Chapter 11

 Relay Race

“When I count one, two, three, runner number one starts running!”

At Dong-jin’s energetic voice echoing through the gymnasium, Ye-ji, Gyeong-chan, and Yeon-woo answered in unison with a spirited shout.

“One— two— three! Go!”

Classmates in high school, Dong-jin, Ye-ji, Gyeong-chan, and Yeon-woo were selected to represent their class in the mixed relay at the upcoming sports day next Monday.

Having decided to do one final relay practice after school on Friday evening, they stood at each of the four corners, relying on the moonlight streaming in through the large, high windows.

The inside of the pitch-black gymnasium offered hazy vision at best, but keeping the wall to their right and running straight ahead was enough to reach the next waiting runner, so the bright moonlight was more than sufficient.

Dong-jin stood at the final corner and shouted toward Ye-ji, the first runner. The sound of Ye-ji’s thumping footsteps mixed with the cheers of the kids, filling the gymnasium.

“Here—!” “Faster! Gyeong-chan, faster!”

The baton passed from Ye-ji’s hand to Gyeong-chan, then to Yeon-woo, then to Dong-jin, the final runner, and back again to Ye-ji, the first runner.

“Hang in there! You can do it! Kim Yeon-woo!” “I can’t run anymore!”

After repeated relay laps relying on the moonlight, Yeon-woo, gasping desperately for air, finally surrendered and collapsed onto the floor, bringing their relay race to a halt.

“Haa… haa… wheez.”

Yeon-woo sat crouched on the floor, breathing in heavy, ragged gasps.

“That’s enough for today.”

Dong-jin walked over to Yeon-woo and extended a hand to pull her up.

“Great work, everyone. Let’s head home! Running so hard has made me insanely hungry.”

Gyeong-chan approached the two as well. Having grown noticeably faster than his peers, Gyeong-chan put his hand—as large as his tall stature—over his stomach and rubbed it repeatedly, gesturing how starving he was.

“Geez—why eat right after working out so hard?”

Ye-ji, who had stepped up beside Gyeong-chan, chided. At Ye-ji’s words, Gyeong-chan rubbed his belly even harder, exposing a flash of his firm abdomen beneath his slightly pulled-up t-shirt. Ye-ji, an adolescent girl, flinched and quickly turned her gaze away.

“Everyone did great! I think that’s enough practice. Let’s go home now.”

Having pulled Yeon-woo to her feet, Dong-jin clapped his hands together with a loud snap.

With that, the four stood side-by-side and headed toward the exit to leave the gymnasium. As their rhythmic footsteps echoed toward the door, Gyeong-chan ran ahead and yanked on the door handle.

“Huh?”

Flustered, Gyeong-chan pulled on the door, veins bulging on his muscular arms, but for some reason, it didn’t budge at all.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Dong-jin, who had been calmly watching, stepped up second to pull the door. However, the heavy door—clad in thick iron and soundproof lining—remained completely motionless.

“Is the door locked?!”

Instantly consumed by panic, Ye-ji screamed sharply, her dark pupils dilating wildly. Sliding past Gyeong-chan and Dong-jin, who had stepped back with deep sighs, she shook the handle with all her strength, but the gym door stood firmly against them with no intention of giving way.

“Ye-ji, calm down… Does anyone have a phone?”

Yeon-woo, her face still pale, asked the question, but everyone lowered their heads in silence. Before entering the gym, they had stored all their outerwear and personal belongings in the locker room by the entrance.

Clad only in thin gym uniforms, despair was all that remained for the teenagers. Looking around to see if there was another exit, the gym interior—surrounded by soundproofing materials to block out noise, save for the tall windows set high into the ceiling—was structured so that one couldn’t even peek outside.

“What do we do now?! Hey! Lee Dong-jin! You’re the one who said we should practice today! Do something!!”

Having lost her composure in this completely unexpected and chaotic situation, Ye-ji shouted as she cornered Dong-jin.

“Hey, hey, Choi Ye-ji! Stop it! Is this the time to blame someone? The security guard will come by for night rounds soon.”

Gyeong-chan stepped between Ye-ji and Dong-jin to mediate.

“Yeah, the guard saw us come in. If we don’t come out, he’ll definitely stop by at least once.”

Unable to recover her stamina, Yeon-woo eventually sat back down on the floor, backing up Gyeong-chan.

Since waiting for the guard was realistically their only option as Gyeong-chan said, Ye-ji obediently sat down beside Yeon-woo. Next sat Dong-jin, and then Gyeong-chan, retreating into a deep silence.

How much time had passed? Even the faint moonlight they relied on slowly faded away as if losing its strength, and as pitch-black darkness gradually swallowed their surroundings, an anxious Ye-ji finally bolted to her feet.

“Why wouldn’t the door open?! Did someone lock us in on purpose?! Who did something like this!! Open up!!! OPEN IT!!!”

Approaching the door, Ye-ji began kicking it. The iron door rattled and shuddered with a rather threatening clatter.

“Stop it! Let’s find another way!”

Gyeong-chan grabbed the agitated Ye-ji by both arms and shook her, trying to calm her down.

“Fuck!!! What other way!!! Nobody’s coming to school over the weekend, so what other way is there!!!”

Tears finally welled up and streamed down Ye-ji’s pale cheeks. The tears falling vertically from her slender chin left dark spots on the cold floor.

“I-I’m cold…”

Breaking the brief silence that had settled after Ye-ji’s tears, it was Yeon-woo who spoke next. Her complexion, which had been pale earlier, had now turned beyond ghost-white to almost translucent.

Although early spring had arrived, the large temperature gap between day and night made the evenings quite chilly. As their sweat-drenched gym uniforms dried over time, they radiated an icy chill upon contact with the cold indoor air. In particular, Yeon-woo, who had exhausted all her stamina from excessive running, was now shivering violently, curled up tight.

“Kim Yeon-woo, are you okay?”

Dong-jin examined Yeon-woo with a worried expression. Her long hair fell forward, covering her face, but the complexion visible beneath it looked ominous.

BOOM-RUMBLE!

At that exact moment, to make matters worse, heavy rain began to beat mercilessly against the windows. Along with loud peals of thunder, lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the gym before dying down. Startled by the thunder, the kids widened their eyes and looked up around the high ceiling windows.

“I’m so c-cold… S-Somebody help.”

Seeing Yeon-woo shivering so violently, Ye-ji—having regained her composure—went over and held her tight. Taking in the situation, Gyeong-chan headed toward the storage room at the far end of the gymnasium to search for anything that could cover their bodies.

“If we don’t come home late tonight and can’t be reached, our parents will report it to the police. Let’s just wait a little longer.”

Dong-jin was usually calm and collected. With good social skills worthy of a class president, he always led the class calmly whenever a problem arose, showing a maturity beyond his peers.

Of course, his clean and neat looks played a part, making him popular among both male and female students. The sole reason Yeon-woo, who had weak physical stamina, voluntarily signed up for the relay race was because of Dong-jin.

“N-No, that can’t be… That won’t happen… Yeah, that makes no sense.”

Worried about Yeon-woo, who kept repeating strange ramblings to herself with her head bowed, Ye-ji walked over to Dong-jin—who was still keeping watch near the gym door—and tapped his arm.

“Yeon-woo is acting weird.”

As Dong-jin shifted his gaze in the direction her finger pointed, he caught sight of Yeon-woo, who had buried her face between her tucked-up knees, repeatedly muttering incomprehensible words to herself. Shivering violently in her thin, pale limbs, Yeon-woo’s condition looked serious to Dong-jin’s eyes as well.

“Ah, Park Gyeong-chan said he was going to the storage room, so why isn’t he back yet?” “I’ll go check on—” “EEEEK—!!”

Interrupting Dong-jin’s reply to an irritable Ye-ji was a terror-stricken shriek from Yeon-woo.

“Guys… guys! I figured it out!”

Yeon-woo suddenly snapped her head back up, her eyes wide open to the point where half the whites were showing. Faced with Yeon-woo’s bizarre behavior, Dong-jin and Ye-ji froze instantly, rooted to the spot.

“Guys, listen. There are four of us, so how did we run a relay? We were standing one person at each corner… from corner 1 to 2, corner 2 to 3, corner 3 to 4… and when runner number 4 ran to corner 1, runner 1 was already at corner 2, so nobody was there!!” “W-What do you mean…”

The moment she understood Yeon-woo’s words, Ye-ji felt a sharp headache accompany a violent wave of goosebumps. Dong-jin likewise felt a drop of cold sweat trickle down his temple amidst extreme tension.

“For the last runner to keep passing the baton continuously, there has to be one more person. You need five people in total. That means there was another person inside this gymnasium with us besides the four of us! Someone was running the relay race with us…”

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-CRASH—

Right at that moment, as if in agreement with Yeon-woo’s words, the sound of heavy running footsteps echoed out of the pitch-black darkness. Dong-jin tried desperately to hold onto his sanity, thinking it was Gyeong-chan running back from the storage room, but it was different. The speed was on a completely different level from a normal human’s sprint.

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD— THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD—

BOOM-RUMBLE!

The bizarre sound of rapid, pounding footsteps followed by a heavy, slamming impact repeated over and over. Combined with the sound of pouring rain and roaring thunder, the teenagers’ terror surged out of control.

Pale and terrified without a trace of color, Yeon-woo covered her ears and bowed her head again. Dong-jin and Ye-ji, too, stood stiffly frozen, unable to move as cold sweat began to streak down their spines.

Thus began the horrified relay race. The sound of someone sprinting around filled the gymnasium for a long while, then suddenly stopped. Immediately following was a swift, icy quiet, setting off a deep silence that no one dared recklessly break.

“W… where are you?”

At that moment, breaking the silence was not one of the kids, but someone else—a high-pitched tone flowing out in a faint, weeping murmur. It was unequivocally not Gyeong-chan, carrying a blood-curdling voice that felt as though it might not even belong to a human.

Swallowing their dry saliva, Ye-ji and Dong-jin stared intently toward the source of the voice. At that exact instant, accompanied by a deafening roar, a flash of lightning momentarily revealed the true identity behind the sound.

“Found you!”

At that exact same hour.

Due to the sudden deluge of rain and thunderous lightning, Miso looked toward the hospital room window with a concerned face.

“I hope this rain passes without any accidents.”

Because bad weather at night brings poor energy, she pulled the room’s curtains closed in hopes that the night would pass without major incidents, then came back to sit by the unconscious Young-ah’s side.

BOOM-RUMBLE—

At a rather intense peal of thunder, Miso flinched and checked Young-ah’s face. Since Young-ah had always been terrified of thunder and lightning, Miso was worried she might feel afraid even while unconscious.

BOOM-RUMBLE!

An even louder roar echoed inside the hospital room. Feeling a bit unnerved herself, Miso turned on the TV in the dark hospital room.

—We have breaking news. Four first-year high school students have gone missing in Wiam-dong, Seoul, and a search is urgently underway. The missing students are first-year Class 3 classmates at Wiam High School located in Wiam-dong, named Kim Yeon-woo, Park Ye…

“Missing…?”

BOOOOOOM-RUMBLE!!!

The moment Miso expressed her confusion, a massive explosion-like roar shook the hospital as if it would shatter the building itself. Startled by the extraordinary thunder, patients began coming out into the hospital corridor one after another.

“Young-ah!”

And right at that instant, under the flashing light of a lightning bolt that illuminated her fair face, Young-ah snapped both of her eyes wide open.