All of us are dead

one - soondae and bullies

Me and Ji-min's parents drop us off outside the school gate in our dad's work truck.
As they pull up, I adjust my bag on my lap and undo my seatbelt, glancing at Ji-min who seems in a rush.
I furrow my eyebrows slightly but just decided to not question it, after all, she's been in a bit of a bad mood recently but I'm not too sure why.
I climb out of the car and so does Ji-min.
I put my backpack on one shoulder, the heavy weight making me sigh.
Ji-min is about to run off into the school grounds but before she can, mom opens the car door with a plastic bag and grabs her arm gently and pulls her back slightly.

"Ji-min!" My mom lets go of her arm and holds the bag out for her, "share this with your friends at choir, will you?"

"I said I don't want it," my sister whines, takes it and holds it for a few seconds before handing it back to mom and running off again.
Weird... I thought, why didn't she want mom's soondae?
I turn to my mom with a smile on my face as I see her frowning down at the bag of soondae in her hand.

"I'll take it mom, I'm sure the kids in my class will love it," I speak with enthusiasm, trying to cheer her up.

"Thank you, dear," she holds the bag out for me to take and I do. Holding it tightly in my hands.

"Of course, your soondae is always delicious," I smile at her and bring the bag to my nose and sniff it for show, the smell of the soondae filling my nose.
She stepped closer to me and smoothed some of my shiny black hair down, kissing my forehead lovingly which made my heart warm.

"Love you, mom," I smile at her, a genuinely warm smile.

"Just keep an eye on Ji-min today? She skipped breakfast as well," my mother looked concerned and I was quite angry at Ji-min for making mom this worried but I pushed the anger down.
I nodded and watched her climb back into the passengers side of dad's truck, I waved to them and they waved back through the front glass of the truck.
I turned and hurried inside school with a big smile on my face. I love my parents.
I hurry through the school gates with my backpack on my shoulder and the bag of soondae in my hand.
I walk past a grassy area of my school and notice the school bullies leading a girl and boy somewhere.
I notice the girl as Eun-Ji, she's in my sister's year group and Ji-min is always talking about how quiet and depressed Eun-Ji acts, but I kind of feel bad for her.
I frown as one of the bullies tell her to 'get moving' and she speeds up.
No-one was even holding her, what was she doing listening to them? She could've easily ran away by now so why was she still following them?
I notice them walk through a gap in the trees and I immediately know where they're headed to, the construction site.
The construction site only has builders in it between the times of 10am and 2pm so the bullies usually hang out there in the mornings. People also go there to hook up or do drugs, which I only know from Ji-min telling me.
I come to a stop, debating whether I should follow them or not and eventually I decide to.
I wait for a few seconds before running through the same clearing and following them, making sure to be sneaky and careful so as not to get caught.

Once I finally make it into the building I stay on the ground floor, leaning against a wall next to the stairwell so I can hear everything going on upstairs where they were.
At first, all I can hear is raised voices and then I hear something metal clatter along the concrete ground making me flinch slightly.

Then I heard someone say, "it's okay, take it off," it was definitely a boy's voice.
My eyes widened and immediately my mind jumped to revolting conclusions. I tried to tell myself that maybe I was just overthinking.
Then I heard raised voices again, it sounded like people were shouting at eachother.
I heard the shrieks of the girl and my fists clenched by my sides, I was fighting every urge not to storm up there.
But I knew that was only going to cause problems for me as well.
I heard someone tell someone to 'stay still', I presumed they were telling the girl to stay still.

That was when I heard footsteps behind me.
I was worried I had got caught from one of the bullies for a second, my heart racing in my chest.
Then I turned my head, the boy was right next to me now.
I'd seen his around school, he used to hang out with the bullies I believe but I don't know his name and I've never spoken to him.
All I know is that he's in Ji-min's year group.

"Did you see gwi-nam and the bullies go up here?" He asks me, leaning against the wall.
I can't help but notice how attractive he is but I try to shake that thought, that's not important right now.

"Yeah, I was... I was going to go up there, I think they're doing something to the girl," my voice was a whisper since I didn't want the bullies to know we were here and had our guards down for the moment.

He nodded slowly and glanced towards the stairs before back at me, "I'm going to go check it out, you should leave," he says, only it's not really much of advice it's more of a command.
He walks past me and up the stairs before I can even respond which makes me slightly annoyed.

But all I know for sure is that I'm definitely not leaving.

WRITER'S NOTE:
hii! This is the first chapter and I really hope you enjoyed as I put a lot of time into this!
Writings my passion and if you enjoyed please remember to vote
Love you all <3