Episode 296:
Ha Seong-yoon, Jeong In-ho, and Yoon Gar-ram, who came up to the second floor, hid from the plaster statues and teacher monsters, and then quickly moved to Building B when all the teacher monsters seemed to have returned to their respective grade rooms.
“…This feels strange.”
Garam Yoon looked around the empty hallways of Building B and muttered softly.
“I always feel like someone is watching me.”
“For some reason, I think I know who the owner of that gaze is.”
Ha Seong-yoon also checked the surroundings and said.
“It must be a plaster statue.”
“Are they watching us?”
“Maybe…”
Although he trailed off, Ha Seong-yoon was half-convinced. Didn’t Kang Min-ah, who was hiding under a chair with a plaster statue, suddenly start to turn into a plaster monster and find herself in a sudden situation where she was being chased by something? That meant there was something to that crushed, broken plaster statue.
“…By the way, there are no healthy plaster statues.”
Garam Yoon responded to Inho Jeong’s words.
“That’s right, not everything is intact. “It looks somewhat familiar, so I think it was originally some kind of mannequin monster.”
“Legs, arms, hands, head… Did someone break them?”
Ha Seong-yoon intervened in their conversation.
“First, let’s check Kang Min-ah’s condition. Before class starts and the bell rings, the teacher monster will move from the grade room to his classroom. “If we’re not all going to go to class, we need to make sure we have a place to hide before then.”
“It’s just a what-if.”
Jeong In-ho’s eyes sank to a heavy color.
“If Kang Min-ah has become a monster… what will you do then?”
“well. “I think they might be busy running away.”
“You know that’s not what I’m saying.”
“….”
Ha Seong-yoon, who glanced at the bathroom at the end, looked at Jeong In-ho again and opened his mouth.
“We have to lock him up somehow or kill him.”
“Is that also the case?”
There was a heavy air between them.
“I can’t turn it back somehow…”
Garam Yoon, who was muttering as if trying to intervene, soon closed his eyes tightly and opened them softly a moment later. A kind of determination could be seen on her face as she adjusted her grip on the baseball bat.
“To be honest, I don’t think my skills will work on Gypsum. I don’t know exactly what condition Kang Min-ah is in, but if she really has turned into plaster itself…” “
Well, it seems like even if you bake the plaster in a fire, it won’t cause much damage. “I don’t know much about that, but does plaster burn?”
“I don’t really know anything… but no matter how much I think about it, I don’t think I can burn it if it’s plaster. “I managed to get rid of the monsters running from the toy store, but the plaster… I feel like it might be too much.”
“Then it would be an environment where we cannot rely on Mr. Garam Yoon’s abilities.”
Jeong In-ho said in response to Ha Seong-yoon’s rebuttal.
“Besides, isn’t this a school? Since it was a school with good facilities, every corner would have been well maintained and the sprinklers would not have broken down. “If the fire gets bigger, the bigger the fire, the more water will pour out, which could end up harming Mr. Garam Yoon.”
“I really didn’t have to think about this in such a complicated way in the park…”
“It’s something that can’t be helped.”
Before I knew it, they had arrived right in front of the bathroom.
“….”
“….”
In response to Garam Yoon silently checking the time on his cell phone, Inho Jeong took a deep breath and called someone inside the bathroom in a low voice.
“…Kang Min-ah?”
No answer was heard.
“Mr. Kang Min-ah.”
It was the same this time too.
“Kangmin….”
“Wait a minute.”
Ha Seong-yoon spread his hand as if to stop Jeong In-ho from speaking and carefully opened the bathroom door. At that moment, the strong smell of blood spread across their faces, and a look of shock and understanding appeared on their faces.
“…Kang Min-ah…!”
Survivors rushed inside to see Kang Min-ah lying on the bathroom floor covered in blood.
“What on earth is this…!”
“teacher. Doctor, bandage it quickly. There was too much blood…”
Although her voice naturally rose in response to the shocking situation, Kang Min-ah only shed a cold sweat and did not show any reaction. He trembled intermittently, and it appeared that he had probably fainted from great pain.
Yoon Garam’s voice was full of tears as he hugged the unconscious Kang Minah.
“Hands…”
“…Ha.”
Jeong In-ho exhaled.
“You cut off your hand.”
In order not to turn into a plaster monster, he cut off his hand.
“That too with a hammer….”
“It’s in such bad condition.”
Ha Seong-yoon’s face also hardened.
“The only thing I had was a hammer, so it looks like I broke it off with a claw at the back… Perhaps because of the pain, my wrist and arm were also injured. “It would have been better if I had had the saw that Vivian had.”
“…I never thought something like this would really happen…”
Lee Jae-heon had asked before, after returning for the first time from the side world he entered this time. If I told you that you had to cut off a body part to avoid turning into a monster, what would you do? At that time, Jung In-ho said he was willing to cut it off, but he never imagined he would really experience a situation like this.
For Jeong In-ho, the plaster monster was just an enemy and evil beast that had to be avoided. This was because he had consciously avoided the idea that someone close to him, like Kang Min-ah, would turn into a plaster monster.
“To avoid infection, I think I need to at least disinfect or wash it under running water… Is there running water in the bathroom here?”
“…no.”
Even though I turned on all three sink faucets, no water came out. Ha Seong-yoon bit his lip when he saw Jeong In-ho shaking his head, then muttered.
“Well, maybe it’s a good thing it doesn’t come out. It’s a bathroom that feels strangely dirty, and the water coming out doesn’t seem to be as clean as saline water. “Contaminated water may come out.”
“If you look at each thing one by one, it is a clean bathroom, but I don’t know why I feel this way.”
“Well, for now…”
The class bell rang around that time, but Ha Seong-yoon, who checked the remaining time on his wrist, nodded calmly. There wasn’t much time left, perhaps because there were so many people, but there was enough time to put on bandages.
“It was fortunate that I brought plenty of bandages this time. “Why on earth are so many people getting hurt this time? Mr. President, please hold Kang Min-ah’s arm.”
“all right.”
“Yes, you are doing well. Just stay like this…”
When all the bandages were wrapped, Kang Min-ah opened her eyes.
“…Ah….”
“Kang Min-ah.”
“…Huh….”
“….”
“Huh….”
Yoon Garam hugged Kang Minah without saying a word.
“You had a hard time.”
How did it feel to become a monster alone, with no one to protect you, and to cut off your own hand with a hammer to avoid becoming a monster again? Although you may not know it since you were not the person involved, it must have been quite miserable and scary.
Jeong In-ho caught their attention after seeing Yoon Gar-ram’s depressed appearance.
“Everyone, calm down. Thank you for your hard work, Kang Min-ah.”
“Ugh, I’m really… really scared…”
“It’ll be okay now.”
It was after about 3 minutes that Kang Min-ah, who had been crying profusely, calmed down.
“…us now. “Shouldn’t we leave now?”
To be precise, Kang Min-ah was the first to voice her opinion.
“That’s two minutes. There are only two minutes left. “We should get out by now so we can have some space to hide…!”
“…okay. “That is correct.”
Jeong In-ho, who was checking for signs outside the door, continued.
“I can’t feel any movement in Building B right now. I’m not Kim Ki-jeong, so I can’t be sure, but… I think the hallway in Building B itself will be fine. “You just have to be careful as you move around so as not to encounter the teacher monster in the classroom through the window.”
“Well, in Building B, there isn’t much space to hide except for the hallway. “At most, I can hide behind a flower pot… I’d rather move to Building A, where the lobby is.”
Ha Seong-yoon made a quick call.
―…I received a call. Are you okay?
“I found Kang Min-ah.”
-Thank goodness.
The person who answered the phone was Lee Jae-heon. He seemed to immediately understand that ‘I found Kang Min-ah’ meant that she had not turned into a monster. I heard a small whisper as if I was with the students. In that small noise, Lee Jae-heon asked again.
―Can you come down to the first floor?
“I would like to ask everyone on the first floor to wait in the connected space if it is not a burden. Aren’t you hiding in the bathroom right now? “Is this perhaps too much?”
-Don’t worry, it’s not unreasonable.
Lee Jae-heon’s voice, which was silent for a moment, was soon heard.
-But there are some concerns. When you come down like that, can you go back up from the first floor to the second floor? People like In-ho Jeong or Garam Yoon who spent a long time on each floor seem to get stuck easily.
“…He is like that too. “There is no guarantee that Lee Jae-heon or Kim Ki-jeong will be able to go up to the second floor again.”
Ha Seong-yoon checked the time on his cell phone and spoke urgently.
“We will move to Building A anyway. “Is there a monster on the first floor?”
-Not at the moment. Thanks to this, the waiting group on the first floor, which was divided into two bathrooms, was reunited.
“I think we should at least send Kang Min-ah down to the first floor. There is a need to revise the plan just a little bit, so first send Kang Min-ah downstairs and figure out the situation… So, shouldn’t there be only two people left on the second floor? “I will send Kang Min-ah and Jeong In-ho down, so please prepare.”
-All right.
And as soon as the call ended, they were kicked out of the bathroom.
“….”
“…This is something….”
“I feel a little bad.”
Garam Yoon and Inho Jeong looked sour for a moment and then quickly moved to Building A. Ha Seong-yoon naturally supported Kang Min-ah, who was unconscious from the pain, and played with her feet together.
And when they reached the lobby of Building A, Ha Seong-yoon handed Kang Min-ah over to Jung In-ho and said,
“Go down. “We will hide in the lobby.”
“Please don’t hide in places where plaster statues are nearby. please.”
“I know that much.”
Fortunately, there were places where you could hide that didn’t have plaster statues. Thanks to Kang Min-ah’s enticement, Garam Yoon hid under the chair where the plaster statue had disappeared, and Seongyoon Ha hid behind the bookshelf. Jung In-ho, who saw everything, went down to the first floor while supporting Kang Min-ah.
Below, Hong Gyeong-jun and Lee Jae-heon were waiting.
“Are you okay, Kang Min-ah?”
“….”
“Hands like these….”
Unlike Hong Gyeong-jun, who expressed his concern verbally as soon as he saw Kang Min-ah, Lee Jae-heon kept his mouth shut as he looked at Kang Min-ah’s wrist, which was so tattered that the hand itself fell off. It was the same recently, but now even more so, as he couldn’t see his usual self, Jeong In-ho became anxious for a moment.
‘I don’t feel good.’
Still, when he first came to the underworld, Jaeheon Lee was quite cold. Even though he was obnoxious, he was faithful to his old-fashioned acting. However, perhaps because his condition had been bad since he was in real life, Lee Jae-heon recently often said strange things, bruised himself, and broke into cold sweats.
That alone was enough to make him anxious, but Lee Jae-heon’s face as he checked Kang Min-ah’s injury was as tense as anything he had ever seen before.
“….”
As a pale gray light climbed into Lee Jae-heon’s eyes, like the ashes left over from a fire, Jeong In-ho, who became so anxious that he could no longer bear it, called out to him. A sudden change in eye color was not a good sign.
“Boss.”
“…Let’s move on first. “You never know when a monster will come down here.”
“All right.”
The lobby on the first floor of Building A, where they were standing, had stairs and an elevator. Of course, there will be some foreshadowing, such as the elevator moving or the sound of footsteps before the monster arrives, but it was difficult to completely expect such obvious things in a place where common sense is so casually broken.
“Kim Ki-jeong and the other students….”
“I left it in front of the bathroom just in case. Mr. Kim Ki-jeong is in Building A… if you look over there, the students are waiting in Building B. “So that you can go right in and hide in case of emergency.”
When I turned my attention to Detective Hong Gyeong-jun’s words, I saw Kim Ki-jeong watching them with anxious eyes. They seemed to have heard their small voices and were waving their hands awkwardly.
‘I guess I can still hear the sound well.’
From the time I met Do-yoon Han, he seemed to be in a strangely good state of mind, but I didn’t know if he was still sane enough to be able to hear well even in this situation.
“….”
Probably because he didn’t know that Kang Min-ah’s hand was cut off.
“…As I said above, I think we need to change our plan a bit. The previously revised plan was for the students to remain on the first floor and Ms. Kang Min-ah and Mr. Garam Yoon to wait on the second floor…” “It
will be difficult as it is now.”
Hong Gyeong-jun checked Kang Min-ah’s condition without blinking an eye. Of course, since he had seen all kinds of bizarre crimes to the point of chasing Song In-myeong, he would probably have this attitude even if there was a corpse in front of him, but in fact, he was far from calm. I felt a transparent nervousness that made me feel a determination to somehow make the situation better.
‘…He’s a person I don’t like, but he’s still different from before…’ As
Jeong In-ho, who remembered the conflict at the park, was trying to forget it, Hong Gyeong-jun snapped his fingers and rolled his eyes.
“Let’s do it like this. It would be a good idea to move Dahoon Park, who had to remain on the first floor, to the second floor. Dahoon Park has excellent coping skills and is a fast runner. “If the situation arises, you will be able to escape by making the right decision at the right time.”
“Then it will be students Seong Ji-ho and Kang Min-ah on the first floor, and Da-hoon and CEO Yoon on the second floor. “Maybe that would be better.”
That was when I looked back at Jaeheon Lee while answering that question.
“…Boss?”
Jeong In-ho’s eyes turned to Lee Jae-heon, who was pale and stiff.
At that moment, Jeong In-ho remembered that this school had some small fruits.
“It’s not possible.”
“…what…?”
“You cannot use it.”
“What are you saying? Suddenly.”
“Come this way.”
“Huh?”
