Sempiternal || Saeyeong

༄𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑛༄

 Quiet

 The person in front of me was an older guy. And by older, I mean like seventy years old. His hair was down to his shoulders, and he was very tan. 

  The man bent down and observed the glass from a lower angle, what the hell was he doing? If he is going to take up all of this time, I might as well go first. But there were still three pieces of glass before us.

  Five minutes and thirty seconds left...

  "Hurry the hell up dude! Do you want us to die?" The annoyed girl behind me asked. I looked at her with a face that meant, 'don't you dare.' But she looked away and ignored me.

  "Wait one second! I can tell them apart." The man shook out while holding his hands up in defense.

  "What the fuck-" Jiyeong spat, but I cut her sentence off short.

  "How?" 

  "I worked at a glass company for thirty years. Others can't see it, but if you look at tempered glass from an angle under the light, you can see faint stain marks." The man said.

  He stood up and jumped to the glass right in front of us. And nothing happened.

  Oh my God, he really does know how to tell the difference.

  "Another hint is in the sound. Tempered glass is made at high temperatures, above 700 degrees. If you tap it with a hammer, it rings clearer than normal glass."

  He does sound educated, but one question rang in my mind over and over. It seemed like Jiyeong had the same question, too.

  "Why are you telling us this now? Boomer, if you had told us before we would have been out of here in no time!" This girl really has no respect for the elderly. Then again, I cannot say I do.

  "Why should I?!" The man yelled with disbelief. "Those people tried to kill me every chance they had!" 

  He is right, why try to protect people who would not do the same for you? Most people here do not deserve the pity from others. Nor the protection this man could have provided. 

  But suddenly, the lights turned off. It was not completely pitch black, but still dark enough to prohibit this guy from seeing the difference. 

  Well shit, we are screwed.

  The guy looked intensely but came up with nothing, he sighed in defeat, alerting us all.

  "What's wrong? What's the problem?" Sang-Woo asked from the back. 

  "It's too dark to see!"

  We all stood there and panicked as the time was slowly counting down to four minutes. He had to go soon, there is only two pieces of glass left. 

  "Which one is it!? Make your decision!" Sang-Woo yelled through the clicking of the clock. Anxiety rolled through my veins and all I could do was look down and shut my eyes tightly. 

  "I need to listen to the sound. Does anyone have anything to throw?" Everyone checked their pockets for something, anything to throw. But we all came up short, except for... Sang-Woo. He held a marble in his hand, the one from game four. We passed it up to the man quickly and he took it securely in his hands. 

  He tossed it lightly to the glass and it bounced four times. I could barely hear anything because of the noises that ran through my head. They were un-comprehendible and sounded like static you would hear over a radio. It was overwhelming my nerves in every way possible. 

  "Give me one more. I need to hear the right one too. " I heard the man say, but it sounded so far. All of us looked over to Sang-Woo who only shook his head slowly. My eyes closed tightly again, and I breathed in heavily. 

  "I can't tell..." 

  All hope I had was lost and the stomach-ache I also have, lingered as the time hit three minutes. 

  "Sae-Byeok..." I heard a voice say from behind me. I looked over and saw Sang-Woo with a deathly stare on his face. "Push him..." 

  All the noises in my head stopped, I never really noticed how quiet it was in here. 

  Words: 713

The story is coming to an end! 

Would you rather be friends with Jiyeong or Ali?

(Edited)