“Hey, Daesu.” Joonyeong called for help when they were struggling in holding the blue plastic sheet when more zombies were able to go through the obstacle in front of them. The class president stopped helping her classmates when Namra felt a sudden change in her body. Wujin noticed her stiff posture and immediately left the rest of his friends to help her, only to see her left eyes begin to turn red and black veins become visibly appeared. 

Suhyeok was busily fighting the zombie that Gwinam threw at him as well as the zombies that managed to escape under the blue plastic sheet. The two boys did not notice that the Yoon boy managed to reach Cheongsan until he climbed onto the stair railing in front of the boy in the green vest. 

With the combination sound of the loud helicopter whirring nearby as well as the snarling of the zombies, Areum was in a massive pain with her new sense of hearing. The black haired girl did not realised her left jaw began to turn red and black veins began to reappear until the beauty heard the faint squelching sound through her ears. 

Hearing the loud smack of the metal stand beside her, the black haired girl spotted Gwinam had climbed the stair railing in front of Cheongsan. The one-eyed boy turned his head to the side after receiving the harsh impact before looking back at Cheongsan with a scoff on his face. When Cheongsan once again tried to hit the bully boy with the metal stand, Gwinam managed to grab the stand away from the bot and instantly pulled Cheongsan closer by his shoulder. The boy in the green vest was frantically trying his best to get free out of the bully’s tight grip.

“Give me your eye.” Gwinam angrily uttered as Cheongsan fought his way to get free from the bully’s grip. 

In a fast reflex, Gwinam held Cheongsan’s face with both of his hands and tried to gouge out one of Cheongsan’s eyes. However, before he could do that, a small hand had choked his neck and pulled him away from Cheongsan. The Yoon boy was lifted to the air by the small hand as he groaned in pain after hearing his bones start to crunch due to the tight grip.

“What the hell? Fuck.” Gwinam managed to curse when he saw Areum was the one who choked him. The Yoon boy also noticed the sudden change of her appearance, especially on her left jaw and her cold stare when he held onto Areum’s hand from choking his throat more tightly. 

The black haired girl looked at the bully boy in confusion when she deeply knew that he should be dead after falling from the window on the fourth floor. Areum then tightened her grip on Gwinam’s neck making his bone crunched further before asking him a question.

“Why didn’t you die?” Areum asked the stubborn boy in confusion as she struggled to control her unconscious thoughts in her mind. Without waiting for his answer, the beauty roughly threw him down to the group of zombies.

After witnessing Areum throw Gwinam to the zombies, Cheongsan lifted his head and stared at her before the boy rushed to help Suhyeok on the platform of the stairwell. Once she threw him down, Areum was shocked with the amount of strength that she had, making the black haired girl stare at her hands in disbelief. The class vice president did not notice that the red and black veins on her jaw began to disappear.

“Areum-ah!” Wujin called his cousin as he tried to make Namra come back to her senses. “Help me.” He muttered in despair as he was worried about Namra’s state. The black haired girl shook her head before helping her cousin.

“What is it?” Areum asked as she watched her cousin cupped Namra’s face with both of his hands. 

“There's a red spot and black veins under her left eye.” Wujin stated with worry laced in his voice. Areum blinked her eyes rapidly before slowly turning her face to look at her close friend. The beauty could immediately notice the red spot and black veins under her eye but what surprised her was the look on Namra’s eyes. The cold and lifeless stare. Namra calmly stared at Wujin with her cold and lifeless eyes as if she was looking at her prey.

“Namra-yah.” Areum called her close friend but to no avail, Namra did not respond as Wujin removed his hands from Namra’s face to give space to his cousin. 

“Namra-yah. I know you can hear me. Please listen to me before you hurt someone. I know it’s hard but you need to control your mind. Don’t let your thoughts consume you. Fight them and control it.” The black haired girl soothed her close friend by helping her gain back her consciousness.

“I know you can do this. Please. Gain control of your own thoughts.” The class vice president comforted her close friend as Namra still remained unresponsive. Seeing her close friend still unresponsive, the black haired girl quickly turned to her cousin.

“Wujin-ah. Call her name.” Areum instructed, making the male cousin look at her in confusion, not following by calling the president’s real name in returning her consciousness.

“What?” The male cousin asked with doubt.

“Hurry up. Call her name. Now.” Areum hurriedly told her cousin. 

Wujin returned his attention back toward the girl he likes and cupped the side of her face with his right hand as he stared at the girl’s brown eyes. “Namra-yah. Look at me. Please come back to me. I beg you, Namra.” He muttered.

Both Areum and Wujin watched the red spot and black veins slowly disappeared under her left eye. The Namra that Areum knew slowly appeared once again. Suddenly the sound of the fire alarm started to blaring in the entire school building. 

“Guys!” Onjo called, making all of the students except for Suhyeok, Cheongsan and Namra to turn their attention toward the girl “The door’s opened.” She mentioned as she rapidly tried to ease her breath.

“Let’s go!” Joonyeong shouted toward the two boys that were holding the zombies from coming toward their group of friends. 

“One, two, three!” Suhyeok counted the number before both of the boys pushed the zombies down the stairs. Once the door was opened, Wujin clasped his hand with Namra’s as he pulled her toward the rooftop. Not far behind them, Areum followed the pair toward the rooftop.

When the group of friends finally escaped to the rooftop, a strong wind blew through the door as the helicopter began to ascend from the school building. Each of the students were shouting and yelling as they ran toward the end of the rooftop trying to stop the helicopter from ascending further to the sky.

“Over here!”

“Help!”

“Come back!”

All of the students except for Areum, Namra and Cheongsan were shouting their voices out and waving their hands toward the helicopter in order to catch the attention of the pilot from leaving them behind. Cheongsan was left behind as he guarded the door from being opened by the zombies or worse, the bully boy while Areum and Namra remained on their spots as they watched the helicopter fly away. 

“Hey! Why are you leaving?”

“Hey! We’re still here!”

“Where are you going?”

When the group of friends failed to stop the helicopter from leaving, the male students were letting out their frustration toward the helicopter while the female students stared in disbelief and cried in frustration. 

“We’re here.” Hyeryeong cried when she saw the helicopter keep whirring away from the school premises. “Mom…” The short haired girl sobbed for her mom in fear.

The rest of the students' bodies were panting in exhaustion as they watched the helicopter fly away before rescuing them from the school. Sensing someone behind the rooftop door, Areum quickly averted her attention from her friends toward the door, where Cheongsan was sitting.

Out of nowhere, a banging sound on the rooftop door had startled Cheongsan, which made the boy stand from his sitting position. The door of the rooftop kept pounding by the person on the other side, which also grabbed the attention of other students who were feeling hopeless after the authorities had left them behind. Using her new abilities after getting bit, Areum tried to smell the culprit’s scent that kept banging on the metal door. 

Once the banging sound stopped, Cheongsan bravely walked closer to the door to inspect the sound from the other side of the door. Suhyeok, Wujin and Daesu walked their way toward where Areum and Namra were standing. The loud banging sound on the metal door then continued after a moment of silence. Startled with the loud sound, Cheongsan moved away from the metal door as Daesu picked one of the items on the floor for defense. All of the surviving students stared at the metal door as it kept trying to open with force.

“Fuck it.” 

Areum instantly could hear the boy that she threw down the stairs earlier cursed. A silent gasp left her mouth when she knew the bully boy was still trying to get them, especially Cheongsan.

“He’s gone.” Areum informed her classmates after hearing the Yoon boy stopped pounding onto the metal door.

“What the actual fuck?” Daesu cursed after intensely watching the door in fear.

“Who’s gone?” Suhyeok asked after he turned to face the girl he likes.

“That bastard, Yoon Gwinam.” The beauty said in a disgusted tone as she glared at the door. Hearing her reply, Cheongsan and Daesu looked at the black haired girl in confusion when she knew the person was aggressively banging against the metal door.

“It’s his smell. I can also hear his breathing too.” Areum mentioned as Cheongsan shifted his eyes away from the class vice president to the metal door.

***********

“What happened? Didn’t Gwinam fall from the fourth floor?” Cheongsan asked while walking his way toward Suhyeok, who was away from the group of friends, inspecting the corner of the rooftop. The tall boy turned his attention to his close friend when he heard Cheongsan approaching him.

“He did. I threw him out of the window.” Suhyeok muttered.

“So, how did he manage to survive?” The boy in the green vest questioned in confusion. Hearing the boy's question, Suhyeok sighed heavily as the tall boy did not know how to answer his curious question while walking closer to his close friend.

“Maybe he won't die. Or maybe he dies and comes back to life.” The tall boy suggested when he saw Gwinam alive after seeing with his own eyes.

“He’s neither a human or a zombie.” Cheongsan commented as he then remembered about the girl from the teacher’s office. The boy in the green vest lifted his eyes as he looked over at his close friend. “Do you remember that girl in the teacher’s office?” he added.

“Yeah, she was weird.” Suhyeok said, nodding his head when he remembered the girl from the teachers’ office, the girl that both Suhyeok and Areum tried to save from the group of bullies.

“Gwiman’s like her, isn’t he?” Cheongsan mentioned as he stared at the tall boy.

“I think so.” Suhyeok replied, watching his close friend lower his eyes before Cheongsan said something that made his heart beat drop.

“Maybe Areum and Namra are the same as them.” The boy in the green vest stated as he worriedly looked at Suhyeok’s reaction. 

Once he heard the boy's statement, Suhyeok instantly averted his vision away from Cheongsan toward the group of friends and then finally landed his eyes toward Areum. The tall boy watched Areum standing beside her close friend who was sitting on the chair as the intelligent duo was talking about something. His gaze turned to soft affection when he spotted Areum was laughing at Namra's red face.

“She’ll be fine.” Suhyeok reassured his close friend as he continued watching Areum laughing.

“You can’t guarantee that’ll happen.” Cheongsan argued.

“We can’t guarantee anything right now, can we? We don’t even know if we’ll live or die.” Suhyeok remarked as he glanced at the boy in the green vest

“Let’s go make the SOS sign.” The tall boy suggested as he patted Cheongsan's arm before walking to Areum.

“Bare-su.” Cheongsan called in protest for his close friend, making the tall boy stop from walking further. Suhyeok turned his whole body as he glanced at Cheongsan.

“What if it were Onjo in their situation, could you just abandon her?” Suhyeok mentioned while putting his hands inside his trouser’s pockets as he tried to make Cheongsan understand his situation. Without waiting for his close friend’s response, the tall boy then continued his walk toward the laughing beauty. 

***********

While Wujin was with the rest of his classmates and Suhyeok was inspecting the corner of the rooftop, Areum was standing beside her close friend, who was sitting on the chair. Being a thoughtful person from an early age, Areum insisted on accompanying her close friend when Namra urged her to join her other friends. 

“How do you know how to do it?” Namra asked as she stared blankly in front of her.

“Do what?” Areum uttered as she glanced over at the class president in confusion.

“Making me return to my own senses.” Namra replied as she averted her eyes to the beauty. The words that left the class president’s mouth had made Areum pause for a moment as the black haired girl tried to process her sentence properly. Blinking her eyes, the black haired girl shrugged her shoulders while Namra frowned her eyebrows in confusion as she was still waiting for her close friend’s answer.

“I actually don’t know.” Areum truthfully answered as she stared at her friend. Then, a few minutes later, the beauty sighed heavily when she remembered the feeling of fighting her own thoughts when she tried to bite Suhyeok earlier. 

“I just knew that by reaching out to you could help you return to your own senses before you did something you’ll regret. You could barely hear us reaching out for you after hearing that one voice in your mind repeatedly telling you what to do. It's the same thing that happened to me when Suhyeok tried to reach out to me.” The beauty mentioned as she held a soft smile on her face. 

“If it wasn’t for him, I would’ve probably bit him.” Areum mentioned as she looked over at Suhyeok who was talking with Cheongsan. “I just don't want you to suffer with the guilt of your consequences like I do, Namra-yah.” The black haired girl stated as she returned her attention back to her close friend.

“Okay. Let’s stop with this heavy stuff before I get too emotional.” The black haired girl cheerfully said when the subject of their talk became heavier to handle for the two intelligent duo. Areum mischievously grinned at Namra when she remembered something she saw at the music room.

“So…you and my cousin, huh?” Areum started their conversation, making the class president’s eyes widened in stunned silence.  

“Huh?” Namra asked, pretending to be dumbfounded with what the beauty was talking about. The grin on Areum’s face quickly disappeared when Namra tried to dodge their conversation. 

“Yah. That’s not going to work on me. I can clearly see your eyes widened in shock when I mentioned about the two of you. Don’t try to fool me. I know you very well, Choi Namra.” Areum muttered in a teasing manner as the black haired girl intensely stared at Namra, whose eyes were looking everywhere except for her close friend, who was standing beside her. 

After a moment of silence, Namra heavily sighed before she shifted her eyes to look at her close friend. “Mh-hmm. I told Wujin that I like him after he confessed,” The class president uttered as waited for her close friend’s reaction. The once cold exterior girl watched as a smile slowly appeared on Areum’s beautiful face.

“That’s good to hear. I’m really happy for you. You know, watching the two of you made me in such pain for a while.” Areum smiled. “It took a lot of my patience to not tell the both of you that you have feelings for each other.”

“Say the girl who obviously hides her feelings to that boy.” Namra chuckled as she motioned her head toward Suhyeok’s direction. The beauty followed where Namra’s motioned her head to and smile at her close friend’s defense to change the subject of their talk.

“Hey, we’re not talking about me. We’re focusing on you. It’s really rare that we talk about you confessing to someone.” Areum stated as she returned her vision back to her close friend.

“Yes, we did.” Namra quickly argued, even though the class president knew that they had never talked about this before the zombies appeared. 

“Umm… No, we didn’t and you know it.” The beauty remarked as she frowned her eyebrows at her close friend. Watching Areum still insisting to talk about her confession with Wujin, Namra groaned in embarrassment and glared at the beauty. Areum laughed when she saw Namra’s embarrassment as the class president continued to glare at her.

“Come on, tell me.” Areum begged as she was excited to hear her close friend’s confession. “You two have kissed right?” The black haired girl eagerly asked.

“Wh…what? How did you know we’ve kissed?” Namra choked on her own words, once again making the beauty giggled at her friend’s action.

“I kinda accidentally saw you leaned your face closer to Wujin.” The black haired girl shyly confessed as she avoided looking at her close friend. “But rest assured. I didn’t see you two kissing. I looked away once I saw you leaned your face to my cousin.” Areum mentioned as both of her hands doing a stop motion in front of her. 

Hearing Areum’s statement, a blush started to creep on Namra’s facial expression as the class president tried to hide her face behind her black hair. 

“Yah. You’re blushing. That’s never happened before. Are you okay?” Areum asked,  placing her hand on Namra’s right shoulder as giggles started to leave from her mouth. 

“I’m not okay. I’m really embarrassed when you started to talk about this. We never talked about this before.” Namra uttered as she shook her head from being flustered.

Overheard her friend’s statement, Areum blinked her eyes in disbelief that her close friend would be flustered about talking about her true emotions. The black haired girl held a small smile as she stared at Namra, who was still hiding her blushing face away from the rest of the students' bodies.

“Hey. You know, you can always tell me anything on your mind. Either it’s small or big details. You don’t need to hide this from me. We’re friends. Close friends. That’s what friends do. We talked and listened to each other.” Areum muttered as she saw Namra lifted her face to stare at her. “So, don’t hesitate to tell me anything, I’ll be here to listen to it. No matter how ridiculous the story may be.” The black haired girl continued. 

Through the corner of the intelligent duos’ eyes, they could see Suhyeok approaching them, specifically Areum after having a conversation with Cheongsan.

Once Suhyeok stood in front of the intelligent duo, the tall boy held a soft smile as he stared at Areum. “Come on, let’s help them make the SOS sign.” He uttered to the two girls as he watched Areum and Namra motioned their heads in agreement.

***********

For the next few minutes, all of the surviving students were searching for any appropriate items on the rooftop to make the SOS sign. Onjo, Hyeryeong, Jimin and Joonyeong were searching through the broken cabinet on the corner of the rooftop while Cheongsan, Wujin and Daesu were searching through the old and broken chairs and table. Suhyeok, Areum and Namra went to the other side of the rooftop to grab some metal planks. Each of the surviving students were able to fetch any suitable materials for them to make the SOS sign.

“Joonyeong-ah, go up there and look.” Cheongsan instructed the boy with glasses to climb up the ladder that was attached to the square-shaped water tanks.

“Hey, be careful.” Hyeryeong uttered to her friend.

“Joonyeong, how does it look from up there?” Jimin asked, once the boy with glasses managed to stand on top of the square-shaped water tank.

“First…” Joonyeong paused as he motioned his hands toward the ‘o’ shape of their SOS sign.

“Yes?” Hyeryoeng uttered as she waited for him to continue.

“The “O” is too narrow.” The boy with glasses commented as his hands gestured to the narrow shape

“He said the “O” is too narrow. Daesu, hand me that long one.” Wujin passed Joonyeong’s feedback to his classmates as he pointed his index finger to the long pipe, so the plump boy could grab it for him.

“Guys, keep it up.” Wujin uttered as he cheered his friends.

“That one goes over there.” Jimin said as she pointed her finger to the place where the long pipe that Cheongsan held should be placed. 

“And the ‘S’ is way too short.” The boy with glasses added when he saw one of the ‘S’ shaped from above the water tank. Both Suhyeok and Areum were adjusting the items on the floor after hearing Joonyeong comments after the boy with glasses saw their sign from above. 

After giving some instruction while his other classmate fixed the items to make a visible SOS sign, Joonyeong was satisfied with the outcome of the sign as he climbed down the ladder to join the rest of his friends. The boy with glasses went to stand beside Daesu and  he stared at their finished sign.

“Come take a look. We did a good job, guys.” Daesu called his classmates as he complimented his friends’ hard work. One by one, the surviving students went to huddle around the two boys. 

Suhyeok gently put his hand on Areum’s back as he guided her toward the group of friends. Once they stood near them, the pair looked at their finished hard work in making the emergency sign.

“Yeah, there’s no way anyone can miss that.” Joonyeong added once he was assured that his classmate had viewed their SOS sign.  

“We did a good job.” Wujin complimented as the surviving students began to spread out on the rooftop. Areum went to stand next to Namra, who was standing behind the big wall that held their school’s logo as Suhyeok went to check the SOS sign in a different view.

“It’s a little crooked, though.” Hyeryeong remarked after spreading away from the group.

***********

“What does SOS mean?” Daesu curiously asked toward Onjo, who seems to have high knowledge in survival skills.

“It’s a distress signal.” The white hoodie replied from her seat.

“I know that but what does it stand for?” The plump boy questioned from his crouching position near their emergency signal.

“It doesn't stand for anything. SOS is just SOS.” Onjo confidently answered as she stared at Daesu’s direction.

“That makes no sense.” The plump boy remarked as he comfortably sat on the floor. Cheongsan lifted his head toward the two friends when he overheard their conversation.

“That’s just how it is. It doesn’t mean anything.” Onjo insisted when Daesu kept searching for the meaning of the distress signal.

“Wait. Then, rescue quickly…speed of save?” Daesu uttered as he shifted his eyes toward Onjo after he tried to resolve the meaning of the SOS code. 

“Why’d you ask me if you don't even believe me?” Onjo argued when the plump boy looked over her for confirmation of his assumption meaning of the distress signal.

“I thought you’d know.” Daesu mentioned.

“I do know. Look it up. You’ll see I’m right.” Onjo claimed as she released her cross arm over her chest in frustration.

“Whatever. How can I look it up? I don’t have my phone.” Daesu remarked as he dusted both of his hands to get rid of the dirt. Then, the plump boy remembered that Areum might have known the true meaning of the distress signal due to the knowledge the beauty received from her grandfather.

“Wait a minute. Areum-ah.” Daesu called as he turned his body to look at the class vice president, who was resting her eyes for a moment as she leaned her head against Suhyeok’s left shoulder. When the black haired girl heard Daesu calling her name, Areum opened her brown eyes and slowly lifted her head from Suhyeok’s shoulder as she looked at the plump boy with questions.

“Do you know the meaning of' 'SOS’? Onjo said ‘SOS’ doesn’t stand for anything.” The plump boy stated.

“Yah!” Onjo yelled in anger. Daesu continued to ignore her as he stared at the class vice president’s replies.

Shifting her eyes toward the white hoodie girl, Areum could visibly see that Onjo was getting irritated when Daesu questioned her survival skills after all the time she helped her classmate to survive from the zombies.

“Umm…” Areum trailed as she returned to look at Daesu, who eagerly waited for her to reply. “Onjo’s right. ‘SOS’ doesn’t stand for anything. It’s only a distress signal without any meaning.” The black haired girl lied as she held a small smile on her expression. Suhyeok, who stood beside her with his right hand on his trouser’s pocket, frowned his eyebrows when he heard the beauty’s lie. 

“Yah, you obviously know the meaning of ‘SOS’. You’re always trying to make me remember it.” Suhyeok mentioned, making the beauty glanced over at him in alarm. The black haired girl quickly elbowed his torso making the tall boy hunched his body over as he held his torso while groaning his pain.

“What? There’s a meaning of ‘SOS’ signal? Why did you lie?” Daesu asked when he overheard Suhyeok, causing the plump boy to immediately rise up from his sitting position. Areum closed her eyes as she signed heavily before opening her brown eyes and shifted her eyes toward the plump boy with a guilty look.

“Sorry, Deasu-ah. I didn’t mean to lie.” Areum muttered in guilt as she sneaked a glance over at the white hoodie girl who was still sitting on the chair.

“So, what’s the real meaning of ‘SOS’ then?” Daesu asked as he looked over the class vice president.

“Save Our Souls.” Areum answered. “That’s the meaning of ‘SOS’. Just like Onjo said, it’s an emergency signal indicating that we’re in danger and need help quickly. Not many people know the acronym of ‘SOS’.” 

“Then, how did you know?” The plump boy questioned in confusion.

“Our grandfather is a retired military officer. The director of the military officer, to be precise.” Wujin stated on Areum’s behalf. “So, we kind of knew these things a bit. Well, Areum knows more than I do since she lives with our grandparents.” The male cousin shrugged his shoulders as he continued telling his friends. 

“Wait…so, you also knew about these things too? Your sister too?” Daesu asked in disbelief when he learned new things about his best friend.

“Mm-hmm.” Wujin hummed as he nodded his head.

“Yah! Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Daesu whined and complained as he looked over at his best friend. 

“You didn’t ask me. It’s not that important.” Wujin uttered as he waved his hand to the plump boy to dismiss the small issues. Through the corner of his eyes, Suhyeok spotted Areum was biting her lips as she tried to stop her giggle after watching the two best friend’s interaction. 

“It is important. I didn’t know you’ve learned these…skills.” The plump boy exaggeratedly mentioned while motioning his hands toward the sign they made. Wujin rolled his eyes when he watched his best friend’s dramatic action. “You should’ve told me, brother-in-law. We’re best friends and soon I’ll be your brother in law.” Deasu uttered.

“Fine. Next time I’ll tell you.” Wujin claimed, making the plump boy grinned in joy when he heard his best friend’s words. “And please stop bringing my sister onto this. I’ve already told you not to like my sister.” The male cousin mentioned when he fully knew that the plump boy had a massive crush on his sister, Jang Hari after witnessing her archery competition.

Suhyeok silently chuckled when he saw Areum tried to calm her laughter by placing her palm on her mouth. Then, the tall boy shifted his attention from the beauty to the rest of his friends, only to see they were silently laughing and giggling at the two boys. 

“Hey, I can’t help it. My feelings towards your sister are genuine. It’s like she captured my heart using her archery.” Daesu said as his eyes lightened when he mentioned Wujin’s sister.

“Out of all the many female students in this school, why did you have to choose my sister?” Wujin mumbled to himself as Namra comforted him by placing her hand on his shoulder. The rest of the students’ bodies silently chuckled when they heard Wujin’s loud voice when he mumbled to himself

“The sun’s about to set. Let’s start a fire.” Onjo mentioned when she looked up to the sky.

***********

The sun began to set when the surviving students collected the firewood clattered through the rooftop. The students began to huddle in a circle as the sound of wood rasping could be heard through their ears. Both Areum and Namra were standing near the group of students who were sitting in a circle and watching Onjo try to make a fire by creating a friction against the fire wood.

The class president turned her head away from her classmates to Areum, who looked amused watching their friends' hard work to create a fire. “Areum-ah. Should we tell them that I have a lighter?” Namra whispered quietly as her hand held the lighter in her skirt’s pocket.

“No, not yet.” Areum replied in a quiet tone, fully aware that her close friend had a lighter hiding in her skirt pocket ever since the beauty caught Namra smoking in ninth grade. The class president frowned her eyebrows in confusion until Namra spotted  Areum’s eyes lit with mischief as she continued to look at their friends attempting to make fire. 

“We’re just going to enjoy watching them make the fire manually. It’ll be interesting if they manage to make the fire without the lighter.” The black haired girl smiled as Namra silently chuckled and shook her head at her friend’s mischievousness. 

“If they can’t make the fire, we’ll inform them about the lighter, okay?” The beauty added as she turned her head to Namra and smiled at her. 

“The sun’s going to set.” Areum heard Joonyeong mutter beside Onjo, making the intelligent duo focus back at Onjo, who rapidly rubbed the wooden stick against the wooden plank.

“I think it’s going to work.” Wujin commented as he observed Onjo’s action. Feeling exhausted after minutes of rubbing her hands against the wooden stick, Onjo let out a frustrated sigh as she put down the stick on top of the plank.

“Next.” Onjo uttered as she moved away from her seat, so the next person could sit near the wooden plank to make the fire.

“Already?” Daesu asked in shock. Onjo and Joonyeong exchanged places as the boy with glasses could start making the fire.

“Alright. Let’s do this.” Joonyeong mumbled as he sat in between Suhyeok and Daesu. The boy with the glasses then began to rub both of his palms to make the stick twirled against the plank. 

“Yah, you’ll get tired. Slow down.” Daesu commented when he saw Joonyeong twirling the stick in fast motion.

“The fire won’t start if he does it slowly.” Wujin remarked as he slapped his hand against the plump boy’s arm, making the plump boy look at his best friend with realisation across his face. 

“Do it faster.” Daesu instructed as he returned his gaze back at the twirling stick. “Faster. Faster. I said faster, come on!” He commented as he made the boy with glasses stressed with his order, making Joonyeong look at him annoyed while rubbing the stick on the wood.

“Twist it faster!” Daesu encouraged his friend. Rubbing the stick in a fast motion, Joonyeong suddenly stopped rubbing the stick as he groaned in pain.

“Did it cramp up?” Daesu asked as both Suhyeok and himself looked at Joonyeong’s cramped hand.

“My palm. I can’t do it.” Joonyeong muttered, frowned his eyebrows in pain as he massaged his palm to ease the cramp.

“I’ll do it. Step aside.” The plump boy informed the boy with glasses. The two boys exchanged places and Daesu began to twist the stick in slow motion with his eyes closed as if he was praying. All of the surviving students began to look at the plump boy in disbelief when he started to twist the stick on the wooden plank. 

“Hey, should we kill him?” Wujin suggested to Joonyeong when he saw his best friend slow motion in an attempt to make fire. Areum, on the other hand, was silently giggling behind her hand when watching Daesu’s ridiculous action.

“Are you praying?” Joonyeong asked in annoyance.

“Stop praying. Try to twist it…Get lost.” Wujin claimed as he began to move in front of the wooden plank. Deasu stopped twisting the stick as he switched places with his best friend.

“It’s hard. It won’t work.” Daesu stated as he tried to give simple reasoning to his friends. Disregarding the plump boy’s reasoning, Wujin immediately rotated the stick in fast motion until a faint smoke appeared.

“Isn’t that smoke?” Someone beside Wujin questioned.

“Hey. It’s smoke.” Wujin mentioned when he spotted the smoke appearing in front of his eyes. 

“Hold on.” Suhyeok said as he bent his body closer to the wooden plank to blow the smoke in order to produce a fire. Both Areum and Namra curiously sneaked a glance over at the male students if they were able to make the fire. 

“Please. Come on.” Joonyeong prayed.

“Come on, blow. Blow on it already!” Daesu urged as Suhyeok kept blowing onto the smoke.

“Did it catch on fire? Suhyeok?” Wujin asked when he could not see as Suhyeok leaned over to blow the smoke on the wooden plank. 

“Please. I’m begging you.” The boy with glasses continued to pray.

“Ah, Damn it. Fuck.” Suhyeok cursed as he closed his eyes in frustration. Once they watched the scene in front of them, the intelligent duo instantly looked at each other, knowing well that now would be the perfect time to tell their friends about the lighter. Areum nodded her head in agreement as they glanced back to their friends, only to see Suhyeok has already rubbed his palms with the stick to create more friction. 

“Hey.” Namra called as the class president tried to catch their attention. “Hey.” She called once again in a loud voice as she managed to grab their attention. 

All of their friends instantly looked over at the intelligent duo when they heard the class president called them. The group of friends watched as Namra fished out something from her skirt pocket.

“Just use this.” Namra mentioned as she extended her hand toward them. Cheongsan, who was closest to Namra and Areum, spotted a lighter on the class president’s hand. Suhyeok sighed in exhaustion when he managed to spot the lighter on Namra’s hand aa Wujin quickly looked at her dumbfoundedly. Areum quickly turned her head to the side, in an attempt to hide her amusement when she caught her friends’ expression dumbfounded faces.

“Well, I smoke sometimes.” The class president explained when she spotted all of their expressions, especially Wujin’s.

“You had it this whole time.” Daesu commented as he gaped at the class president in disbelief.

“You don’t want it?” Namra asked when no one reached the lighter from her hand. Seeing no one taking the lighter from her hand, Wujin instantly went to take it from the girl he likes.

“Light it.” Daesu urged once his best friend grabbed the lighter. The surviving students sighed in relief when they managed to get fire just as the sun was setting down.

***********

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