Thomas was in the driver's seat.
The bus driver followed the pointing student's hand and froze. A kid was sitting behind the wheel. He started to rush forward, but Bryan held him down.
"Sir, did you finish fixing the towel? I think it's leaning to one side," Bryan blurted, saying anything to keep him distracted.
A few seconds earlier, after splitting up with Bryan, Thomas had gone straight into the bus. His first move was to release the handbrake.
This was the plan they had studied for days. If they couldn't cancel the trip, then they would stop the bus from ever reaching the observatory. They had trained at home with a makeshift driver's seat, complete with pedals, a handbrake, and even seatbelts, learning from whatever tutorials they could find online.
When Thomas released the brake, the bus hissed loudly. The driver outside heard it. Thomas ducked into the row behind the driver's seat just in time, so he wasn't spotted.
That was when Bryan kept the driver busy. With the man's attention on him, Thomas slid into the seat, buckled himself in, and shifted the gear into drive.
That was the moment their classmates noticed him.
Thomas saw the bus driver fighting to reach him, desperate to pull him away from the wheel. Bryan was clinging to the man's arm, holding him back, but he couldn't last forever.
Thomas pressed the gas pedal. The bus lurched forward with a heavy groan.
"Stop! Stop!" the driver shouted, shoving Bryan aside and sending him sprawling. He didn't care anymore. He had to stop the bus.
The driver lunged for the door, but Thomas was quicker. His hand hit the door control switch on the side panel. With a hiss, the doors folded shut right in the man's face, locking him out. The engine roared, and the bus picked up speed.
His classmates and teachers stood frozen as the vehicle rolled forward, unable to believe what they were seeing. A student was driving the bus.
Bryan pushed himself up from the ground and looked at the moving vehicle. Despite the chaos, a grin spread across his face. Their plan had worked. Thomas had actually taken control of the bus.
The bus rumbled down the driveway, turned the corner, and disappeared from view. The screams of the students and shouts of the teachers chased after it, but none of them could see where it was heading now.
Then came the crash.
"BLAGGG!"
The thunderous crash echoed back through the street. Everyone's stomachs dropped. Bryan, the driver, and the teachers all bolted forward with the students, running as fast as they could to find out what had happened.
They rounded the corner and finally saw it. The bus had slammed into the fountain just a few meters away from the museum. Water sprayed into the air. The front window was shattered, glass scattered across the seats.
Thomas was still strapped into the driver's seat, his body leaning against the belt. He wasn't badly hurt, just scratched and bruised by the glass, but he was unconscious.
The driver scrambled inside, shut off the engine, and unbuckled him. With a heave, he pulled Thomas out into the open air.
The ambulance arrived quickly, siren still wailing as it stopped by the fountain. Paramedics jumped out, rushing straight for Thomas. They checked his breathing and pulse, then carefully lifted him onto a stretcher.
As they wheeled him toward the ambulance, Thomas groaned awake. His eyes fluttered open just long enough to spot Bryan. With a weak grin, he gave a shaky thumbs up before letting his head fall back again.
Bryan let out the breath he'd been holding. Their teacher did the same, though hers came with a sharp glare. She pulled Bryan by the arm and practically shoved him into the ambulance beside Thomas. To her co-teacher, she called out instructions to keep the students together until the police finished asking questions.
Before the doors shut, Bryan caught sight of the bus driver talking to officers while firefighters inspected the wreck. The driver's hands moved wildly as he explained, clearly shaken.
Inside the ambulance, the tension was unbearable. The teacher sat across from Bryan, her eyes burning into him.
"Explain," she snapped. "Why did you do it? Why were you holding the driver down?"
Bryan froze. His brain scrambled for words. He turned toward Thomas, silently begging for backup, but Thomas immediately shut his eyes and pretended to sleep.
"Uhm… Uhm…" Bryan stammered.
"What?!" the teacher barked, her voice sharp with fury.
"There will be… landslide!" The words burst out before he could stop them.
The teacher blinked, then leaned forward. "What landslide?! Bryan, this is serious!"
She was red with anger, but before Bryan could dig himself deeper, the ambulance radio crackled to life.
"Unit 14, be advised. Standby for possible deployment. Initial reports of a landslide near Observatory Valley Road. Extent of damage and casualties unknown. Await further instructions."
The whole vehicle went quiet.
The teacher slowly turned her head back toward Bryan. For once, she didn't have anything to say. She pulled out her phone, quickly scrolling through the news. Her eyes widened. The landslide report was real.
Bryan sat frozen. He hadn't even believed Thomas all the way, maybe seventy percent at most. He'd even planned to blame everything on Thomas if it went wrong. But it wasn't wrong. It was real.
The teacher leaned back in her seat, eyes still locked on her phone. She looked more shaken than angry now, caught between disbelief and confusion.
No one spoke for the rest of the ride.
At the hospital, Thomas's grandfather arrived in a hurry. The old man scolded him relentlessly while the paramedics reported only minor cuts and bruises. The fainting earlier had been from nerves more than injury.
Bryan and Thomas never learned all the details afterward. They just overheard bits of adults talking. Somehow, between the grandfather's influence and the teacher's reluctant defense, neither boy was punished. No expulsion. No suspension.
A few days later, they were back in school as if nothing had happened.
While growing up, Thomas had more bangungot incidents, but none ever reached the same weight as the bus incident. That one was the only case they had labeled as category S.
Now, in the present, they were facing something far beyond that. Not just S, but a triple S bangungot.
"Did you see the email?" one of their coworkers asked early in the morning.
"Yes! The company is treating us for lunch tomorrow!"
"But is this real? It says an employee named Thomas sent it. Who's Thomas? I checked his profile, he's not even a manager. Just a regular employee."
"You must be the intern, right? No wonder you don't know. Thomas is the grandson of Mr. Cordell, one of the company's biggest shareholders."
"That guy doesn't even hide that he was hired because of family ties. Everyone knows it. And one day he'll be sitting in a higher position whether he works for it or not."
"So just ignore it and be thankful. Free food's free food."
"Yeah, but think about it. He didn't just invite his department. He invited the whole company."
"That's more than two hundred employees! What a boss move."
The office buzzed with chatter. All day, Thomas was the talk of the building. HR never issued a correction, and not even the bosses stepped in to stop it. By afternoon, it was settled. The lunch was real.
None of them knew it was also the part of Thomas and Bryan's plan.
"That's Thomas?" some new employees whispered. They had gone out of their way to pass by his department just to catch a glimpse.
Thomas was hard to miss. At six foot seven, he towered over most people, built solid and broad. His muscles had weight but little definition, and a small belly hinted at his lack of training. Short, messy hair framed his face, and thick brows gave him a serious look that stuck even when he wasn't trying.
The company he worked for ran several restaurant chains and produced packaged goods like instant noodles. Thomas was technically in the R&D department, but he had carved out his own little empire there, a food tasting team.
Every new product and every potential restaurant partnership went through his group first. If Thomas and his team said the food was good, sales usually followed. His opinion carried weight because he had a knack for knowing exactly what would click with customers.
On days without new products or restaurant deals, Thomas didn't really do much. Normally, he would wander over to Bryan's sales department to bug him and kill time. But today, after sending that infamous company-wide email, too many eyes were already on him. So instead of slacking off as usual, Thomas sat at his desk pretending to work.
"It's peanut butter jelly time!
Peanut butter jelly time!
Peanut butter jelly time!
Peanut butter jelly time!
Where ya at? Where ya at?
Where ya at? Where ya at?"
Thomas's phone blared across the office. He fumbled to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Thomas Aike!! What did you do this time?!"
It was his grandfather's voice, loud and furious.