Treasure Island

Chapter 12

She passed the corridors quietly, looking through every door and making sure Jiwon wasn't there.

At last, she reached the end of the corridor on the east wing. She still hadn't opened the last door. She felt nervous, and a little scared.

She reached for the doorknob when she heard footsteps approaching. She quickly opened the door, rushed inside the room.

At first, she was still facing the door. So, she turned around and saw... nothing.

Nobody was there.

"Figures. She has the ability to become invisible," she thought.

A cold shiver went up her spine. Jisoo could be anywhere around her. Then she heard the footsteps again. This time, they were nearer.

She hurriedly hid herself in the first place she saw: behind a broken-down sofa.

She heard the doorknob turning, and then the door creaking open. Somebody came in, and Yuri was sure that it was Jiwon.

"This is it, I'm dead. I disobeyed him, and now I'll get kicked out of the Academy," thought Yuri.

The person came closer, and saw her hiding there, and pulled her out, holding her by the arm.

To her surprise, it was Jihoon.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

He looked really annoyed.

"Um... I dropped my ring, and I was looking for it!" said Yuri, and in her head, "Ugh, what a terrible liar I am!"

"Quit lying, you aren't supposed to be here!"

"Well, why are you here then?"

"I saw you sneak out," replied Jihoon, but fortunately for Yuri, his smile was back. He continued:

"It's normal to get curious, but not really safe in this case. I'm telling you she's a psycho!"

"All right!" said Yuri.

"Great! Let's get outta here. This place is giving me the creeps!"

He turned around to go, but Yuri stopped him.

"But wasn't Jisoo supposed to be here?"

Jihoon faced Yuri. 

"Not in this room. But you can't come here anymore."

With this he marched out of the room, followed by a disappointed Yuri.

At dinner, as usual, everyone was very talkative and cheerful, everyone except two people. One was, of course, Yuri. The other was Jeongwoo.

He had a very painful headache, after coming back from the forest. It was just getting worse.

After clearing the table and washing up, most of them went up to their bedrooms, but Junkyu, Jihoon, Yedam, and Yuri stayed back and played some board games until half an hour before midnight.

"Well, goodnight then, everybody. Tomorrow I gotta wake up early because Ms. Lee's gonna give me some private math lessons," said Yedam, waving sleepily to the others.

"Oh, goodnight then," Junkyu smiled.

They all went up to their bedrooms after that.

Once in her bedroom, Yuri lied down on her bed. She thought about what Jihoon had said to her before.

She realized that what Jihoon had said was true, but she still couldn't ignore her curiosity. She tossed to one side to see her alarm clock. It was 11:45.

She waited until midnight, then got up, and walked to her door. She opened it slowly, fearing it would creak.

She walked through the corridor towards the stairs leading to the east wing. When passed Jihoon's door, she whispered under her breath:

"Sorry, Jihoon."

Walking through the dark corridors was certainly not comfortable, but she didn't dare to use her torch, in case somebody saw her.

Once in the east wing, she had to open a lot of doors. None of them led to Jisoo.

While searching in a room that seemed shabby, she almost gave up.

"Even if she was invisible, wouldn't she react?" said Yuri to herself. "Guess I was mistaken!"

But suddenly there came a sound from under her. It was a continuous tapping on the wooden floor.

Yuri looked down in surprise. "What the hell?!"

She bent down and tapped back.

The tapping grew louder and faster. In addition to that, there was a feeble muffled sound. Yuri was scared, but also intrigued.

She looked around the floor, thinking there might an opening. Luckily, there was an unstable wooden tile. She reached out to it and pulled it out.

Generally, there would be more plywood under that, but instead, there was a blank space. Yuri took the tile and used it as a pressure point to force out the other tiles beside.

After pulling out a dozen more tiles, Yuri noticed a staircase under leading to what looked like a really dark basement.

Yuri hesitated a bit, then slowly went down the stairs.

Once in the basement, Yuri looked around, searching for the source of the strange tapping sound.

The muffles came again, from the corner. Yuri headed that way, with her hands ready to bring out the vines from underground.

What she saw next petrified her.

Jisoo was sitting in the corner, her hands tied behind her, and her forehead bleeding.