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Seojin, Suhyeok, and Onjo made their way up the stairs, their hearts still hammering against their chests from the unsettling incident in the infirmary. No matter how hard she tried, Seojin couldn't seem to get Hyeonju's bloodied face and her monster-like growls out of her head.
Her friend, who was just fine the day before, had now turned into a completely different person, a person she couldn't even recognize.
What did the science teacher do to her? What was inside the injection he had given her?
"Seojin, you okay?" Suhyeok's deep voice snapped the girl out of her trance, stopping her mind from enveloping her into an anxious warp of sickening thoughts.
He sent Seojin a quick glance, noticing how her eyes looked clouded with questions waiting to be answered. "Yeah, I'm just really confused. What the hell was that?" she huffed out, fumbling with her hoodie strings absentmindedly while she recalled the disturbing sight of Hyeonju.
Suhyeok shrugged his shoulders, strands of his hair falling messily onto his forehead. "Tell me about it. It was like—she was possessed or something," he shook his head fearfully, the thought of Hyeonju and her bizarre behavior was enough to make his skin crawl.
"God, I really need a cigarette after this shitshow," Seojin tilted her head back and groaned in frustration, earning a slight chuckle from the boy behind her. "How about you, Onjo? Were you bit?" Suhyeok said to Onjo, and the girl quietly shook her head. "No, it's just a scratch."
He sighed in relief at Onjo's answer, feeling glad that his friend wasn't seriously injured. "You didn't get hurt anywhere else, right?" he asked again, and Seojin caught a glimpse of how Onjo's lips pulled up into a bashful smile.
"No, I'm okay," A rosy hue painted across Onjo's cheeks as she chewed on her lips shyly, and that's when Seojin immediately understood the girl's hidden feelings.
"Anyway, why did you want to see me on the roof?" Suhyeok went on, and Onjo visibly froze up at his sudden question. "You said to come up after lunch. Can you just tell me now?" he continued nonchalantly, looking at the girl with a curious glint in his eyes.
An uncomfortable silence fell upon the three as they stood at the staircase, and Seojin glanced back and forth awkwardly between Onjo and Suhyeok. Thoughts sparked in her head, and like a lightbulb has gone off, Seojin immediately understood what the other girl was about to do.
Judging by how Onjo's cheeks had gone red and the way she was avoiding eye contact, Seojin was almost ninety-nine percent certain that she was about to confess her feelings. A knowing smirk plastered itself onto her lips, and she quickly pressed her lips together to hide it.
"Ouch, my stomach hurts." Seojin pretended to groan in pain, bending her body forward and covering her stomach with her hand. "I'm gonna leave now, you guys have fun," she quickly made up a lame excuse and left the scene in a hurry, missing the look of genuine worry that flashed through Suhyeok's expression.
Seojin's pained expression quickly morphed into an amused grin as she mouthed "good luck" and made a thumbs-up gesture to the flabbergasted boy, his face now blank with perplexity.
"Wait—Seojin!" Suhyeok called out but Seojin, who refused to be the one responsible for ruining her classmate's confession, simply ignored him and continued scurrying away.
When Seojin disappeared into the hallway, Onjo reluctantly reached inside her pocket and handed something to the boy before her. "What is it?" Suhyeok asked, completely clueless as to what was happening.
His mouth fell slightly agape as his gaze lingered on the red name tag laying on his palm, unsure of what to say or how to react. "Wait—this means... you want to go out with me," he stammered nervously, and Onjo answered him with a shy nod of her head.
"But you're dating Cheongsan." "What? No, I'm not!"
She waved her hand frantically upon hearing Suhyeok's assumption, not wanting him to get the wrong idea that she was in a relationship with Cheongsan, who was merely her friend.
"We've lived next door ever since we were kids. We're friends, only friends," she stated firmly, her head tilting up to look at the boy of her dreams. Suhyeok felt his mouth becoming dry, a blank look on his face while the gears in his head turned slowly, searching for the right words to say.
Onjo tucked her long brown hair behind her ear nervously, feeling the rapid thumping of her heart while she waited for his reply. "But—" Suhyeok was about to give his answer when a voice stopped him.
"Onjo!" Cheongsan appeared out of the corner suddenly, calling out her name while dashing down the stairs with immense concern. "I heard you got hurt, where is it?" his frantic voice echoed through the hallway, and he carefully reached for Onjo's arm when he noticed the bandage wrapped around it. "How bad is it? Does it hurt that much?"
Irritated by how he just completely ruined her confession to Suhyeok, Onjo harshly pulled her hand away from Cheongsan's grasp and snapped, "I'm fine." Shooting a final glance at the boy she had just confessed to, she turned around and walked off silently, pushing down the sadness that filled her chest.
Cheongsan was taken aback by his friend's sudden hostility, he was utterly clueless that he had just ruined Onjo's confession to her long-time crush. "Was she hurt badly? She was careless again, wasn't she?" he turned to the boy beside him.
Suhyeok shook his head at his friend and answered, "She got hurt while trying to avoid getting bitten by Hyeonju." Cheongsan nodded quietly, though his mind was suddenly filled with questions at the mention of Hyeonju's biting.
"Anyway, aren't you dating Onjo?" Suhyeok quickly changed the subject, nudging his friend's shoulders while he put on a teasing smirk. With Cheongsan's lack of reply, the playful grin on Suhyeok's face quickly fell. "Wait... aren't you?" he asked once more.
"Yes, we're dating," Cheongsan muttered, and Suhyeok let out a breath of relief upon hearing his friend's answer. "Did you expect me to say that? You moron." Cheongsan laughed at the taller boy's reaction, and the other boy almost choked on his tongue.
"If the world comes to an end and only Onjo, me, and a zombie are left, I'd go out with the zombie!" Cheongsan voiced out confidently, though he failed to hide the concern on his face when he asked, "But why do you ask?"
Suhyeok blinked in pure puzzlement, trying his best to comprehend what exactly just happened. Despite how nonchalant Cheongsan had pretended to be, he could see right through his friend's facade. You would simply have to be blind not to notice his feelings for his childhood friend.
"No reason. Let's just go," Suhyeok forced a tight-lipped smile on his face as he quietly shoved Onjo's name tag in his back pocket, not wanting to hurt Cheongsan's feelings or make things awkward between them.
While the duo walked up the stairs together, Suhyeok couldn't help but feel the heavy feeling of guilt in his chest. His head was clouded with so many questions as his mind drifted back to moments ago when Onjo had just confessed her feelings for him.
It would be a lie to say that he wasn't flattered since Onjo was a great girl, she really was. However, Suhyeok couldn't stop his mind from wishing it was someone else confessing to him.
A certain self-assured, hotheaded, and witty girl that always seemed to doze off in English class.
