𝑰𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 - 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠

━━━━━ JOLTING AWAKE IN HER SEAT AT THE SUDDEN SENSATION OF SOMETHING TOUCHING HER HAND, HYEMI HASTILY JERKED HER HAND BACK TOWARDS HERSELF. Slowly turning her head in the direction of the sensation, she saw a wide-eyed Junhee, who was visibly concerned at the reaction received from the now-awake girl.

"What?" Hyemi questioned the class president.

"We've arrived. I wanted to wake you up."

Awkwardly nodding, Hyemi gave a strained smile while replying, "Thanks for the gesture, but just call out my name next time instead of touching me."

Receiving a simple nod from the boy, Hyemi sat up straight and stretched herself gently before gathering her things from her lap and getting out of the seat, making her way out of the bus.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, a chilled breeze blew past her, sending a shiver down her spine. Walking ahead a bit, Hyemi looked around the campus, examining everything visible in the dim lighting of the streetlights surrounding the campus. The building in front of them, where they were to stay, gave Hyemi a very ominous feeling. Something felt very much off about it. Being surrounded by a thick, dense forest with no other human contact in the farthest sight—truly, what a desirable location to have a trip for students who have no sort of survival skills at all. What could go wrong?

Disengaging from her extreme thoughts, Hyemi turned around and walked towards the bus again to find her friends and get her luggage out. Reaching where Yoonseo and Jungwon were standing, she slowly crept onto them, trying to scare them, but failed to achieve her goal when Jungwon looked at her with a deadpan silently daring her to continue what she was about to do. Sulking at her unsuccessful attempt, Hyemi softly swatted her friends' backs, whining about leaving her all alone to deal with others.

Getting their luggage out, the trio sauntered towards the building hand in hand when Yoonseo slowed down in her steps, staring at the building with an unsettling feeling.

"Why does this scene look so familiar?" Yoonseo wondered with doubt and nervousness settling in her chest, making her feel uncomfortable.

"What looks familiar?" Hyemi asked, turning her head to face Yoonseo.

With visible distress on her face, Yoonseo replied, "The building...it looks like we have been here before or something. I don't know, I just don't feel very comfortable looking at the building."

Hyemi nodded her head in agreeance while Jungwon retorted, "All such education camps look the same. You're just overthinking."

"No, but I agree with Yoonseo. This whole situation does make me feel very uneasy. Like something feels very offsetting," Hyemi said.

To break off the conversation between her two friends, Yoonseo clapped her hands to get their attention before speaking up, "Never mind that, let's head inside first. We can debate this later, hmm?"

Receiving a nod of agreeance from Hyemi and Jungwon, the three friends again picked up their luggage and hurried inside the building.

To put it simply, the inside structure of the building looked just as unsettling and disturbing as its outside structure. Dull-coloured walls ill-lit by the barely lit yellowish lights throughout the building corridors, stairs going across floors from various locations, and a sullen feeling looming over the entire place made the structure seem even more questionable. Everything felt out of place.

Walking towards the centre of the building where their classmates were gathering before going on their way, the trio found a card placed on top of a small stand containing a QR code. The text below the code provided information about scanning the code to automatically connect their phones to the building's wi-fi as well as installing a map to access the building floors more easily.