Empress Handbook

Chapter Two | Monsters Inside

Song Gyowool follows Yeoreum into the school through a passageway under the auditorium. He gasps as he examines the rusty walls.

"Oh my god! How did you find this place, Noona?" Gyowool exclaims. "It looks like you can get murdered by a psycho here."

This forgotten passageway was a storage place for the Physical Education Department before their actual storage room was built. When Yeoreum was in high school, it was packed with sporting equipment lying around the place. However, it is nearly all empty now, with only a couple of old musical instruments scattered across the white vinyl floor.

"I always studied down here." Yeoreum laughs. "It's a nice, discreet study location."

"I guess you see life differently when you only have the names of every human bone in your brain," Gyowool teases.

Gyowool's overly baggy school uniform triggers an ineffable bitterness to clench Yeoreum's heart. Their father insisted on purchasing him the biggest size available so the uniform would be ready for any of his crazy teenage growth spurts. Yeoreum wanted to refute him, but she didn't have enough savings to gather those words.

Yeoreum lowers her head, and the roughly sewed patches on his black pants capture her attention. "Gyowool, are you still doing shifts at the convenience store?" she says, trying her best to suppress the anger in her voice.

Gyowool quickly clutches her. "Noona, I—"

"I don't need any of your excuses, Song Gyowool. I want you to know that you should be using your time to prepare for your College Scholastic Ability Test, not stocking up the aisles of the local convenience store. I appreciate how understanding you are, but I can keep a roof over our family and deliver our family food and warmth now. You can ask me to buy things and give up on part-time jobs. Please, trust me and rely on me."

Gyowool awkwardly grips the broad black straps of his threadbare backpack. His lips thin into a grim line.

"I get it. I will quit my job as soon as possible, Noona." Gyowool boyishly clings to Yeoreum's arm with a playful smile. "But is it really okay for the future Empress to drop me off at school? I feel like I'm going to be a celebrity as well."

Yeoreum tugs her lips. "Our family has always been quite lonely. Try and enjoy the attention while people still like me."

Suddenly, Yeoreum's phone emits an alarming melody, drawing her attention to an alarm she had set.

"Oh my God, I should do my withdrawal paperwork now. Bye, Gyowool. Have a good day, and call me if you need anything."

Yeoreum sprints out of the exit with the hood of her oversized blue hoodie slipping from her head at her hurried footsteps, allowing her mid-shoulder-length hair to flutter at the soft breeze. From the back, she still looks like the Yeoreum Noona who darted through heavy traffic to stand up for him against the neighbourhood bullies like a bunny with a temper tantrum. Yeoreum was persuasive, but her overly delicate features just naturally made people believe that she was the one who needed to be stood up for, even though that was never the case.

"Noona...fighting."

Gyowool smiles as the door slams shut. His eyes naturally fall on the steel doorknob stained with blood a couple of hours ago. The amount of autonomy humans have is odd. He can coat that doorknob with someone's blood, but he can also make it seem as clean as if a bottle of bleach had been accidentally spilt over it. It's quite fascinating.

Yeoreum's voice rings in his mind as Gyowool ambles to a deserted corner of the cold passageway. Gyowool's heavy footsteps echo through the walls coated in an unsettling hue of sterilised white. The colour almost stings his eyes. Yeoreum surely would have noticed his secret world if he didn't prepone her alarm.