Rank 0 of the Awakener Special School - Chapter 4

Rank 0 of the Awakener Special School

Chapter 4

The late spring sunlight poured into the classroom.

Before the second period began, the homeroom teacher visited the 1st year, Class 2 of the high school division.

A moment ago, a loud alarm had rung, as if it would wash the school building away.

Had the ‘Narak’ within the campus grounds backflowed?

The homeroom teacher must have rushed to the classroom to warn them not to leave the school building carelessly.

The students waited for the teacher’s instructions with slightly tense faces.

However.

“……Huh? That person is…….”

The moment they saw the female student who entered through the front door with the homeroom teacher, the class froze in unison.

The teacher stood in front of the blackboard and tapped the podium lightly.

“As you all know, Ji-hyo returned after being seriously injured a while ago. Everyone keep that in mind and help Ji-hyo a lot so she doesn’t overexert herself for the time being.”

Dozens of pairs of eyes turned toward the expressionless girl standing in front of the blackboard.

Straight hair falling neatly to her waist. There was a faint shadow in her deep, lake-blue eyes.

An untimely transfer student? No, in the first place, there is no concept of transferring at this school.

“……Seol Ji-hyo?”

“Hey, it’s really Seol Ji-hyo.”

It was that child who had an accident right before graduating from middle school.

Of course, the real Seol Ji-hyo was still receiving treatment at the main house, but no one in the classroom noticed the truth.

“How is she already attending school?”

“She looks too fine considering she went through such an accident……”

“Her core is regeneration, right.”

“Even so.”

The murmuring voices contained agitation and unfamiliarity.

Unless one was an idiot, it was easy to tell that not a single person welcomed her.

“Ji-hyo, if you have anything to say to your friends, go ahead.”

Ji-woo scanned the classroom.

Everyone was looking at her with curiosity. As if a pig that had been dragged to the slaughterhouse had returned completely fine.

‘Among these people are the bastards who bullied Ji-hyo.’

…Perhaps the majority, or maybe even all of them.

Ji-woo gripped the strap of her bag tightly.

In ‘Ji-hyo’s memories’ that So-young had shown her that day, quite a few scenes were stored in addition to the accident in the Narak.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t identify the faces of any classmates other than Ji-hyo in any of those scenes.

Nevertheless, there was just one person.

「Ah, right. Seol Ji-hyo. You go.」

The boy who pushed Ji-hyo toward the Infected.

As Ji-hyo was pushed hard, his face was flashed on the camera for an instant.

It was a short moment, not even a second, but Ji-woo remembered it clearly.

‘That bastard must be in the same class too.’

Among the dozens of pairs of eyes focused on her, Ji-woo felt one gaze that was particularly unhesitant.

Ji-woo’s blue gaze naturally turned toward that spot.

“…….”

Eye-catching fluorescent orange hair.

Piercings dangling all over his nose and lips.

The moment her gaze met his fiercely upturned eyes, Ji-woo narrowed her eyes slightly.

‘Found you.’

It’s that bastard.

Although it was Ji-woo’s first time coming ‘outside’ in 12 long years, she had no time to be excited.

There is a saying that to catch a tiger, you must enter the tiger’s den.

To paraphrase that, this Gaon Special School meant the tiger’s den to Ji-woo.

The Infected she encountered a moment ago?

That kind of thing is nothing.

Because the truly disgusting thing was here.

“Wow, fuck, did you see that movie? I pissed myself watching it.”

A noisy guy who says ‘fuck’ every other word.

With several holes punched in his face, he didn’t even have his tie on properly, let alone his school uniform jacket.

A boy with his hair dyed in a flashy fluorescent color was making a ruckus in the classroom.

Ji-woo watched that bastard the whole time she sat in the very back seat.

「I want to get my phone back.」

「Can you try to understand what I’m saying the first time?」

…No doubt about it.

It’s the bastard she saw in that video.

‘As expected, he was in the same class.’

Of course, that bastard was just the only person whose face was revealed among them.

It means there were more team members who entered the Narak together besides him.

For example, the hand that hit Ji-hyo’s shoulder. It was wearing a bracelet with a small four-leaf clover pendant on the wrist.

The feet that were walking close to Ji-hyo. Those were red sneakers of a certain brand.

The voice, the color of the nail polish on the fingernails, and even the shape of the school bag that appeared briefly were all clearly engraved in Ji-woo’s memory one by one.

However, right now, she couldn’t see anyone who looked like the culprit.

…Except for that fluorescent-headed guy.

‘If I catch and beat that guy first, the others might come out like sausages on a string.’

Scrape.

It was the moment she stood up from her seat, dragging her chair.

“Hey! Did you hear? About the alarm that rang earlier.”

Someone opened the back door with great energy and entered.

“Why are you overreacting? Wasn’t that just an error? The homeroom teacher didn’t say anything either.”

Ah. That siren sound.

Ji-woo had heard that too. Right in front of the Narak. So it had been audible even in the classroom.

“No, they said it wasn’t an error. The Purification Team was dispatched after hearing the alarm, and they said an Infected was dead there.”

“Huh. Who killed it?”

“Exactly! They said the chairman called all the teachers to find out who did it. The teachers’ office is a mess right now.”

…….

Ji-woo sat back down in her seat.

“The Purification Team was dispatched less than 5 minutes after the alarm rang, and they said someone killed it in that short time.”

“That fast?”

“It wasn’t just killed. They said it was completely smashed. The bones were all crushed, so at first, they thought it was a human corpse, not an Infected.”

…Was it that much?

She didn’t know. Because she hadn’t checked properly.

“Maybe one of the practical training teachers was passing by? Didn’t anything get caught on CCTV?”

There was CCTV?

Ji-woo’s gaze snapped around.

“I heard on the way here that it was a student wearing a school uniform?”

“A student? Then isn’t it those kids from the Special Squad?”

“I don’t know, they said the face wasn’t visible.”

The commotion in the classroom grew louder.

The action she took without thinking was unintentionally gathering a hot reaction.

This was a slightly dangerous development.

‘Seol Ji-hyo’s’ core is known to be regeneration.

It wasn’t a very suitable core for defeating an Infected.

If it were discovered that ‘Seol Ji-hyo’ defeated an Infected alone with her bare body, it would certainly invite suspicion.

‘If that news reaches the main house… Grandfather will definitely drag me back by force.’

Grandfather hated it very much when Ji-woo used her core. To be precise, he hated the existence of ‘Seol Ji-woo’ being known to the public.

In other words, if she gets caught by Grandfather, revenge and all that would be for nothing.

‘That won’t do.’

He is a grandfather who kept silent even when Ji-hyo ended up in that state in the first place. It means he is a person who hates commotion to that extent.

‘Still, they said the face wasn’t caught, so it should be fine……?’

It has to be.

She was fiddling with an innocent textbook while suppressing a subtle sense of anxiety.

Suddenly, she felt someone’s gaze stuck to her right cheek.

“……?”

Her head turned to the right on its own.

A male student was staring straight at Ji-woo.

The seat next to her. It was her seatmate.

‘…What. Don’t tell me he realized it was me who did it─.’

…Ah.

The moment their eyes met, Ji-woo stopped her train of thought and inadvertently swallowed her breath.

It was because of his handsome appearance that captured her gaze.

The hair swaying shallowly before her eyes was so black that it seemed to cancel out even the sunlight.

Jet-black hair that seemed to have swallowed all the colors of the world, feeling even quiet.

On the other hand, the eyes staring intently at her were a hollow ash-gray, as if they contained nothing of the world.

Ji-woo reflexively checked the name tag on his left chest.

──’Moon Yu-jin’.

She didn’t know. Maybe he was one of the gang that bullied Ji-hyo.

Thinking that, she glanced at his shoes.

Black dress shoes. It was a brand and shape she hadn’t seen in the video.

‘Shoes are a pass for now.’

This time, she shifted her gaze to check around his hands. No specific accessories like bracelets were visible.

‘Accessories are a pass too.’

If so…….

“Hello.”

She tried talking to him.

It was to hear his voice.