Chapter 49: Mujin High School (5)

[5. Questioning a teacher's methods is unforgivable. Unless you want to be next, never object to or interfere with any lesson.]

Han-su's gaze fell on the student curled up in the corner.

One more reason not to make any rash moves.

Only then did it occur to Han-su that every moment must have been like this for Su-myeon.

Su-myeon, who knew all the methods — every single moment must have forced him to make choices with people's lives hanging in the balance.

"N-no! Please! Please save me!"

The student strapped to the table in the center of the room screamed and thrashed.

But Han-su couldn't afford to act recklessly.

Ha-min's and Geon-su's lives depended on his decisions.

Grinding his teeth, Han-su clenched his fists so tightly that veins stood out across the backs of his hands.

The child on the table had already been half-transformed into something resembling a rubber doll.

It screamed and struggled, but with every movement, its wrists and ankles sank deeper into the chains, deforming like soft rubber under the pressure.

Not a single drop of blood spilled.

"All right, let's begin today's lab."

"AAAAAAGH!"

The black Shadow Teacher approached and raised the tip of its shadow — sharpened like a scalpel — over the bound rubber figure.

Han-su reached out and firmly pushed down both Ha-min's and Geon-su's heads.

This wasn't something they needed to see.

Flesh-colored and crimson lumps, like chunks of clay, dropped from the rubber figure on the table.

Even its screams sounded deeply unnatural.

They weren't cries born of physical pain, but of sheer psychological horror.

The student on the table had already become something no longer human.

Interfere with the Shadow Teacher's dissection now, and you'd be the next one laid out on that table.

"......"

Han-su tore his gaze away from the dissection and scanned the room.

The other students had pressed themselves as far from the demonstration table as they could.

Trembling, they stood with their backs flattened against the display cases lining the walls, shoulders hunched and faces turned away.

Those who had survived this long knew — through instinct and experience.

They knew exactly what happened to anyone who disrupted this class.

"And this right here is the heart."

The chest cavity had been split open like an anatomical model.

Reduced to nothing more than that, the rubber figure could no longer even scream.

"In eternal time, there's simply no need for a beating heart. Don't imprison yourself within the limitations of time."

The Shadow Teacher's warped, radio-static voice brought the lesson to an end with that arrogant proclamation.

Obtaining infinite time.

Escaping reality.

Such hollow platitudes held no value whatsoever for Han-su.

What wasn't real simply wasn't real.

An illusion was nothing more than a lie.

When the nightmarish period finally ended and the bell rang, the Shadow Teacher slipped silently out of the classroom.

As soon as break began, Han-su carefully led Ha-min and Geon-su deeper into the science lab.

Ha-min's friend was a sharp-eyed boy with short, unruly hair.

Ha-min cautiously reached toward him where he sat crumpled against the display cases.

"HIIIIK! N-no! I don't want to!"

The instant Ha-min touched him, the boy shrieked.

Han-su immediately clamped a hand over his mouth.

Han-su glanced around at the other students to see whether anyone had reacted to the commotion.

But despite the noise, everyone else simply clutched their heads or stared blankly at the floor, frozen in place.

Seizing the moment, Ha-min spoke urgently.

"Hey! It's me! Me! Lim Ha-min!"

No matter how easygoing he usually seemed, Ha-min was still just a high schooler.

He seized his friend by the shoulders with surprising force and shook him.

"Kim Min-jun! You bastard, snap out of it!"

At the sound of his own name, the student finally blinked and slowly raised his head to look at Ha-min.

Once he seemed to have calmed down somewhat, Han-su removed the hand covering Min-jun's mouth.

"Shh. We're here to get you out. So keep quiet for now."

Min-jun looked from Han-su to Geon-su, the two who had come with Ha-min, struggling to make sense of the situation.

Little by little, he seemed to realize that this was neither a lie nor a hallucination.

A faint spark of life finally returned to eyes that had been clouded and glazed over with terror.

"You... you came to save me?"

He was still trembling, but at least he was capable of holding a conversation.

As long as someone remained in this state, they could still be taken with them.

Han-su gripped Min-jun firmly by the shoulder, helped steady him, and spoke.

"Yeah. So calm down. Just follow us."

Min-jun sprang to his feet and, for a moment, looked as though he might throw himself into Ha-min's arms and burst into tears.

But perhaps he understood that making a scene here would only cause trouble, because he swallowed the sound.

Ha-min comforted his overwhelmed friend, then said,

"But what do we do now? Break's almost over."

"How about hiding in the nearest boys' restroom and waiting out the next class while we figure something out?"

At Ha-min and Geon-su's suggestion, Han-su pulled out the Heartphone and sent word that they'd found Min-jun.

There was still no message from Su-myeon.

"......"

Han-su fell briefly into thought.

They still hadn't found a way out.

If possible, he wanted to search for Ha-min's other friend as well — or find more students who still had their wits about them and bring everyone out together.

To do that, they would have to check more classrooms.

"...Hold on."

Break had only just begun, and Han-su had a feeling there was a better option than hiding in the boys' restroom.

He checked his surroundings, pressed his back against the display cases for cover, and pulled the Infinite Campus safety guide from his pocket.

The science lab had been gruesome beyond words, but ultimately, as long as you kept your mouth shut and sat still, it was a safe period.

He was certain there had to be other classes like that on the first floor....

"How'd you know all this?"

"......"

An unfamiliar voice came from behind Han-su.

***

Shortly after Ha-min and the other two had left for the science lab.

"New face. That was pretty intense, huh?"

Su-myeon was momentarily at a loss for words at Peter Pan's casual greeting.

Wendy, seated beside Peter Pan, glanced between the two of them.

"...To be honest. Yeah, it was intense."

Su-myeon had no idea what Wendy's glance was supposed to mean, but he answered as naturally as he could.

A subtle tension hung in the air, yet Peter Pan continued as casually as though he were welcoming a new transfer student.

"Don't be so tense. Word gets around, you know — this isn't your first time, is it?"

Peter Pan, who had been smiling at Su-myeon, turned slightly toward Hwi-yeon.

"You too... you don't exactly look like a first-timer."

Unfortunately, that one extra remark only tightened the tension further.

Completely unconcerned by how guarded Su-myeon and Hwi-yeon had become, Peter Pan continued in the same leisurely tone.

He turned his chair fully toward Su-myeon and scooted even closer.

"We can talk, can't we? Don't be like that. Tell me. Be honest about what you want, and... who knows? Maybe I can help."

Peter Pan's voice — endlessly gentle and smooth — was persuasive enough to inspire genuine trust.

He seemed so much like Belle, back when she had still been sane before the ghost story consumed her, that it was almost enough to fool someone.

But Su-myeon knew better.

'Fraud.'

Through the half-lens covering his left eye, he saw an entirely different figure.

Faintly superimposed over Peter Pan's appearance was his true form — a monster whose facial skin had melted completely away, sloughing off as the flesh beneath rotted and disintegrated.

There was no kindness in his intentions.

He wanted only to find a crack, worm his way inside, and devour everything.

"I appreciate you saying that, but you'll have to forgive me for being on edge."

Su-myeon gave an appropriately noncommittal answer, then deliberately steered the conversation away from himself with a question.

"When you say 'word gets around'... are you talking about Ellis Hotel?"

Right on cue, the bell signaling the end of break rang.

But Peter Pan paid it no attention.

Still turned toward Su-myeon, he simply nodded.

"Yeah. That's right. I heard you caused quite a stir there. The owner of Baekya Land was pretty upset too."

"......"

"If you can help it, don't go back there for a while. That amusement park is more dangerous than it looks."

Su-myeon fell silent for a moment.

If Peter Pan had already heard about Baekya Land, there was a good chance he knew Su-myeon's objective as well.

The monster sitting in front of him probably already knew that Su-myeon intended to extract people from these ghost stories and bring them back to reality.

Then what exactly was he thinking, trying to have a conversation like this?

Why not simply throw Su-myeon out?

Or kill him on the spot?

While Su-myeon was considering the possibilities, the classroom door opened and the Shadow Teacher entered.

[Self-Study Period]

The Shadow Teacher wrote four characters on the board, then left the classroom.

The students naturally began murmuring and chatting among themselves.

Meaningless chatter filled the room, immediately lightening the atmosphere.

Su-myeon found himself quietly unsettled by the realization that all of this had been arranged by Peter Pan solely because he wanted to talk.

How had things come to this?

"You didn't expect things to get this big either. Right?"

As though he had read Su-myeon's thoughts, Peter Pan spoke softly.

"I understand that this place might seem a little terrible, in its own way."

But it's not as if reality is any better, is it?

Peter Pan's strangely vivid voice seemed to burrow directly into Su-myeon's ears.

"Growing up is truly a terrible thing."

Once you become an adult, responsibilities and obligations only continue to pile up, while strangely enough, the things you're allowed to enjoy become fewer and fewer.

Making a living.

Staying healthy.

Avoiding being looked down on.

Maintaining your social standing and saving face.

An endless succession of shackles weighed down on a person's life.

"The weak and powerless tear each other apart for no reason, trampling over others just to climb a little higher."

The protection granted to you under the label of "child" vanished the moment you became a legal adult, as though it had never existed at all.

They spent your entire childhood suppressing you, demanding obedience — then suddenly, almost overnight, changed their tune and told you to figure out how to survive on your own.

Watching Peter Pan speak with such fervor made Su-myeon's skin crawl.

"Meanwhile, the people at the top — the ones who should actually bear responsibility and obligation — are the very ones avoiding them. And under the guise of freedom, you're simply exploited until there's nothing left."

Peter Pan's words were all the more seductive because they contained fragments of truth.

At the same time, Su-myeon felt something unsettling stir inside him.

Peter Pan spoke like someone who knew the darker side of the outside world far too well.

Most unsettling of all was how precisely he understood the genuine resentment students harbored toward adults.

"So you're saying this place is better than the outside world?"

Su-myeon responded cautiously.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed that Hwi-yeon had clenched her fist so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.

A younger brother she'd lost while she herself was still a student.

For Hwi-yeon, who had been forced to leave him behind back then, every word coming out of Peter Pan's mouth must have sounded like an elaborate lie.

"Why wouldn't it be? Once you adapt, you can live here under a perfect set of rules."

A little control is unavoidable, Peter Pan added with an easy smile.

Su-myeon stared at that smile and thought.

Perhaps he was.......

DING—

A low, heavy bell shattered Su-myeon's train of thought and reverberated through the air.

Amid the strange tension, the conversation seemed to have gone on far longer than he'd realized.

Break again already.

Had Han-su found anything?

"I want more friends."

The moment Su-myeon reached for the Heartphone in his pocket, Peter Pan let his desire slip.

The soft, almost whispering voice abruptly turned sharp and aggressive.

The dissonance between that voice and the gentle, model-student smile still fixed on his face instantly set every one of Su-myeon's senses on edge.

Something about Peter Pan had changed.

"The more lives I gather, the more influence I gain, and the greater my authority becomes. You know that, don't you?"

The more people swallowed by this ghost story, the larger the school would grow and the more power it would be able to exert.

Conversely, every missing person brought back into reality weakened the ghost story.

Su-myeon understood that perfectly well.

But instinct told him that admitting it now would do him no favors.

"...I don't know what you're talking ab—"

"Yes you do! You knew everything before you even came!"

The boy who had been staring at Su-myeon suddenly lost control and shouted, thrusting his face right up against Su-myeon's.

So close their noses nearly touched.

A primal sense of danger surged through Su-myeon, and he tried to pull away, but Peter Pan's hand had already clamped tightly around his shoulder.

"How did you know all of this?"