𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 | 𝐚 𝐭𝐱𝐭 × 𝐢𝐭𝐳𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

eleven - the compass of omen

the compass of omen

lia wanted to hide. the voices, it seemed, had caught whiff of her rousing fear and eminent panic, they started appearing again.

they would call sing her name, whisper and taunt. and lia could only pretend she wasn't falling apart throughout the entire class. they had three hours before lunch. she surmised she would rush to the photography club's room first thing, seek the boys' help and go home a perfectly sane person.

it sounded so simple; if only it was.

lunch wasn't in an hour but lia had become frantic, swet wouldn't stop rolling down her temple, the air had become unbearably warm, choking as her breathing jagged and she rushed to the library in the pretense of helping the teacher carry their homeworks to the staff room. she had done her job, but she wouldn't return to the classroom.

she needed a breath. she needed to calm down. she needed peace; and where else would peace be in this tumultuous world other than the library?

stupid. stupid lia. why alone if you are afraid?

and lia thought she was crazy for responding. "what's it to you if i am with others or not?" she internally bit her tongue. hopefully, she prayed, the ghost can't read minds.

the voice simply giggled, and lia thought it was the most disgusting laugh in the entire world.

when the giggles became choked, strained and sinister, lia began to crumble. "stop," she mumbled, pulling her hair by the ends as sweat rolled down her temple, "stop." what went from silent mumbles, became prayers.

"AAAAHH!"

"LIA!"

it was when she shook violently, a boy's voice rang loud and clear, and she felt the firm grasp on her shoulder, that lia realised she had been disillusioned. it was a dream. a hallucination. her pleas weren't heard, until she cried.

she looked up, face disoriented and wide-eyed, to be greeted by soobin's perpetual frown and concern.

"it's okay. i'm here. i pulled you out."

her lips quivered. she had too many questions.

where to begin? how to begin?

soobin must have caught on her dilemma, as her face began to crumble and she trembled. so he pulled her against his chest, arms wrapped around her shoulder as he said, "ssshh. it's okay. they're gone."

how strange the world is; how cruel. lia felt an unexplainable warmth course through her veins, and she no longer felt terrified but at ease.

she had never been comforted by a boy, and soobin had done it so suddenly. but she didn't feel uncomfortable the slightest. soobin's large hands, awkwardly, gently patting her back, felt familiar instead. and she easily drifted off to sleep, her weight on his arms as her dreary spirit fell into rest.

"she's passed out," said ryujin. she had been behind soobin all along, with beomgyu and yeonjun but the terrified lia hadn't noticed.

soobin lifted the girl in his arms with ease, saying as he faced the others, "let's take her to the nurse's office."

yeonjun solemnly nodded. it was one of those rare times where he wasn't cheeky.

"i'll come with you," volunteered ryujin.

they left. and yeonjun and beomgyu sat down next to the spot where the tremor had happened.

they sat there in silence, until beomgyu spoke. "it was in 2008 when a girl passed out here, right in this spot. she had been suffering from fatigue and malnutrition, and had missed the final exams because she was hospitalized. she had been obsessed with her studies, wanting to perfect her grades, that when she found out all those nights of staying up late studying were reduced to nothing, she became depressed and tried to harm herself."

"..."

"it was also right here," said beomgyu, again, "in 2012, that another student passed out. the reason however, was different. he was taken to the hospital and found terminally ill with brain hemorrhage. he never made it."

he had been digging. fortunately, beomgyu's cousins were also alumnus from ace hence, he just needed to bother his cousins on kakao innumerable times to be able to get these informations. they had been serious issues back then. but ace being ace, they were eventually lost to time.

yeonjun silently took out a compass from his pocket. it was old, an antique the shopkeeper convinced him could detect fengshui. fortunately, the shopkeeper wasn't wrong. and yeonjun didn't spend three months of his pocket money on junk.

the hand rolled three times until it stopped at north. as time went by, yeonjun began to learn the compass's tricks. north meant bad energy, south was good, and east and west were basically useless or barren. of course, the level of energy depended on how many times it rolled. one time meant hope-shattering bad energy, like a bad place to ask a girl out or place your bed in.

three times meant the spot was a magnet for misfortune. five times meant death.

as a ghost hunter, a self-proclaimed but legit one, yeonjun had collected a fair amount of supernatural tools to help him in his adventure. although half of them ended up as rip-offs. regardless, he surmised it was worth the try.

"so it's a spot for ill omen," said beomgyu, upon seeing the compass's results. "explained why lia was acting like that."

"yeah."

beomgyu waited for the older boy to continue, which he did only after a while. "we need to speak with that darned creature. do we still have paper talismans? if not, we have to run to the shaman and get them."

"i'll do that. i brought my bicycle."

"okay. then i'll get soobin." yeonjun seemingly paused for a while, then said, "i have a feeling something big is gonna happen, openly targeting a student like this."

beomgyu said nothing but returns the grave expression.