The Dark Web is a student-run website regarding upcoming events at ESS, and is mostly a safe site to use. Why it's called the Dark Web, Jade does not know. It doesn't contain much content to harbor gossip, but now since the leak about Vicki Wang, it has been blowing up with comments slandering the girl. Most people who comment choose to stay anonymous, and of course it's typical. Had Vicki been standing in front of them, they'd probably kiss her feet then gripe about her behind her back. Jade hated those kind of people the most, and there was no doubt that the amount of uproar the news of Vicki being transgender caused amongst the student body was quickly turning parasitic.

Jade can't even look at the site for more than five minutes, every few seconds a new comment rolls up on her page, one that's far too negative. Ex-ing out of the tab, she sits at her desktop for a moment, then rubs at her temples. Lei didn't have much of an opinion of Wang; the two didn't talk. But now, she can only imagine what Vicki Wang is dealing with, and even then, Jade is sure her imagination probably doesn't do justice to how much more worse the girl truly has it.

She turns to her phone when she feels the thing vibrate against the desk. It continues to go off, making her realize someone was trying to call her.

JEONGGUK! 😌😛💐🧚‍♀️🌸😩🥰😍😜🥵

She frowns at the screen, noticing his choice of a contact name and rolls her eyes. Of course. Jade shouldn't be surprised that he would call her, but he does anyways.

The ring is about to go into voicemail when the girl finally caves, and picks it up.

"Yes?"

"You picked up!" He sounds pleased. "I thought you were going to ignore me."

"Is this urgent?" Jade asks, running a hand through her loose waves, and scans her bedroom. He makes a sound on the other end in agreement.

"Yeah, you left your jacket here."

"That's not urgent."

"You could be cold." And she can hear the smirk in his voice. Jade still doesn't see the point in his call, they're not even close in any form.

"Are you trying to be a gentleman?" She examines her nails out of boredom. "You can't fool me, I know exactly who you are." It's lies but she hopes he believes it.

"I've always been a gentleman." Jeongguk grumbles. "I just need an excuse to leave the house." Oh so that's what this was about.

"Drop it off at Ryujin's place."

"Jimin will be after my ass if he finds out I went to her place." She assumes that he might beat him up, but Jeongguk doesn't seem to mull over the thought much. "But yeah okay. That's fine."

And suddenly she hears a loud crash — it sounds like shattering glass — on his end of the phone. It's barely audible over the loud noise, but the boy curses to himself.

"Sorry, I have to go. See you at school."

And the phone-call ends like that. She stares at her screen for a bit, confused by what just went on. Was he okay? Jade debates on calling him back, but then thinks better of it. He probably won't answer.

It seems like something was wrong though. That thought turns out to be more important than she realizes.

§

Monday arrives, and she regrets the choice of sleeping so late Sunday night. Her eyes are exhausted and Jade hardly feels the energy to trudge through school. She makes it about two periods into her school day when she feels her eyes starting to fail her.

It's not even two weeks into school and Jade is already falling asleep in class. Great. It's not like this year isn't the most important year of grades for college admissions.

But she's not surprised. It's physics class, and Jade hates this subject with a passion. It's not like she's bad at it, there's just no drive in her to study, and when she doesn't understand something, the girl doesn't bother trying to receive help. There's no point. She will never major in this.

She aligns her chair so that she's directly behind the student in front of her, then rests her hand comfortably in her palm so it still looks like she's doing work. Now Jade closes her eyes.

And they open back almost immediately when not too many classrooms down, there's a bloodcurdling scream. Their teacher pauses in his lesson and frowns.

"Uh sit tight. I'll be right back and see what's going on." Jade then notices that Jeongguk isn't present today. Did he decide to skip? She makes eye contact with Ryu, who also definitely heard the sound. Both the girls get up to go see what's going on, and one by one, the other students follow them. It sounded like a teacher screaming.

When they reach the room — and she knows it's the room because there's many other students circulated around it — the two girls struggle to make it up to the front. People are talking so loudly, it's made their physics teacher yell at them to go back to class. Of course, no one listens because there is no administration to control them. He realizes this and pulls out the walkie talkie to get the rest of administration to room 122B. He promptly shuts the door on them, but now as Jade and Ryujin peep through the window of the door...he's doing his best to comfort the teacher who seems to be having a panic attack.

"J-Jade." Ryujin stutters. "Look at the ground..." And she does when Ryu moves aside slightly to give her a better view. And she wishes she couldn't see it.

There's a girl laying there, the blonde hair is almost a straight giveaway. And there's blood. Lots of it.