ANSAN, South Korea — The most poignant reminders of what has been lost here are the most ordinary.
Desks in the classrooms of Danwon High School in Ansan, where dozens of students were missing and feared dead Thursday after a ferry disaster, are cluttered with textbooks, gym clothes, water bottles — small bits of ordinary school life now infused with heartbreak.
There is fury as parents and students lash out at the swarming news media. Horror, too, as they picture loved ones trapped in the cold and dark of a flipped, submerged ferry. Most refuse to believe that, even after dozens of attempts, a friend, a child, a sibling won’t answer their cellphone. They keep calling.
One message on a blackboard reads: “Please, everyone return safely!” Another: “Jin-yong! Please come home alive.”
More than 320 Danwon High School second-year students — mostly 16- and 17-year-olds — left Tuesday night for what was supposed to be one of the highlights of the year, a 14-hour overnight ferry trip to the resort island of Jeju for four days of fun.
As the hours stretch on since the ferry sank Wednesday with no word about more than 270 missing passengers among the 475 people on board, Ansan fears the worst.
The confirmed death toll rose to 25 on Thursday, while divers worked in shifts to try to get into the sunken vessel, but strong currents would not allow them to enter.
“Do you believe they’re still alive?” Lee Mi-shim, 48, a mother of a missing student, asked a reporter as tears streamed down her face. “I know the chances aren’t good. … No one in his class has been rescued.”
The school, nestled in a quiet, clean residential area, was founded in 2005 and has more than 1,200 students and 85 teachers. The area is a half hour’s drive from an industrial complex where many parents of students work at factories.
Kim Eun-taek, an 18-year-old third-year student, knows more than 10 of the missing students, including one of his best friends.
“He lives next door. We used to play at my house together. He cooked food for me,” said Kim, putting up his sweat shirt hood and lowering his head.
