon.

 

"Kind of hard to do introductions with people trying to kill you," Soonyoung said. "I'm Soonyoung, this is Jihoon, we're from America and I think I know who these people are."