The Second Disappearance

The scream still echoed in Ji-won’s ears as she and Soo-min bolted into the hallway. Doors flew open all along the corridor. Sleepy, terrified faces peered out. Students whispered, shouted, collided as they scrambled toward the source of the sound.

It came from the girls’ dormitory, two doors down.

When Ji-won reached it, a crowd had already gathered. The door to Room 3-14 swung wide open, banging against the wall with every draft of cold air.

Inside, chaos reigned.

One bed was overturned, its blanket half-dragged across the floor. A lamp had shattered, glass glittering under the pale moonlight that streamed through the open window. The curtains fluttered like ghostly fingers in the wind.

But the most horrifying thing of all—

The room was empty.

“Oh my god…” someone whispered.

“It’s Hye-won,” another stammered. “Moon Hye-won. She was here—I heard her scream—”

A teacher shoved through the students, her face pale but stern. “Back to your rooms! Now!”

But no one moved.

“She’s gone,” Kang Min-jun said, his voice trembling with fury. “First Mi-rae. Now Hye-won. And you expect us to go back to sleep?”

The teacher glared at him, her lips tightening. “Accidents happen. Perhaps she—”

“Fell out of the window?” Ji-won snapped before she could stop herself. “Then where’s her body?”

The silence that followed was sharper than a blade.

The teacher’s expression flickered, just for a second, before she barked again, “Back to your rooms! Immediately!”

But Ji-won had already seen it—the fear in the adult’s eyes. The teachers knew something.

And they were hiding it.

---

The dormitory was thick with whispers until morning. No one slept. The rumor spread like wildfire.

Two vanishings in two nights. Both girls. Both gone without a trace.

“Seven days,” someone whispered in the cafeteria the next morning. “That’s what they say. Seven days after you see the Eyes, you disappear. One by one.”

Soo-min’s hand shook as she pushed her tray away. “Ji-won,” she whispered, her voice hollow. “We saw them. What if—what if we’re next?”

Ji-won forced herself to look calm, though her heart pounded. “We won’t be. We’ll figure it out before then.”

But even as she said it, doubt gnawed at her.

---

Later that day, Ji-won passed Hye-jin in the hallway. The other girl’s expression was unreadable, her dark eyes steady.

“You saw them,” Hye-jin said quietly, without preamble.

Ji-won froze. “How—”

Hye-jin tilted her head. “I can tell. You’ve got the look. The same one the others had before they vanished.”

A chill crawled up Ji-won’s spine. “What do you mean—the others?”

“Not just Mi-rae and Hye-won.” Hye-jin’s voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s happened before. Every few years, someone disappears. But no one talks about it. The teachers erase it, cover it up. Like it never happened.”

Ji-won’s mouth went dry. She remembered the painted portraits of the old headmasters, their eyes following her. How many of those smiles were masks hiding buried tragedies?

Before she could ask more, Hye-jin walked away, leaving only her final words behind:

“If you don’t want to vanish, stop waiting for the teachers to save you. Start finding the truth yourself.”

---

That night, Ji-won and Soo-min sat awake again, the glow of their desk lamp casting long, uneasy shadows. Neither dared to turn it off.

“Two gone,” Soo-min whispered, hugging her knees to her chest. “And we saw them too. That means we have five days left. Maybe less.”

Ji-won clenched her fists. “No. We’re not going to sit here and wait to vanish. Tomorrow, we start searching. We’ll find out where this curse began.”

But even as she spoke with forced determination, she couldn’t shake the memory of Hye-won’s scream.

The way it had been cut off so suddenly.

Like the darkness itself had swallowed her whole.

And outside their window, the forest shifted. Leaves rustled without wind.

Two faint lights blinked open in the distance.

The Eyes had returned.