The Line to Protect (1)

The Line to Protect (1)

“He didn’t come for health reasons? What an idiot.”

I clicked my tongue looking at Park Tae-jun’s empty seat.

The school atmosphere was also unsettled. Moreover, the students were still easily swayed young ones, and yesterday’s incident was already being endlessly reproduced and expanded like other issues, spreading various bizarre rumors.

“…The evil spirits controlled by Mammoth blatantly stimulate the dark aspects of human nature. It’s natural to have an instinctive fear.”

Ren, invisible to others, sat on the desk and pretended to know it all. However, what he said wasn’t wrong.

After all, the possessed by evil spirits were what people who didn’t know exactly about Mammoth feared the most.

The fear that a seemingly normal person could suddenly go mad and attack you at any time and place made ordinary people shrink back and fall into fear.

And I could relate to that fear to some extent.

“…What’s wrong?”

When I glanced over, Kim Su-jung sitting next to me tilted her head. I first needed to figure out how to get rid of the evil spirit inside this girl.

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

I shook my head and just collapsed on the desk. The stares I’d been feeling were uncomfortable, so I was thinking of just leaving my seat.

“That girl was led away to another seat by other kids.”

“…Why do I have to worry about this?”

I mumbled in response to Ren’s words, still lying on the desk.

Kim Su-jung was taken away by her friends. And those friends were wary of me, who used to hang out with Park Tae-jun.

Thanks to that, with Park Tae-jun gone, I was now a loner in the crowd. Of course, I preferred it this way now. I had too much to think about.

“Everyone knows the atmosphere is tense, right? The government has acknowledged that dangerous entities are involved and announced that we should be careful. Everyone should go home early.”

“What? But I have to go to academy…”

“…As a teacher, I’d rather tell you to skip the academy.”

Just before break time. Homeroom teacher Yoon Seon-ho, who ended the class a bit early, sighed and shook his head.

He obviously knew about yesterday’s incident, so he warned the children to be careful.

But despite people being so scared, from this morning until late afternoon now, it had been strangely quiet without any incidents.

“Why is that? From what I heard, that Mammoth was a monster who continued destruction and slaughter indiscriminately without any hesitation?”

“I, I wouldn’t have lied!”

When the bell rang and the surroundings became noisy, I questioned while firmly squeezing Ren’s face with my fingers.

“What I told you is the true history up until now. But Mammoth’s current movements are completely different from before!”

“Is that his own will? Are you sure?”

“…I don’t know. Honestly, it’s hard to believe that he’s moving with someone else. But this Earth world tends to have many huge and strange things happening.”

Ren shook his head and muttered in a shrinking voice. Anyway, the conclusion was that the agency was of no help at all.

“Whatever their intentions are, if it’s quiet, it’s not bad.”

I leaned back in my chair. The kids in the classroom were busy chatting among themselves, playing, or studying.

Among them was Kim Su-jung, who was with her friends. She glanced this way occasionally, but somehow her expression seemed as ‘bright’ as usual.

‘Rather than mingling with others, is she meant to remain alone like this?’

If influenced by an evil spirit, one’s thoughts become very simple, faithful to desires. It wasn’t too difficult to predict Kim Su-jung’s mind based on the rampage she showed yesterday.

“Isn’t she your friend too? How about hanging out with her?”

Ren didn’t seem to like that sight very much.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

I turned my head at the sudden remark, and where Ren pointed was Kim Su-han.

A girl who had almost no interaction with me but many points of contact. One of Park Tae-jun’s gang members, she was now sitting alone, just looking at her phone.

It meant she wasn’t in a much different situation than me.

“So to others, I look like her. It’s unfamiliar, as I used to be the epitome of normalcy.”

Despite being young, Kim Su-han was a typical delinquent, a bully, befitting the precocious kids these days. She’s a type completely unrelated to me from my now hazy school days.

But now, at least the me that others see is probably no different from how I see Kim Su-han.

My association with Park Tae-jun made me that way. I clearly chose to hang out with him to get what I wanted, despite knowing what it would entail. Of course, everything fell apart before I could properly enjoy it.

“Oh, I saw you. And laughed at you?”

“…Are you deliberately mocking me right now?”

At that moment, as if Kim Su-han felt my gaze, he turned his head and smirked. It was clearly a sneer.

I swatted away Ren who kept spouting nonsense. But why is that kid getting up from his seat and walking towards me?

“What’s the matter?”

“Can you see this?”

Kim Su-han approached, exuding the scent of cosmetics, and showed me something.

It was a messenger chat history. Honestly, even after reading it all, I couldn’t understand why he was showing this to me so confidently.

“A message from the absent Park Tae-jun asking to meet you separately at lunch today? Why is this…?”

“…It’s to remind you of your place. Did you misunderstand because he played with you for a few days recently?”

“???”

“Do you know that all the girls Tae-jun lost interest in were forcibly… You probably don’t know, right? Whether those girls really… transferred schools.”

She laughed coldly as she spoke, supposedly as a warning.

Honestly, it was so cute it was almost ridiculous, but I didn’t bother to refute each point the child was proudly rambling about.

However, misunderstanding my silence as fear, she smirked and returned to her seat.

“What a crazy bitch.”

I just let it go at that point. It was too bothersome to deal with or even think about.

“Hey everyone. Is anyone in contact with Su-han? They say she suddenly disappeared and can’t be reached.”

However, that afternoon after lunch.

The atmosphere suddenly changed as the homeroom teacher Yun Seon-ho rushed into the classroom.

“No matter what, she’s not the type to disappear without any contact.”

Yun Seon-ho, who had interrupted the music teacher’s class, muttered with a gloomy expression.

That statement was probably true. Park Tae-jun, who was a model student to the teachers, made sure his gang members maintained a certain line to avoid giving excuses.

It meant that even though they engaged in all sorts of mischief, they still kept a final line, and the same went for Kim Su-han, who seemed to secretly admire Park Tae-jun.

‘Should I say something about this? Or not?’

And from the beginning, I knew where Kim Su-han had gone.

The problem was why Park Tae-jun, who had asked to meet ‘briefly’ at the back gate during lunch time, had taken her away completely.

I looked down at the unresponsive phone on my lap.

Park Tae-jun, who had clearly left me a message in the morning, hadn’t mentioned anything related to Kim Su-han.

That makes sense. As Kim Su-han said, that bastard Park Tae-jun might be playing with me. Though it’s not very credible.

However, regardless of his intentions, he was someone who used to keep in touch, but now he’s not even responding. Is this really a coincidence?

“Ma, Mamut’s doing?! No, it could be something else…”

“Well, I don’t know either, teacher. My head hurts too much.”

While a flustered Ren was fidgeting, I raised my hand to draw the attention of the entire class. Still, I wanted to check once.

“O-okay, Jin-ah.”

The homeroom teacher Yun Seon-ho, who already seemed mentally drained, was slightly surprised but nodded without saying much.

I immediately stood up.

“I want to go too.”

At that moment, Kim Su-jung, who was sitting next to me, also stood up.

*

“Does your head really hurt? Does it hurt a lot?”

“…It’s not like that.”

“Really? Really?”

Kim Su-jung chattered endlessly as they crossed the quiet hallway.

At this point, it’s confusing. Is there a sane mind or is it moving according to the will of the possessed evil spirit?

“Let’s go quickly.”

But seeing her subtly placing her hand on my side while pretending to hurry, it seems more like the latter.

“Does your head hurt? Wait a moment.”

The middle-aged school nurse seated us and disappeared for a moment. The problem was that Kim Su-jung also disappeared, saying she was going to the bathroom.

I clicked my tongue. I could guess what was going to happen without even needing to maximize my senses.

“The teacher says to take these.”

Kim Su-jung reappeared alone, holding two unidentified pills and water in her hand.

“Don’t eat it, don’t eat it! Those are sleeping pills! And they’re extremely powerful ones that the school nurse was taking personally!”

Ren, who had secretly followed Kim Su-jung out of suspicion, came running and shouted urgently.

I took the pills for now. There was a strange chill in Kim Su-jung’s smiling face. This was an elder’s intuition.

“What if I get drowsy and fall asleep after taking these pills?”

“I’ll explain it well and let you rest!”

I casually brought it up, and she agreed without batting an eye.

Sighing, I curled my hand holding the pills into a fist.

“Cough…”

And once again, she lightly struck her solar plexus with that fist to knock her unconscious, then caught her body as it collapsed with a short gasp.