Mu-ryeong’s Spirit

The most notoriously sleep-inducing Korean literature teacher at Haeyeon High School was lazily interpreting the final lines of a classical poem. By now, most of the students had already succumbed to sleep, and those still awake were either staring at the clock or barely keeping their heads up, eyes drooping in exhaustion.

"Now, here…"

As the teacher pointed out a passage likely to appear on the exam, a few students moved their pens, though it was debatable whether they were actually awake. Half of them were in a state where their eyes might as well have been closed.

It was an inevitable outcome. Just minutes before lunchtime, the air was thick with boredom and drowsiness. The teacher’s slow, droning voice blended with the ticking of the clock, lulling everyone into a stupor.

To be at their hungriest and weakest, forced to sit through the most tedious lesson of the day—it was almost cruel. Unless the bell rang, there was no chance the sleeping students would wake up.

“I suppose we’ll end here for today.”

The moment the literature teacher closed the book, even the students who had stubbornly endured were about to collapse onto their desks when—

"KYAAAH!"

"ARGH!"

A sudden, piercing scream shattered the silence. It hadn’t come from their classroom but the one next door. Even the teacher, who had been stacking up their books, jolted in shock, just like the students who had been halfway to dreamland.

“What the—?!”

“What was that sound?”

“What’s going on?”

The once-dead classroom instantly filled with anxious murmurs. Even the teacher, unable to hide their surprise, turned toward the front door. Had a bee flown into the next class? With that thought, they reached for the door handle—just as the lunch bell rang.

Bang! The door to Class 7 of the second year swung open. The very classroom where the scream had erupted. Students rushed out in a panicked stampede, clinging to the windows in the hallway, their hands clutching at their chests.

"That was insane!"