The Setting
Heroine: Kim Yoorie. A brilliant, extroverted student who uses a wheelchair. Despite being a top student and a loyal friend, she often feels undervalued. She hides a fiery temper.
Hero: Lee Jeesuk. The class president. Handsome and intelligent, he seems like an introvert at first, but he is incredibly outgoing once he is in his comfort zone
Chapter 1 the day of change
On a radiant, sunny day, the lunch bell finally rang, echoing through the hallways like a long-awaited sigh of relief. In the classroom, students began to stretch and yawn, their bodies stiff from sitting too long and their minds foggy after a particularly grueling history lecture that had seemed to drag on forever.
"Thank you, Miss," the students droned in unison, their voices flat and automatic .As the teacher stepped out, her footsteps fading down the corridor.
The moment she disappeared, the room surged back to life.
Yoorie and her friends immediately started chatting, their voices overlapping like a flock of birds finally released from a cage.
"That class was so boring, wasn't it?" Yoorie sighed, leaning back slightly. The soft creak beneath her wasn't from a standard wooden school chair—it was the quiet, metallic shift of her wheelchair as she adjusted herself. Her fingers rested lightly on the wheels, a habit so ingrained she barely noticed it anymore.
"Ugh, my head hurts," Minnie groaned dramatically, pressing a hand to her forehead as if she had just survived a great tragedy.
Liyana's eyes suddenly sparked with excitement. "Hey girls, did you see the IG post? There's a new bubble tea flavor in the cafeteria! I really want to try it. Can we go?"
The mood shifted instantly. Boredom melted into pure curiosity.
"Why wait? Let's go!" Kyna agreed, already halfway out of her seat. She turned to Yoorie, her expression softening with a flicker of hesitation before she masked it with a bright smile. "Wait here, okay? We'll buy one for you!"
"I don't need one. You guys go ahead," Yoorie said with a light giggle, waving her hand dismissively. "I have some math homework to finish."
Her tone was casual. Convincing.
*Almost.*
The girls exchanged a quick glance but didn't push. With a chorus of excited chatter, they rushed out, their footsteps echoing down the hallway like a fading melody.
The room fell into a heavy silence.
Yoorie slowly lowered her hand, the smile on her face softening before disappearing altogether. She looked down at her open textbook, but the numbers blurred into meaningless ink. Her wheelchair sat quietly beneath her—familiar, constant, and unyielding. She adjusted her legs slightly, though there was little feeling there. It was a reminder she had long learned to live with.
She was beautiful, cheerful, and always wore a brave face. That's what people saw. And she smiled, because it was easier than explaining the truth.
But deep down, she longed to go with them. She could almost imagine it—rolling alongside her friends, arguing over flavours, and laughing in the sun. But the daydream always hit the same wall.
*The stairs.*
They stood like a silent fortress between her and the small, ordinary joys of life. Her fingers tightened around her pen. She didn't want pity; she hated the way people's eyes grew soft and careful around her. It made her feel even smaller. So, she chose this: staying behind, pretending it was her decision.
The ticking of the classroom clock grew louder in the stillness.
Then, the door creaked.
Yoorie's eyes lifted instinctively. There he was—Jeesuk, the class monitor. The one who made her skip her heart beat everytime without doing much.He walked in with his usual calm, carrying a neat stack of notebooks. He had a certain coldness to him, like a quiet winter morning that kept people at a distance.
But Yoorie saw what others didn't. She saw the way he handled the notebooks with care, his movements precise and never rushed. There was a hidden gentleness beneath that composed mask. Her gaze lingered on him—the way he brushed a stray paper into place, the faint crease between his brows as he concentrated.
A cold breeze drifted through the open window, stirring the curtains and lifting a strand of Yoorie's hair. As she reached up to tuck it behind her ear, her fingers moving nervously—
Jeesuk looked over. Their eyes met.
For a moment, time stopped. The world outside faded—the chatter, the rustling leaves, the ticking clock. It all vanished, leaving only that suspended breath between them. Yoorie felt her heartbeat thundering in her chest, loud enough to shatter the silence.
Jeesuk didn't look away. His gaze softened, the ice on the surface cracking to reveal something warm and steady.
There was no pity in his eyes. He wasn't looking at the wheelchair.
He was looking at *her.*
The air felt lighter, charged with something unspoken and beautiful. But just as the tension reached its peak—
"Yoorieee!"
Her friends burst through the door like a sudden storm. The spell shattered.
Yoorie blinked, her heart racing as she looked down at her book, face burning with embarrassment. Jeesuk straightened immediately, his distant mask sliding back into place. He gathered his things quickly, perhaps too quickly, and walked out without a word.
The next bell rang, and students rushed back to their seats like birds returning to their nests at sunset. It was Math period. The teacher walked in with her usual stern expression, her heels clicking sharply against the floor.
"Good morning, Miss," the students droned together.
The teacher cleared her throat and began scrawling complex problems onto the board. "It's time to revise our last lesson. Complete these problems and show me. Let's see who actually studied."
A collective groan rippled through the room as students began cursing the teacher under their breath. She ignored them, sitting at her desk and flipping through the register. Within minutes, Yoorie and Jeesuk had already finished, their pens resting simultaneously—once again proving why they were the undisputed toppers of the class.
"Yoorie, help us," Minnie whispered, leaning over.
Yoorie glanced at her friend's paper. "Oh, Minnie, look at this step in the middle. The value is four—it's right there in the question, but you missed it. Apply that to the equation and you'll solve it."
Across the room, Jeesuk was doing the same, quietly guiding his friend joel. The teacher stood up to pace the aisles, scolding a student who asked for help for not knowing basic formulas. The room fell into a tense silence, everyone praying their answers were correct.
**Suddenly, a thunderous sound shook the building.**
Outside, the birds began to chirp with a frantic, piercing intensity. The bright afternoon sun vanished, plunging the room into an unnatural darkness.
"Is it an eclipse?" someone whispered, but the confusion quickly turned to terror.
The sky didn't stay dark—it began to bleed. A deep, bruised **crimson** flooded the horizon, casting an eerie, reddish glow over their desks. The wind began to howl, rattling the windows until the glass threatened to shatter. Panicked whispers broke out as students scrambled toward the windows.
Then, the world glitches.
In the blink of an eye, the teacher—who had been standing right by a student's desk—vanished into thin air. Along with her, about ten other students simply blinked out of existence. Their chairs were empty; their pens were still rolling on the floor.
The silence that followed was louder than the wind. The student some screamed some panicked others scared .
The "Normal School" was gone. **Hell School had begun.**