╭─   ⌲  UNKNOWN IDENTITY ꒷꒦꒷

╰───── ›› EPISODE ONE ‹‹

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the sound of hurried footsteps were heard through the dimly lit hallways of sinwon high school. panicked, heavy breaths were present, to those they belonged to were unknown. the steps hurried up the stairs and opened the door that led to the rooftop. once the footsteps stopped, the person had been standing by the edge of the rooftop.

"why...? why did you chase me up here?" a hushed male voice asked, his face covered by the darkness.

"well, I originally wanted to see your reaction to a new joke I made. but this is even better." a female voice replied, her voiced filled with venom as she grinned.

she inched closer and closer to the boy who, in return, shuffled back until he felt the small ledge of the roof hit his ankle. he froze, realizing how high up he was and that any wrong move and he'll be floating in the air before hitting the concrete below. he stood in fear as she crossed her arms and continued forward, stopping right in front of him. using his arms as a shield, he covered his face.

"I'm not going to hit you." she laughed, trying to catch him off-guard. it worked, because he lowered his arms and looked at her.

he tried to hear what she said next, but by then he had already felt the air rushing around him. before he hit the ground, everything went dark.

morning had come and the first bell rung for class to start. inside the classroom had been all twenty students, though mainly seven stood out. they were all doing their own things, some studying, some talking, and some playing on their phones as they waited for their teacher.

two students sat at the back next to each other. they were in their own little world, talking and laughing quietly to themselves. they were known in their class as the 'best friend goals' pair because of how close they were.

"yah, taehyun! if you tell anybody about that I will murder you myself." the girl next to him laughed as she threw her fist in the air and fake punched him.

"siyeon, why are you so violent towards me?" taehyun whined as he used his arms as a shield from her fake attack.

"it's my love language." she grinned before turning her body to fa e the front of the class. taehyun scoffed next to her before doing the same.

─ ✧ CHARACTERS UNLOCKED !

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"how much longer are you going to need my book?" a voice appeared next to the ear of a focused girl trying to read the book in front of her.

"saebyeok, please." she sighed before closing the book and turning to face the red-haired girl. "you literally just gave it to me."

saebyeok raised her hands in defense, "sorry boss." she walked to her seat next to the girl and sat down, shaking her head. she snatched the book from her and stuck it in her bag. "that's enough for you today, soyoung."

with a look of horror, soyoung turned to saebyeok and internally cursed at her. she squinted and shook her head before turning to face the front of the class. saebyeok laughed at her reaction and proceeded to do the same thing.

a boy, named hyunsoo, who sat behind them sighed and shook his head before returning to his drawing.

─ ✧ CHARACTERS UNLOCKED !

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sitting in the same seats but on opposite sides of the classroom, two boys remained quiet throughout all the talking. they remained focused on the work they had in front of them. the two had a known rivalry, since one was a try-hard and the other was just gifted in the academics; always staying as first.

siyeon had walked to the front of the classroom to throw out a piece of paper when she took a glimpse at the work yejun, one of the boys, had been working on.

"woah. how do you understand all that?" she asked, in awe. all she saw was a bunch of numbers and equations that made no sense.

"it's pretty easy, I guess." yejun replied. he cautiously thought of how to ask her to leave without sounding like an asshole, but siyeon took the hint from the dry response and proceeded to throw out her paper before sitting back next to taehyun.

"what does he mean, easy?" the boy on the opposite side of yejun, woohyun, whispered to himself, scoffing. he shook his head and put away his things.

by now, all students had been sitting in their seats and now they were just waiting for the teacher once again. talking had died down a bit, though whispers persisted.

when the door of the classroom opened, all phones were put away and voices ceased to speak. in walked was a woman who had an aura that demanded respect and attention.

"hello, students." she started, her voice replicating her visuals and aura. "I am your new teacher, please call me professor jang."

woohyun was visibly intimidated but managed to stand up and call out for the class to do the same. they said hello to professor jang and sat back down. professor jang nodded her head and began writing things on the chalkboard.

─ ✧ CHARACTERS UNLOCKED !

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class resumed as usual. the students had no choice but to stay awake and pay attention because if they just so as closed their eyes for too long, professor jang would yell at them and call them out specifically. it was embarrassing, so the class all collectively agreed telepathically to force themselves to stay awake.

however, the more that taehyun watched the professor, the more uneasy he felt. it was almost as if he had seen her before. he tried to brush it off but the feeling persisted and based on how siyeon later asked if he was okay, he must have been very noticeable in his physical actions. finally, after what felt like ten hours, the bell rang for students to change classes if they needed to.

"we'll continue this lesson tomorrow. make sure you're prepared both with the materials, and also your sleep." the professor exclaimed, looking at specific people who nodded their heads quickly before packing their things and rushing out of the classroom. she collected her things and left as well, causing the remaining students to let out loud sighs.

"she's terrifying." soyoung shivered and saebyeok agreed by nodding her head.

siyeon turned to taehyun again, "are you sure you're okay? the entire lesson you looked as if you saw a ghost."

"did someone say ghost?" soyoung whipped her body to stare intently at both taehyun and siyeon.

"yes, soyoung." hyunsoo replied bluntly and pointed to siyeon. "she did."

soyoung rolled her eyes and continued looking at the two seat mates. she was waiting for them to reply, because she was genuinely intrigued by the mere mention of ghosts.

taehyun shook his head after a few seconds of pondering. "I'm fine. I promise." he hoped that his words convinced siyeon. he knows that they didn't, but she played along and muttered an 'okay' before moving onto a different topic.

taehyun was listening but not replying because he was trying to remember where he had seen professor jang before. he was so hung up on his thoughts that he didn't even notice milena, youngmin, and yikyung walking by his and siyeon's desks.

"oh, hey guys." saebyeok spoke to the three students who walked in and sat in the empty seats near her and soyoung's desks.

"yo, why is it so cold in here? especially over there." milena shivered and pointed where siyeon and taehyun were sitting. it was an odd observation as all the windows were closed and it had been warm the last few days.

shrugging her shoulders saebyeok continued a different conversation with the three students. soyoung would chip in, same with siyeon. taehyun remained lost in his thoughts.

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a period had passed and it was time for siyeon to gather the milk like she always has for her class. she began counting and once she reached nineteen she went to reach for the last one before she was stopped by a stick (which was really just a ruler) by the supervisor.

"so it's you who always takes one more." the supervisor claimed as she motioned for siyeon to move her hand. siyeon tilted her head in confusion, "it's not me though! we have twenty students!"

"since when? your class, twelfth grade, class four has nineteen students. it even says here. don't lie to me, girl."

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he supervisor, before leaving, told siyeon to only take nineteen from now on. she reluctantly agreed, tilting her head once again.

"i swear we had twenty students. . ."

taehyun noticed siyeon just standing outside by the milk and walked up to her. he ruffled her hair and asked if she was alright. siyeon smiled and said that she was, and proceeded to deny taehyun's help when he asked if she needed any.

she picked up the container that held all the milk and the two proceeded to walk back to class, handing out all the cartons once they arrived. she felt guilty seeing the one desk empty, but figured there was nothing she could do about it since the supervisor strictly told her she couldn't grab anymore. and it wasn't like she could just steal it back; she (supervisor) was always watching.

taehyun and siyeon left, as it was finally lunch time.

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as the two were walking down the corridor, taehyun mentioned that he would meet up with her later as he forgot something in the classroom. siyeon smiled and nodded her head, continuing on the path to the lunchroom.

taehyun had vanished though, after that, and no one really noticed because they had been talking to one another as they gathered their trays and received their food. hyunsoo sat in a corner by himself, not that he minded. he would've much rather him be alone than around people who could care less about his opinions. saebyeok, soyoung, and siyeon all sat together talking about random things while at the table opposite to them, woohyun and yejun were together. they ate in silence, yejun wanting to just finish his food and go back to the classroom.

"you know. . ." saebyeok motioned for the two girls to inch closer to her so she could whisper and only have them hear. "I once saw woohyun cheating. and I know he was because he visibly looked stressed and worried all throughout the test yet still managed to get a 97."

soyoung shook her head, "there's no way he would do that. not with his father looming around him like a hawk." siyeon nodded her head in agreement.

"why would he risk getting caught over studying? he seems dead set on beating yejun, though I doubt that will actually happen any time soon." soyoung continued, trying to keep as quiet as possible. she felt a bit paranoid though, seeing as shortly after she finished speaking woohyun had stood up to deal with his tray before walking out of the room.

"let us pray he didn't hear us." saebyeok sighed as she lowered her head in shame before the three stood up and walked to deal with their trays.

woohyun waited for the three girls to leave before he walked back into the lunch room to grab his things. he watched as yejun and hyunsoo dealt with their food, silently envying yejun and just how perfect he seemed. he was number one in everything and was always picked first for things that woohyun would be second-in-line for.

the lunch lady let out a loud sigh as she saw the untouched full tray left on the counter, which caught the attention of woohyun. he watched as the lady shook her head in discontent and muttered to himself that the student 'again' hadn't eaten the food that was given. shaking it off, he grabbed his things and left the room, walking back to the classroom before the bell rang.

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"yah. . . where's my milk?" milena asked as she stood at her desk that was empty. siyeon, who was seated next to taehyun, stood up and walked over to her.

"i brought nineteen. . . like the supervisor said." she replied shyly, hoping that the class would not yell at her, however, that's almost precisely what happened, though a bit lighter.

"but we have twenty kids. not nineteen." yejun spoke for the second time that day, shocking the class even though what he said was correct. siyeon was worried that she had made a mistake so she agreed that they had twenty students but ran over to the teachers table and pulled out the roll call book.

it read twenty students, since all of their names were written down.

"that's creepy. why would the supervisor tell us we have nineteen when we clearly have twenty?" siyeon asked before she even counted all the students which equaled nineteen before she counted herself.

"what if there's a ghost amongst us?" soyoung chipped in, her tone serious. most of the class remained silent before youngmin scoffed and brushed her off. "ghosts aren't real. how could that be the case?"

"no need to be so rude about it," soyoung pouted as she crossed her arms. "I'm just saying, it could be an explanation why the supervisor said nineteen instead of twenty."

during the time that soyoung and youngmin were bickering, woohyun had slipped out of the classroom and walked toward the teachers' area before opening the door and walking to the back whiteboard that had the classrooms homeroom teacher plus the amount of students in each class.

woohyun scanned the board and tilted his head. he read that professor jang's class had, in fact, only nineteen kids.

"what the. . ."

he was reminded of the events that happened earlier. milena, yikyung, and youngmin all mentioned that it was freezing in their classroom despite it being warm out and all their windows were closed at the time. siyeon being told that their class only had nineteen students so she was to only bring nineteen milk cartons, and he was reminded of the tray that was still filled with untouched food when he was in the lunchroom.

something was definitely off about all this; they're all connected to something larger than thought of.

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walking back to the classroom, woohyun was organizing his thoughts. he knew that there was someone among them who simply did not belong in that classroom, but how was he going to bring it up to the entire class? if they brushed off soyoung just like that, would they even bother to listen to him even if he was class president?

shaking his head he opened the sliding door to their classroom and cleared his throat, which gathered the attention of everyone.

"officially, in this class," he started and watched as the classroom slightly leaned in to hear him. "there should only be nineteen of us." he watched as his classmates turned to one another and were whispering.

"but how? why is there twenty of us then?" siyeon asked, turning to taehyun for back-up but he simply remained neutral. expressionless, if you will.

"i also don't know why," he answered. "but someone we don't know is here with us and clearly its someone only professor jang can see."

"so a ghost?" milena asked to which the class once again erupted into disbelief and discourse as to whether or not a ghost could exist in 2022.

"that's what I've been saying! what else would it be? and clearly we can all see it too but no one else does." soyoung exclaimed, agreeing with milena even if her stance was different.

"if you guys say it's a ghost," woohyun sighed, not wanting to admit to it being a ghost. "then a ghost it is, I guess."

the class once again was filled with conversations. people were debating with soyoung over the existence of ghosts, people were whining about how ghosts shouldn't exist in the year 2022, and some were just trying to soak in the idea that there was one student in their class who simply didn't belong with them.

the conversations quickly ended when saebyeok threw off her headphones in horror before exclaiming that there had been a weird sound coming from them. her classmates, not believing her, asked for her to unplug her headphones and prove it.

"it was there, I swear!" saebyeok cried as she unplugged her headphones and played the audio file in which she had heard the sound. sure enough, the weird sound continued and even repeated numerous times before she shut off her phone and the sound slowly fainted away.

the class gave each other weird looks and glances of fear before the bell rang again, leaving them to ponder about the experience while waiting for the next professor to resume their day.

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⋯ー ✦ PLEASE NOTE𓈒 𓈒 𓈒
✶│ I had so much fun writing this you have
no idea. I completely disregarded the fact that
the characters had face claims playing them
and just wrote them as if they were my own,
so I feel like this is a lot more natural than I
had anticipated. weirdly enough, even though
I had a checklist of the events that needed to
occur within this episode, it was so easy to
write and add on. due to that, I'm super excited
for the next episode !! I hope you guys are as
well <3

⋯ー ✦ ACTIVE CHECK (LME ONLY)𓈒 𓈒 𓈒
✶│ comment your oc(s)' names here
and reply with what you thought of the
first episode!