viii. "Joke."

     Dahye was walking down her high school’s hall however, it was clear that it hadn’t been used in many years. The windows were covered and a thick layer of dust carpeted the floor, and what little light shone through the windows illuminated the nearly still particles suspended in the air. Jungdong High was enormous as it was originally meant for over two thousand students, however the lack of pupils made for many closed off wings.

     Stopping in front of the last classroom at the end of the hallway, she took a deep breath before turning the old brass doorknob. The door creaked open to reveal an abandoned classroom devoid of any life. All of the desks and chairs had been stacked together and placed in the back corner of the room, and there were no textbooks or any other learning materials. It was incredibly dim, as all of the windows had been boarded up and little to no light was entering the room. The entire situation gave her an eerie feeling in her stomach.

     She swallowed hard, gathering her wits before taking a step inside. The door clicked ominously, closing promptly after her entrance.

     “Hello? Is there anyone here?” She called out timidly, voice betraying her unease. She was answered with unsettling silence.

     She had been told to come to this classroom by one of her close friends, who had said that it would be a good place to meet up after class, but now she was there she could tell it was a lie.

     “I must be in the wrong room. It’s probably the next room over.” Dahye thought to herself assuredly before turning around to leave.

      While she was making her way back to the door, she was startled by a sudden crumpling sound. Scanning the room, she saw that nothing was disturbed before looking down to see a single hand-written note stuck onto the bottom of her shoe. Sighing, she reached down and picked it up.

      The writing was a hurried messy scrawl, and for a moment she had trouble deciphering what it said. Squinting her eyes, she slowly read it out loud, “Don’t … look … back.”

      And that’s when she felt it. A single, icy cold finger trailed down the back of her neck, before a shrill child-like voice called out her name.  “Dahye, Dahye, come play with me.”

      Dahye let out a blood-curdling shriek as she threw herself to the door in a fit of complete panic. She latched onto the handle in a state of desperation and fear, and began to try maniacally to open door. It wouldn’t budge no matter how hard she tried to twist the handle.

      She hissed angrily, heartbeat drumming loudly in her ears. The doorknob that had seemingly glued itself shut when only a couple of moments ago it had been working perfectly fine. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she heard dark laughter resounding throughout the room.

      The laughter gradually became louder as the figure grew closer, and strangely, the louder the laughter got, the less and less foreign it sounded.

      When Dahye whipped her head around to confirm her fears, a flash illuminated the dark classroom. Seeing the familiar face of her friend, she let out a silent breath of relief. However, said friend had one of his arms wrapped around his stomach in a fit of laughter, and the other held the phone with a picture of her terrified face.

      “Kim Jongdae!” Dahye shrieked furiously and punched the boy solidly on his chest, “What the hell! You really scared me!”

      “I can’t believe you actually fell for that!” Jongdae said as he gasped for air. “Oh, that was too good. You should have seen your face. You got so pale, you looked like a ghost rather than being haunted by one!”

      Dahye was about to send a scathing remark to her friend when she saw him looking at the picture of her on his phone. She felt her heart flutter when she saw the smile on Jongdae’s face while he was looking at the image.

     “Yeah, whatever,” Dahye muttered quietly, hiding her flustered state, “Help me open this door or else we’ll be late to lunch.”

      Closing his phone with a completely satisfied smirk on his lips, Jongdae strutted his way to the door, twirling a ring filled with keys around his index finger. “This is the perfect room. It’s one of the old classrooms, so the doors lock as soon as they shut.”

      Dahye wasn’t about to ask how he got the keys in the first place.

      He placed the key into the hole and the door unlocked with a pleasant ‘click.’  Jongdae opened it up and motioned for Dahye to leave first. She walked on out ahead of him, determined to show him her dissent.

      Jongdae was always pulling pranks like these; it was what everyone knew him for. Dahye recalled the very first day that he arrived, school uniform askew and a playful grin on his lips.

      The school had mentioned in passing about their plans on replacing the chalkboards with whiteboards during the welcoming assembly. As soon as Jongdae heard this, an deviously innocent smile made its way onto his face. He had asked if the school needed any help, since he claimed to be related to someone who happened to offer whiteboard services. Jongdae had somehow convinced the staff that he would be able to install the boards in a weekend, however, what greeted the teachers the next Monday were not the whiteboards they expected.

      Jongdae had painted all of the chalkboards white. To the fury and indignation of all of the teachers, Jongdae only pouted innocently and protested that he didn’t know what kind of whiteboards the school was talking about.

      That was the first time he got detention at Jungdong high, breaking the record for the longest detention. In all honesty, he only received a detention for his crimes simply because it was his first offence.

      Jongdae was such a strange kid. He never seemed to have interest in anything but his pranks. It was as if the sole reason he attended school was for the fun he had playing with the teachers and students. He, from the time she came to know him; went everywhere without a single care or worry. At times it seemed almost eerie how little disregard he had for the consequences of his handiwork. Dahye had always wondered how he did it.

      When she had first met him at the beginning of the year, he was a brand new student who already had a bad reputation. He wouldn’t make friends, and from the very first day of his arrival, gossip had already begun to surface about him. Rumours spread quickly of his less than stellar past and the reason he had no choice but to transfer to Jungdong.  

      But Dahye could see past that. To her, although Jongdae was mischievous, he was infinitely amusing and perhaps even a little bit charming. She remembers the quick quirky grin he shot towards her when they first became partners in Biology. There were many instances were Dahye sometimes forget how peculiar Jongdae could be in favour of memories of his sparking eyes, wide smiles, and impish laughter  

      “Dahye? Anyone home?” Jongdae called out to her, head tilted and eyebrows raised.

      She snapped back to attention as she realized Jongdae was speaking to her. “Wait, what?”

      Jongdae huffed a little in annoyance before he continued to speak, voice slowly turning more and more animated. “As I was saying, I was wondering if you could help me with a little prank. I have this idea on how to get back at Mr. Cheong at the assembly-”

      “Jongdae, hold up,” Dahye interrupted. “Mr. Cheong? Don’t you think that’s a bit too much?”

      Mr. Cheong was the vice principal at the school, and him and Jongdae didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye. He always was trying to get Jongdae in trouble, despite if he was actually causing it or not.

      Dahye never liked him, but to play him meant treading in deep water. Jongdae had already been threatened with expulsion multiple times, and she was sure pulling a prank like this would be the tipping point.

      “C’mon Dahye, what are you, chicken? It’s just a small prank. It’s not like anything’s gonna happen.” Jongdae mocked, a teasing grin on his lips.

      Dahye didn’t hesitate for no reason, a few months ago she wouldn’t have hesitated. Be that as it may, Jongdae’s pranks grew increasingly dangerous and progressively began affecting people directly. Five months ago he filled the staff room muffins with hot sauce and took many pictures of the reactions of the victims. Four months ago Jongdae threw a dead rat into the girl’s change room during the end of every period. Three months ago he planted stink bombs throughout the school, even in the ventilation systems. It was a miserable day for every single person in the building except for Jongdae. Two months ago he caused the entire football team to throw up on their first home game by lacing their energy drinks laced with Ipecac. One month ago he somehow brought a beehive into the school, resulting in the entire west wing to evacuated and multiple people being stung.

      One could imagine the chaos occurring during every single one of these episodes, so Dahye could hardly blame Mr. Cheong for being so incredibly harsh and bitter towards Jongdae.

      Dahye narrowed her eyes. Regardless of what Mr. Cheong might do, she never backed down from a challenge.  “Fine.”

      Jongdae smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “There ya go. It’ll be fun, I promise.”

      She rolled her eyes, speedily pushing his arm off away, masking her reaction to his touch. “Sure, whatever, let’s go eat to lunch. I’m starving.”

      However, unease weighed heavily upon Dahye. A sense of foreboding and warning flooded through her body looking at the deceptively halcyon expression upon Jongdae’s handsome face. It seemed inevitable that someone was going to get hurt, following the trends of the recent pranks he had pulled.

      “I’ll keep him out of trouble and from going overboard,” Dahye thought to calm her anxiety, “I’m just overthinking it, Jongdae couldn’t possibly do anything worse than what he’s already done.”

      Oh, how wrong she was.

     Jongdae is a strange child, and has always been. He had no trouble admitting his strangeness and none demonstrating it.

      To others, he must have appeared as a prankster with little care for anything else. However, this was hardly the case. Jongdae was fascinated with something else, something that make people walk away immediately with unnerved expressions on their faces.

      He wasn’t sure when it started, perhaps it sprung from his everlasting curiosity of human emotions and reactions. Nonetheless, it mattered little where his obsession came from, what was important was that his life revolved around it. He spent every waking moment engrossed with it, whether it be planning or relishing in satisfaction of his successes.

      Jongdae loved causing pain, and savoured the power he reigned over the school using fear. All of his pranks were little more than a way of allowing him to indulge in his fascination. It didn’t matter to him if others thought of him as a villain for everything he’s done, for Jongdae, they weren’t any different than lab rats one would collect data from.

      He would’ve preferred if people kept away from him, but as time went on, he recognized that things would be easier with a scapegoat there to relieve some of the consequences. Just because Jongdae didn’t enjoy befriending others, doesn’t mean he doesn’t know when to turn up the charm when he needed to.

      Glancing to Dahye beside him, Jongdae sniggered silently. He had her completely wrapped around his finger, and so she didn’t mind overmuch when he hurt or scared her. However, it was particularly troublesome when Dahye felt entitled to invite herself to his home. There were things at home that shouldn’t be shared, it was Jongdae’s and his own. Not to mention if she saw his collection, Dahye wouldn’t think twice of cutting off all contact with him.

      Jongdae kept souvenirs of all of the pranks he had pulled, consisting of materials and photo albums upon photo albums of pictures of prank victims displaying varying expressions of either surprise, fear, or pain. He spent much of his time reliving the satisfaction he received through these experiences.

      Yes, Kim Jongdae was a strange child with an obsession, but no one needed to know that.

      Jongdae’s eyes were fixated on the clock above the classroom door. He watched as the hands moved at what seemed to be an impossibly slow pace, the lids of his eyes felt heavier and heavier with each passing second. He felt as if he had been stuck in his homeroom class for an eternity. All he wanted was for it to end and for excitement to begin.

     “Kim Jongdae.”

     He sighed, forcing himself not to let his eyes roll back in annoyance. Turning slightly so he was facing the teacher, Jongdae replied with a deadpan expression on his face. “Yes, Mr. Nam?”

     Mr. Nam breathed heavily through his nose, a sign he was upset, and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He motioned for Jongdae to speak.

     Obviously there had been a question of some kind that needed to be answered, but Jongdae had never cared about anything in his classes, and he certainly wasn’t going to begin caring now. He was passing with an average of ninety-five, nothing the teacher could say would affect him.

     After a couple moments of complete silence, Jongdae turned his eyes back to the clock, and Mr. Nam let out a short huff of defeat as he heard the bell chimes, signalling that the assembly was to begin shortly.

     Mr. Nam began to speak to the class as the commotion started, “Class, line up in an orderly fashion. Jongdae, I’d like you to stand …”

     The teacher let his sentence trail off, as Jongdae had already packed his things and walked out of the classroom with a glance back. He had more important things to worry about. He was going to spice up the assembly a little while he gets his dose of fear from the students. However, if all goes well, Jongdae would obtain something much better.

     Sneaking through all of the classes who were filing out of their classrooms, he made his way to the end of the hall where Dahye was patiently standing by the old classroom doors.

      “You actually came?” Jongdae said, a little surprised.

     “Well, of course! You didn’t think I was actually going to chicken out, did you?” She answered back with tinge of annoyance in her voice.

     “Yeah, I did, actually.” Jongdae replied, already preoccupied in his plans and anticipation.

     Dahye punched him in the arm playfully. “Well I’m here. What do you want me to do?”

     Jongdae took Dahye by the hand and led her off down the main hallway, knowing it may be the last time this would ever happen. A couple doors down from the main entrance were the office of the vice principal. It was closed shut, but they could clearly see the shadowy outline of a person sitting at their desk, organizing items.

     “All I need you to do is to stand here and watch, okay?” Jongdae said cheerily, placing Dahye directly in front of the door. “Make sure no one tries to come in or anything.”

     She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “All you want me to do is stand and be a lookout? That’s it?”

     Jongdae nodded, “Look, if I get in trouble one more time, they’re going to kick me out. It’s more important than it sounds, trust me.”

     Dahye nodded slightly and sighed, giving in to his demands. “Jongdae, please let this be your last prank. I really don’t want you to get into any more trouble.”

      He smiled in his usual mischievous grin. “I can’t make any promises … but I’ll try.”

     And with that, Jongdae slid soundlessly into the vice principal’s office.

     Dahye didn’t know how long she stood there for. Every minute felt like an hour, and the longer she looked around; the more anxiety was eating at her. She felt that in any moment a teacher would come storming down the hall and expel them both. Considering this wasn’t her first time as Jongdae’s accomplice.

     She heard noises too. Horrible and terrifying noises. Glass shattering, thumping, and a small wheezing noise that was putting her on edge. She reassured herself that it couldn’t be anything too disastrous, it was just her imagination amplifying the sounds. When she glanced down the hallway, she saw there was no one there, so she was sure it was all in her head. She just wanted Jongdae to be finished so they could go to the assembly together.

      Eventually, Jongdae made his way out of the room. He slipped his way through the door and swiftly closed it firmly behind him.

     “Done,” he muttered, brushing off his clothes. Dahye noticed he looked breathless, as if he had just finished running a lap around the gym. Her gut feeling told her that something unpleasant was about to happen.

     “Geez, that took a while,” she grumbled, paranoia making her easily irritated. “What were you even doing in there? What’s the prank?”

     “You’ll see.” Jongdae said with a cold and calculating glint in his eyes when they started to make their way back.

     They got to the assembly with half an hour left. Instead of sitting with their classes, they decided to sit next to each other in a couple seats near the back of the gym.

     The principal was talking about the importance of being responsible in a dead, dragging tone that was lulling Dahye to sleep. Jongdae seemed to be engaged and interested, which was unusual for him. There was an eagerness in the way he sat, leaned forward and hands clasped tightly together.

     “Hey,” Dahye nudged her friend’s side and whispered over to him, “Where’s this big prank of yours, huh? Was it this boring speech? I’m falling asleep here.”

      “Wait for it,” Jongdae said, sly eyes meeting hers. “Just be patient.”

      She watched for a couple more minutes, gradually becoming more drowsy, until a petite secretary scuttled over to the principal and whispered something urgently into his ear. He listened, and then nodded.

     “I have just received message that because Mr. Cheong is unable to be with us today, he has left a little video message to encourage the student body. We will be playing it shortly.” The principal said, stepping down from the podium as people behind him began to set up for the video.

     Dahye looked over at Jongdae. “What did you do?”

     “His phone was just lying on his desk, so I texted it to the staff a video saying it was important and needed to be played,” Jongdae said lively and sounding quite pleased with himself.

     “Video?” She mumbled to herself, “How did you even get his phone without him … ?”

     The video beginning to play on the projector in front of them swiftly cut Dahye off mid-sentence. When her eyes locked with the screen, she was greeted with pure horror.

     In the video, the vice principal was being choked. Pressed around his neck was his own blue and yellow striped tie, and behind him, and pair of hands strangling him with it. It showed Mr. Cheong struggling to breathe, face turning red and hands looking to grab onto something on his desk. He pushed off a cup, and it shattered loudly against the floor of his office. He attempted to hit the attacker behind him in desperation. His face was turning blue while he produced the horrible, horrible wheezing sound, until finally, he slumped over in his seat, appearing to have lost consciousness when the attacker finally dropped the tie.

     The video looped itself again, and again, on what seemed to be a never-ending cycle.

     It wasn’t until she realized she wasn’t breathing at all when Dahye snapped back into reality. There was chaos in the gym, people were screaming, crying, but most like people like her had their mouths open, wide-eyed, in complete shock and terror.

     The staff were running around in panic, trying to take down the screening, and hurried out of the gym, most likely to check on Mr. Cheong.

     Dahye’s throat felt knotted and dry, and her mind was unable to form coherent thoughts in reaction to what had just occurred. Even though the attacker’s face wasn’t on the screen, she knew exactly who they were and how she had helped them.

     “J-Jongdae,” was all she managed to choke out. She turned to face him.

     Amidst all the chaos, Jongdae was sitting in his seat peacefully, carefree and relaxed as always. And on his lips, he was wearing the same cat-like smile and heartily laughing to himself, at what a clever prank this had been.

---

a/n: 

\ (★^O^★) / I'm back with a brand new chapter! ~ Sorry I'm a couple days late! 

As you probably noticed (or maybe not) a few chapters have mysteriously gone missing. The storyline has been altered a bit, both in the deleted chapters and in the older chapters, so that's why those chapters are gone now. (Yay for revising!) 

As always, thanks to my amazing editor HappyPistachio! ~

And thank you for reading!

Till next time! ღ