NOVEL NEXT Chapter 31 – The Line We Must Protect (1)
“Skipped school for health reasons? What a fool.”
I clicked my tongue at the empty seat of Park Tae-jun. The school atmosphere was tense and uneasy. The students, still young and easily swayed, were endlessly churning out bizarre rumors about the incident from yesterday, much like any other pressing issue.
“…The demons controlled by Mamute directly provoke the dark sides of human nature. It’s only natural to feel instinctive fear.”
Ren, invisible to others, perched on my desk and pretended to know it all. Yet, he wasn’t wrong. The ones most wary of Mamute were those who had seen others possessed by demons.
The fear of a perfectly normal person flipping out and potentially hurting someone was enough to paralyze the actions of ordinary people. I couldn’t help but feel that fear too.
“…What’s wrong?”
As I glanced over, Kim Soo-jung tilted her head, sitting beside me. First things first, I had to figure out how to get rid of the demon inside her.
“Hah, it’s nothing.”
I shook my head and collapsed onto my desk. Since a few curious eyes had been watching me, I figured I’d just give them some space.
“That girl was led away by her friends to another seat.”
“…Why do I have to worry about this?”
I mumbled, still face down, in response to Ren’s remark. Kim Soo-jung had been taken away by her friends, who were wary of the aura that surrounded Park Tae-jun.
Thanks to that, I felt like an outcast in the crowd now that Park Tae-jun was gone. But honestly, I preferred it this way. There was too much on my mind.
“Does everyone know the atmosphere is tense? The government has acknowledged that a dangerous monster is involved and advised everyone to be cautious. Everyone should head home early.”
“Huh? But I need to go to the academy…”
“…The teacher would rather say you should skip the academy.”
Right before the break time, our homeroom teacher Yoon Sun-ho sighed and shook his head, clearly aware of yesterday’s events. He warned the children to be careful.
However, despite how frightened everyone was, this morning and into the late afternoon had passed without incident.
“Why is that? I’m pretty sure that Mamute is supposed to be a monster that wreaks havoc without hesitation.”
“I-I wouldn’t lie!”
Just as the bell rang and the classroom became chaotic, I pressed a finger hard against Ren’s face and questioned him.
“What I told you is the truth based on history, but Mamute’s actions now are completely different!”
“Is that its will? Are you sure?”
“…I don’t know. To be honest, it’s hard to believe that it doesn’t move with someone else. This world—Earth, is just too vast and filled with strange occurrences.”
Ren shook his head, muttering in a worried tone. Anyway, the conclusion seemed to be that the organization was of no help at all.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but if it stays quiet, that’s not necessarily bad.”
I leaned back in my chair. The students in the classroom were busy chatting, playing, or studying among themselves.
Among them was Kim Soo-jung, who occasionally glanced this way but looked worryingly ‘bright,’ as usual.
“Is it better for me to remain alone than to hang out with the others?”
If she was under the influence of the demon, her thoughts would be incredibly simple, driven purely by desire. Predicting Kim Soo-jung’s feelings based on yesterday’s rampage wasn’t all that difficult.
“Isn’t that your friend over there? How about you two hang out?”
Ren seemed displeased by the scene.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
I turned at the unsolicited comment and found Kim Soo-han, a girl I had little direct interaction with but had many overlaps with. One of Park Tae-jun’s gang, she was now sitting alone, just staring at her phone.
Which meant she was in a similar situation as mine.
“So, you’re saying that to others, I look like her? How unsettling, I used to be the epitome of normalcy.”
Despite her youth, Kim Soo-han was the typical delinquent type—someone completely unrelated to the well-behaved me from the blurry memories of my school days.
But now, the way I presented myself, others would perceive me in the same light as I viewed Kim Soo-han.
Hanging out with Park Tae-jun had transformed me that way. I must have accepted that to pursue what I wanted, though things got messy before I could enjoy it properly.
“Oh, I saw you. And I laughed?”
“…Are you deliberately teasing me?”
It seemed Kim Soo-han had noticed my gaze as she turned her head and smirked, a clear mockery.
I swatted Ren away, who kept babbling nonsense. But why was she now getting up and approaching me?
“What’s up?”
“Do you see this?”
Coming closer, Kim Soo-han, with a whiff of perfume, showed me something.
Messenger chat history. Honestly, even after reading it, I couldn’t fathom why she was proudly showing this to me.
“In today’s lunch, the absent Park Tae-jun left you a message to meet? Why’s that?”
“…It’s telling you to know your place. Do you think you’re playing with him after a few days?”
“???”
“Do you know all the girls whose interest in Tae-jun faded have vanished to another school? You probably don’t know. Whether they genuinely transferred or…”
The warning she gave me came with a chilling laugh. To be honest, it was so cute it was almost ridiculous, but I refrained from arguing each of her statements.
However, assuming my silence was from fear, she grinned again and returned to her seat.
“What a crazy girl.”
I just let it slide there. Dealing with it felt too tiresome.
“Hey, does anyone have a way to contact Soo-han? She suddenly went missing and we can’t reach her.”
However, after lunch that day, the atmosphere shifted dramatically when our teacher Yoon Sun-ho rushed into the classroom.
“Regardless, a kid like her wouldn’t just vanish without any contact.”
Breaking off the music class, Yoon Sun-ho murmured with a grim expression.
That statement was likely true. Park Tae-jun, who was a model student, maintained certain boundaries even among his rowdy friends, ensuring they didn’t give each other too much leeway.
Even someone like Kim Soo-han, who seemed to harbor secret feelings for Park Tae-jun, adhered to that line.
‘Should I say this? Or not?’
And I was fully aware of where Kim Soo-han had gone.
The real issue was why, at lunch, when Park Tae-jun had suggested meeting ‘just for a moment,’ he took her away completely.
I stared down at my phone resting on my lap, which had received no responses.
Clearly, Park Tae-jun, who had messaged me in the morning, hadn’t mentioned anything about Kim Soo-han.
That made sense. Per Kim Soo-han’s words, it could be that Park Tae-jun was playing with me. There was hardly any credibility in that.
Yet no matter his intentions, he was someone I could reach out to, and now he was unreachable. Was this truly a coincidence?
“Is this… the doing of Mamute?! Or could it be something else…”
“I wouldn’t know. Teacher, my head is really hurting.”
While Ren flustered around, I raised my hand to draw the attention of the whole class. Still, I wanted to check at least once.
“Uh, Jin-ah.”
Feeling a little shocked, our perhaps mentally drained teacher Yoon Sun-ho nodded without a word.
I instantly got to my feet.
“I want to go too.”
At that moment, Kim Soo-jung beside me got up as well.
*
“Is your head really hurt? Is it bad?”
“…Not really.”
“Really? For real?”
As we crossed the quiet hallway, Kim Soo-jung chattered incessantly. At this point, I was getting confused. Was she using her sane mind, or was she following the desires of the possessed demon?
“Let’s hurry up.”
However, judging by the way she subtly placed her hand on my side while pretending to urge me, it seemed like it was the latter.
“Is your head hurting? Just wait a bit.”
The middle-aged nurse brought us in and seated us before disappearing for a moment. The troubling part was that Kim Soo-jung had also claimed she was going to the restroom and vanished with her.
I clicked my tongue. I seemed to have a good idea of what might happen without needing to heighten my senses.
“The teacher said to take this.”
When Kim Soo-jung returned alone, she held two unidentified pills and some water in her hands.
“Take it, don’t take it! That’s a sleeping pill! A very strong one that the nurse was personally taking!”
Ren, suspicious and secretly following Kim Soo-jung, rushed in, shouting urgently.
I accepted the pills for now. However, there was a strange chill in the smile of Kim Soo-jung. It was an instinctual feeling.
“What if I take this and just fall asleep?”
“I’ll make sure to explain and let you rest!”
I threw out a casual remark, and without a bat of an eye, she eagerly chimed in.
Sighing, I clenched my hand tightly around the pills.
“Ugh…”
Once again, I lightly punched her solar plexus, causing her to faint, followed by silently catching her collapsing body.