Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

…

In the epicentre of the classroom, stood two strangers- one in white, the other in red. Increased heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration. Adrenaline. Si-Eun had read about it in textbooks, but never had he felt it in its purest, most unadulterated form.

Eyes trained on the other boy, Si-Eun could feel his pulse in his throat as he reached for the nearest chair and-

“What is going on here!”

The students parted, revealing Miss Choi Ji-Yeon, hands on her hips, her expression disbelieving. In hindsight, it was a damning scene for her top student to get caught in- chair in hand, poised to strike. Young-bin, collapsed nearby, his face bloodied.

A pause. The one in red then launched in to defend himself, I was only trying to stop my classmates from fighting, his voice loud and self-assured. Si-Eun gazed upon him, incredulous. The boy turned to him.

“Apologise to the teacher.”

I don’t even know who you are.

“Now!”

You don’t even know who I am.

He turned the thought over and over in his mind like an animal on a spit. Scanning the sea of nameless faces, the classroom seeming to cave in on him, Yeon Si-Eun could only think one thing.

None of you know who I am.

…

Back then, Ahn Su-Ho hadn’t known who he was yet- he still didn’t, really- but it was just basic human decency. If people don’t respect others, they will be disrespected in turn- such was the way of life. Karma always catches up eventually.

The same could not have been said for some of Su-Ho’s classmates.

One stood out from the rest- a pristine white shirt amongst the black PE uniforms, lagging behind the mass of kids running along the track at dead last, looking just seconds away from cardiac arrest. Laughter, loud and ugly, erupted on Su-Ho’s right. He clicked his tongue.

Su-Ho wasn’t particularly bothered by things he didn’t directly see happen. He’d slept through earthquakes, and he’d probably do it again. But when he just so happened to be awake and conscious, Su-Ho did what he could. The natural order of the universe would deliver the consequences of a person’s actions eventually- he just liked to speed up that process.

Young-Bin’s lackeys laughed loudly, unbothered by who noticed what they were doing. One of them shouted, drawing the others’ attention (and inadvertently Su-Ho’s) to a piss-poor imitation of the guy in last place. With his arms extended in front of him, he stumbled blindly for a second before falling out of the act and into hysterics,

“He runs like a fucking zombie! That freak, he might as well be one,” he said, prompting another round of laughter. Su-Ho dubbed him as Lackey A.

Looking around, he heaved a sigh. Seems that karma is a bit late today.

Su-Ho leaned down to thumb off his shoe with relative ease before chucking it at the guy still lumbering around in the dirt. It bounced off his head (Su-Ho could have sworn he heard a hollow sound) and rolled to a stop. Young-Bin’s slow turn to face him was almost comical, but Su-Ho paid him no mind.

“Bring it here,” He said, deadpan.

It remained silent for another thirty seconds. Thirty seconds too long, Su-Ho thought. Eventually, when one of them brought it over, he looked up at the kid. Lackey A, maybe? He was bad with faces.

“What’s your name?” Su-Ho asked idly.

His answer went in one ear and out the other instantaneously. Su-Ho let his eyes linger on his shoe as he took it back, thanking him briskly before tugging it back on.

“He’s not worth fighting,” Su-Ho overheard them say. He scoffed, averting his gaze.

What he would give to be asleep right now.

…

Now trailing gracelessly behind his teacher through the halls of Jungjin Seoul Hospital, Yeon Si-Eun tried not to stumble under the weight of two backpacks.

“Yes, I’ll try talking her into it.”

His teacher’s voice cut through the stagnant silence of the evening.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get back to you.”

The principal perhaps? Si-Eun mulled over the possibility as Miss Choi tucked her phone back into her bag. It wouldn’t be far off. In school, they were often seen walking in tandem, all gullible smiles and idle chit-chat with parents. Anything to keep the school’s reputation afloat, he supposed.

They came to a halt all too quickly after turning a sharp corner. Hearing muffled voices behind the door, Miss Choi straightened her back, stiff as a board. Then, with her eyes straight ahead,

“You’ve got a lot to explain for yourself this time.”

With a tilt of his head, Si-Eun noted that she had no trouble holding eye contact with him beforehand when she had presented him with the maths award. Miss Choi opened the Perplexing. Si-Eun recalled how she had never experienced any trouble holding eye contact with him before when she had pronounced him the top student of their year, when she had presented him the maths award. Do people really sway so quickly? Regardless, Miss Choi opened the door.

“- and as we can see here, the blood test showed normal levels of cholesterol and glucose… However, we did find traces of a, uh, substance called haematotoxin, i-in considerably high concentrations too. I’d strongly advise against touching the wound if you could, young man.” The doctor’s words seemed to go unheeded as all attention was diverted to the two people at the door. The doctor startled at the sight of them.

“Ah- it seems that you have guests. Well, I’ll leave you all to it,” he said, ducking his head before promptly leaving with a sort of urgency that seemed out of place at this hour.

As he scuttled past, Si-Eun took note of the biopsy report, covered in yellow highlights, fastened on a clipboard held tight to the doctor’s chest.

As the two stepped into the hospital room, his eyes met with Young-Bin’s own. He gazed downwards, noting the new nose cast. Si-Eun tried to keep his face passive.

No matter how many times he had tried to recall the exact events that led to their altercation, Si-Eun could only make out the colour red in his mind. Red, blooming across a canvas of white, like sped-up footage of a red spider lily unfurling its petals, Lycoris Radiata, each stamen creeping skyward until the red pools and pools and Si-Eun can’t stop, can’t stop, until-

“Where is your mother?” a voice interrupted- Young-Bin’s mother- from the other side of the bed, “I have nothing to say to the likes of you.”

“I don’t have a mother.”

Si-Eun heard a scoff.

“Unbelievable. If you keep this up, I’ll see that you go to juvenile detention, got it?” She squawked.

Si-Eun pondered the irony of what she just said, how oblivious she was to it. Forgoing words entirely, he fisted his hand from his pocket and opened his palm to reveal a patch, smaller than the pad of his finger and slightly translucent. He heard the bedsheets rustle as Young-Bin undoubtedly recognised the unassuming material he held.

“Today, he made another boy put this on my neck.”

Her arms still crossed, Young-Bin’s mother flicked her gaze downwards. Si-Eun observed the knit of her eyebrows. “What is that?”

“That’s-”

“Narcotics,” Si-Eun answered curtly, cutting short his teacher’s fumbled explanation.

“Do you have proof? Can you prove that I did that?” Young-Bin provoked. Si-Eun took him up on the challenge.

“Do you still not understand the situation?” Si-Eun said, with all the patience of a kindergarten teacher reprimanding a toddler, as he quickly took off the second bag on his shoulder.

“This is your bag, isn’t it,” He didn’t pose it as a question.

Hastily, he unzipped the bag and over-turned it, emptying out its contents on the duvet. And there, clear as day, Fentanyl Transdermal Patches, 100mcg/h. The box seemed to burn a hole through the blanket as all eyes on the room took in its damning presence.

Silence rang as all in the room turned towards the bed, left waiting for Young-bin to speak.

With a detached interest, Si-Eun observed his teacher’s bewildered expression; Young-Bin’s mother, who in turn, faced her son, waiting.

To Young-Bin’s credit, he didn’t try to defend himself further. His eyes cast downward onto the box that had laid waste to his future, staring blankly even when frantic questions came at him from either side of the bed, his frame shaking with something restrained.

When Si-Eun’s boredom increased tenfold, he wasted no time in excusing himself. Sitting in the hallway of the desolate hospital, he sighed in frustration.

Another day of revision wasted.

…

The doctor had left when he saw another two people enter his patient’s room. Call it patient confidentiality, call it cowardice. It made no difference- that boy had to be monitored- which he promptly relaid to his colleague.

“I’ve never seen that toxin in… in such high concentration while the, um, subject was still conscious and autonomous.”

His colleague laid a hand on his shoulder, a gesture he knew was meant to be comforting. It wasn’t. The doctor adjusted his ring, gaze darting uneasily between it and his colleagues face.

“We thought all of the people that had been trialled with that- never mind. I-I want another blood test done. If we can determine with certainty that he is under no risk, then we can discharge him. But until that point, keep him confined to his bed.”

His colleague nodded slowly in acknowledgement, muttering an I’ll see what I can do, before striding off.

As if by clockwork, or some sick cue, the doctor heard raised voices from the room he had just come out of. He sighed, as he turned, hearing the tail end of ‘-on’t touch me!’ that prompted him to quicken his pace towards the room, to placate the situation, if anything else.

As he approached the door, he passed someone- a high school kid- sitting idly in a chair nearby, who seemed to be half-watching some kind of YouTube video, half-listening in on the exchange happening inside of the room.

Not that the doctor paid him much mind.

…

Su-Ho often found himself contemplating the day's events on his motorcycle rides in between deliveries. He found solace in the quiet he only often got when he was asleep; no one to disrupt his musing, only him and his own thoughts. Although-

“Who do you think you are?”

That kid. There was just something about him that made Su-Ho want to wake back up, get to know him, test his limits, crack that poker face of his. Si-Eun had only recently landed on his radar, yet he had managed to flip the class on its head, so to speak.

For as long as he could remember, the undisputed ‘top dog’ of the class was Young-Bin, and Su-Ho couldn’t have cared less if they let him nap in peace. But now…

He slowed to a stop at a traffic light, shaking his head slightly to clear his thoughts. He took a sharp inhale and exhaled slowly, looking around- Su-Ho grinned.

Speak of the devil.

In the lane over, a bus had stopped next to him, and, lo and behold, Si-Eun was there, staring blankly into the distance.

Without thinking, Su-Ho honked his horn obnoxiously, then started waving frantically when Si-Eun seemed to start out of a daydream and looked out the window. Su-Ho could have sworn he saw just the faintest hint of surprise in his gaze as he pulled the window open, looking sheepishly around the bus at the other passengers as he did so.

“Hey, what are you doing there?” Su-Ho piped up, “Maybe we were a married couple in our past lives.”

Before Si-Eun could refute, he carried on, smiling, “Where are you off to?”

“-Ome” Came the reply, inaudible.

“What? I can’t hear you.”

Si-Eun gave him an unimpressed stare before shooting one final look around and opening the window some more.

“I’m going home.”

“Oh- From cram school?” Su-Ho questioned again.

In lieu of responding to the question, Si-Eun seemed to contemplate something for a moment. Su-Ho waited. Then,

“I’m sorry about yesterday.”

Su-Ho’s eyebrows shot up.

“Ah- All of a sudden?” he replied, partly to himself- Si-Eun was just full of surprises. Unable to resist a smile, he continued,

“If you’re really sorry, treat me to a meal sometime,” The light turned yellow. Su-Ho cursed silently- couldn’t it have waited a bit longer? He waved and smiled brightly, which Si-Eun did not return, instead opting to offer his own smaller wave before moving to closing the window.

Just before Su-Ho revved his engine, he threw up a two finger heart as an afterthought- he didn’t know if he meant it to be funny, or affectionate, but he decided not to think too hard about it. Su-Ho began driving once more, thoughts just slightly less chaotic than before.

…

“Yes, I’ll take care of it.”

Choi Ji-Yeon ended the call and re-entered the school building at- she checked her phone- well past midnight. She sighed in resignation as she stepped into her classroom, then to the back of it, before stopping in front of the window. The bloodied curtain seemed to stare back at her.

Now that the cat was out of the bag- or at least partially- back at the hospital, her top student’s violent outburst did not seem that unwarranted, though she would never quite forget that look on his face- the darting eyes of a cornered animal. Fentanyl… Ji-Yeon caught herself furrowing her brow at the thought before relaxing- she was getting enough wrinkles from this job already. Should I have known?

Young-Bin… Ji-Yeon smoothes over the space between her brows. She only knew him as the runner-up, second or third to Si-Eun, always. Cocksure in his achievements, no matter how trivial they may be, confident, laid-back, not…

“Please! Don’t make me transfer- I can’t-”

“Don’t touch me!”

Ji-Yeon winced at the memory, the phantom pain of his nails clawing down from the crook of her elbow to her palm as he clung onto her, drawing blood with a strength she had only seen directed at other students. She had caught glimpses of his fights, but reasoned to herself that breaking apart petty high school squabbles was not part of her job description. So, Ji-Yeon opted to look away.

Much to her dismay, however, this evening had seen to the full display of his destructive nature. Once Si-Eun had left the hospital room, Young-Bin had broken down. Shocked, affronted that his actions would have such drastic consequences, he begged her in desperation to let it slide, to not ruin his chance at going to university, to the point where he had grabbed her, don’t do it, Miss, please don’t, grip ironclad even as she began to pull away-

Ji-Yeon got the curtain down with practised ease, then draped it over her good arm, taking care not to touch the bloodstain. She made her way to the back of the school building- not without stumbling in the dark- to put the curtain straight into the industrial waste bin, where neither student nor parent would see it.

This is way out of my pay grade.

Newly embittered, Ji-Yeon trekked the tumultuous ground behind the school building, the curtain dragging behind her. It had proven itself to be heavier than she had first thought as she began hauling it over the edge of the bin.

As she fed the rest of the curtain inside, she felt something sticky on her palm, a sharp sting where her new scratches were. Her hand jerked away. She looked back at the fabric. It was saturated with blood- Young-Bin’s blood. So much for not touching that shit. Resisting a full-body shiver, she hastily dumped the rest of the curtain into the bin. 

Later, in the staff bathroom, Ji-Yeon gingerly rubbed away at the blood. Looking up into the mirror, she tutted at the sight of her deepening smile lines before turning back to her bloodstained hand.

Under the clear running water, she could see the blue edges of the scratch Young-Bin had left on her arm.

… Blue?

A sudden wave of nausea washed over her, she stumbled, unable to keep her footing. She swayed, pendulum-like, before falling, falling, falling.

The last thing she registered was the cold ceramic against her forehead, and before she knew it, Choi Ji-Yeon was out cold.

…

Chapter Text

…

It was only when the first bell that signified the beginning of break tolled, that Choi Ji-Yeon was discovered- or, well, the body. The onlooking teachers all staggered back, overwhelmed by the sight of that thing writhing violently on the floor, contorting and grappling at anything it could get a grip on, countertop or human flesh. It wasn’t dead, but it wasn't alive; stuck in a cruel imitation of purgatory where something in there wanted so badly to die, to be relieved of this suffering, but another, stronger force would just not let it do so in peace- and it seemed that battle was not yet over.

Choi Ji-Yeon convulsed on the floor, spittle bubbling out of her mouth. Her body writhed this way and that, revealing long gashes of blue up her torso dug by her nails. Where once she would have been described as attractive, this was where someone had to stop and question whether she was even human- or if she ever once was. Froth spilled from the sides of her mouth, or what was left of it. Her scratching must have redirected to her face at some point- her smile line was now beyond repair, a visceral rip beginning at the corner of her lips extended halfway up her left cheek, exposing her gums. Bits of flesh flapped about with only tendrils of muscle to tether to her face as she thrashed, her movements erratic. Her eyes remained glossed over, unseeing even as they rolled around her skull.

Outside stimuli seemed to only provoke her further, growls rupturing from her with further vigour as her arms grappled violently for the source, teeth gnashing. Many teachers who witnessed the scene were sent home, but not without a firm warning that none of this event should come out, and if there was even a whisper about some strange incident at the school, it would be their career on the line. 

It was in everyone's best interest for the situation to be handled covertly, for everyone's peace of mind. This task was relegated to the school nurse. Choi Ji-Yeon only got louder the further she was moved, in spite of the nurse’s attempts to console the teacher. She, distraught, eventually tried to hold Ji-Yeon’s jaw closed, if anything to salvage the mess of skin and gore that was the left side of her face. Her arms had immediately shot up to pry the nurse’s away, tearing at the flesh and leaving behind on her skin angry red marks where blood started to well. 

The first responders that came to pick her up looked equally lost for words, baffled by the blue substance that had begun leaking from almost every extremity of their patient. They had asked the nurse if her own wounds needed looking to, but once she had declined, paid her little to no attention as they started talking to each other in hushed tones, running to get an IV while someone else went to get a sterilised needle to try and close the worst of the wounds. With shaking hands, the nurse tended to her own injury.

The entire event had lasted all of half an hour, but even as she was carted off in an ambulance, the feeling of unease remained. Over the course of the day, none of the staff would express this- they couldn’t; they had a school to clean up, a reputation to maintain, and as coldly as the principal put it- there was a replacement for everyone.

Those words did little to console the nurse as waves of nausea rippled over her, fingers working frantically to undress her injury- to expose the offending wound, no longer red.

…

Si-Eun walked over to the back of the classroom, taking note of the heap that was Su-Ho, asleep with a pink pillow cushioning his head. He had spent a considerable amount of time wondering if he should, and if so, how he could apologise to his classmate. Now, Si-Eun could recognize that he was only trying to help, and had probably saved him a whole lot more trouble if he hadn’t stopped him from caving in Young-Bin’s face in front of a teacher- so much so that, thanks to Su-Ho’s intercepting, Si-Eun found himself getting off scot-free for the most part, though, as he slowly found, his image certainly took a blow.

So, yes, he did feel a bit more at ease when Su-Ho essentially offered to start fresh last time they crossed paths. Si-Eun didn’t know exactly how far he planned to take their relationship past lunch, didn’t know why he wasn’t thinking ahead with this, just like anything else in his life, scheduled and sectioned off. All Si-Eun knew was that some part of him felt some emotion he couldn’t put name to when confronted with the fact that maybe he was indebted to Su-Ho in some way. Irked? Chagrined? Guilty?

An entirely different issue arose once he arrived at Su-Ho’s desk- namely, how to wake his classmate up. His first instinct was to hit him over the head, but that had decidedly not gone well last time; this was supposed to be a fresh start, was it not? Talking and coaxing him into consciousness would be awkward, and frankly, out of the question for a pragmatist like Si-Eun. Chewing at his lip, he settled on a compromise.

With a firm poke to his shoulder, Su-Ho jolted awake, looking around with hazy eyes before slumping back into his chair. He squinted at Si-Eun's figure as he put his head back down on his pink plushy.

“What?”

Si-Eun stared blankly at Su-Ho, wondering if he had really been sleeping the entire lesson- did he really not care about his studies?

“It’s lunchtime.” He replied blandly.

“Right, it’s okay- I’m not hungry,” Su-Ho said, matching the other’s energy before turning his head around to face the other way. Si-Eun heaved a sigh.

“It’s my treat.” 

Those words seemed to spur the boy into wakefulness, his head turning almost instantaneously to look the other in the eye. Si-Eun considered the mixture of indignation and shock on Su-Ho’s face. Maybe his peer was surprised that he even remembered their interaction at the traffic light- that random, inconsequential interaction. It wouldn’t be out of the question, Si-Eun was surprised at himself too.

“What’s that look on your face, huh? I’m not hungry.” 

Si-Eun should have taken that as a sign to walk away. If it were anyone else, he would have just walked away; Si-Eun was used to relenting, to giving way. But given his most recent history, maybe the appearance of this stubborn boy in front of him was the mark of a fresh start.

…

Once the two were sat down, Su-Ho looked at Si-Eun, equal parts annoyed and thrilled that the antisocial kid was capable of pestering him into getting lunch together. Slumped in his chair, Su-Ho regarded his lunchtray, filled with the school’s meal of the day, before looking back up at Si-Eun. The kid was picking at his food, paying no mind to Su-Ho’s existence. A strange feeling bubbled up inside his chest.

“I wasn’t expecting much, but I can pay for my own food.” Su-Ho began, testing the waters.

“Don’t eat it then,” came the reply, almost petulant. This guy. 

“Thanks for lunch.” Su-Ho replied plainly, quickly picking up a spoon and shovelling the lukewarm rice into his mouth. Si-Eun looked at him, evidently unimpressed with his table etiquette, if his grimace was anything to go by. The food was subpar at best, but he wasn’t expecting anything more. The rice was mushier than usual, and the meat was edging on cold- nothing noteworthy at all, but the feeling in his chest was new. Airy, lighter than it had been in a while.

“Hey,” Sieun started. “Why do you sleep at school?”

“Ah- I come straight here after my shift,” he replied through a mouthful of rice. Upon receiving Si-Eun’s questioning look, Su-Ho added: “I might not wake up if I sleep at home.”

“My grandma told me to graduate with full attendance, even if I don’t wanna go to college.” Su-Ho ducked his head after his little confession, sheepish, returning his attention to his food. Still, he felt Si-Eun’s round gaze on him, considering.

The rest of their lunch together passed reasonably uneventfully, the two both hunched over their separate trays for all of five minutes before Su-Ho decided to bite the bullet and ask a question himself.

“You like listening to music? You’ve always got your earphones in.” Si-Eun looked up at Su-Ho for a second before averting his gaze, his eyes wide.

“Like an arrogant prick,” Su-Ho added.

“No, I just keep them in so people know not to talk to me,” Si-Eun responded, like an arrogant prick. This time, Su-Ho couldn’t keep his half-scoff, half-laugh in. This was the kind of behaviour he'd complained about to his grandma when she brought up the contentious topic of friends at school- contentious in that he didn't have any. Su-Ho looked at the boy sitting across from him, then the food in between them, then back at Si-Eun. He wondered briefly if it was too early- or presumptuous- to consider the two friends; a selfish part of him hoped not. It only got more persistent with every wisecrack his new friend gave him. Regardless, at this point in time, there was one thing he was sure of:

“You’re a weirdo, you know that?” he said, eyes creasing slightly in half-annoyance, half-amusement. Si-Eun looked up, the fluorescent light of the cafeteria reflected in his eyes. Like glass, Su-Ho thought before his gaze fell.

“Speak for yourself,” he bit back, to which Su-Ho raised his arm, poised with an accusing chopstick in his direction, ready to make a thoughtless retort-

Screams, then the sound of the cafeteria doors slamming open, then shut, interrupted him. 

He was out of his seat in a matter of seconds, alongside Si-Eun, who quickly rounded the table to stand behind Su-Ho. They both scanned the room. There was a small crowd of students who had swarmed into the cafeteria- the source of the noise- with four or five of which were pressed up against the door, yelling for others to barricade the cafeteria entrance. The others had collapsed onto the ground, dry-heaving. Su-Ho took an involuntary step back at the scene.

He watched in slight trepidation as one of the students blocking the door seemed to sway, then crumpled onto the floor- leaving a smear of wet blood where his shoulder had been pressed into the wall, now dripping in fat, heavy droplets. At the sight of fresh blood, the student body froze.

Steeling himself, Su-Ho took a step towards the group, even as the people who were on the floor scrambled to distance themselves. He walked up to the closest student, hauling him up by the collar.

“What's going on? Hm?” he prompted, dusting the student off roughly. He was shaking like a leaf and barely able to support his own weight, but he turned to face Su-Ho, eyes watery and face dripping with snot. They pointed slowly to the door, and with a quivering voice, all but whispered,

“We’re all g-gonna die.”

As if on cue, the student on the floor began convulsing, their bodies wracked with spasms as the sickening sound of crunching bone and snapping tendon rang through the otherwise deathly silent canteen. It was only when that student got up, a ripple in still water, lurched towards someone and buried his teeth in the flesh of their neck that all hell broke loose. Su-Ho let go of the student’s scruff and staggered back, then belatedly realising that Si-Eun was still behind him, having apparently followed him up earlier. Shit. The individual screams quickly devolved into gurgles of pain, even as they desperately grappled with the student to get him off. 

The students barricading the doors abandoned post instantly, scrambling over tables, knocking over trays and utensils. As they did so, there was a slam on the doors, which gave way easily without their support, allowing even more bloodied students to charge inside the cafeteria in a red mass.

At the sound of fracturing bone, Su-Ho’s head whipped around to see the others who had been attacked by the first student convulse on the floor- just as he had previously- before stumbling back up and lunging at the nearest student. Frantic, he turned to where Si-Eun had been just seconds prior, only to find no one there. Cursing under his breath, Su-Ho realised that he had lost him in the sea of bodies.

It was only when one of these things turned its sights on Su-Ho that he acted. Snapping out of his daze, he dodged easily, returning with a punch that sent it sprawling. He zoned in on his surroundings, discarding anything that wasn’t actively attacking him- the next thing that charged at Su-Ho was neatly side stepped, he planted his hand on the person's nape and slammed them forward, the front of their neck colliding with the top of a chair, and audible crack rang in his ears- whether from the chair or their Adam’s apple, he didn’t know. Su-Ho didn’t allow himself to dwell, even as a slight pit of guilt formed in his stomach.

Whatever had happened to these students, well, it was stopping them from employing almost basic motor reflexes- sure, he shoved them on purpose, but they should at least have been able to brace their fall, if not catch themselves. 

The students kept coming, and Su-Ho in turn continued to evade them, kicking away any he couldn’t avoid. It was only when a group of three or four students swarmed him that he made the choice to start fighting back- as one charged, he dodged, allowing it to go crashing into the table, using the momentum of his step to swing round, hitting the second student squarely in the chest. He regained a proper stance, turning to the third and fourth students- just as a fifth rammed into his back, sending him sprawling onto the nearest table.

Using his hands to catch himself, he flipped over, placing a right arm against the student’s neck to prevent him from biting down as he had seen earlier. The initial shock of the impact ripped a strangled shout from his mouth, and much to Su-Ho’s dismay, the two students he had yet to knock away piled on top of the one already on top of him. 

He strained against the weight of the three students with his arm, fear bubbling in his chest as their arms reached out, blunt nails scraping across his jacket, gripping, ripping, pulling at the material- and their faces, god, their faces; bloodstained teeth with small chunks of gore hanging from them, and the blood- an odd shade of purple dribbling from wounds both big and small, the stench of blood permeating his nose due to the close proximity.

Su-Ho laid frozen for a few seconds, panic gripping his body, screaming at him to move- to do something- he knew he couldn’t hold the weight of three students up and away from him- his free hand clawing on the surface of the table as he could hear the material on his jacket straining as their nails scraped, the skin on his arm unbroken but abraded- when his left hand latched onto a lone metal chopstick laying on the table not far from him.

A mixture of his strength and adrenaline allowed Su-Ho to surge forward, pushing the two students to either side of him and the last sprawling into the ground a good few metres away from him before he whipped round to his left, punching one zombie, now uncaring and not pulling any of his punches, and immediately rotating to bury the chopstick in the other.

In a stroke of luck, the chopstick found its mark in the student’s eye- which gave with little force, much to Su-Ho’s horror. A clear, salty substance as well as the purple blood burst forth from the student’s eye as it stumbled back from the blow, coating Su-Ho’s face and clothing. The student screeched and growled in a way that seemed subhuman, even as Su-Ho himself stumbled back, hands shaking and eyes unable to tear away from where the metal rod now lay embedded in the eye of the student. 

He didn’t allow himself to ponder the situation, forcing himself to turn away and run towards a smashed window, watching as bloodied students ran out, screaming, followed by more of those... things. All Su-Ho could do was run, adrenaline and pure fear spurring him on as he rounded the corner of the outside of the cafeteria.

He came to a stop some distance later, along the back wall of the main school building, the silence interrupted from distant screaming. It took all of Su-Ho not to collapse right then and there, instead slumping against the wall, dragging his hands against his face as he felt his eyes welling up with tears. Despite his best efforts, the droplets fell faster, the dam all but broken after the first tear had fallen. He tried to wipe them away, still unable to process, or actualise what had just happened. Those people- they had been killing each other- he had- he had stabbed someone- he might have killed them- god, what the fuck was happening-

Su-Ho ducked just as the window above him burst open, two figures tumbling out, one seemed to be a student, another a teacher- in fact one of them was speaking, no, screaming-

“Help, please! Somebody, anybody!”

More sounds of struggle, then they both crashed onto the floor headfirst, a sickening crunch resonating through the still air, and Su-Ho could only look on in horror at the two, necks bent at an odd angle, in fact, he was pretty sure he could see the bone-

Nausea rippled over Su-Ho, forcing him to double over, retching and throwing up. Wave after wave rolled over him, god, he couldn’t breathe-

He fell to his knees, coughing violently, but forcing himself to stand as soon as possible, wiping his face, even as tears continued to well. With a hand to the wall for support, he stumbled away from the gruesome scene, unable to continue looking at the bodies.

What the hell was going on?

…