Chapter Two | The Glare

Sehun suddenly opened his eyes, waking up from a terrible dream. With mouth slightly agape, gasping for air, he looked at the moldy ceiling of his room.

Just a nightmare…

It felt real when he fell off that building. He couldn’t remember anything, though, except for that last moment.

Lying on the floor with his heart beating faster than normal, he slowly sat up, breathed air in, feeling the weight of his body after sleeping for four hours with the heavy emotion lingering in his chest.

Thinking it would bother him the whole day if he kept on trying to remember the other scenes; he decided not to mind it anymore. He had been hearing news about suicidal students in his new school and probably had his subconscious mind wondering until it became a nightmare.

Better give it no attention, then.

He stood up, folded his comforter, and went straight to the kitchen. Park Chanyeol, his housemate, was already there, stuffing food into his mouth in front of the television. The news flashed scenes of his new school, and some students being interviewed.

“Oh you’re up?” Chanyeol spoke with his mouth full of mixed rice.

“Yeah.”

He sat beside him and took a bowl of Chanyeol’s cooking for himself.

“Something wrong?” his roommate asked, concerned after noticing his pale face, “You look like you’re sick. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I just had a terrible dream of falling off that school’s building,” he replied, pointing at the tv screen.

“Are you planning on enlisting yourself to those topics in the news?” Chanyeol snorted, “Hey, you’ve been hearing too much weird news about your school, and you’re still not convinced to go to a different one? Lockhart’s really haunted, you know. I really wonder why you still decided to transfer there.”

“You know why, Hyung,” he replied after a sigh.

He knew about those dreadful rumors before he could file a transfer, but he still chose to move there. It was his mother’s wish for him, saying it’s a really good and promising school and it has always been a special place for her and his father because that’s where they met. After he lost both of them in a car accident three months ago, he promised to fulfill that wish. It was hard leaving his life and friends in Japan. He spent half of his life there and he had always hesitated to go back to Seoul. But what brought him there was him bearing the memory of his parents’ happy faces before they left for their anniversary date. It was supposed to be a sweet and blissful night for them, but no one can ever tell when or how someone will be taken away.

Chanyeol noticed his friend’s gloominess and knew what’s going on in his mind so he decided to change the topic.

“Right—uh, it’s almost quarter to eight; you should take a shower now.”

Sehun looked at his Hyung’s watch and widened his eyes at the sight of 7:43. He only had seventeen minutes before the school bell rings. He took one spoonful of his food and went inside the bathroom. Chanyeol continued to eat and watched the tv, changing its channel into cartoons.

†              †              †

He knew what awaits him if he would have himself get caught by the school’s disciplinary committee head. His eyes quickly scanned the surrounding areas and found a seemingly abandoned building near the woods. Lockhart is a school surrounded by tall trees and weeds which really catch up to the horror stories about it.

He ran to the back of the building, and then looked around to see if anyone was there to witness what he’s about to do. He had always been an adventure-seeker and always loved to skip classes, climb walls and break the rules of his previous institutions. Though he promised to treat this one different, it was inevitable for a time like this. No one was around that area but him. He climbed up the ten-foot grungy bricked wall and had a hard time putting his feet across the other side. When he did, he threw his bag below and hears a girl mumbled her hurt.

“Aghk—”

He almost lost his balance when he saw her below, with her hand rubbing her forehead. She saw the bag and gasped.

“Oops. I’m sorry.”

She looked up hearing his voice, and her eyes widened then dropped something on the ground before she ran away, like she was caught doing something who-knows-what.

“Wait up—!“ Sehun called to her then jumped down the wall.

Sehun watched her figure disappearing into the tall weeds leading to the woods. A few seconds later, he felt the chills running up his spine. It was such a spook; Sehun quickly grabbed his bag on the dusty ground and ran toward the main building.

What the hell was that?! He thought, looking back.

But then, he stopped when he remembered something, turned around and ran back to the old building.

†              †              †

His first period is a two-hour class in foreign language with their homeroom teacher, Ms. Sung Yuri, in Room 3-B. He walked into the room after his teacher saw him peaking through the door’s narrow glass.

After introducing himself, the class representative lead the class introduction then Ms. Sung pointed him to one of the two vacant seats at the back. He went to the seat by the window and settled there. The class then started, but Sehun had his mind on something else. This school never failed to shake up his nerves. He always thought it would be as good as what his mom described it. She never believed the death cases even though it was flashed on the news. But it was only reported once on the tv while they were in Japan, and there had been no follow-up. Sehun only heard about the consecutive deaths after his parents died and he had no time to mind any of it.

That girl he saw was more shocked than him when she probably thought he saw her doing whatever she was doing. With the weird news and horrible death cases going around this school, who would ever dare to go into such place by herself? And not to mention, she’s a she.

He kept on confusing himself with that encounter until he remembered something. The necklace—the thing she dropped before running away and the reason he went back behind that haunted-looking old building. He was about to take it out of his bag when someone opened their door, panting heavily. Everyone was surprised and turned their heads to the new comer. The girls sitting in front of him yelped, obviously not listening to the teacher and talking about the creeps of their school.

“Well, hello, Yukimura-ssi,” Miss Yuri greeted her sarcastically, “What a pleasant first day for you being early for the next subject. Please have a seat.”

The other students chuckled, some greeted her, as the Yukimura-girl bowed and smiled while apologizing to the instructor. She scanned the students inside the room then met Sehun’s eyes. Even though they’re meters apart, he could clearly tell that girl’s beautiful—her black long hair pushed behind her ear, while some strands fall off her shoulders, her straight bangs covering her eyebrows, her light and glowing skin, her small, high nose, her natural pink small lips curving the brightest smile he’d ever seen and the tantalizing gaze of those eyes—Sehun thought she must have been carved out of a 3D computer game. She seemed to be a class favorite when everyone greeted her when she walked through the aisle, then turned to his direction. What’s weird for him, though, were her eyes which kept on meeting his between her hi’s and hello’s to their classmates. Then she stopped beside his chair and looked down on him with a smile. She extended her hand for him.

“Hi!” she greeted.

He was hesitant at first but she took his hand for him and shook it. Her hand was so soft and smooth, and Sehun regretted he even hesitated to touch it.

“Welcome to Lockhart Academy