As I said before, my parents are devout Christians. Up until before puberty hit, they dragged me to the children’s service at church every Sunday. Reading the Bible and saying grace before meals were mandatory too.
That forced cradle faith only bred resentment once I hit the storm-and-stress phase of middle school. No matter what happened, it was always “The Lord watches over us,” and whether things went well or badly, they kept looking for that same damn Lord, so religion did nothing but feed my rebellious streak.
In the end, even when my parents threatened to cut off my allowance, I sprawled out in the living room and protested that I wasn’t going to church anymore. They had a hell of a time dealing with a son who refused to do what they wanted, but eventually they accepted my declaration that I had no religion.
“Fine. If you hate it that much, you don’t have to go to church. But Iru, promise me one thing.”
While I was inwardly celebrating the fact that I wouldn’t have to go to church on Sundays anymore and could go to a PC bang with my friends and play MapleStory, my father grabbed me where I was lying on the floor and earnestly warned me.
“Promise me you won’t invite in any god other than the Lord.”
“What does that even mean? A god other than the Lord? Why would I invite something like that in?”
“Can you promise me?”
It wasn’t exactly unusual for my dad to say weird things. But even my mom standing beside him looked serious, so I obediently nodded.
If something gets invited in just because I try to invite it, can you even call that a god? That’s a demon.
Back then, I think I actually found demons slicker than gods. That’s just how it is when you’re in the second year of middle school. Everyone likes demons, death, ruin, monsters… stuff like that.
Anyway, all I could think about was going to the PC bang with my friends and gaming, so I was just happy my parents hadn’t actually cut off my allowance like they threatened. I didn’t think too deeply about my dad’s suspicious words.
“You really… want to go out with me?”
That was why I had completely forgotten what my father told me, right up until “Minsu” asked me that question back.
I hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t impossible that “Minsu” was a demon. Or a god.
For one thing, “Minsu” controlled one entire world—this anomaly called Dowon High School. Whether that authority came from being the chairman or something else, according to him, if he went outside the anomaly, the other horrifying things in here would come out into the world too.
Maybe he wasn’t a god in reality, but inside this anomaly, couldn’t he at least be called one?
More than anything, I was the one who’d suggested we go out together, but the second “Minsu” asked me back, a cold feeling ran down the back of my neck so sharply it almost hurt. If he really escapes Dowon High School by following me out, something terrible will happen. I had no proof at all, but in my head a red warning light started flashing.
“Sure, like you said, maybe stepping out for a little while would be fine.”
“……”
“Just for a little while… even if the chairman steps away, the school will still keep running, right? What do you think?”
Even though I’d just been handed a chance to get out of the chairman’s office, my throat closed up for a moment. Promise me you won’t invite in any god other than the Lord. My father’s words buzzed in my head like a warning siren.
“Then sh all we go ou t to gether?”
For the first time, “Minsu’s” voice, which had sounded completely normal this whole time, warped for an instant into something like the voices of the other strange beings I’d met inside Dowon High School.
“Minsu.”
“Yes?”
I steadied myself as much as I could. Instinct told me “Minsu” was something that absolutely could not be allowed out into the world. But if I wanted to leave this school, I needed his help. Otherwise I wouldn’t even get out of the chairman’s office.
“Do you know when people… right, when things that aren’t people get to take a vacation?”
“A vacation?”
“You haven’t done a single bit of school-related work since I got here.”
“But just a moment ago, you said I could at least step out for some fresh air…”
“You only get to step out for fresh air after you’ve dealt with at least most of the work piling up. You wouldn’t know. No matter how fun it is, if you’re out playing before you finish what you’re supposed to do, it weighs on you the whole time.”
“……”
“Two days before midterms, going to a PC bang and playing games? Of course that’s fun. But when you get home afterward, all it leaves you with is emptiness and despair. It’s no different from stepping out for some fresh air and ending up in the ER with the flu.”
“What’s a PC bang?”
“Well, shit, that’s a problem. If you don’t even know what a PC bang is, how are you going to enjoy yourself properly out there?”
Just keep talking.
Like when I tricked the teacher, I started rambling whatever came to mind. Thankfully, “Minsu” listened to me with a surprising degree of seriousness.
“So listen, first just send me outside, and I’ll pick out stuff for us to do together. Let’s go on a date. Then even if you don’t know what a PC bang is, you’ll still be able to have fun.”
“Really?”
“Of course. So first, you go take care of your school business. You said you need to find a new teacher anyway.”
“I can find a teacher right now, actually…”
“I told you I’m not doing it. I have no calling for education. Teachers are supposed to have good grades, and my transcript looks like a field someone ought to be planting rice in.”
“No, not you. There’s still one more.”
“What?”
“There’s one more in the cafeteria.”
The fact that there had been four of us when we came to this school suddenly came back to me. I’d naturally assumed Park Jihye, who ran the second she saw the teacher, had escaped.
“Now that I think about it, maybe I should hire her as a temporary teacher.”
I hauled myself unsteadily off the chairman’s office sofa.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“As far as I know, she has no intention of getting a teaching certificate either. And her grades aren’t that good.”
That was wrong. Park Jihye’s grades were good. I didn’t know whether she had any intention of going into teaching, but still.
I wasn’t all that close to Park Jihye, but now that I knew she was still inside Dowon High School, I couldn’t exactly leave her behind.
If I did, she was obviously going to die. And judging from the way “Minsu” talked, even if she didn’t die, there was a good chance something worse than death would happen to her. The fourth-floor third-years tore teachers apart and ate them, and the way they talked was all wrong too.
And the cafeteria? In a normal school that might be the most popular place in the building, but inside an anomaly it was obviously going to be one of the worst.
“And don’t you know the person’s own consent matters most in hiring? These days forcing someone into a job is illegal.”
“I see….”
“So first, let’s bring her here.”
At my suggestion that we bring Park Jihye to the chairman’s office and ask what she wanted, “Minsu” smiled softly.
“You’re trying to help me with my work?”
No, I’m trying to save the person who came in here with me.
“You’re so kind. If only yo u would become our teacher after all!”
…For a moment, “Minsu’s” face twisted. It went right back to normal soon enough, but still.
Even if teaching were the last job left in the world, I should never become a teacher.
***
Amazingly enough, Park Jihye was alive.
Honestly, I’d been seriously worried that “Minsu” would bring back nothing but a corpse from the cafeteria, or that even if she were alive, something would be missing from her body. But outwardly, Park Jihye looked mostly intact.
“I’ll never leave ■■■ behind again….”
“Park Jihye.”
“I’ll eat all of it, I’ll eat all of it….”
There were traces of vomit around her mouth, and she kept trying to chew on something, babbling irrationally and begging forgiveness for leaving behind what looked like food…
It was obvious she’d gone through something in the cafeteria and come out mentally shattered. I hadn’t been down there myself, so I couldn’t say for sure, but apparently the things in the cafeteria served meals even to outsiders who weren’t students. It didn’t seem likely those meals were anything close to normal.
“Park Jihye!”
At this rate you’re going to get forced into becoming a teacher!
I grabbed Park Jihye and pulled her upright, since she kept trying to crawl across the floor. Looking closer, there were bruises on her knees, so she must have been moving around on all fours in the cafeteria.
The moment I clamped down hard on her wrist, a trace of reason flickered back into Park Jihye’s vacant eyes.
“H-huh….”
“Are you coming back to your senses?”
“U-uurgh, bleegh.”
The second she came back to herself, Park Jihye immediately vomited onto the floor.
Something was squirming around in another person’s vomit, and that made me gag too. Thankfully, “Minsu” cleaned the filthy floor of the chairman’s office only a few seconds later.
“Hic, uhh—Mom….”
“I’m not your mom.”
“K-Kang Iru… save me.”
“I said I will, so stop crying and stand up properly first.”
I never thought the exorcism skills I’d used once or twice in high school would still work here.
During entrance exam season, there were always one or two people who acted like they were possessed by some evil spirit, and those kinds of people usually came back to their senses whenever they came into contact with me or stayed near me.
So I’d always assumed they were just attention-seeking freaks with some ridiculous hell-themed gimmick… but seeing it work even on Park Jihye, who had really been crawling around like something had possessed her, was unexpected.
The moment Park Jihye came back to her senses, her whole body started trembling violently, and then she passed out on the spot. It didn’t seem like any more contact would mean anything, so only then did I let go of the wrist I’d been gripping so tightly.
“So you really aren’t human after all?”
At some point, while I was too distracted by Park Jihye crawling all over the floor to notice, “Minsu” had come up right behind me. Maybe beings that weren’t human still breathed after all, because I could feel breath against the rim of my ear.