The school is not as loud as before. I walked slowly towards my old classroom when I was in high school. I started to notice that the afternoon is already leaving the empty sky and it is slowly shifting to a gloomy starless night.

It was odd. Why am I wearing my late uniform? Why do I need to attend a midnight class when I know for a fact that I finished my secondary years already? This can’t be.

I entered the room with a hopeful smile but my classmates did not reciprocate my happiness. I missed them but it looked like that they are disgusted with my presence. Something is not right. They did not even bother to say “Hi” instead they kept their distance from me.

Still trying to grasp the situation, I decided to sit on my chair. And I saw a messy scribbled message on it.

“YOU DIED ALREADY.” “WE WILL KILL YOU SOON TO STOP THE CRISIS.”

I trembled upon the situation’s resemblance on the last anime that I watched. I tried to keep my calm. I shouldn’t reflect the fear that they are trying to inflict. If I act this way, it will make them more suspicious of my existence. I AM NOT THE CULPRIT. But when everybody is so affirmative about it, what will I do? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?

While I am in the middle of my dilemma, I heard a knock on our door. A tall young man is standing outside and he is trying to control his expression. My classmates froze upon seeing him.  He looked so ethereal. His beautiful face projects a very gentle attitude. He removed his white jacket and held it on one hand.

He looked older than our age but his appearance seemed to blend in. His hair is golden brown in color and his sharp gaze spoke with elegance as he slowly surveyed our crowd. He entered the room and looked from side to side.

“May I know where our teacher is? I am a transferee.” , he said.

Now, that is why he is not wearing a uniform. His white long sleeves fitted exactly on his slim body. He might have felt the humid atmosphere because he ed his collar and rolled up the sleeves of his garment. His skin is so fair. I envy him.

“Who are you?”  One of my classmates from the back asked at the top of her voice.

He stopped fanning himself with his hand and wiped his forehead’s sweat before he answered the question.

“ Hyesung.  Shin Hyesung.” And he continued to look around. His eyes finally fell on the vacant seat beside me.  He walked directly towards my direction and sat right away. I can’t stop looking.

This is a dream.  He leaned backwards and crossed his long legs. He was about to glance on my side when he noticed that there is an amount of dust caught on the lining of his white ankle length pants. He brushed it off right away and fixed his shoelace too.

I gave up greeting him and buried my head on my arms. I am still going to get persecuted by my classmates by the end of the day. Why does this scenario needs to be like the “Another” anime?!  Ugh.

I can hear his loud voice joking around with them. He might have caught their attention with his prince like charm. I thought he is modest and quiet, yet I was wrong.  I can hear him laughing so loud that made me stand from my chair and scream at him.

“YA! HYESUNG SSI!” I was in rage. Why is he so insensitive and so – noisy.

He turned his head with confidence. Slowly and attractively. Ugh.  I can’t fall for this.

He looked at me intently before he erased the smirk on his lips and cleared his throat to return my gesture.

“Call me Oppa” he said nonchalantly. He is acting cool.  I can’t take it. He is so awkward.

A part of me cracked. I frowned at him. I tried to control my expression with my loss of thoughts. What the. Why –

And I heard my classmates murmuring loudly.

“What did he say?”

“Why her?”

“He won’t allow us a while ago”

“Oppa? Are they even close”

“She’s not even someone special”

“This can’t be”

I honestly did not ask for this. I am still astonished and cannot recover from his statement. He stood up to approach me. I stepped back to allow space to occupy a gap between us but he moved closer – too close for him to give me a whisper –

“ I will protect you.” he said softly near my ear. The warmth from his breath made me want to kill myself instead. My heart skipped a beat.  I knew it as soon as I heard his clear voice.

He faced my classmates and spoke to them.

“ Base from what you told me, you are suspecting that she is the culprit of the crisis that is why you are all planning to kill her at all costs. Now why don’t we just make this easier? Since you also don’t have any evidence about your accusations, we can just pick anyone from the class. You’ll never know but you might regret taking an innocent life out of your careless assumptions.”

He looked at them with very convincing eyes. He went around the teachers table and casually sat on the chair and placed his feet on it while saying, “Since I am a transferee and I can’t be that person, write all your names on a piece of paper and let us pick one from the entries instead. I will draw 6 times and if her name appears, then you go originally to what you have planned.”

 Everyone agreed. They wrote their names on the piece of paper and Hyesung told me that he will write my name instead to lessen the doubt. He collected one by one double checking if they really did wrote their names.

He asked 6 officers from the class to read the name that he will pick from the box.

The president of the class gave a try. She unfolded the paper and opened it. Her expression displayed confusion; she cannot somehow read the written name. No matter what she does, she can’t.

The Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Auditor and Project Manager of the class – seemed to have lost their ability to read when Hyesung gave them the paper. The same paper is appearing and no one can figure it out. It’s like a code without a correct answer.

They tried to pull an invalid paper again as random try and got different people instead.

The void on his first 6 picks did not get anyone killed today. But if it was readable, that person could have been dead meat before midnight strikes.

While everyone went home disappointed, Hyesung waited for me with a smile on his face.

More than being thankful, I also thought – that I was saved because of his sloppy handwriting.  :P