March 13, 2020, 11:00am.
Ding~
Ding~
Ding~
The bell for the second period rang for the High Schoolers. The halls were noisy as students chattered and made their way to their next class.
Normally students would remain in classrooms while teachers moved from class to class, but ISH was different as different rooms were built for various subjects that a class could use. The High School was quite big, not to mention the Middle School and Elementary campuses, so they could afford to do this. However, a teacher would have to book an open slot for their class in advance if they wanted to use those rooms.
Among the students in the noisy hall, the students from Class 1A were heading back to their class from the Science Lab. Upon entering the class, they saw Teacher Park casually sitting around the teacher's desk.
Jin-woo entered the room and when he saw Teacher Park he got the feeling the man had never left.
Teacher Park didn't take notice of Jin-woo, he simply stood up and spoke over the noisy classroom.
"Grab your gear and head to the Gymnasium, we'll have a small volleyball tournament for boys and girls."
A few students exclaimed in excitement when they heard that. For first years like them, depending on the P.E. teachers, they wouldn't be able to play a Sport in P.E. for the first couple of weeks in the semester and instead, the teacher would make them do some simple exercises. This was likely because the teacher couldn't be bothered.
However, it seemed Teacher Park was really cool. A few male students couldn't help but cup the sides of their mouths with their hands and hollered praises.
Teacher Park didn't bother reprimanding them and instead smiled and shook his head. This small action further convinced the students, especially the boys, that he was actually easygoing.
However, when a few boys requested soccer instead of volleyball, he immediately dismissed them by waving them away with his rolled-up attendance folder.
"I'll be heading to the Gymnasium; you guys hurry up."
Teacher Park said then tapped his shoulder with his attendance folder and walked out of the classroom. However, when he was passing through the door, he finally turned and cast a cold glance toward the figure at the back of the room.
As if sensing the intense gaze on his back, Jin-woo glanced behind him, however, he saw no one.
"AHH! What are you doing?!"
Just as Jin-woo was about to turn around to grab his drawstring bag, a sudden scream was heard. He turned and saw that it had come from one of the remaining girls in the class. One of the boys had decided to start changing right where he was. Jin-woo recognized the boy to be the youth who asked him all those questions about his schizophrenia.
The youth, who was still in his underwear, looked dumbfounded when the girl let out a scream. He then realized something, and he smiled awkwardly before saying.
"Sorry, I was in an all-male class for every semester in middle school so we would just change in class for P.E., but I forgot I wasn't in middle school anymore. I'm really sorry, haha."
The youth tried to awkwardly laugh off the situation, but the girl didn't respond, she had already turned to leave the room with a huff with the other female students.
A few of the male students let out peals of laughter at the youth's expense. Feeling embarrassed, the youth decided to just finish changing in a hurry.
"Haha, it's okay, I was in an all-male class a few times in middle school too, so I was about to change here but I stopped in time when I saw the girls."
One male student in the crowd said and a few echoed similar sentiments.
However, this didn't lessen the youth's embarrassment. However, he felt a bit better when a few male students decided to change here instead of the Gymnasium since all the girls had already left.
Jin-woo had already turned back to grab his drawstring bag. He was about to turn and rush out, however, he suddenly heard a weird sound coming from his backpack.
It was his phone.
The sound was a notification alert, but it sounded different from when a message came in. In fact, it was the first time he had heard this specific notification chime.
Jin-woo unzipped his backpack and took out his phone. His fingerprint unlocked it before he swiped down to see the notification bar.
There Jin-woo saw that the notification was from his home security app. However, the big words 'INTRUDER' within the message caused his heart to skip a beat. Without any hesitation, he clicked on the notification and his phone darkened for a second as it shifted to his home security app.
"Jin, what's up?"
Seong suddenly said from behind Jin-woo. However, he didn't get a response.
"Hm?"
Seong placed his hands on Jin-woo's shoulders and tiptoed to see over his shoulder at what he was looking at.
A video was playing out on Jin-woo's phone. His front door was kicked down before several men dressed in full military gear swarmed into his house with submachine guns.
Jin-woo's eyes involuntarily focused on the guns they were carrying and was shocked as well as baffled when he recognized them.
'Those are DK7 submachine guns... Why is the White Tiger Armed Forces raiding my house?'
The 'White Tiger' was a special group in the army that was mostly handpicked to execute urban counter-terrorism and quick-reaction missions.
Jin-woo wanted to continue observing them, however, as the men went from room to room searching around, the feed of the cameras in each room of the house was cut off as they were destroyed.
Jin-woo remained silent as he continually switched to different cameras one after another as they were destroyed. The last camera was in the living room. It was really high up, so it took a while for the intruders to destroy it, but eventually, they did.
However, during the last few seconds before this camera was destroyed, Jin-woo saw them kick down his mother's office door before coming out with her computer. At the corner of the camera, he also saw them enter his bathroom. It looked like they were carrying something as they came out, but that was when the camera was destroyed.
"Wha-What the fuck?"
Seong was so shocked by the scene he let out an involuntary curse.
Jin-woo, however, was oddly calm as he planned to rewatch the saved footage. However, a voice suddenly sounded from next to him.
"What kind of video are you watching?"
"Fuck!"
Seong let out another curse due to his surprise. Both he and Jin-woo immediately turned their heads to see that it was the youth from before.
How long had he been standing there?
Jin-woo was so focused on his phone that he hadn't noticed him. He also wasn't sure if the youth saw the videos.
"Nothing, just a random video."
Jin-woo said offhandedly before he placed the phone back into his bag.
The youth casually nodded, before he smiled and said.
"My name is Yoon-min. Oh, and this big guy here is Micah."
The youth called Yoon-min turned and pointed at the foreign youth called Micah.
Micah smiled and nodded at Jin-woo as he zipped up the school's light blue tracksuit jacket. Jin-woo returned the nod.
"Wait, why did you change into your winter P.E. gear?"
Yoon-min suddenly asked as he looked at the tracksuit Micah was wearing.
"Cause mate, the regular P.E. gear I bought from the school couldn't fit me."
"Then where did you get this P.E. gear?"
"I borrowed it from Sammy."
"Oh, right. Your cousin attended this school last year."
The two youths had switched to English during their conversation, though it seemed unintentional.
Jin-woo stood there silently as they talked. Seong meanwhile, was looking at Micah while trying to guess how tall he was.
As if realizing their switch in language, they turned to look at the silent Jin-woo. Perhaps thinking their language change when talking had put him off, Yoon-min apologized.
"Sorry about that, we do that too often."
"It's okay, I can speak English."
"Fluently?"
Micah asked, and Jin-woo nodded.
"Oh, cool."
Yoon-min said while Micah's eyes lit up slightly.
"Wait, Jin, tell them you can speak four languages! I bet they'll be mind-blown if you start speaking Mandarin. No, maybe say something in Japanese. Hurry, say that one famous line everyone knows from that popular anime!"
It took everything Jin-woo had not to turn and tell Seong to shut up.
"What are you waiting for? Hurry and change so we can go, everyone has already left."
Yoon-min said, but Jin-woo glanced across the classroom where a pair of eyes were watching him coldly. Like how a predator would watch its prey.