𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐊𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄

#.. THIRTY-TWO

Jooyeon acted without thinking through it first. He rushed forward as quickly as he could, tackling Mr Koo to the ground and making him drop the pistol. It was like a nightmare that seemed way too real. The metallic smell of blood filled the room, heavy breaths and grunts being the only noises. Jooyeon had to do something before Mr Koo could recover.

As he sat on the man's torso, he wrapped the rope, that restricted Hyeongjun's arms before, around his throat tightly, blocking his respiratory tract. Tears were filling Jooyeon's eyes, as he slowly started to register the moment. Seungmin was dead, his other two friends were hurt. While still holding the rope tightly, he took a look around. He first looked at Seungmin's lifeless body, lying on the floor, blood still gushing out of him crazily and forming a red puddle underneath.

Next he looked over to Jiseok, who still seemed to be conscious. He was sobbing, breathing heavily and moaning in pain, applying pressure to one of the placed he has been shot. There were too many, but none of them were vital; Jiseok was bound to bleed out. And lastly, Jooyeon looked at Hyeongjun, whose shoulder was shot at the attempt to save Jooyeon. Hyeongjun used his own body to protect Jooyeon, being severely hurt by it as an effect. He was smiling at Jooyeon, trying to ignore the stinging pain that zipped through his whole body. Pure torture. The moment felt unreal.

As the elder man started to cough, he caught Jooyeon's attention again. Now was the time to ask all the questions he was never able to ask. Yet "Why...?" was the only thing Jooyeon was able to ask, too overwhelmed with all the rage, that suddenly came up. Three of them were dead, mostly by his hand. And two of them will die perhaps, too.

Mr Koo just laughed but coughed right after again, the restricted air in his lungs not allowing him to laugh. "You're so oblivious." Mr Koo replied. "It's the government's will. Didn't you understand when you read Gunil's suicide note?"

This increased Jooyeon's anger, but he also felt betrayed. So it was true. The government knew about this. Or worse, they were the reason this happened. The government was the reason three of his closest friends died. The government was the reason many innocent children died or got away with trauma, that would last for the rest of their lives. Dreams were constantly broken, and they knew about it? Why would they do that? And why would Mr Koo agree to let this happen?

Jooyeon's expression changed, something mixed with anger but sadness at the same time. "All of you deserve to die" Jooyeon responded, not caring that the answer didn't fit the man's statement. There was no time to think about any of his actions as he started to beat him up, releasing all the pent up feelings from the many months he has spent in this hell of a place.

He avenged his friends that werent to do so on their own. Koo Gunil, who was the son of a fucked up man, dying from suicide triggered by an action of his father. Kim Jungsu, who was hate-crimed because of his sexuality, also being killed by the actions of said father. Lastly, Oh Seungmin, who was shot by the said father, passing away immediately. And of course all the other students that lost their lives here in this place.

So it was more than justified to see any signs of life fade away in the man's eyes. They closed. But Jooyeon wasn't dumb; He could easily pretend that he was dead. He sat there for something that felt like an eternity, waiting for his anger calm down a little bit. And just as he came back to his right senses, he remembered.

"Jiseok!"