Astronomy // Duty After School

Chapter Eighteen.

The kids' lockers had been returned to their room after they already brought their rucksacks back. No one dared to unpack their bags, assuming they would be escaping the school tomorrow and most of them valued their belongings. The next day, Class 3-2, as they had planned already, waited until they were sure the other kids would no longer have an adult room (because it was passing period for teachers). They themselves didn't have a homeroom teacher, so they had to keep track of how many teachers passed their windows. Finally, they deemed it time and Jang-su slid open the classroom door.

"Let's go!" Jang-su roared.

"Let's go!" Jun-hi repeated. Kids started swarming into the hallways, heading for the fields. Soldiers tried to block their paths in the hallway, but the mass amount of kids pushed past the teachers. When they made it outside, they started pushing on the blockade of soldiers formed at the campus entrance.

"Stop them, stop them! You bastards, move out of the way!"

"Hey, push! Push them!"

"What are you doing?! Push them back!"

"Hey, you bastard! Move back! Gosh!" The battalion commander pointed at one of his men. A shrill whistle tore through the air, making the kids flinch. The man blew the whistle again. "You bastards!"

"What are you guys doing? Go back inside!" ordered the man who had blown the whistle.

"I heard that Class 3-2's homeroom teacher died," said a boy.

"Yeah, supposedly, she died!" the boy's friend nodded.

"This bastard," the battalion commander seethed.

"I heard it all from the guys in Class 3-2!"

"We heard it all!"

"We don't want to be here!"

"I heard that Class 3-2's Sobong (Y/n) was attacked on this campus! Send us home right now!"

"Hey..." (Y/n) muttered, growing bitter she was getting thrown under the bus.

"Yes, let us go home!"

"Who said that, you bastards?" demanded the battalion commander. The kids started pushing on the soldiers again "Hey! Platoon Leader, what are you doing? What are you doing, you bastards? Block them, block them! Gosh, these little—" The battalion commander removed the pistol sitting at his waist and fired a warning shot into the air. The kids screamed and covered their heads. "Hey! If you guys keep acting like this, it won't do you any good! You guys won't get any bonus points for the CSAT!"

"Ajeossi! Ajeossi! I don't care about any of that," Hui-rak said. "Just let us go home!"

"You'll her penalty points, you bastard!"

"Okay, thank you for the penalty points." Hui-rak bowed. "Let's go!" The kids immediately started fighting against the soldiers again.

"Are you not going to move?"

"What are you doing?" Chun-ho barked, pushing his way through the hoard of students to reach the front. "Hurry up and go inside!"

"Nothing will change from you guys doing this," Won-bin said. "Hurry up and go back inside!"

"Why do we need to do that?" Bo-ra demanded. "We're not even soldiers!"

"How many times must I tell you? From now on, you guys are—" Chun-ho began.

"We said we don't want that!" So-yun interrupted. "If you really think about us, then let us go home."

"Why don't we compromise for a parents day?" suggested a soldier, trying to be the good cop. Some kids seemed to contemplate the offer as they would, at the very least, be seeing their parents.