Death Bell 2

Chung Taeyeon comes in first while Yoon Narae finishes third, as photographers capture the moment by the pool. Taeyeon then calls Sehee from the crowd to join Narae for a photo, cementing their friendship on camera. The scene establishes the close ties among the swimmers before the mystery unfolds.

At the pool, Kyunghee attempts a practice swim but is dragged underwater by a mysterious black smoke. She struggles to surface and glimpses a corpse-like figure staring back before she screams for help. The incident signals a malevolent presence haunting the school.

Final exams create a tense atmosphere, with Sehee suffering a nosebleed and being denied access to the nurse. After the test, Narae quits the swim team, and the school reveals a summer program that will keep top students on campus during break. The shift foreshadows the new hierarchy and pressures to come.

Before the summer program begins, Sehee experiences a chilling dream in which Taeyeon appears decayed and sits at a piano. Taeyeon taps out Chopsticks as water droplets bead on the keys, and the vision hints at haunting guilt and unresolved trauma. Sehee wakes with eerie water droplets on the piano bench nearby.

The class is introduced as a competition for the highest ranking, with students cast as rivals. Miss Park confiscates their cell phones, and Wonho presents her with a small nude figurine wrapped in bondage, signaling the underlying machinations among the students. The tense atmosphere sets the stage for further horrors.

Hyuna is seen taking pills in her dorm, then experiences a terrifying hallucination of hair growth and blood pouring from the ceiling. The dorm coach is later found dead in a separate room, and it becomes clear the pills were tampered with. Hyuna dies, underscoring the deadly stakes of the program.

As the clock strikes midnight, Yongran's body bursts through ceiling tiles with foreign characters sewn on her face. In the same moment, JK is run down by a masked rider on a motorcycle in another corridor. The alarms go off as a male voice in the PA system warns that the students must uncover the killer to survive.

Power flickers back on and Sooil is killed by a weapon activated in the maintenance room. Mr. Cha and Miss Park hurry to reassure the students while a cascade of photographs on the wall shows people running through the pool area, hinting at a hidden history. The darkroom and its secrets begin to close in on them.

Mr. Cha discovers a wall filled with photos and negatives as an incinerator activates to trap him inside. The room fills with a coded message formed by the pictures, and Sehee deciphers the phrase 'memento mori' to mean they must remember mortality rather than forget Taeyeon's death. A new slide reveals Taeyeon's brutal fate.

Flashbacks reveal a past where Taeyeon was harmed in a sexual assault and the group manipulated events, including Sooil's part. Jiyoon contemplates turning herself in, but Miss Park's calm demeanor signals a troubling complicity as a hidden figure grabs Jiyoon. The truth begins to surface, tying many threads together.

Miss Park addresses the students over a broadcast, insisting that every action carries responsibility. A safe with a phone is opened in the auditorium, and several students race toward the broadcast studio to seek help as a countdown to contact begins. The plan to escape becomes a chaotic race against time.

Two years earlier, Jungbum receives a breakup text from Taeyeon and later finds her dead at the pool; he is accused of Taeyeon’s murder. Miss Park is revealed to be Jungbum's sister, visiting him in an asylum and delivering Taeyeon’s photos in an envelope. The disturbing family ties explain the chain of events driving the horror.

In a brutal culmination, Jiyoon is tied to a noose with a key attached to a safe that could free her. The others struggle to untie her, but the key ultimately frees nothing in time and Jiyoon dies. The students flee as Jungbum sets the school on fire and a gate explosion erupts, scattering them into the night.

At the pool, Jungbum corners Sehee with a heavy chain; Taeyeon’s ghost appears to intervene and removes the weight from Sehee’s ankle. Jungbum is pulled away as Taeyeon’s apparition drifts into the water, leaving Sehee and the others to process the aftermath. The haunting memory lingers as the scene fades.

During the credits, Kwanwoo performs CPR to revive Sehee, and the moment freezes on his face before fading to black. The narrative leaves the future open, with memory and mortality echoing after the horror has passed. The final image suggests that truth and memory endure beyond the fire and death.