TIMESKIP 1 WEEK...

“Jimin-ah.”

Karina turned her head, seeing the student council's president stare at her in a serious manner.

“Hello, Irene-ssi.”

The senior’s gaze broke into a quick laugh, “I told you to lower your language, I’m not that much older than you.”

The younger girl smiled, “sorry, Irene-unnie. But what’s wrong?”

Bae Joohyun, the president of the student body in SM high school, was a mysterious girl, her expressions concealed with an icy gaze. But Karina knew better, being her “right-hand-woman”, she knew that the gaze was just Irene’s straight face, and she never meant to come off as cold… Unless it’s to the troublemakers of the school. She actually had a funny sense of humor, although she only showed that to Karina and her own group of close friends…

Irene’s original expression came back as she gestured for Karina to follow her, “come, I’ll tell you in the council room.”

Worry hovered over Karina as she quickly stood up and grabbed her things, following the senior out her classroom to the student council’s room. Inside was one of Irene’s friends, Son Seungwan, also known as Wendy, who was the student body’s secretary. There were also two boys, Mark Lee and Kim Suho, the council’s treasurer and historian, and a junior and a senior, respectively. 

“What’s going on?”

Mark shrugged at Karina, “we don’t know, and Wendy-ssi wouldn’t tell us anything.”

“I’ll tell you guys, just sit and calm down.”

All of them listened to the president, gathering chairs and sitting around in a circle.

“You all have seen the news, right? About teenagers all over South Korea disappearing?”

A sensation of dread slowly began to fill the youngest member. Of course she’s heard about the knews, how kids from South Korean high schools would disappear for a few days, only to be found in a comatose state by the police.

They all nodded at Irene and she sighed, “it’s starting here now, in SM High School.”

“W-what?”

“Who?”

“When?”

Wendy raised her hands to calm everyone down, “a freshman here, Kim Sungkyung, was first absent the day before we went on break for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), but she didn’t come on the day we all came back. The teachers didn’t really mind, maybe she was gone for an extra day, or maybe she got sick from the cold weather. But two days ago on Saturday…”

Irene continued for her, “we’ve been told that she was in the hospital, in a coma since Chuseok.”

Suho rubbed his forehead, “what do we do? Do we even know why this is happening?”

“Hold on…” The others looked at Karina as she continued, “if I’m not mistaken… There’s less of these instances in rural areas right?”

Irene nodded, “it’s mainly focused in major cities.”

‘Major cities… What’s something we have that the countryside doesn’t?’ 

Karina’s eyes widened, “this… this might be a long shot. But what if it’s a technology-to-human virus?”

“What?”

“Like- What if it was a virus inside computers and all that, but it can transfer into a human?”

“...”

“You know how viruses, they can’t multiply on their own, they need a host to do it for them, they need a host to survive. They’re parasites.”

“And computer viruses are technically the same thing as viruses like the flu…”

Karina nodded at Irene, thankful that someone understood where she was going with this.

The eldest gazed at the youngest, “it is a possibility… However, we don’t have enough information to prove it…”

They all nodded, “then what do we do?”

“Well, for now, let’s not worry the students. Staff members know, but it was only one person… We’ll just follow what they told us to do.”

“Which is?”

“Just wait… We’ll take action as the student council when more information comes up.”

“We can’t just wait! What if more people get hurt?”

Irene sighed at Mark, “I know, but we can’t not listen to the adults…”

She glanced at the clock that ticked on the wall, “break is about to end, that’s all I wanted to say.”

With that, the council dispersed, but one person stayed, staring at the president as she stood up and walked to the room’s window.

“Irene-unnie…”

The said girl turned around, motioning for Karina to come to her.

“Yes Jimin-ah?”

The younger walked up, glancing down the window to see the school’s field a few stories below.

“Why’d you pick me as vice president? Why not Wendy-unnie or Suho-ssi?”

Irene gave her a glance, “why do you ask?”

“Well… I’m the youngest member here… I don’t know if I qualify for this big of a role compared to the others.”

The president chuckled, rubbing Karina’s back, “age doesn’t matter here. I chose you because I knew you had potential, and the others thought so too. And besides, Wendy and Suho like their current positions.”

She smiled at the younger girl, “you’re doing a good job, Jimin-ah, don’t forget that.”

Karina smiled, softly blushing from the compliment from her senior, “thank you, unnie.”

Irene nodded, “and I’ll keep what you said earlier in mind… That virus thing might not be far off from what’s actually going on. But make sure to only talk about this when you’re around us, okay?”

Karina nodded, “yes I will, thanks again, Irene-unnie.”

With that, the two went their separate ways to their classes…

The student council meeting bounced around in Karina’s head as she walked down the hall, her eyes always on the floor in front of her, her lips pursed in concentration… 

A girl walked past her, only to stop and turn around, “Karina-unnie!”

Karina snapped out of her thoughts, turning around to see a beautiful grin.

She smiled at the girl, “hey Winter, going to class?”

Winter nodded, “yeah… Are you okay unnie?”

The older tilted her head, “yeah, why?”

“You seem really deep in thought.”

Karina chuckled, “yeah I’m fine… I just had a council meeting.”

“Oh really? No wonder I couldn’t find you…”

Winter pouted and the other raised an eyebrow, “you were looking for me?”

The shorter girl nodded, “yeah, so we can uh- I don’t know… Hang out or something before classes start again.”

She laughed weakly and scratched her neck in embarrassment.

Karina smiled, “ah I see.. Well, we still have lunch and we take the same bus afterschool so… No need to worry, Gyeoulie.”

Winter’s embarrassment disappeared to reveal a puppy-like smile, her cheeks peppered with pink blush, “yeah! I’ll uh- see you at lunch!”

Before the older could say another word, Winter ran off to her class. Unbeknownst to the vice president, Winter’s heart was thumping loudly, her smile couldn’t be removed from her face even if someone tried to take it off her. Had she begun to catch something for the older junior? Her heart said yes, and her brain was slowly coming to accept the fact as well…

“Gwiyeopda…”           (Cute…)

Karina smiled at Winter’s disappearing figure, chuckling to herself as she began to softly blush, shaking her head as she walked to her own class.

But unlike Winter’s smile that was kept on for the whole day, Karina’s disappeared, her mind wandering back to the comatosed SM student… If her theory from earlier was right… Then almost everyone was in danger. SM High was a highly technological school, encouraging its students to use technology to their advantage for their better learning.

For her, she didn’t use technology as much as others, only using it when needed and once in a while during her free time to watch a Korean drama or two… And from what she’s seen, Winter barely uses technology, opting for physical textbooks and novels instead of using an ebook, and she’s rarely seen her on her phone, the only time being when they exchanged numbers or when she called her family. Giselle and NingNing used technology the most it seemed out of the four of them, whether it be their phones, or the school computers.

But whatever the case… She was worried about the three, and well, everyone here, including herself.

Hopefully… Her theory was wrong, and this thing would pass soon enough…

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The story has now pushed off from the start~ Hope you all enjoyed!

Oh and, stan Red Velvet, currently waiting for their comeback :)

-Minah