[Congratulations on clearing the page! Evaluating performance… Calculating rewards…]
[No. 7 Softy has failed the mission after her SAN value collapsed. She will now live happily ever after on Page 6: Neverland.]
In the Strange Club room—a space dominated by matte black and midnight blue—six high school students fell into silence over the loss of yet another unfortunate seventh member.
That second prompt meant she would be trapped in that space forever, just like the others before her.
They had no idea whether it was even possible to save her—or any of the previous seventh members lost to earlier pages.
A frustrated sigh rippled through the stillness.
"Another 7th member failed. That's the fifth one since we started playing. Isn't 7 supposed to be a lucky number? Why are we always so unlucky when choosing a 7th member?"
Castiel clicked his tongue as he grabbed the pillow Mirae had been hugging.
Caught off guard, Mirae lost her balance and nearly fell headfirst onto the floor, but Castiel's reflexes were fast. He grabbed the back of her clothes and steadied her.
When Mirae looked up at him, confusion clouding her eyes, Castiel froze for a moment before abruptly looking away. He dropped onto the seat beside her, sulking.
"What kind of look is that?" he muttered to himself. Then, acting on a sudden thought, he stretched out on the velvet sofa and rested his head on Mirae's lap.
"I'm sleeping," he said, closing his eyes pretending to sleep but actually mentally beating himself for what he'd just done.
"Oh… okay," Mirae replied softly, still confused.
'City people really are as unpredictable as the weather. No—at least I can predict the weather, unlike his mood, she thought.'
The thought successfully distracted her from the guilt and self-blame weighing on her earlier.
Celestine, seated on a single velvet sofa, withdrew her critical gaze from her twin as she sipped her tea.
She shouldn't have expected him anymore to act like a decent—she already gave up on him acting a noble—gentleman.
Apparently, he was still a hopeless fool who acted purely on what crossed his mind.
"I apologize, President. I might not be able to help with recruitment this time," Hwan Seojin said, sitting alone on another long velvet sofa while meticulously wiping his frameless glasses.
The last No. 7, Softy, had been his recruit. Though they were merely classmates, he had recommended her, convinced she was smart enough to survive alongside them. As a result…
A chuckle reached his ears, and he immediately knew who it belonged to. He didn't bother looking, but it made him pause.
The memory of Ren Ryū earlier taunts and subtle warnings—that Softy wouldn't last—only intensified his irritation and deepened the guilt gnawing at him.
Forcing his thoughts into neutrality, Hwan Seojin resumed wiping his glasses.
"I really don't understand why we need a 7th member when it's obvious that the six of us are already enough to clear the Page," Ren Ryū said casually.
He leaned against the wall, watching Hwan Seojin's carefully maintained act of indifference with keen interest.
"Because seven members are required to activate the page," Celestine replied.
"Well, yeah—" Ren Ryū faltered briefly, distracted by the sound of her voice.
"Sorry, President. I… I can't help with recruitment this time either," Mirae said guiltily.
No one objected. They all silently thought so too.
Each of the five had recruited a seventh member before, and every one of them had failed. None of them wanted to try again.
Their gazes shifted to the club president.
At the simple solid office desk sat Jun Rui, slumped forward, eyes closed, soft snores escaping him.
The room fell quiet.
Of course. How could they forget?
It was cat's nap time.
Exchanging glances, the five silently agreed it was time to leave.
Celestine took one last look at the slumped figure on the desk before closing the clubroom door with a soft click.
The room sank into silence.
Only then did Jun Rui open his eyes, once he could no longer sense anyone's presence.
He remained in his position, half of his body sprawled across the table and head resting on his arms, as he stared blankly at the miniature Noah's Ark placed at the far end of the table.
The seventh member.
When would the perfect seventh member appear?
Or would they ever appear at all?
***
[The bell… the bell… is ringing… is ringing… class time…!]
Just as the five of them stepped out of the clubroom, the school bell rang.
"I haven't eaten lunch yet…" Celestine whispered sadly.
Mirae, who was nearest, looked at her with pity and sympathy.
Apparently, Celestine was hungry again. Her claim that she hadn't eaten lunch yet was just an excuse. She had already eaten with them before going to Strange World—she had simply forgotten because she was hungry again.
Mirae took out the sandwich she had saved as a snack for later and handed it to her.
Celestine's usually aloof eyes softened as she accepted it. "Thank you."
Mirae shook her head, then finally said goodbye to the rest before heading off to the right, while the other four went left.
Mirae was a freshman, and the freshman building lay to the right. Celestine, Castiel, Ren Ryū, and Hwan Seojin were sophomores, and their building stood in the opposite direction.
Ren Ryū and Hwan Seojin walked ahead first. Celestine lingered behind, eating the sandwich beside her twin. Castiel stared pathetically in the direction Mirae had gone.
After finishing the sandwich, Celestine finally seemed to regain enough strength to deal with this pathetic puppy.
She pinched Castiel's ear between her fingers and walked away gracefully, forcing him to follow.
"What the hell, Celes-?!"
"What a shameful way to speak, dear brother."
***
"If width is x, length is x plus 3… wait, let's turn this into ax² plus bx plus c first. huh? so where should I put this x plus 3 in ax² plus bx plus c? … what does the teacher said earlier about this? … this problem is so familiar, where did I see this? Ah yes, yes. It's one of the examples Teacher solved earlier… uh… what's the answer again? …"
Mirae bit the end of her pen, staring intently at the numbers and x's on the paper, though her gaze seemed to be focused on nothing at all
"4, width. 7, length." Someone whispers to her.
"How?"
"Because if width is x and length is x+3, area is x times (x+3) – that becomes x² + 3x. Since area's 28, set it equal to that: x² + 3x - 28 = 0. Factor it and you get (x+7)(x-4)=0 – x can't be -7, so x=4. Then length is 4+3=7! See?"
"Wait, where does 28 come from?"
"Silly. It's given in the problem."
"Huh? Wait! You're correct. Wow! You're a genius—" Mirae looked at the person who had helped her and saw darkness staring back. "Huh?"
She blinked, and the darkness vanished. Instead, she saw a pale, youthful face of a girl.
She looks familiar but she didn't remember where she had seen her before. Mirae felt like she knew her name but when she wanted to call out the girl's name, she couldn't say it because she didn't know.
"Hi! I'm Noa!" the girl cheerfully introduced herself.
"Hi, Noa. I'm Mirae," she said, not knowing why, but she found herself introducing as well.
Mirae's eyes dropped to the table next to her, the one near the window. As always, she didn't see any bag or belongings on it.
"Are you done with our activity?" Mirae asked, peeling her eyes away from the table and focusing on the girl instead.
Noa tilted her head, eyes looking downward, as if falling into deep thought.
But what could she be thinking so deeply about? The question was so simple, wasn't it? Yet Mirae didn't find it strange and thought it had always been like this.
Taking advantage of the fact that Noa was lost in deep thought, Mirae couldn't resist looking at her.
Noa sat with her back straight, like a proper student, yet her body was slightly angled toward Mirae's direction.
Behind her stretched the cloudy sky and the greenness of the school grounds. Against such a bright background, Mirae couldn't help but feel a sense of inconsistency—especially when she noticed Noa's long, jet-black hair hanging straight and unkempt, her bangs almost completely covering her face and eyes, and her skin pale, almost frighteningly white. She wore only a loose white long-sleeve, untucked from the black skirt, and she wasn't wearing the uniform black blazer at all.
Mirae looked away and focused her eyes on the paper, where the math problems waited to be solved.
"By the way, Noa, where have you been?" It had been a long time. It feels a long time.
"Oh!" Hearing her question, Noa perked up, as if she couldn't wait to share. "Mirae, do you know? The Principal is going to hold a fun activity on the last day of September for all the freshmen! I heard all freshies will go to the TOP 10 Strange Places in the Academy to explore! Isn't that exciting?"
Last day of September? That would be two days from now. And Top 10 Strange Places? She thought she'd heard of them before.
"Oh, right. Aren't you a member of Paranormal Club? Are you and your club going to join?" Noa asked curiously.
"What Paranormal Club?" Mirae laughed helplessly. "That's another club. I'm in the Strange Club."
"Huh? It's not the Paranormal Club? How could it not be a Paranormal Club? And what kind of strange thing is your club?"
At first, Mirae was confused by Noa's second question, but it immediately clicked in her mind, she laughed helplessly.
"Yes, it's not. I heard the actual Paranormal Club likes going to strange places and solving strange events in and around the school. And my club, which is named Strange Club, is…"
Technically, it was similar to what the Paranormal Club did, but it went further—they go into foreign spaces beyond human imagination. It was more dangerous. If one failed, they could be stuck there forever, like the previous 7th members. They didn't dare think about what might have happened to those former 7ths… that maybe they were already dead.
"Is?"
Mirae looked at Noa helplessly, as if begging her to stop asking. But seeing those curious black eyes, Mirae still tried to rack her brain to answer.
"It's… it's a group of strange and lonely people huddled for warmth and wanting to find friends." Lies.
Mirae knew how weak her answer was, but seeing Noa nod in belief, she couldn't help but feel both safe and guilty.
That answer might apply to her, but what about the other members and the president? Unimaginable!
It had only been six months since she came to the City to study, and she had already picked up the bad habits of city-dwellers! She… she had actually dared to lie. And lie so pathetically!
Conflicted, Mirae forced herself to look busy solving the math problems, though in truth she wanted to find a crack in reality to slip through and never be found again.
Noa, seeing this, was convinced that she was really busy and left.
The empty table on Mirae's left, where Noa had been seated, became empty again. She let out a sigh—but Mirae didn't notice that her classmate on her right side was looking at her in horror, his pale face frozen.