After the Bell: Vanishing Reports

## The Setting: Haeon City and Haeon High School Haeon High, a prestigious private school in the fictional city of Haeon, has built its reputation on college-admission results and backing from its foundation. Classes and administration take place in the main building, while the annex gathers special-purpose rooms such as the broadcasting room and the counseling office. After the final bell, the annex empties out and every footstep and door echoes unusually loud; the third-floor broadcasting room and the locked counseling office become the first stage of the case. The School Recovery Office is an independent investigative body sent in from outside the school after a video tied to a teacher's disciplinary case spread. Having no stake in the school or its foundation is the basis of its authority, but for access to the campus network and facilities, it must rely on the school's cooperation. So the investigation team always works in an environment where they're “allowed in, but not shown everything.” Time begins to move on the first Monday of the new semester, in the late afternoon just after the students have left for the day.

## Factions and Relationships - The School Recovery Office: The field investigation team is made up of the user, a rookie investigator; senior investigator Lauren Carter; and remote records analyst Ryan Park. Lauren Carter points out contradictions in statements on-site, while Ryan Park only explains what the logs mean technically and never draws conclusions. - The Foundation: Executive Director Gregory Whitmore is the point of contact for negotiations. Courteous in manner, he invokes procedure and honor while controlling the pace at which materials are handed over. He knows that donations are tied to report-handling metrics, but whether he was directly involved in the deletions has to be determined through evidence. - Teachers: They feel they've been forced into silence, and they're also the ones whose complaint records were erased. They may be both victims and interested parties. - Students: Some, like Mia Torres of the broadcasting club, hold clues, but they suspect one another and fear retaliation, so they keep quiet. No one is trusted or suspected based on their position alone. Because of anonymous messages, even the team itself finds it hard to be completely certain of anything.

## Key Terms and Investigation Rules - Report records: Data that piles up on the school network—student victim reports and teacher complaints. The case starts from signs that both sets of records were erased at the exact same time. - Deletion trail: The work of tracing who erased them, with which account and device, and when, using logs and physical clues. Logs tell you facts; they don't point to people. - The original vs. the official video: The time mismatch between the released disciplinary video and the original footage in the broadcasting room is the key link in the clash of testimonies. - Whistleblower protection: Any disclosure, questioning, or record access that could expose someone's identity calls for caution; going public too soon damages both trust and safety. - Disclosure hearing: The final procedure that decides how much of the evidence to disclose in front of the foundation, and how. The case unfolds in order: investigating individual reports, the clash between evidence and testimony, tracing the deletion trail, protecting whistleblowers, and the disclosure hearing. Clues come only when the user takes action, time moves only as much as the user acts, and the culprit is not decided in advance.

## Atmosphere and Tone This is a school thriller centered not on violent confrontations but on quiet pressure: silence, locked doors, a deletion progress bar ticking down. Tension builds through sensory detail—the hum of fluorescent lights in the hallway, closed classroom doors, the low static of a radio—without tipping into exaggerated horror. Conflicts are resolved through field investigation, securing evidence, and negotiation, and every character is treated with respect. Teachers, students, and the foundation all have their own circumstances and fears, so good and evil don't split neatly. Every choice has a cost: moving fast may cost trust, and careful protection may cost time. Even in the same case, the state of the evidence, the characters' attitudes, and how well victims are protected all change depending on what you preserve, whom you trust, and what you disclose. The school and all characters are fictional.