With a pouty face, I towed my leg to mount the stairs while my hands towed the sack of unused stuff. Antony commanded me to put it in the storeroom as a punishment for my lateness. My wrist reddened; the pain started to blow me. This heavy sack weighed more than my body. The long rungs made my destination miles away to reach. My bangs were soaked with sweat that had trickled down from my forehead. This exhaustion almost knocked me down.I sighed and inhaled the breath as much as I could when I finally touched the ground, a few feet from the storeroom. The stuff rested on the floor. The less energy remained. So, taking a break for a while was important to recharge my power. In the middle of my break, someone's talk concerned me. Slowly, I walked to find who was in the talk. A tall man in an academic outfit was having a phone call in one of the alcoves near the storeroom. From his figure and voice, it was unmistakably the head of the academy. "I have instructed them to ditch all evid
We froze; only our eyes voiced our mind. Yura's incredulous look asserted her bewilderment with my existence. Like me, bumping into the one who looks like her twin was beyond her expectation. "Yura… Dylanesa," we both muttered in unison. The name tag on my cloak was too visible for her to peek at. That was why she mentioned my name. My brain guessed. In slow motion, the sound from our shoes thumped and echoed; our steps brought us closer. Shortly, we stood face to face."This is the first time I meet you in person. Lanzo is right. We look like twins." Listening to her confession, my forehead furrowed. Lanzo didn't even reveal anything about this girl. "Lanzo… What did he tell you about me?" I asked while walking to the nearest stool. Yura relaxingly sat on the one opposite me with one of her legs over the other. Her focus was a hundred percent on me. Catching a deep breath, she began her story.It was in the assembly they first met. Over time, they got closer. A joy rose implicitly
Morning came so rapidly as if yesterday lasted only like a minute. The committee had gathered in the exposition hall; their activities occupied them. The venue has been exquisitely decorated. This exhibition building had three floors with unique golden ornaments in each and art pieces on the walls; the first floor was the exposition hall in which Yura's painting exhibition would be held. Other floors functioned as collection rooms for other works of art such as photography and pottery. The staircases connected one floor to another. The crystal clear tiles reflected the physic of the people who stood against it.Among the crowds, Yura elegantly strutted in a modest white gown. Her long hair unraveled through her shoulders. Her smile grew wider welcoming me who sauntered toward her. A warm congratulations came out of my mouth as soon as only a small space separated us. The happiness radiated from her green eyes. She was one of the luckiest intelligentsia. The academy facilitated her s
Racing with the time, I scrambled inside the gateway of the academy along with the other last batch intelligentsia to have ID- checked before proceeding into the hall. The girls and boys in red marched toward the one-floor building in ordered lines like troops of soldiers. The head of the academy and academics welcomed us inside the room. Their faces tightened with no smile on their lips. None of the academics showed their enthusiasm or warming gaze at us even when the first day I set my feet in this Academy during the assembly. Their classes ran ordinarily; they just rigidly delivered instruction. In other words, it was as if they acted like robots, doing anything under control. I wondered if others felt the same way as I did."Good morning." A greeting echoed as the room was a soundproof area. The head of the academy, whom we never referred to by his name, stood with one hand clasping the microphone and the other falling beside his sturdy torso. His eagle eyes sharply shot straigh
The bench held me still after Yura vanished under the staircase. My mind caged me with terror. The last conversation with Yura fiddled in my head. Her last sentence of the intelligentsia's unknown fate frightened me. "Did they really kill those intelligentsias? Why?" My mouth instantly elicited that question in a weak tone. My head bowed with gaze falling on the floor due to the burden that barely wrecked my brain. What if Ron and Kaiv were just a few among dozens of hidden victims? What if I was one of the targets? Sudden nausea roiled and sent the stomach acid up; I tasted the bitterness in my saliva. "Overthinking only stresses you out." Lanzo's doctrine hypnotized me as if he whispered to my ears. He wasn't here; I stuck with my loneliness.I sighed in uneasiness. Letting his words affect me wouldn't generate any good things. Abruptly, a huge desire to discover what's going on in this Academy smoldered inside of me. I couldn't kill my curiosity just because of the obstacles I m
There was neither wail nor moan; only eeriness remained under the night sky. The death had claimed that poor driver. Viciously, those heinous hoodlums trudged his corpse to the edge of the road. His passing thumped my chest with agony. Inside the car, I sobbed softly amidst their laughter. The incident froze Yura in her seat. The rearview mirror reflected her snow-like pale face. The car's door was pulled open all of a sudden; a violent guy in a mask, all of them wearing masks, brutally hauled Yura out of the car. Her shrieking voice then filled the dark, mixed with the thugs' yell of triumph and In a minute, her outcry faded away along with the whoosh of the wind. And I could do nothing except wrap my hands around my body and crouch in great fear.Frosting where I was, I helplessly surrendered when they maliciously towed me and dumped me to the ground. Instead of woe, I let anger burn me inside. With my clenched hands, I managed to get up. My appearance changed. The soil stained a
I hurried to the classroom after some arguments with Lanzo and immersed myself in studying until the big screen in front of the class displayed the head of the academy's serious face in his office. His black tuxedo contrasted with the white wall behind him. A short announcement of an urgent meeting was declared. "All academics are required to assemble in the meeting room in ten minutes." His image disappeared and the screen turned black. The noise monopolized the class after the academic's leaving. The cacophony prodded me to escape to the library, the coziest and the quietest place with the hope of being able to meet Yura there. It'd been a few days since I hadn't seen her around. I toured the library to find Yura among the visitors. Yet, I didn't spot her anywhere in this room. Being disheartened, I shuffled through the passages of the bookshelves.The rows of books teased me. My forefinger walked from one book's spine to another, glancing at the title and then halted on the one
It'd been five days since Yura's disappearance, unfortunately, the head of the academy turned blind eye to the case. No one regarded her missing as a crucial issue to investigate. The classes kept going as usual. The activities ran like normal. Lanzo's oblivion with Yura's matter disheartened me more. That boy even avoided me after yesterday's incident in the swimming pool. My carelessness hardly brought me to havoc. They might have impaired me if only Lanzo didn't thwart them at the right time. Yet, I had hurt his heart, spontaneously hitting him in the face. It was my bad to do that after everything he had done to me. I should have deemed all his good deeds before doing that dumb thing. Blaming myself wouldn't do any good. Besides, he might have despised me. I exhaled to release the burden that loaded my chest and brushed my watery eyes with the back of my hand. Only loneliness chaperoned me; piles of assignments seized Marin, my sole friend that we couldn't make time to catch up