Thud… thud… thud.
The sound of a ball bouncing made Hesa pause for a moment, watching his friend who was practicing alone on the field.
"Joan."
Hesa suddenly remembered the penalty he and Arkha had talked about before.
Who would suffer the consequences? Him… or Joan?
While he was lost in thought watching the practice, something thin and cold was suddenly pressed against his neck.
"If you want to hurt me, just hurt me. There's no need to drag anyone else into this," Hesa said as he pushed the hand closer, causing the knife to press deeper and slightly cut his skin.
The young man behind him laughed instead and quickly placed a bandage on Hesa's neck.
"Well, I apologize for hurting Arkha before," Heeseung said.
"But I didn't come here to start a fight with you," he continued.
"Then what's your purpose here if not to cause trouble?" Hesa said, still glaring cynically at his twin.
"I just want to talk to you about something."
Heeseung walked ahead first and signaled for Hesa to follow.
Hesa hesitated, but it seemed they really needed to talk somewhere quieter, away from the crowd.
Sure enough, Heeseung led him to the front of an empty storage building. Hesa felt even more uneasy, but he tried to remain calm.
"What do you want to talk about?" Hesa asked.
"I'm disappointed in you," Heeseung said bluntly.
"You hurt my friends during the last terror incident, and now you can still say something like that?!" Hesa snapped.
"That's a different matter. If your friends didn't get hurt, our game wouldn't be exciting, right?"
Hesa clenched his fist tightly and immediately threw a punch at the laughing figure, but of course the blow was easily caught by his twin.
"I don't mind if you tell Arkha everything about the terror so you two can work together. But beyond that, I can't tolerate it anymore," Heeseung said while pushing away Hesa's hand he had just caught.
"That bothers you?" Hesa asked.
Heeseung chuckled.
"You've already broken the rule I set."
"Because of that… I can't give you any more time to rest."
"I don't care."
Not wanting to hear more from the demon in front of him, Hesa decided to leave immediately. But Heeseung grabbed his arm.
"I'm not done talking to you yet," Heeseung said.
"You think I'm listening to you?" Hesa replied coldly.
"It doesn't matter whether you listen or not. The important thing is that I've warned you," Heeseung said.
Hesa looked at his twin lazily while removing Heeseung's hand from his arm.
"One fact you need to know—Sakala is already dead. And your neighbor is pretending to be him," Heeseung said.
"I don't know any Sakala," Hesa replied.
"You can't lie to me. I already saw you talking to that him. The Sakala you know is actually Kyungmin… and he's my friend."
Hesa was completely uninterested in what that creature was saying anymore. He walked away quickly, and luckily Heeseung didn't chase or stop him again.
"There's no way I'm believing a demon," he muttered as he continued walking toward the rooftop.
Creak.
When he opened the rooftop door, he saw one of his friends having breakfast there. He walked over and sat beside him.
"Feeling sad?"
Arkha reflexively turned his head when he heard that voice, noticing the senior beside him whom he hadn't realized was there.
"Why would I be sad?" Arkha said while continuing to bite his bread.
"You. Your eyes look watery," Hesa said.
"S-something got in my eye," Arkha replied while rubbing it.
"That's good. I thought something was wrong," Hesa said.
For a moment, they both sat in silence, enjoying the strong morning wind. But Arkha began to notice something strange—something his senior seemed to be hiding.
"The student council must be really busy, huh? Your face has looked serious this whole time," Arkha said.
"It's not that. I just talked with Heeseung earlier," Hesa replied.
"About what?" Arkha asked.
"Joan. He really knows that Joan knows more than he should. And he's disappointed in me because of that," Hesa said.
"Did he also talk about the possible consequences?" Arkha asked.
Hesa nodded.
"Our break time is over. It's time for us to get ready."
~~~~~
The young man walked through the school corridor with an empty gaze. His heart felt uneasy.
"I have a bad feeling… What's going to happen?"
His steps stopped right in front of his classroom, but he immediately turned away and headed somewhere else, climbing the stairs instead.
"Why? Is it time for me to help them now? No! Not now… it's not time yet."
With conflicted thoughts, he sat on the stairs with his head lowered.
"Something bad is coming… but I still can't act. Why am I still not allowed to? What's actually preventing this?"
Tap… tap… tap.
Footsteps approached, and a moment later a hand tapped his shoulder, making Sakala reflexively look up.
"Wish."
"What are you doing sitting on the stairs?" Wish asked.
"N-nothing. I just forgot something," he said.
"And?" Wish asked again.
"N-nothing. By the way, where are you going?" he asked, trying to change the topic.
"I'm going to relax on the rooftop," Wish replied.
"The rooftop? Didn't you see something bad there before?" he asked.
"To be honest, I'm still a bit traumatized by that… but I chose to slowly get rid of that feeling," Wish said.
"Oh… I think I want to relax there too," he replied.
The two of them then walked together toward the rooftop.
~~~~~
Hesa arrived at the cafeteria when he saw Niki and Setta also arriving there, chatting casually.
"What are you staring at?" Arkha said.
Without thinking, Hesa immediately sat beside his friend, but his eyes remained fixed on the two of them.
"Ki, can we play together again later at my house?" Setta asked.
"Not today, Set. I've got something to do until tonight," Niki replied.
"Aww, that's a shame. I'm home alone today. Since I'm alone, I was thinking of hosting something. Anyone want to come hang out at my place today?" Setta said.
Hesa and Arkha instinctively exchanged glances, realizing things were already starting to move ahead.
"I can't today, Set. Sorry," Jio said.
"Me neither. I've got extracurricular activities. I'll get home pretty late," Satya added.
Joan watched Setta for a moment, then glanced at Hesa and Arkha.
"Joan," Setta called.
"E-eh? What is it, Set?" Joan asked.
"Do you have any free time?" Setta asked.
"Hmm… maybe next time, Set," Joan replied.
"Such a shame none of you can come. It looked like you were planning something," Arkha said teasingly.
"Arkha and I already planned to go to the city library together. Sorry, Set," Hesa added.
"Oh, okay. No problem," Setta said.
For a moment, Hesa and Arkha felt relieved because a plan had failed without them having to interfere.
But they still needed to make sure.
Ting!
In an instant, a message appeared on Joan's phone, which he immediately read.
After finishing, he reflexively looked at the senior with a confused expression before deciding to reply to the message.