Jun rushed out of the staff room after making sure nothing was out of place. He then made his way over to the evacuation place. 

The teachers’ faces were tight with tension. It was visible even from the distance Jun could see as he approached them. Jun quickly explained before a teacher could unload their stress on him

“I was in the washroom when the alarm rang, it took me a while to finish my business and come here. I-I knew it was an emergency but I was too embarrassed to leave halfway through.” Jun bashfully lowered his head as though he was ashamed.  

The teacher left to check on the other students with a “Be quicker next time.” 

Jun’s ‘friends’ approached with a concerned look plastered over their faces. After repeating the same embarrassing excuse he had told the teacher, Jun excused himself. He didn't have time to be dilly dallying, he needed to quickly look for the next clue. 

***

23rd December, 6:43 am

The day had reset.

***

The time spent mulling over the mystery made Jun come up with a rather preposterous idea, but this idea might just work. 

Fail the examinations. 

The criteria to vanish from the face of the earth was to fail the December exams, and Jun was about to do exactly that.

The previous ‘Jun’ had barely passable marks in all the subjects so all Jun needed to was fail the upcoming history exam. This would drag his overall percentage below the passing mark.

Jun went ahead with his plan. 

He was more excited than nervous about what was going to happen to him. He realized that, due to the reset, he couldn’t die. If he died, the day would reset. If it hit midnight, it would reset. He had confirmed this with the book. 

***

“Jun and Irene, please follow me. The headmaster would like to have a word with you.” A slim bespectacled man with graying hair stood at the doorway of the classroom. He held a clipboard in his hands, presumably with a list of students who had failed.

Jun was startled as he had never seen this man before today. This man was probably also erased from everyone’s memories so that people didn't start suspecting something. 

Once Jun and Irene had followed him outside the class, he introduced himself with a polite smile, the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes becoming more prominent, “Good morning Jun and Irene, my name is Blaine. I work as the headmaster's assistant and secretary. Please patiently wait here as I gather all the students”

Without waiting for a response, Blaine turned on his heels and left, leaving Jun and Irene there to stand awkwardly.

***

Blaine returned after a while with 11 awkward teens trailing behind him. He requested Jun and Irene to join the line before heading a few more classes and repeating the process of asking those students to join the line. 

Blaine led them to a room with white double doors. The handles were the first colored objects Jun had seen in a long time. They were gold in color with deep burgundy accents. 

Blaine moved to the side and made no movement to open the door. Soon the first kid in line hesitantly reached out to open the doors. 

The doors opened to a large room white, mildly furnished with red and gold. In the center of the big room, a plump middle aged man in a white suit sat behind a wooden desk. 

The headmaster's face stretched into what could be an attempt to smile with his blackened teeth on display. His pudgy twisted face rested on his stubby fingers 

Jun had to wonder who chose this guy to become the headmaster of elite students. This guy looked like a pervert who would get thrown into jail for all kinds of reasons. 

The headmaster cut off Jun’s mental dissing with a heartfelt speech, “You are all young and full of energy. Your greatest asset is your youth but it is because you are young that you must put in all your efforts now. You must strive to be…-

Jun vigilantly looked around the room, not quite paying attention to the Headmaster. 

“-…I believe that each and every one of you is a seedling full of potential and can achieve your goal! So put in some effort!!”

Jun stayed tense the whole time. Waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Some trap door to open or some gas to be released. But all the tension was for naught, nothing happened the entire time the headmaster was giving the speech. 

The headmaster, despite his gangsta look, gave a pretty good speech. The headmaster went on a tangent about being a good student. He sounded more passionate than a kid about summer vacation. It was motivational enough that it made Jun want to start learning right away. 

Once the headmaster was done, he asked Blaine to lead them directly back to their dorms. Blaine who was standing near the door just gestured for everyone to follow him. 

Jun, who had suspected the headmaster until now, questioned his initial suspicions. Maybe the headmaster wasn’t the culprit and that he was just an innocent man with a gangsta look. 

Blaine silently led them to the girls' dorms first. After dropping the girls off he slowly made his way over to the boy’s dorm. Once they had reached the boy’s dormitory, he left without a word. 

Once he was inside his dorm, Jun sat on the bed without changing out of his uniform. 

He had subconsciously believed it was the headmaster since Blaine appeared mysteriously after he had failed and the headmaster's overall vibe and image strengthened his opinion. But now was he stumped as nothing happened the whole time they were in the headmaster's room. 

Jun stood up to grab a glass of water. But his movements were slow as if his limbs were made of lead. It took a lot of effort to move them. 

A deep inhale made his lungs burn and Jun suddenly realized that the whole room was foggy. While he was deep in his thoughts he had totally missed what was happening in his surroundings. 

Jun could feel his eyelids starting to lower no matter how hard he tried to keep them open. 

Shit. Sleeping gas. 

Shit. Shit. Shit. 

Of course. 

Why didn’t he think of that? The whole school was owned by the headmaster. Of course he would have access to all parts of the school. 

Just because he suspected the headmaster didn’t mean the headmaster had to be in the vicinity for him to go missing. 

With a thump, Jun crumpled to the floor, his brain working overdrive to try and keep him conscious. Alas, it was futile as Jun soon lost consciousness. 

***

Jun’s eyes laboriously opened to find himself in a white room with other failed students. Tightly bound to chairs with metal. 

They were seated in a circle with clear visibility of everyone in the room. In the center of the room was a huge test tube containing… a girl.  

Her face was covered by coarse black hair and the rest of her body with clothes. The only indication that she was a girl was her curvy figure. 

There was something odd about her. She just felt mismatched, like different pieces of cloth forcefully sewn together. 

A couple of moments later a voice echoed throughout the room, obviously modified by a voice changer. “Good evening my dearest students. Welcome to the playroom!! It is now story time~

Once upon a time, long long ago....”

Jun had done it. 

He had successfully gotten himself kidnapped.