𝒙. tears of the sky

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"Take your hands off her!" Cheong-San's shout instantly alert the others of trouble, the group startlingly turning toward the scene in rapid succession.

You try to shake your head at Cheong-San, cautioning him that's it's a trap to no avail. It's glaringly obvious Gwi-Nam is after Cheong-San and not you, but exploiting you as bait would without a doubt result in Cheong-San making questionable choices before thinking them through first.

"But I don't want to," Gwi-Nam drawls mockingly, predatorily moving behind you to wrap an arm around your shoulders, pinning to you his chest in a vice-like hold.

"Cheong-San, don't..." you intreat, begging him with your eyes. "He's luring you."

"I know he is, but I can't leave you with him!"

On-Jo looks back and forth, considering whether she should keep her hold on Cheong-San's hand or release him into a fight she knows he can't win. You hear Gwi-Nam chuckling nauseatingly maniacal by your ear, and bile rises within you, your anger mounting.

"What's so bad about me, huh?"

"Everything, bastard!" Veins protrude from Cheong-San's neck as he grows exponentially livid, eyes burning with animosity.

"Are you sure you don't want to be wiser in choosing your words?" Gwi-Nam smirks at Cheong-San. "Whether she lives or dies, it's on you."

You're aware that your friends have the bully surrounded, but there's no room to move forward for fear of putting you in a further precarious situation.

"No one come closer," you advise. "He doesn't want anything to do with me."

"How confident are you that I don't want anything to do with you?" Gwi-Nam moves his free hand to bend your neck harshly, nearly snapping it.

Your heart pounds in your ears as you can't move an inch. Even if you wanted to save yourself, Gwi-Nan's inhumane strength far trumps all ounce of power in your body. You don't stand a chance.

"Chae-Wol!" Su-Hyeok calls out, fists clenched at his sides as he attempts to advance, only to stop short in horror when Gwi-Nam lowers his face toward your neck, teeth bared and ready to bite.

"Should I turn her?"

"No, fuck!" Cheong-San bellows. "What do you want?!"

"Give me your eye, asshole. Give me your eye or she dies!"

"Don't listen!" you yell back, remaining obstinate despite being held hostage. "He's not going to keep his promise anyway afterward. He'll just kill us all!"

"We can't stand and watch him take your life in front of us!" Wu-Jin argues, distressed.

"Then, sit and watch." Gwi-Nam swiftly changes his arm from its place on your shoulder to your neck, turning to face you with his back to your friends, fingers compressing harshly.

"Su-Hyeok..." you whimper, catching his terror-filled eyes a few feet away, coughing when you feel your trachea begin to narrow, constricting so rapidly that it restricts your ability to breathe normally as you limply claw at Gwi-Nam's hand in the midst of his effort to asphyxiate you.

"Oh...I see," Gwi-Nam sneers as he looks down at your necklace, grip tightening around your throat. "The day Su-Hyeok left our group to become the bad boy turned good, he was wearing this too."

Before long, you can feel your oxygen reserve running out, the edges of your vision growing hazy, and the distant shouts around you sluggishly diminish into silence.

Is this the end?

"No!"

You're not aware of whose voice the exclamation belongs to, but in the next second, you're tossed roughly down to the ground, On-Jo landing with a thud on her side next to you.

Wheezing, you try to push yourself up into a sitting position, but it's futile as your lungs burn to get the air lost momentarily back into your body. You're bent in half hacking, worn and tired, dry heaving with your head to the floor. On-Jo crawls the short distance to you and helps you up even as she's holding onto her hurt hip, face in a perpetual grimace of pain.

She clutches your hand firmly in hers, like it's an anchor that could tether her to the recesses of a better reality as the two of you observe with trepidation Gwi-Nam and Cheong-San scuffling.

"Damn it!" Gwi-Nam swears as he can't succeed in gouging out Cheong-San's eye with the other boys meddling in and dragging him away.

You spot Ji-Min and Hyo-Ryung standing on the farthest side from you and On-Jo, also clinging onto one another, fear in their eyes. Nam-Ra promptly runs over to you, scanning for any severe injuries, and not finding any, she links her arm through yours after in support.

Dae-Su and Wu-Jin flank Cheong-San on each side, pulling him to his feet as Su-Hyeok jumps in and brawls with Gwi-Nam, sending relentless kicks. The two are neck and neck until Gwi-Nam slams both fists down onto Su-Hyeok's back, followed by a ruthless and fatal booting into his stomach that sends him flying through the air into an assemblage of metal chairs situated near the rooftop ledge.

"Su-Hyeok!" You remove yourself from the girls' handhold and run to his side as he crumples into a lifeless heap, gasping for air. He's in too much agony to reply, so you crouch down, stooping by him in order to pull his head into your lap. "Please, be okay," you choke out, in tears. As you frame his face in both of your hands, he shakily, and with a lot of effort, is able to raise his hand up to your own, cupping it as he wipes off your tears.

"Don't...cry," he struggles to get out, spluttering as each word is punctuated by a rasp.

You reach one hand up to take his from your face and bring it back down to his chest, clasping it apprehensively.

Joon-Yeong ambles over in the meantime, assessing the both of you as you all huddle together in small, separated groups, bruised but not yet beaten.

Gwi-Nam stands up effortlessly after every attack, eyeing the trio of Cheong-San, Dae-Su, and Wu-Jin in the middle. "Who the hell are all you dipshits?"

"We could ask the same about you! Han Maeum Dongari? One Heart Club...my ass," Dae-Su snaps, ridiculing. "You don't even have half a heart."

Gwi-Nam stuffs his hands in his pockets after zipping up his jacket relaxedly, putting weight on one leg in a supposedly confident stance. "Don't you know me?" At the outrageously suffocating silence, his annoyance seeps through, bordering on fury. "How the fuck do you not know who I am?"

"I know you," Cheong-San grits through his teeth, taunting. "I said it once, and I'll say it again as many times as it takes to get it through your thick skull. You're the bullies' servant."

"Call me that again, I dare you," he spits out at Cheong-San. "You'll wind up dead."

Impulsive, Cheong-San barrels on. "You were never a powerful thug or a model student, and currently, you're neither a zombie nor a human. Then and now, not a thing has changed," Cheong-San pauses before going in for the kill. "You're worth nothing."

Gwi-Nam clicks his teeth together, miming chewing and simply smiles. Somehow, that's creepier than when he's not. "Merely murdering you isn't enough." At his words, Ji-Min takes a step forward but Hyo-Ryung holds her back, keeping her friend in place before she does something rash. "I need to scrape out both of your eyes and throw you to the zombies before I'm satisfied." He nods to himself, content with his scheme. "Yeah, that'll do."

"What, do you have a cyclops fetish or something?" Wu-Jin mocks.

Gwi-Nam is unbothered at the verbal attack, gesturing vaguely to all those standing around with an offensive flick of his hand, shooing. "Everyone but Cheong-San, feel free to run away unless you want to lie down your life next to him." No one moves, even as he allows time for decisions to be made. The groups' resolve only serves to further fuel his hatred. "If death is what you want..." he roars, lunging.

He rams into Cheong-San, almost knocking the latter off his feet if it weren't for Dae-Su, Wu-Jin, and Ji-Min jumping in all at once to prevent additional catastrophe.

Joon-Yeong snatches a ligneous block beside you and runs into the melee determinedly. "Out of the way!" he hollers as he approaches, endeavoring to bludgeon Gwi-Nam on the head. Albeit his efforts however, the assault serves no real purpose as the wood chips, leaving Gwi-Nam unharmed. With the other three dangling onto his limbs and Cheong-San holding him across his middle, he can't retaliate with full force. Still, Gwi-Nam's foot makes critical contact with Joon-Yeong's torso, casting him rearward so hard his glasses clatter to the ground.

A single flip of Gwi-Nam's hand as he retracts his arm throws everyone in different directions, the sheer force of his might undeniable. Wu-Jin is airborne for a moment before gravity drags his body to collide with Dae-Su's, both knocked out cold together from the impact.

As everyone lays sprawled in disarray and with varying levels of injuries, Cheong-San staggers to his feet. Punching Gwi-Nam in the face with no hesitation turns out to be the wrong move as Gwi-Nam returns more in payback, pummeling his enemy to a pulp. It's no surprise when he once again, drives Cheong-San's form to skid across the cold rooftop deck, clearing a straight path toward where the girls are now hanging onto one another for dear life in the corner.

With your assistance, Su-Hyeok is finally able to stand upright again, teetering while getting his bearings together, remarkably quick to recover. You know he can fend for himself, but it still pains you every time to leave him alone in order to protect yourself when he tells you to. Reluctantly, you part ways to stand guard in front of the other girls, blocking them should anything escalate more than it already has.

While Gwi-Nam's still distracted, wanting to end the girls first, Su-Hyeok succeeds in sidling up behind him to fully swing multiple wooden slabs into Gwi-Nam's nape. Much to everyone's disappointment, it has no enduring effect, and he turns around to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Su-Hyeok, the two sparring with their bare fists alone.

Su-Hyeok isn't the type to back down easily, matching Gwi-Nam's predictable moves tit-for-tat before Gwi-Nam resorts to strangulation, just as he had done to you earlier.

Although disadvantaged, Su-Hyeok boxes the inner juncture of Gwi-Nam's elbow, pressing into his forearm to get him to release his hold. When that doesn't work, Su-Hyeok utilizes the throttlehold on him as leverage, rocking both of his feet up and off the floor to strike Gwi-Nam in the abdomen, throwing him off kilter.

Gwi-Nam's spine curves in on itself, suspended in bridge formation but it doesn't break, aside from the grotesque sound of his spinal cord contorting and cracking. Hoping to get the upper hand at least even once, Su-Hyeok slams his instep down into where his opponent's neck joins his shoulder, but ultimately, even that fails. Whatever twists, fractures, or dislocates, magically heals for Gwi-Nam, no medical intervention needed.

Beside you, you hear occasional sounds of bones bending, but before you can register what's happening, Nam-Ra steps out from behind you, rapidly plunging a wooden stick into the burning flames, dousing it in the hot cinders as if she were going to brand someone. She walks with tenacity toward Gwi-Nam without any fear and clubs him, only to be slapped straight down to the floor.

Regardless, Nam-Ra crawls as he turns away disinterested, wielding a splintered piece from her botched shot earlier, and stabs him with the sharpest point, digging in clear through his patella.

"Let go, fuck!" Gwi-Nam tries to yank her off, resorting to slinging her face-first down to the ground, but Nam-Ra is hell-bent on clinging onto his leg. Rather than having her restrict his movements, he yanks her up roughly by her hair, wrenching her by the back of her neck to draw her toward him. "You smell nice," he leers, taking in her morphed appearance. The shove and series of slaps she sends his way is well-deserved. Unfortunately, he still far overpowers her, tugging a fistful of her hair to jerk her head back, forcing her to yield. "We're on the same side, can't you see?" He pushes her closer to him, degrading. "Go on, you can smell me."

"Get lost," Nam-Ra seethes, heaving his body toward the far end of the rooftop.

Slowly but surely coming back to their senses, Wu-Jin and Dae-Su lean on one another for support, unsteadily refocusing on the setting in time to see Su-Hyeok square up with Gwi-Nam for the third and, with any luck, last time.

One hand clenched in Su-Hyeok's shirt collar, Gwi-Nam forces him backward, suspending him over the ridge. You race over, trying to use the momentum and shove Gwi-Nam off the roof, but he's immovable like a boulder. On your final attempt, Nam-Ra comes to your aid, combining her strength with yours to hurl Gwi-Nam downward.

No one bothers to check on him, hoping that from this many stories up, perhaps the threat of him coming back will have been eliminated permanently.

Nam-Ra hugs you in relief then, and you pat her on the back, smoothing down her messed up hair. She doesn't linger, opting to wander away in insolation until she returns back to a semblance of normalcy, and you watch her go, forlorn that Gwi-Nam subjected her to what she is now.

Su-Hyeok sinks to the ground, winded, back against the bricked wall, half from aftershock and half from exhaustion. You approach and squat down in front of him as he rakes his eyes over you for any signs of harm. Su-Hyeok's lips turn down in a frown as he tenderly places both hands on either side of your neck, moving your hair away to lightly trail supple fingers over the marks from Gwi-Nam's prior throttling, the imprints yet to fade.

Behind you, the group is still reeling, battered and bruised all over, worser for wear than ever. To think, one being can cause this much damage.

Eventually, you all congregate around the fire once more, everyone lost in their own thoughts as they tend to their less-than-light injuries.

Joon-Yeong fiddles with the frame of his glasses, struggling to fix what is now beyond repair. The lens has been pulverized to bits, and no matter how resolute he is in restoring it on sheer will alone, it's ineffective. Joon-Yeong without his glasses is an unfamiliar spectacle, the accessory having been a staple piece of his look over the years. Instead, scratches from the shards of glass are etched on his face, a reminder of what transpired mere moments ago. "That's Gwi-Nam?" Joon-Yeong mutters, incredulous. "Damn, what an introduction, and a horrible first impression at that." He shakes his head and throws what's left remaining of his glasses to the side, giving up seeing it completely broken. Exasperated, he turns to Cheong-San. "Didn't you say you and Chae-Wol saw him get bitten?"

"I don't know anymore," Cheong-San mumbles, rotating his still sore arms, face scrunched in discomfort.

"What if he climbs up here again?" Wu-Jin probes, anxious.

"The asshole is one of our concerns," Ji-Min pipes up, "but honestly, I'm scared of Nam-Ra too. Didn't you see how she fought with Gwi-Nam?"

"If it wasn't for her, we all would've been a lot more than just scared, Ji-Min." You take a peek at Nam-Ra, but the girl is sitting ramrod straight, staying absolutely silent.

"It's reasonable to assume that both Gwi-Nam and Nam-Ra are hambies," Dae-Su states matter-of-factly, not great at reading the room even as Hyo-Ryung hits him.

"Don't group them together," she scolds.

Ji-Min fixes her gaze on Nam-Ra. "You're really okay, right? You won't hurt us, right?"

"Ji-Min," you warn, but Nam-Ra pats your arm lightly.

"Will you believe me even if I say I won't?"

"Must you talk like that?" Ji-Min verbalizes bitterly. "Can't you at least try to convince us?

We're going to be sticking together from here on out, so the least we can do is develop trust."

"All my life, I've done nothing but study. It wasn't because I was naΓ―ve, but rather, I was a coward; a coward who was scared of her grades tanking to the disappointment of her mom, and a coward who was hesitant to make friends too." She pauses in her venting and sighs. "My mom always asked after you guys for all the wrong reasons: how well you did academically, what your parents do for a living, and how large your houses are. For the longest time, all I knew were those materialistic and superficial things. I never thought I'd get to sit around a fire with all of you. There's a first for everything, and I'll cherish this memory." Much more quietly, Nam-Ra voices, "If we get out of here, let's gather again like this. I really hope we can."

You pat her hand and nod, reassuring.

"Of course, we can," On-Jo promises. "If anyone lights a fire, it'll be our own secret signal. We'll come see one another."

"Prez, I'm sorry. I was wrong," Ji-Min apologizes guiltily.

Nam-Ra faintly smiles and accepts without much thought.

"Oh?" Dae-Su intones, finding the visual amusing. "This is the first time I'm seeing her smile. Not that it's not nice," he backpedals. "It's just a bit of an odd sight."

"Can you not let one good moment last?" Hyo-Ryung elbows him, displeased.

"What now?"

"Tsk, why don't you two just go out?" Wu-Jin clucks his tongue. "What are you both being so loud for?"

"Are you mad?" Hyo-Ryung admonishes, at the same time that Dae-Su fires, "Are you crazy?"

The two swivel their heads toward one another, stunned at their simultaneous responses, before scooting away in revulsion.

You feel a tug on your arm as Nam-Ra pulls at your cardigan sleeve. "Don't you hear that?"

Worried, you try to perk your ears, though your senses are nowhere near as heightened as hers.

"Hear what?"

"What is it?" Hyo-Ryung questions, voice wavering toward the end, her speech pattern tapering off. "Is someone here again?"

"They're coming."

At those two words from Nam-Ra, everyone looks around speedily, heads twirling in every direction to skim the area in full.

Cheong-San walks over to the edge of the rooftop, examining. "I don't see anything," he announces, before looking off into the distance, narrowing his eyes to see better in the dark. "Wait...a chopper!"

True to his word, the loud whirring of the helicopter's propellers as it flies toward the school is hard to miss. Without another word, everyone straightaway runs to seize wooden slabs and douse them in the fire, creating makeshift torches to wave around for enhanced visibility from aerial view.

Perhaps the celebrations were in haste, hugs going around endlessly much too soon, as once the airliner hovers overhead and soldiers grapple down, multiple guns are aimed at the group with no explanation.

Not caring about the threat, Cheong-San approaches anyway, only to halt when one of the soldiers places his finger on the trigger.

"Get down! All of you!"

Dae-Su raises his arms in a show of surrender, more confused than afraid. "Ahjussi, please save us." Only Dae-Su could speak informally to a person with a weapon for murder at the ready.

Disregarding him, the soldier continues to bark out orders. "On the ground,

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