The hallway outside the teachers' lounge was chaos.
Jin stepped out into it with Seul, Joon, and Echo behind him and stopped in the doorway, because there was nowhere to go. The whole school seemed to have poured out of their rooms at once. Recruits were crowded along both walls, sitting on the floor, leaning against lockers, standing in tight little knots with their heads bent together over glowing blue windows. The noise was incredible. Everyone was talking at once.
But it wasn't the panicked kind of noise. Jin realized that after a moment. It was something else.
Down by the stairwell, Mina was sitting on the floor with both hands pressed over her mouth. Her window was open in front of her, and her eyes were full of tears. Byung-ho was crouched beside her with his hand on her shoulder, reading over her arm.
"He's alive," Mina was saying, over and over, through her fingers. "He's alive. He's in Incheon. He's alive."
"Your brother?" Byung-ho asked gently.
