ethereal | park jimin | ✓

chapter 1 politics, hybrids, and homework

Beyond the study room window, snow soft as feathers falls onto the damp parking lot pavement and melts upon contact. The black air of the night transforms nearby buildings into floating lights and flashing signs. Trees, bare of leaves and coated with a fresh layer of snow, shiver as the wind whips across the skyscraper-lined streets.

My eyelids droop and I feel my body hunch forward against the plastic wood table. The pale fluorescent lights of the study room turn harsh in my sleepy eyes, making everything too bright for comfort. The calculus problems on my tablet turn into grey blobs as my eyesight fails me. If blurry was an emotion, I would be wallowing in it.

My classmate, Alice, sits across the table with her gaze fixated on her personal tablet. Her bowed head causes her lips to purse into a kiss-shape as she concentrates on the mayoral debates. Her long, nimble fingers grasp the edges of her tablet, and her legs are pulled up to her chest, sitting awkwardly in her spinning chair. Occasionally, her body will swing side to side before falling still once more.

Alice is a young woman with vibrant eyes and sleek blonde hair. A crown of wispy hair forms around her head but it's only visible if she stands in front of a direct light source. Occasionally, she will whisper commentary about the candidates' stances, most of which is disagreement. She tends to walk her own path when it comes to politics; a viewpoint she groomed for herself during her political science courses.

"It's just for publicity," she mutters to herself. "You can't just claim to support hybrid rights without any basis for it... it's stupid, he's being stupid."

I decidedly ignore her and tune out her judgments to avoid further stress. Tonight my calculus homework takes priority over hybrid laws and politics. I need to avoid such hot topics and buzzwords if I hope to complete this assignment before the stroke of midnight.

I refocus on the last five problems of the assignment with a grimace etched on my face. I scoff quietly and press one hand into my eye to ease the burning sensation. I force myself to sit straight only to feel my shoulders ache from their awkward position. I stretch upwards and feel a soft, satisfying pop in my neck. I relax my body back into my chair and sigh as I feel another wave of defeat.

I've tried rearranging the formula about a hundred times. I've even turned to the Internet in desperate hopes to cheat my way out of this. Unfortunately, my search was in vain and my only option to access the answers I need is to pay for it.

Alice clicks her tongue off the mouth of her mouth in disapproval, breaking my concentration. "You can't just ignore the question. This is a debate, just answer the question."

Reflexively, one side of my jaw clenches and unclenches itself. I lift my head from my tablet again and widen my eyes at her. "What are you even talking about?"

Alice doesn't remove her gaze from her tablet. "An AlphaGate representative just asked them about their views of genetic editing. Basically, he's asking if they think the creation of hybrids is ethical and if they think the government should fund them. This one guy dodged the question completely and started talking about tax cuts."

I sigh heavily and refocus on my homework. In slow, bored motions, I slide my finger up and down on the scrollbar. "Maybe he's trying to save face."

Alice shakes her head. "Ignoring the question is shooting yourself in the foot. He should be paying more attention to the representative. These guys hold the monopoly on hybrids and genetic modification, without them then the hybrid market would run rampant."

"Hmm."

She frowns at the screen once more and waves her hand at it. "I'm not saying I agree with the system or believe this should be funded by the government. It's a private sector, after all. I also think it's unethical, turning fetuses into half-animals to live the rest of their lives as support figures. However, I don't like how he dismissed the question."