Chapter 5: The Train of the Dead
A sharp scream of horror, coming from the back of the carriage, tore through the compartment. Conversations died out instantly. Worry and astonishment immediately painted themselves on the face of every student.
In a flash, everyone rushed toward the source of the commotion, jostling, pushing each other in growing chaos.
The atmosphere had changed. The air had become icy. Faces had frozen, dark, twisted by fear and incomprehension.
An oppressive silence now reigned, a palpable, almost suffocating tension.
When Hanna and Kim finally arrived at the scene, they had to make their way through several clustered students, too shocked to move. But what they saw made their blood freeze.
A lifeless body.
That of a first-year student.
Easily recognizable, someone popular in his class, the young man lay there on the floor, just in front of the carriage door.
Motionless. Pale. Lifeless.
His eyes, wide open, were completely empty, as if something had ripped out his soul.
Hanna jumped back, colliding with the students behind her, then bent forward, one hand pressed against her mouth to keep the sudden nausea from overwhelming her.
The young blond immediately rushed to her side, worry etched on his face.
"Hanna, are you okay?!" he shouted, panicked.
The young girl drew in a deep breath, trying to regain her composure, even though her face remained pale, marked by the horror of the moment.
With a hesitant gesture, she signaled him to calm down, that she was fine, even if everything in her eyes said the opposite.
"Everything… is fine, Kim… I'm okay…" she said in a slightly trembling voice.
"I… I just wasn't expecting this."
She was not the only one.
All around them, the students were frozen in collective shock, as if time itself had stopped.
Panicked murmurs rose, interspersed with nervous sobs and gasping breaths.
Some trembled, others covered their eyes, or remained immobile, staring at the corpse.
Fear had seized every face, showing chaotic expressions: wide eyes, pale faces, trembling lips…
For many, it was the first time they had ever seen a corpse. It wasn't like in their films or dramas. Seeing a body in real life was different. There was no dramatic music, no slow motion… just the cold, the silence, and that motionless body.
It was trauma.
A brutal, raw, visceral shock.
A living canvas of confusion and terror.
No one understood what was happening. But deep inside, everyone felt that something had shifted.
Suddenly, voices rose even louder, overlapping in the carriage, brushing against collective hysteria.
Each student tried to reason in their own way: some proposed theories, others—opportunistic boys—tried to reassure the girls.
Everyone was simply trying to survive their own fear, hiding it behind explanations—no matter how absurd they were.
"I'm telling you… there's… there's a killer on this train! We have to… we have to alert security!" shouted a young man, his voice trembling.
"Who would do this? Who would want to hurt him? Maybe there really is a serial killer somewhere on this train…"
"Damn… Why isn't anyone coming?!" cried a boy with glasses, his voice broken by panic.
He tried in vain to adjust them, but his hands shook so violently he couldn't manage it.
"Can't they hear our screams?! We've been shouting for minutes!"
He turned his head in all directions, his eyes frantic.
"And… damn… where is the teacher? Has anyone seen her since we boarded?"
It was total panic.
Everything had happened so fast they were overwhelmed, drowning in fear.
They had never been taught how to handle this kind of situation. Not at school. And even less in their precious textbooks.
Ken, meanwhile, was the only splash of color in this scene.
He stayed at the back, observing with a stoic, cold, almost inhuman gaze. Detached.
Some would probably have called him a heartless monster, an insensitive psychopath.
But Ken Jiheon knew. Better than anyone.
In chaos, keeping calm was crucial.
It was a rare privilege few could afford.
Panic… never leads to anything. It only drives people to make mistakes—sometimes fatal ones.
A few steps from the corpse, a girl sat frozen, crying all the tears in her heart: Choi Minji, his girlfriend.
She was the one who had found him.
Worried that he hadn't returned, she had gone looking for him… and when she opened the carriage door, she saw him enter the compartment, walking with a heavy step, before collapsing dead in front of her.
His body had sprawled across the floor. Lifeless.
The girl's scream had echoed throughout the carriage.
Ken advanced slowly, silently.
His icy gaze examined the body with almost clinical precision.
No visible wounds: no blow to the face, no sign of strangulation, not a single trace of struggle.
At first glance, the body seemed intact… except for one thing.
Under the sleeve of his school uniform jacket, a dark stain betrayed the presence of blood.
Perhaps an injury to the arm. But no one dared touch the corpse to check.
Ken also did not want to be the first to act.
He preferred simply to observe.
"A bloody murder? Unlikely. Impossible… nothing here matches the typical profile of a violent assault."
"Then maybe poisoning," he thought, a finger under his chin.
The young man's skin was abnormally pale, grayish, as if all life had been drained from his body.
There was something strange about this case.
"After all, I'm just a high school student… it's not my job to think in place of the police," murmured Ken with a weary sigh, exhaling long and slow.
A tall and imposing student with bleached hair, wearing a silver necklace and a gold watch, stepped forward.
It was Do-wan, the self-proclaimed leader of the school delinquents, the king of bullies.
Always flanked by his four lackeys, he didn't even need to speak to draw attention: a single look was enough.
At his appearance, the panicked conversations died away, as if smothered under his shadow.
Everyone knew: it was better not to cross his path, even less to become his target.
His reputation as a violent brute was well established, and he knew exactly how to wield it.
"Stop your useless complaints," he said in a loud voice.
He spread his arms wide, placing himself in the center of the carriage.
"If there's a killer, he can't be far. I've already sent a few guys to alert security in the rear carriages. The problem will be resolved quickly—he won't lay a finger on any of you."
He accompanied his words with dramatic gestures, then cast a quick glance at Seo Hanna, placing a hand on his chest with theatrical flair.
"Believe me. Everything is under control. My father will not leave this matter unpunished. If there is a killer on board, he will pay."
"Wow… What eloquence. Quite impressive for someone who spends his life hiding behind daddy's skirt," thought Ken, his face expressionless, eyebrows slightly raised.
A subtle, sly smile appeared on Do-wan's lips.
His gaze, full of mischief, slid quickly toward Ken.
"And what if… the culprit was already among us?" he said in a falsely calm, almost playful tone.