“Hey~”

Winter let out a small yelp of surprise as someone slid in the empty seat next to her.

“Oh my- unnie you scared me.”

Karina pouted at the younger girl as she put away the book she was reading, “sorry Minjeong-ah. Glad to see that you’re alive and well though.”

Winter chuckled, “I was so scared when I came home.”

“Did something happen?”

“Well, I went in through my bedroom window but my mom was right there, hidden in the darkness.”

Karina shuddered, “are you okay though?”

The blonde girl nodded, “we talked… She was just worried about me but yeah I’m fine. But…”

The older girl tilted her head, “but what?”

“She knows…”

Karina blinked, “what?”

Winter lowered her voice so the students around them wouldn’t hear, “she knows something’s going on between us two.”

“Oh… I hope she took it well?”

“Mhm! She actually took it really well, she’s fine with it since she knows you’re a good person.”

Karina smiled, “that’s good to hear… I was worried about you for the whole weekend.”

Winter softly blushed, “dah thanks unnie… What about your parents though? Did they find out I was there until midnight?”

“Pfft nope, they thought you left when they fell asleep.”

The two girls giggled, continuing to talk before class started…

…

…

The classroom’s door opened and in came the teacher. Karina squeezed Winter’s shoulder as she stood up to walk to her designated seat, students around them doing the same thing.

“Class… I would have liked it if I could tell you this in another way, or with more notice…”

The students quieted down from the teacher’s tone, friends giving each other weird glances as he spoke again.

“The school board decided that school will end a month early this school year. As many of you know, there is a digital virus going around harming many of our students, and other students around different high schools. As of right now, seventy percent of our student population has fallen ill due to the Black Mamba…”

The teacher sighed, “the board believes that we may be able to slow down this virus’s course if students do not go to school. Of course, this will be temporary, and we most likely will be able to go back by the fall, but for now… Class dismissed, please pack your things and leave the building as if the ending bell has rung. Be safe, all of you.”

The class stayed silent, slowly standing up to leave. Usually they’d be excited if they had an extra month of summer break, but considering the reason why they had to leave…

They were all scared, and as they left, many began to whisper, wondering why and how this was happening.

Karina waited for Winter outside their classroom, the younger girl questioning her as soon as she left.

“Did you know?”

Karina shook her head, “no, I didn’t… We never talked about it during student council meetings.”

They began to walk, when the older girl saw Wendy with her group of friends, Sooyoung and Yeri.

Karina grabbed Winter’s hand, pulling her towards them, “hold on, let me ask Wendy.”

The duo went up to the girls, “Wendy-unnie!”

The called girl turned around, giving Karina a small smile as she came up to her.

“Hello, Karina.”

“Did only the teachers know about this?”

Wendy sighed, “I suppose so, I never heard anything about this until today, neither did Suho.”

The senior pat Karina’s shoulder, “stay safe, okay Karina? Yeri and Joy here better see you next year.”

The two junior friends of Wendy smiled, nodding at Karina and Winter.

Karina smiled back, glancing at Wendy, “I’ll be safe, you too, unnie.”

With that, the two groups parted ways, Winter and Karina heading down the stairs and out the school building.

“We should wait for Giselle and NingNing, both of their classrooms are above ours so they most likely didn’t come out yet.”

Karina nodded, and the two waited in front of the front door, waiting for their other friends.

…

…

“Winter, Karina!”

The girls that were called saw their two friends come out of the front door, jogging over to where Winter and Karina waited.

“Hey NingNing-ah, Giselle.”

Giselle pointed at the two, “don’t mind me if I come over to your house without notice Winter, same for you, Karina.”

NingNing threw some finger guns, “same here, I’m going to come with Giselle.”

“We have to do something.”

The three girls stared at Winter, who was staring off into the distance where students were walking out of the school’s gate.

“What?”

The girl turned back to her friends, “we have to do something about this.”

“But how?”

“We know the most about Black Mamba don’t we? We have to stop it. And we’re pretty safe on these things too.”

Karina held Winter’s shoulders, “Winter, there’s nothing we can do.”

“Yes there is. The Black Mamba goes from one host to another, and that ‘host’ can be a computer or wires or anything that has space inside it. What if we just trap it?”

“So the snake wouldn’t be able to slither away to another place…”

Karina shook her head at both Winter and Giselle, “that’s too dangerous, how would we even trap it in the first place?”

“Unnie, we have to try. I’m tired of watching the news with my mom and seeing more and more students get comatosed everyday. And with more people in the hospital, there’s less room for other emergencies. And didn’t you hear? Some people had to be taken off what supports them in their unconscious state since their families couldn’t pay for the hospital bills. Do you want more people to suffer?”

Karina tensed from Winter’s hard look and words, talking slowly and steadily, “I don’t want more people to suffer… But I don’t want to lose any of you either.”

NingNing rested a hand on the oldest girl’s shoulder, “I’m with Giselle and Winter-unnie… If we don’t stop this, we might fall victim to it too either way if enough time passes. It’d be better if we stop this completely.”

Karina looked away, sighing after a moment of thought, “I guess you guys are right… I’m just worried. We lost two members of the student council and one of Irene’s friends because we were trying to find out what this is…”

Winter pulled the girl into a hug, “I understand that, I really do… But if we don’t try, there will be more people like them.”

Karina glanced down at the girl who was hugging her, rubbing the girl’s head soothing.

…

“I’ll help you guys, protect you guys too.”

Winter grinned at Karina, NingNing and Giselle coming around for a group hug.

“We’ll protect each other, you mean.”

Karina chuckled, pulling everyone closer, “yeah… We got each other’s backs.”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you all for reading "Black Mamba"! I was shocked to see people reading/voting/subscribing to my story even after only a few days have passed since I began to post this fic... Really wasn't expecting much reads let alone votes 🤡  But thank you!!! I really apprieciate yall taking the time to read this story of mine, and feel free to comment on anything, whether it be criticism, stuff I should do better, etc etc... I'll listen and more than likely reply as soon as I can!

And currently as I'm posting this, I'm also in the midst of finishing an IZ*ONE fanfic! (I believe it's much longer than this one, more fun too) For any Wiz*ones in the audience, stay tuned~ More info will be posted after this story is over :0

Thank you all again for reading this far if you have, stay safe~ -Minah 💛