53: eyes on the inside

The Problem Children
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[CONTENTID1]

 

fifty-three: eyes on the inside

[/CONTENTID1][CONTENTID2]

[She was useless.]

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The South Wing always had the most school spirit out of any of the Wings. Just like its namesake, Tropics, it was decorated like a tropical island. Giant cardboard cutouts of palm trees, balloons painted like coconuts, and colourful Hawaiian leis line the hallways. Even the walls were painted differently from the other Wings, in bright sea blues and golden yellows.

”This looks kinda awesome,” Juyeon said in wonder as they walked down the halls, feet clicking loudly in the echoing silence around them. She felt like talking would make it sound less empty. “I think I’d actually have fun if I lived in this Wing.”

”It looks horrifying,” Baekhyun said with a slight smirk. “Like I’m drowning in false island stereotypes.”

”Don’t be rude, it probably took everyone a long time to make these.” Juyeon gave him a light push. “You have no sense of joy, do you?”

”Just saying, they could have chosen a less tacky way of decorating this place.”

”Oh, hush.”

They finally reached the foyer, where several public payphone booths were placed. Given the very private nature of the Academia, it was the only Wing to have public telephones. Back when she was still in Sunset, Juyeon would do everything she could to find the time to wait the long lines for the phones and call her parents. She was, unfortunately, forced to stop once she moved into High Class, and she had to tell them that the phones had broken down and weren’t being replaced. Letters were much harder to get through, and it came to the point where Juyeon was lucky to get a letter or care package from her mom maybe once a month.

”Alright, we only have money for one call,” Juyeon said, “let’s make this count. Sumi, you have the number, right?”

”Y-yes,” Sumi stammered.

”That doesn’t sound very confident, Sumi.”

”Shut up, the pressure is making me nervous!”

Juyeon shoved the coins into the payphone and passed it to Sumi. “Here, your call.”

Sumi nodded, lips pressing into a thin, hard line. With slightly shaking fingers, she punched in a series of numbers and pressed the phone to her ear.

There was a long, tense silence as everyone watched apprehensively. Juyeon watched the blood slowly drain out of Sumi’s face and knew it was a bad sign.

Eventually, Sumi looked up at her, meeting her eyes. “No one’s picking up,” she said.

”Are you sure?” Juyeon slid over and pressed her face close to Sumi’s, angling the phone so they could both hear the low buzz.

Suddenly, there was a click, and Donovan’s voice came through the other line. ”Hello? This is Donovan Lee speaking.”

Relief flowed through Juyeon like warm bubbles in a hot bath. “Donovan! It’s Jung Juyeon, listen, we—”

”I am currently unavailable right now, but you are free to leave a voicemail after the beep. Thank you.”

Just like that, they were back to square one. Juyeon’s heart plummeted to somewhere in her stomach region.

”H-his phone should be on,” Sumi was stammering weakly, “his phone is always on, he never puts it to voicemail, he shouldn’t—”

”Calm down, Sumi,” Juyeon said, and despite feeling reasonably calm her voice caught around her words, breaking the word calm into two syllables. Ca-lm. “We just need to, um, we just need t-to—”

She hesitated, the silence growing thick and heavy around the group, and she realized with a burst of fear and disappointment that she had absolutely no idea what to do.

Jun twitched, ever so slightly. “Jung Juyeon, Taehyun’s reporting in,” he said, tersely. “Some students are picking a fight. They caused an incident in the kitchen, a minor explosion. Several students need to be treated for burns, and we don’t have anything to help them with.”

”What do you mean?” Juyeon demanded. “Don’t any of you guys have healing powers?”

”There are vaguer powers, but none that is full-on healing. There are volunteers willing to help cool their burns and take away some of the pain, but none of us have any power to actually heal them. The burns might get bad if they aren’t treated straight away, some of them look like they’re second-degree apparently.”

Daeri’s eyes rolled back into her head. “More trouble, Juyeon,” she said nervously. “A whole bunch from the group that was supposed to be keeping order are turning totally tyrannical, making excuses to attack other students for ‘causing trouble’. There’s too many to stop.”

There must be a nearby wall she could use to smash her head in. “What about the Exo?” Juyeon demanded. “What are they doing?”

”They’re doing the best they can, but there’s too many PCs to look after. They can’t make anyone calm down, it’s total bedlam—ripping lockers right out of the wall, smashing up desks and chairs, full on Extracurricular Activities going on in the middle of hallways. It’s a riot.”

Jun closed his eyes, tensing. "Taehyun is saying the same thing, Jung Juyeon. He's been working with Suho, sort of, and the two of them think the troublemakers that were supposed to keep order are getting in way over their head. They think that some of them are trying to find a way into the detention room. They might start forcing students into the Boxes as a step up in their punishments."

". ." Juyeon dug the heels of her palms against her eyelids, trying very, very hard not to burst into tears in front of all of them. She felt like she was going to throw up. Everything seemed to be going so well, they had all been organized into groups to keep everything going, they found out at least some answers on where everyone had gone from the sweet janitor lady, they even had money to make a phone call. And now everything was f

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GameOfHearts
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Comments

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JessieT512 #1
Chapter 61: Sobbing because I've always loved this story. And sobbing more because it being incomplete
Ooglay #2
I miss this story so much, it’s nostalgic for me. I remember i would get super excited whenever there’s an update and read this daily T_T im just glad its still up so we can re-read <3 thank you for still leaving it public!
_black_kitty_
#3
Chapter 61: I don't know why I just tortured myself by reading an incomplete Fic 😢

But seriously this was pretty cool 👌
_black_kitty_
#4
Chapter 61: I don't know why I just tortured myself by reading an incomplete Fic 😢
But seriously this was pretty cool and I genuinely hope that one day you would be able to complete it 😊
daladida #5
Chapter 61: rereading and currently sobbing omg T.T
uroppa #6
Chapter 61: bye im still crying as i reach the same end of the incomplete story i love so much
uroppa #7
I came back to reread for the 8273744 time because i just love this so much its literally perfection im so sad
parkcarla #8
Chapter 61: Just happen to read this and had to admit that I loooovvveeeee this story!!!
I hope you are healthy and safe, so you can come back soon!
Pxnellyxq #9
Chapter 61: I came back to reread and I’m crying again xx Thanks xx
Pxnellyxq #10
Chapter 61: I’m crying a bloody storm right now