On Guard

Chapter 3

Jiyun's PoV

We walked up the stairs to the second floor. There was a elevator but we thought using the stairs would be safer. As we walked up, we both could hear our heavy footsteps on the carpet stairs because of the silent atmosphere.

When we reached the second floor, the whole floor was super dark. The only light on was the stair light. We both remained silent and looked around. It seems that no one was currently occupying the floor

"Yun - ah, do you want to try to knock on some of the rooms? They look pretty empty though." Jae said, quietly and seriously.

"Let's don't. Judging from the looks of the situation, it's either we're being pranked or tested. Let's just go check the 3rd floor then go back down." I said, whispering

Minjae nodded. We then quietly walked up the stairs to the 3rd floor. It was, again, dark but there was a weird vibe coming off from this floor, kind of like in a horror movie.

At both ends of the hall, there was a yellow light shining. At one end, there was a wooden chair with a open book sitting on it. On the other end, there was a normal potted plant with cards tied on the ends of each leaf.

We we're both really confused. Then we saw through the darkness infront of us was a open window with a huge clock hanging from the top. It wasn't even and was alittle tilted to the right

I then immediately realised that this was the puzzle that we had to solve.

"I knew it. We're being tested." I said.

"I figured. Lets go check that chair first-" Jae said.

"WAIT"

"W-What? You scared me Yun."

"I think we should check that plant first. I have a plan."

"Um... Sure. Any will work."

We walked to the plotted plant and there were 3 cards in total. 2 of them were white and one was red. They were all tied by some random pieces of ribbons.

"Which first?" Jae asked.

"Open the white one on the top"

Jae took the card and opened it. Inside was some words written with a black pen saying, "Book, theme, third, number, clock"

"Huh. I don't really get it. Any ideas?" Jae questioned

I was thinking real hard. I didn't get it. The book made sense. That means we need to look through the book but "Theme" I didn't catch. "Third" and "Number" didn't get my attention either but the "Clock" meant that we had to examine the clock.

"Let's look at the other cards." I said

I took the second white card and it had printed bold lines saying, "You got enough clues. Stop here. Don't look for more. Or you'll walk in despair."

"W-What... This sounds creepy. Enough clues? We're far from enough. This might just be here to scare us. Lets open the last card."

Jae reached out his hand but I stopped him from taking the card.

"No. I think this is giving us a warning. What I can think it's saying is that all the clues are already in the first card. We don't need to bother finding more. Sometimes, its better to use the clues you have first than digging too deep and finding yourself in a dead end." I explained.

"Alright miss detective. Lets go check the book."

As I was explaining, I felt the presence of murder intent disappear all of a sudden. Guess my theory was right. We're being watched.

We hurried to the other end of the hall and looked at the chair and the book. The title of the book was "The Ending Room". The book was very thin and only had a couple of pages in it. The cover was pretty thick so it helped the book sit nicely

"This book seems a bit odd. I'll go look through it, go check the clock." Jae said.

As Jae read and flipped through the pages of the book, I walked to where the clock was hanging. It was just an ordinary house clock but one odd thing was that the long hand was pointing to 10 but the short hand had still stayed still on the number 2. I looked at the watch I was wearing and it was already 4:50 pm. The clock was wrong.

I thought about the clues for a few minutes and I tried to find an answer. Then, something hit me. I rushed to Jae and snatched the book.

"H-Hey! I was still reading it!" Jae shouted softly.

"Theres no meaning in reading it." I said.

I quickly closed the book and looked at the cover.

"E, so that means 5...I GOT IT!" I shouted

I looked to my watch.

4:57, 3 more minutes. Gotta be quick

I grabbed Jae's hand and I rushed to the fifth floor. I searched for a door with the number 52 and surely enough, I found it. I quickly opened the door and as i opened the door, confetti was sprayed onto my face.

"CONGRATULATIONS YOU TWO! You both passed the last test!" A voice congratulated us.

In the room, there was a young, tall and handsome man leaning onto a chair. There were 2 other people. They looked like twins. There was one more boy who was just leaning onto the wall and sitting on the ground. He was also handsome but somehow, there was a cold vibe surrounding him as if he was that distant to even actually talk to.

"I knew you two would do well." Someone said.

The person in the chair faced towards us and turns out, it was Mr. Hung himself.

"Allow me to introduce you everyone here. This fine gentlemen here is Song Nam Kyu. He's your senior and he's in his 3rd year this year. Over there are the twins, Kang Ji Hye and Kang Ji Won. They're freshmans too and they will have the same classes as the two of you."

"The young boy sitting down over there is Ki Tae Woo. There was supposed to be one more person but he is quite busy at the moment."

"Busy my ass. Jongyeol is probably playing at his mini arcade at home." The one with yellow strikes in his hair.

"JIWON. THAT'S JUST PLAIN OLD RUDE. SHOW SOME RESPECT TO THE OLD MAN" The girl in the ponytail said.

"Meh." He said while shrugging.

"Anyways, my name's Kang Jihye. Jihye's fine. And here's my stupid brother Jiwon. Im at room number 21 " the girl said

"It's BIG brother to you. Anyways, the name's Kang Jiwon. Jiwon too is fine. Nice to meet you both. Im at room number 31" the boy said while shaking mine and Minjae's hands.

"My name is Song Nam Kyu and i'm the head of the student body council here. I'm also the TA for the Detective class so sometimes i'll teach some of you guys. Im currently occupying room number 15"

"Okay okay. Lets wrap things up. You two better move into your rooms. Now off you go. Namkyu - ssi, please show them to their rooms" Mr. Hung said.

"Let's get going you two." Namkyu said while smiling.

"O-okay..." I said, blushing a bit.

What has gotten into you Jiyun. Snap out of it!

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