wonderland is an illusion

Chapter 2

The long-awaited morning came to San. His home in district 10 is the farthest one from the southern gate, he had to take the train for about 15 minutes, eating breakfast on the way and run to the meeting point because his mom had bothered to run another check and slip some things inside his suitcase when he woke up. So he's nearly late, and if he is, then he'll be blacklisted if he applies to the government institutions.

He ran and ran, and he saw another person running along with him, probably catching the same bus. That other person is really really tall, his body lanky and his height matched those died-out streetlamps beside them.

They both halted, then lined up for the bus and identification. San looked around, then noticed Yeosang and Hongjoong already inside the bus, probably saving a seat for him in the back.

"Name and address?" The guard asked.

"Choi San. Sector 3 District 10, 5th street house number 3."

"Okay, you may go in, bus number five, I think your friend... Yeosang is in there too."

"Thank you."

Then San eavesdropped the conversation of both people behind him. The one behind him is Jeong Yunho, from Sector 4 District 3. Yunho was in the same bus as San, so he's kind of intrigued in making friends with that person. He seemed interesting.

"San! Hey!" Hongjoong waved at him, pointing at the last two seats behind the other two. He sat with Yunho, then the bus is ready to go.

"What's your name?" Yunho asked, since San is really timid and shy around new people.

"San, Choi San. You must be Jeong Yunho, I heard you back there at the identification." San hoped this will not be awkward.

"Ah yeah, that's right! What division do you want to join?"

"Public Safety. Yeosang there wants Med-Sci, and Hongjoong-hyung, my other friend, he wants to join PS like me."

"Ah really? No one wants to join Admin? What a bummer. Oh yeah, and by any chance, are you recruited? I could use some friends since my other Sector 4 buddies are hating me now. I was the only one recruited in my school."

"We three are recruited in Sector 3, out of 10 people." San pointed to Hongjoong, him and Yeosang.

"Well I have a friend though, who's recruited but he's at Sector 2. He used to sneak out Sector 2 to my house at the border, and we hung out a lot."

"Oh, really? What's his name? We could really use some more friends." This time Hongjoong is the one who asked, since a group of three is not enough.

"Song Mingi. He might seem cold and bratty at first glance, but he's really a sunshine once you know him well." Yunho assured them, and the Song family sounded like one of the prominent families in the System.

"Alright, if one of us ended up roommates then it's better."

When they reached the highway to sector one, Yunho brought out his holopad, seemingly wanting to communicate to someone.

"Hey, isn't that the latest edition of holopad?" It was small hexagon, with a hologram projector in the middle.

"Yeah, Mingi got it for my birthday last year." He then pulled out his phone, it looked brand-new and very slim. He scrolled his contact list, then pressed a name. He got his earphones out (all the earphones now are bluetooth), the popped them to his ears as his waited for Mingi to answer.

"Mingi, hey." A person, looking like he's seated somewhere in a car, had emerged in the hologram.

"Which bus are you? We might catch each other. I'm using my black Mercedes."