"Have you heard?"
"Heard what?"
"Remember the girl from class four? When she was going home late after evening study, she went missing? Well, they just found her! Dead! Behind the school's back gates where the trash is thrown."
Two girls, one blonde and the other a brunette, were deeply gossiping under the cover of their textbooks when suddenly the book was pulled down.
The teacher smacked her folder in the center of the two.
"Girls. Didn't I already say? No talking during class time. This is your final warning. Do you understand?"
They smiled up sheepishly and nodded.
"Yes, Miss. Somi."
"Good, now can anyone answer the question on the board?" Miss. Somi walked down the aisle and turned to look at the seat closest to the window. "Chana?"
Chan bowed her head lower before mumbling a yes and stood.
"The answer is- is…"
Underneath all the gazes, it suddenly felt hard to breathe. Chana's hands trembled slightly, but this much was okay as Miss. Somi often called on her to answer.
"The answer is x = 6."
"Good job, Chana. Does anyone have any questions about how she reached that conclusion?"
Sitting down, she suddenly felt a light tap on her back. She turned to face a wrapped candy. Nodding slightly in appreciation, she stuffed it into her mouth, letting the sweet strawberry flavor melt her weariness down.
"Don't hesitate to ask; this will be your last chance before your evening self-studies begin."
Miss. Somi asked again, and a couple of students raised their hands. Miss. Somi patiently answered all of them before dismissing the class.
"Shit! It's getting so late, what do we do?! What if we become the next victim?!"
The girls were instantly sent into a frenzied state. They had just transferred from overseas and caught wind of what happened in A High School. Compared to them, the rest of the class wasn't panicked. Packing their bags and going about their usual evening routine. This could partly be because A High School is infamous for being a school full of delinquents where infighting and bullying were common practices.
For Chana, however, this school was just a place full of top elites who wore well-practiced disguises. After all no news ever reached beyond the school gates. So only those who get enrolled find out about all the drama when they take their first steps inside. By then it's already too late to transfer.
When Chana first enrolled three months ago she had a similar reaction to the transfer students so she had felt some empathy for them. Though as a first-year student herself there wasn't anything one can do about it. So she had chosen to just accept it and prayed to stay unnoticed. Just like that three months had gone by swiftly and she was gonna keep it that way.
Chana quietly packed her things and stood to leave, but before she could a hand had grabbed her shoulder bag. Pulling her to sit down again.
"What's the rush? Come study with me for a little more. Our quiz is tomorrow and I'm still confused about some of these questions."
A girl with short black hair beamed up at her. The same one who had given her that strawberry candy earlier.
"Minh."
"?"
Minh could see her confused face and laughed. "That's my name! We also met during orientation remember? I gave you candy at that time too. How could you have forgotten me this quick?"
"Oh…."
Chana could vaguely recall panicking during orientation due to the overcrowding. She had gotten up from her seat feeling very sick and her face going pale before a hand reached out with candy. At the time the sweetness had helped calm her down, but to be honest it was all a blur as Chana had simply wanted to go home quickly so she barely had any recollection of what happened after.
"..."
Chana stared blankly at her.
"Haha, alright so it happens! That's fine! We can always reintroduce ourselves." Minh unperturbed by Chana's awkwardness salvaged the dwindling conversation. She held her hand out.
"My name is Minh. Please remember it from now on and I hope we can get along well."
Chana nodded and softly replied and affirmation.
"Now that we settled that, can you please help me with this part of the problem?"
"Sure, which part?"
Minh pointed to part A of the problem. Chana looked down at the trigonometric functions and turned her seat so they were now facing each other. She pulled out a notebook and pencil and began patiently explaining.
After thirty or so minutes Minh belatedly expressed her thanks. "Thank you so much for the help I feel now I can ace the quiz tomorrow! You explain things very clearly and your notes are so pretty!"
"Thank you." Chana smiled.
Minh looked at her smiling for the first time and commented.
"You know I don't think I've ever seen you smile a lot. I guess it's because of all the rumors going around."
Chana blinked.
"...No. It isn't because of that."
"Really?"
Surprised Minh began grabbing her things and stood up.
"I mean even now I feel uneasy walking home alone so late. And not to mention it's gonna get colder soon as we approach winter."
"You don't live in the dorms?"
Chana questioned. It was unusual for anyone attending this school to commute instead of living in the dorms.
"My house isn't that far and you know how expensive getting a dorm is."
Chana hummed her assent.
"Oh! I had a great idea how about we walk together?"
Minh clapped her hands together and began pulling at Chana, leaving her no room for objections. Together they left the campus grounds.
Outside was very dark with only some street lights illuminating the walkside with an orange glow. As they walked, Chana realized she had left something in the classroom.
"Wait. I think I left my notes on my desk."
"Oh! I'm so sorry I pulled you so quickly. You probably didn't have time to check if you got everything."
"No, it's alright. I'll be heading back now then."
Chana fiddled the end of her blazer.
"And…be safe."
Minh looked back with an expression of awe.
"Are you worried about me? Don't worry my house is just up front thank you so much for walking with me. See you at school tomorrow!"
Chana smiled back before heading back to the school gates. She was a little nervous to walk back alone. She usually never goes outside past ten. However, it seemed this wasn't the only unusual thing about her routine tonight.
THWACK.
A loud sound could be heard on Chana's left. It seemed to be coming from one of the alleys she had just passed.
Startled, Chana started to walk faster. She wasn't curious at all about what happened. She simply just wanted to go back and resume her usual nightly routine of taking a shower at ten and then doing homework for the rest of the night.
"Hey! You! In the uniform! Please-hel-HELP!!"
THWACK
A rough voice screamed at her for help followed by another loud noise. Almost like the noise produced when you swing a metal bat at someone. Chana dared not look back and started to sprint. She forgot all her thoughts about homework and just kept running straight. She had no idea where she was running but her fear clouded her mind and before she knew it she had run into an alley.
Why was this happening? Chana could not comprehend her situation at all. She was more naive than anything. Normally one would call the police after an ordeal like that or even turn back to at least see what the situation was and who needed help, but not Chana. Chana was just too timid. She panted heavily and glanced around. She had run into a dead end.
Now what? Luckily it seemed she had run far enough from the commotion so she opted to just catch her breath before figuring out how to get back to the dorms. She looked behind her to a crossroad path. At a loss at how to proceed, Chana could only dumbly blank out.
Suddenly footsteps could be heard steadily approaching from the left, making her snap to her senses. She had to think fast now that her fear had subsided a little. Who was coming? Could it possibly be that guy screaming for help earlier? Or even worse the one who was attacking him? So many questions were scrambling to be answered, but there was no time to waste. Chana finally got a grip on herself and decided to just run to the rightward path.
Whilst running she lost her footing and slipped falling into a puddle. Or Chana had thought it was a puddle but upon closer look, it was sticky and…
"Red…!"
The air around Chana dropped in temperature and she couldn't focus her eyes anymore.
"Who are you?"
A voice emerged from right above her making Chana go taunt with fear. She couldn't move. Everything around her was closing in on her making her head swim. Black shoes, the same one she was wearing, came into view. Stained with blood.
"Who are you?"
They asked again. A sweet melodic voice. One would usually relax after hearing, but Chana couldn't focus on anything but the fact that they were wearing the same uniform as her and that there was blood staining the edges.
"Did you see something?"
The voice suddenly took a dark turn and Chana snapped to it rising to run. A hand grabbed her and pulled her back down. Now facing each other they both had a clear view of the other.
"Oh? You….you're Chana right?"
A bright pair of eyes twinkled down on Chana almost making her seem innocent if it weren't for the harrowing blood stains on the soles of her shoes and skirt.
"..."
"Why so silent? You almost frightened me. I thought it was the murderer."
At that, Chana flinched. Inching away.
"Chana?"
"Uhm…who are you? How do you know my name…"
Weary, Chana couldn't displace the uneasiness settling in her heart. Despite it implicating that this girl could be one of her classmates it doesn't explain why she has blood on her. Nor does it explain what that pool of blood is.
"Jia."
Jia noticed her suspicions and smiled, grabbing a handkerchief from her inner pocket Jia gently started to wipe the blood that had stained Chana's hands and knees.
"My name is Jia. We're neighboring classmates. You're in class one while I'm in class four. I've seen you around."
"Excuse me, but do you know what this is?"
Chana gestured to the blood.
"Ah-ha. It seems like you misunderstood. No wonder you seem so scared. It's not blood it's red paint. I'm currently painting and accidentally spilled my bucket of red paint. That's when I saw you."
The most obvious tale-telling sign of an excuse. Chana couldn't think why anyone would believe someone would just want to paint with red paint in a dark alley this late into the night.
Jia could tell Chana wasn't buying it. Alas though it was the truth. She turned to pull out her paintbrush and gestured for Chana to look behind her. To which Chana hesitated but ultimately looked behind her to a canvas filled with red paint.
"Isn't it beautiful? This is the first time I tried painting."
Shocked, Chana didn't know what to say.