"...What did you just say? Bastard, what did you call us?"
"What did she just say?"
For a moment, the parents fell silent, as if they couldn't believe what they had just heard.
Amid the silence, one mother immediately glared at her.
"What did you just say? Repeat it! Say that again!"
"You heard it, I've already said what needed to be said."
"W...what?"
With a cold, indifferent expression, Mrs. Choi Jungim replied as she lowered her microphone.
An instant later, the parents' faces turned red with anger.
Now, the target of their fury shifted from the principal to Mrs. Choi Jungim.
They immediately moved forward from below the stage toward the judges' seats.
"Bastards?! She just called all of us bastards!"
"Hey, you! Do you know who I am?! Outside of here I'm a corporate executive! Do you think I'm weak just because I came here as a student's parent?!"
"Give us an explanation! Right now! Hurry!"
And among them, Gyeong-won's father looked the angriest.
His face was red with rage as he stood at the front, pointing furiously at the teacher.
"Hey, you crazy woman! Get down here! Come on, get down here if you've got the guts!"
"No, bastard."
"Is that so? Then I'll come up there myself! Just wait, I'm coming up right now!"
Pointing at her threateningly, Gyeong-won's father placed one foot onto the stage.
But at that very moment, the small and short-statured teacher Choi Jung-im suddenly jumped from the judges' table and—without hesitation—kicked him hard with her high heels.
SMACK!
"Don't come up here, bastard!"
"Agh! You crazy woman...!"
Gyeong-won's father, who had just stepped onto the stage, staggered backward and fell.
Only then did the other club members turn toward me with pale faces.
Jinhee tilted her head and asked:
"Hey... what did you do? Why is that person suddenly going crazy?"
"...I didn't do anything. She's the one who started it."
I shook my head while rubbing my chin.
Then Sunah, looking confused, asked:
"Th-that person... who is he? Is that... Gyeong-won's dad?"
"....."
Gyeong-won merely stared with his mouth hanging open, frozen by the chaos unfolding before him.
In the end, I nodded and answered.
"Yeah. That's Gyeong-won's father."
"Oh my Goodness..."
The club members were still in shock.
This was the first time they had seen the person who had been desperately defending us all this time.
They still seemed unable to fully process what was happening.
"You're seriously insane! Huh?!"
"I'm calling the police! Somebody call the police right now!"
One parent immediately pulled out a phone.
The other adults began shouting even louder as they tried to climb onto the stage.
Meanwhile, teacher Choi Jungim only looked more annoyed, kicking any parent who attempted to come up.
"Don't come up here. Don't come up here, you damn dogs."
"Ugh!"
"Ow!"
"Hey, you crazy woman, get down here! Right now!"
"If you're a parent, then act like one. Stop pretending you know everything and interfering in teachers' affairs!"
"What did you just say?!"
Watching the parents completely lose control, the students below the stage started whispering among themselves.
"Damn... I think she's actually lost her mind."
"She's not drunk, is she? Or did someone pay her to attack parents?"
Some students whispered in disbelief.
Others couldn't stop grinning.
Seeing adults who normally looked dignified now pushing and arguing like children was simply too ridiculous.
I almost laughed too, muttering "This is insane..." to myself, but stopped when I remembered Gyeong-won was sitting beside me.
Fortunately, he was too focused on the spectacle to notice.
At the end of the row, Hayoon wore a mocking smile and muttered,
"Wowww..."
At least Deokhun and the others had fairly normal expressions of shock.
I could only watch this "middle-class battle" while suppressing a smile.
"Wow... it's actually gotten this bad?"
I already knew they were a little unhinged.
I just didn't expect them to be this extreme.
"Thanks, by the way. You went ahead and completely lost your mind in public."
"Get down here! Get down here, you lunatic!"
"No! No, you bastard! No!"
"Good grief...!"
"Ugh...! She just kicked me! Everyone saw that, right?!"
"Let's sue her together! Put her in prison!"
"Go ahead and sue me! Sue me all you want, you dogs. If you're adults, then go to work! Instead of hanging around schools every day pretending to manage teachers. Do you think teachers are paid with your money?!"
"You crazy woman, yes, I do pay you! Your salary comes from my taxes, you know?! Get down here, idiot!"
After the chaos continued for quite some time...
At last, through sheer persistence and middle-aged dad determination, Gyeong-won's father finally managed to climb onto the stage.
Without hesitation, he charged straight at teacher Choi Jungim, who was busy kicking other parents, grabbed her by the collar, and shook her violently.
"You're a teacher?! You still dare call yourself a teacher?!"
"You think you're a teacher?!"
"Yeah, I am. You damn bastard!"
"What?!"
SWING—SMACK!
Suddenly, teacher Choi Jungim swung her hand and slapped Gyeong-won's father across the face.
"Ugh!"
Caught completely off guard, he looked stunned for a moment before finally snapping.
"Hey, are you crazy, damn it?! Have you completely lost your mind?!"
"Let go! Let go of me!"
"A crazy person became a teacher, huh?! You picked the wrong person today!"
The face that usually made Gyeong-won's father look like a calm professor was now completely red with rage.
The scene was so absurd it was almost funny.
Still, because he was my friend's father, I tried to bring Gyeong-won back to reality by patting his shoulder.
But he remained frozen, staring blankly.
"...Gyeong-won. That's your dad. Aren't you going to stop him?"
"Huh? What? Oh... uh... not really..."
"...."
He had completely lost focus.
He merely adjusted the glasses that were about to slide off his face.
Fortunately, before we had to intervene ourselves, the principal finally stepped forward and grabbed Gyeong-won's father from behind.
"Please calm down, sir! Everything can be resolved through legal means! The bribery, the assault—everything can be handled properly!"
"Let me go! Let me go first!"
"The children are watching, sir! It would be better to report it. Let the police handle it. If you hit her back now, you'll only hurt your own case..."
Gyeong-won's father, who had been struggling furiously, finally stopped after hearing the principal's words.
It seemed his instincts as a law-abiding adult still remained.
If he hit her too, it would become mutual assault. Both sides would get in trouble.
But...
As the principal tried to pull him back, teacher Choi Jungim stepped forward again and—
SMACK! SMACK!
Slapped him again.
"Why? Scared?! Are you scared?!"
"Good grief, this crazy bitch...!"
At last, Gyeong-won's father completely lost his patience.
Even with the principal restraining his arms, he lifted his leg and—
THUD!
Kicked Choi Jung-im hard in the stomach.
"Uweeegh...!"
The short and tiny teacher was sent tumbling across the floor.
Yet even while lying on the ground, she pushed herself up halfway and began slapping the mothers who were trying to climb onto the stage from the front.
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
"Be quiet. Shut up! Didn't I tell you all to shut up, you dogs?"
"Kyaaa~!"
"Sh-she's actually insane, isn't she?!"
"If you don't like it, educate your children yourselves at home! If you've already entrusted them to the school, then stay quiet! Stop interfering in my business! Shut up!"
SMACK! SMACK!
She continued slapping the mothers standing below the stage.
"Kyaaak! Kyaaak!!"
"You bitch! Come down here!"
"No! No!"
"Crazy woman! Just die already!"
"She's completely lost it!"
At that moment, one of the parents below finally reached up and grabbed teacher Choi Jungim's hair and shook it violently.
In an instant, the clutched hair, along
with the scalp, was ripped away limply.
Grrrrrip-
Snap-!
"...!"
".....?"
The scalp on the side was torn away limply just as the parent gripped and pulled.
Clutching the handful of hair and scalp torn out in their hands, the parent stared at her with a bewildered expression, shocked that they had actually ripped it off themself.
At the same time, the music room fell silent, as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over it.
"...What, what is this?"
"....."
Until now, the students had been watching from a detached, third-person perspective, as if observing a brawl between members
of parliament, but only then did they begin to wear serious expressions.
"...What just happened.."
"Oh my god. All of the hair.."
"Huh? Uh... wha...?"
The parent who had ripped it off also looked at their hands with a bewildered expression and stepped back.
Teacher Choi Jungim, with a stoic expression, slowly stood up and raised
her head.
Just like the hair of people suffering from critical illnesses and taking strong antibiotics falls out, all at once.
More than half of the back of her head was now exposed and bare.
Along with that, the raw, red scalp was
revealed where the skin had been torn
away.
"....."
"....."
Even Gyeongwon's dad, who had been about to charge forward, and the Principal, who had been trying to restrain him, froze in place instantly.
At the moment, when everyone was frozen, Vice Principal Jang Yeok, who had been stiff all along, abruptly stood up.
"T-teacher Choi Jungim... You... you've finally.. after all this..."
She seemed to be trembling with anger, or perhaps terrified.
In the music room, which had become so quiet it felt like a cold shower had been poured over it, the Vice Principals tembling scream echoed eerily.
"You... you lunatic...! How could you...how could you possibly..."
Teacher Choi Jungim touched her exposed, reddened side scalp, then murmured blankly as she stared up into the empty space.
"...Hey, shut up."
"This... This crazy thing... This crazy..."
Seemingly both furious and terrified.
The Vice Principal was trembling like a leaf, her hands shaking uncontrollably.
Teacher Choi Jungim turned her head with a creak, and pointed a sharp finger at the Vice Principal.
"Don't you dare raise your voice at me, You are nothing now."
The pointing finger was slightly off-target, as if someone who couldn't see well and was pointing based solely Principals tembling scream echoed eerily.
"You... you lunatic...! How could you...how could you possibly..."
Teacher Choi Jungim touched her
exposed, reddened side scalp, then
murmured blankly as she stared up
into the empty space.
"...Hey, shut up."
"This... This crazy thing... This crazy..."
Seemingly both furious and terrified.
The Vice Principal was trembling like a leaf, her hands shaking uncontrollably.
Teacher Choi Jungim turned her head
with a creak, and pointed a sharp
finger at the Vice Principal.
"Don't you dare raise your voice at me.
You are nothing now."
The pointing finger was slightly
off-target, as if someone who couldn't
see well and was pointing based solely on sound.
Upon closer inspection, with the entire
side of her scalp torn away, her face
appeared distorted as the skin looked
unnatural, and one of her eyes had
sagged out of place.
'The heck is that.'
A sudden, strong sense of unease rose inside mind.
"...Is that even human...?"
"Stay still, all of you. Don't mess with
my head. Don't bother me. I'm sick of
this school and everything.'"
Even without saying that, the music
room had already fallen silent as if cold water had been poured over it.
After pointing her finger vaguely
somewhere on the stage, Teacher Choi Jungim staggered back to her own seat in the judges' panel.
As she approached, the Vice Principal
flinched and took a step back.
Even now, she was muttering
resentful words that remained
incomprehensible.
[Special ability Lip Reading has
activated.]
["Teacher Choi Jungim, you.! Your
arrogant attitude all this time, your
obsession with the competition... it was all because of this..."]
['Just shut up."]
["Aren't you afraid of heaven's wrath..!
Retribution will come, it definitely
will..."]
["I'll see it through."]
Teacher Choi Jungim, without any
hesitation, trudged back to her seat
as if pretending not to care. She then
opened the handbag on her chair and
pulled out a black pouch.
With clumsy movements, she wobbled
as she poured the contents from it onto the desk.
Rustle-rustle.
Thud- thud- thud.
A tumbler that seemed to be filled with
something.
A paper cup.
A white medicine packet.
And.
♠
'The spade symbol...!'
My pupils dilated momentarily at the
sight of the items placed on the desk.
The spade-shaped item that I received from Park Damim during Dreams Within Dreams, and also found in my mom's room during the Cliché incident.
And the thing that In Hayoon pinned
down on a seat inside the KTX during
Wiggle Wiggle ghost story.
A very hard black jade material,bearing the symbol of the Void cult.
The spade-shaped symbol. The totem.
They weren't just one or two; they were
pouring out in abundance onto the
desk, packed densely into the pouch.
Thud-
The Vice Principal was trembling, her
face contorted in shock.
["Y-you, how much have you been..."]
Noticing the Vice Principal's reaction, I
quickly turned my head to Hayoon.
Hayoon's smile had vanished, and
before I knew it, she was staring at the
stage with a slight frown.
My mind raced at the reactions of the
Vice Principal and Hayoon.
'I don't know why, but Teacher Choi
Jungim seems to have rebelled against the Void cult.'
I looked at the front again.
As if completely unconcerned by the
frozen atmosphere and the trembling
Vice Principal, Teacher Choi Jungim
was pouring some brown liquid from
the tumbler into the paper cup.
Trickle-
The sound of pouring echoed quietly in the silent music room.
No one dared to touch or step forward, faced with the grotesque sight of the teacher whose scalp was partially torn off and her unsettling behavior.
Everyone just stood frozen, watching
the situation unfold.
Before long, as the pungent smell of the brown liquid the teacher was pouring spread far and wide, I unconsciously frowned.
'....Coffee?'
And it wasn't ordinary coffee, it was
extremely strong and thick.
After filling the paper cup to the brim
with coffee, Teacher Choi Jungim
set down the tumbler she had been
pouring from with a soft thud.
She opened a white medicine packet
and took several pills into her hand.
Then, opening her mouth wide, she
used her other hand to pick up one
black spade symbol and push it all the
way down her throat.
Then she just dumped the pills and
coffee into her mouth and swallowed
them in one go.
Gulp- Glug-
A sickening sound echoed throughout
the room.
The symbol wasn't small, so the
shape of the symbol sliding down the
esophagus was visible, bulging against the skin of the throat.
Like a snake swallowing prey larger
than itself, the symbol was being
pushed down the narrow esophagus
with great effort.
"Gup- gulp- ugh-"
"...."
"....."
Amid the series of actions, the people
in the music room stood frozen,
holding their breath.
"How could you do such a thing... This
is... You're insane, Choi Jungim... You
are..."
Whoosh!
The Vice Principal, who had been
trembling uncontrollably, suddenly
stood up from her seat and quickly
strode out of the room alone.
Thump-thump- thump-
Creak-! Thud.
And just like that, the Vice Principal
opened the door alone and left, as if
fleeing.
The Principal, still holding onto Gyeongwon's dad's arm, looked at
the room door with a blank
expression.
"Gulp- Urk- Gulp- Uck-"
Again and again.
Gulp- Gul p. Gulp.
"Uck! Ehk, ugh."
As if a baby were forcing beads down
its throat, Teacher Choi Jungim made
strange, mucousy gurgling noises as
she gulped down the totems one after
another, her Adam's apple protruding
unnaturally.
And whenever her throat felt clogged,
she would grab whatever coffee and
pills were available with her other
hand and gulp it down.
"Ehk. Gulp. Uck. Gulp."
The muscles in her throat twitched
again and again.
The scrotum of her throat forcibly But as if he himself couldn't quite bring
himself to speak, he merely pointed at
Teacher Choi Jungim a few times.
"...You, you."
"..."
"You.."
After twitching his lips a few times, a
single sentence finally burst out.
"..You. What on earth are you-"
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah-!"
All of a sudden, Teacher Choi Jungim
threw up violently toward him.
Splaaaaaaash-
Splatter-splatter-splatter-splatter-splatter-
A waterfall of brown liquid gushed
forth like a burst dam, landing directly
on Gyeongwon's dad's face.
"what the!—"
"Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—"
Splash-splatter-splish-splash-splish-
Teacher Choi Jungim spewed an
amount of coffee far greater than her
own body, like a waterfall, projecting it
straight out at a right angle.
Gyeongwon's dad, frozen in the very
posture he had been pointing at her,
took the full force of the brown liquid
as it gushed out like a burst fire hose,
splattering him from head to toe.
Splaaaaaaat-
Just as his body, which had endured
the brown liquid fiercely pouring at
him for a few seconds finally could
not withstand the water pressure and
began toppling backward.
Teacher Choi Jungim suddenly stopped vomiting, dashed forward, pulled the man toward her, and they both tumbled down onto the stage together.
sliiide–CRASH-BANG-!
Squish- Thud-!
On the stage, now drenched in liquid,
Teacher Choi Jungim held the man
tightly and suddernly began rubbing
herself against him at a frantic pace.
Squish-squish- squish-squish-
squelch-squelch- squelch-squelch-
On the brown coffee-covered floor, the bodies of the two adults slipped and slid chaotically back and forth.
Squish- squish- squish-
"Ah, ah, ahhhh..."
"Crazy...!"
Unable to bear this absurd scene any
longer, Over ten students stood up,
covered their eyes, and hurriedly
walked toward the exit.
Creak- creak-!
"Huh? Wh-what? It's locked!"
"Wh-what?!"
Only then did I jump up from my seat.
'Damn it..'
"P-Prez!"
"j-Joon...?"
The club members hesitantly rose to
their feet, following my lead.
I quickly racked my brain, then turned
to look at them and spoke.
"Everyone, get ready. This isn't normal.
The Vice Principal who left earlier.
That b*tch must have blocked the door from the outside."
"...!"
"What?"
"What... !"
"I think something's about to happen.No, it's already happened. Be careful.
And get ready, everyone."
At those words, the club members
nodded hurriedly and stood up
completely, and I quickly scanned the
music room, assessing the situation.
On the stage, Gyeongwon's dad and
Teacher Choi Jungim were rolling
around in sticky vomit, as if copulating.
"Ugh! Oof! Ouch, ugh!"
"Gaah- urgh- kke-- ugh-"
And beside them, the Principal was
gazing blankly, and Teacher Han Ari
was still hiding under the host's seat.
As I lowered my gaze, I saw the parents under the stage with bewildered expressions. And in the front row,Chaerin and Yeseul were visible, holding each other's hands.
From there to the back, there were
over fifty students in the audience
seats, including us.
They were just sitting there with
terrified faces, waiting for the adults
to take control, while some bolder
individuals discreetly took out their
phones to record a video.
'Any other exits? Is there no way out
besides the entrance?'
I tore my eyes away from the students
still shaking the locked door and
quickly looked around in all directions.
There was no back door, and since it
was the fourth floor, escaping through
the window would be impossible. Still,
there was one space where we could
hide.
'the storage room!'
Just as there was a storage room for
supplies inside the science lab, that
served as the office for the teacher in
charge as well as storing materials.
In the music room, there was also a
storage room at the back where the
Folk Music club kept their janggu[1] and
other instruments.
If an emergency truly arose, we might be able to take temporary shelter there."Joon, look at the front....!"
"Prez!"
At the club members' calls, I tore my eyes from the storage room and looked back at the stage in front.
There, Gyeongwon's dad and Teacher Choi Jungim, their flesh interwoven and fused into one entity, were rising together.
"Guys, get ready."
"Yeah...!"
The club members nodded nervously.
The two adults were stuck together like conjoined twins.
They stood on stage, fused as one,
and with a hand whose arm we couldn't identify, they picked up the microphone from the floor and murmured in a voice as if boiling with phlegm.
"All the distinguished doggy parents who are full of complaints... As you've wished—"
"The Nakseong High School Science
Exhibition Preliminary Round will begin again..."
[1] [T/N: Janggu (장구) is a traditional Korean double-headed hourglass-shaped drum. It is played with two sticks—one thin bamboo stick (궁채 gungchae) and one wooden mallet (열채 yeolchae).]