Astronomy // Duty After School

Chapter Seventeen.

Given that it was their turn for night watch, So-chul and (Y/n) remained outside of their respective barracks. So-chul's eyes, more often than not, flicked across the hall to (Y/n). The girl's face was just barely illuminated by the videos she was watching and the pictures she was looking at on the camcorder. With home many times (Y/n) had rewatched Ms. Park's final entry, So-chul was sure he had the whole thing memorized. Hearing his late teacher's voice was admittedly making him emotional and he knew the same was true for (Y/n), who would have been welcoming Ms. Park into her family in just a few months. He finally decided to speak up, deciding that doing nothing would be worse than (Y/n) denying his attempt at comforting her.

"(Y/n)?" So-chul called. (Y/n) sniffled and wiped her eyes, pausing the video.

"Sorry. Is it loud?'

"Ah, that's not it," So-chul said. He offered (Y/n) a gentle smile before moving his chair beside hers. "You actually have people to talk with this time around."

"Hm?"

"Well, you had to keep quiet last time, right?" So-chul said. "And it didn't seem you, Kimchi, Il-ha, and Yeong-hun were talking much."

"I think they were ashamed," (Y/n) admitted. She didn't want to cause more tension among the class (as they were all still pretty upset over not being told when the sphere first initially fell), so she decided against informing So-chul that a fight was what caused (Y/n) to be the Cell's target in the first place. She also couldn't help but think back to what the nurse had said about her blood being more appealing to Cells. Had that always been the case or was it because her skin had been cut by the Cell, thus tainting her blood? (Y/n) scooted closer to So-chul, resting her head against his shoulder as he placed an arm around her for comfort. "It doesn't feel like enough now," (Y/n) admitted miserably. "Yeah, her memory lives on in pictures and whatnot, but... I want Eun-young to be here." As the two talked, discussions happened in each barrack.

"Did the platoon leader go crazy?" Ha-na asked. "Will they really shoot us?"

"No way. They wouldn't actually shoot us," So-yeon denied. Ha-na rolled onto her side to face the girl.

"What if they actually shoot?"

"It would hurt a lot," Deok-jung answered in reply to Wu-taek asking the very same question as Ha-na.

"When you get shot," Tae-man said, "supposedly the entry wound is the size of a bullet, but the exit wound is the size of a watermelon."

"Really?" Chi-yeol asked, looking at Tae-man, who looked back up at the ceiling.

"Why don't you try getting shot and find out?"

"Are you all really not going to do anything?" Ha-na asked, rising to a sitting position.

"We don't really have a choice," Bo-ra said. "Either we hold it in or endure it."

"Aren't they both the same thing?" Yeon-ju asked, sitting up. "Holding it in and enduring it." Bo-ra sat up.

"That's what I mean. That's the only choice we have," Bo-ra stated.

"It's not that there's no way," Yeong-shin said, looking at the boys. They all perked up, sitting up to look at him. "There is a way we could try."

"I have an idea," Bo-ra told the girls. They all sat up as she got to her feet and crept over to the door. (Y/n) and So-chul both looked toward the doors as Yeong-shin and Bo-ra opened them. "We need to talk."

"I was going to say the same," Yeong-shin nodded. The girls moved back into the boys' barrack and thus began the plan, something both Yeong-shin and Bo-ra seemed to have thought of despite not being in the same room. Once everything was planned, the girls dismissed themselves with a newfound bit of vigor. Yeon-ju and Tae-man were the next two on duty, so they fixed the chairs and talked in hushed voices about tomorrow's (today's, technically) plan. (Y/n) found herself sneaking away from everyone else and heading to the class's homeroom alone. She sat on the floor behind Ms. Park's podium and brought her knees to her chest. She gazed down at her own camera.