▪ 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 ▪

𝙄

Dark colored high-rise buildings of Taipei stood in the distance clustered together, all competing to be the tallest. Surrounding the main city were smaller buildings that looked up to the taller ones. One of these buildings was National Taitung Senior Highschool. The sun shone high in the sky, school was out and students from many different schools travelled to many places. Some took the bus home, some went to after school classes or sport events, and some stayed at their school for their club activities. Liu Yangyang, however, rode quietly on his black skateboard that had a red race car painted on it. He just wanted a peaceful and quiet place where no one else could find him. A place far away from his house where he didn't have to study all the time or listen to his father talk about the Sphinx M Corporation.

Liu Yangyang is a 3rd year (12th grade) student at National Taitung Senior Highschool. His father, Liu Guotin, worked at Sphinx M -- the same corporation that led Taiwan -- as a loyal manager of the development team. Yangyang's father usually came home early since his company let him leave early. He hoped his father would not notice that his son was not at home. Mr. Liu's normal evening routine consisted of coming home from work and eating a light snack while listening to the national radio.

A public bus passed by with many kids on it. It was covered with posters that advertised the new version of GPhone X, a product that was still in demand even though it had been released months ago. Yangyang did not bother to pay attention to these advertisements, who knew what was hidden in these new phones that the government sold? He preferred to use the one that his mom used when she was still alive; at least he was sure that one was so outdated that the government would have discarded the technology to efficiently track it down.

The skateboard came to a halt in front of a tall leafless tree. It was the only one that stood there, all lonely and dried up. Yangyang knew the truth behind it: the tree was once alive and surrounded by many other lively trees in a park. Nowadays, parks are practically nonexistent due to the deforestation for more buildings. The Limitless Cloud, a nuclear bomb that had destroyed a lot of Taiwan years ago, had affected this place too. Thanks to the disaster caused by the opposing side, Taiwan and the rest of the underground was a literal wasteland. Sphinx M decided to renovate the main city, Taipei, but they could care less about the suburban areas where most of the citizens actually lived. Taipei was for those who could afford actually living there. The young boy's chocolate brown pair of eyes glanced around before he took a seat beside the tree. Power, money, profit, gain -- that's all what the government cared about.

Not too far away from the tree stood a house made of wood that was almost falling off. Nails of different sizes peeked out from the corners like the thorns of a cactus. It had two stories with four small broken windows in the front and a wooden door. A girl strolled outside from the house and towards the tree. Her hair went right below her shoulders and there was a teal flower clip on the side. She wore a mint green dress that flowed down to her knees. It was adorned with baby pink flowers at the edges. While taking a walk, she noticed a young brown-haired boy around her age sitting beneath the tree. He wore a school uniform that consisted of a white button up shirt, a navy coat paired with navy blue pants, and a red tie. The girl hid behind the tree and watched him scribbling something down in his notebook.

"What are you doing?" the girl revealed herself from behind the tree. Yangyang spun his head around and shut his notebook briskly.

"N-Nothing," he stuttered. "Who are you?"

"I'm Shuhua!" She jumped like a bunny.

"I'm Liu Yangyang," he introduced himself, not wanting to come off as rude.

"Yangyang," she repeated and thought to herself that it was a cute name.

"Well, I should go back home now," he stood up and put his notebook away. The notebook was precious to him, not only because notebooks were expensive but because it had his plans inside it.

"What was in that notebook?" Yangyang's eyes met hers which sparkled with curiosity.

"It was nothing important."

Yangyang hopped back on his skateboard and left with a simple goodbye. Shuhua found him odd, but then thought to herself that he might've thought the same of her. She shrugged and happily went back to the little wooden house.

𝙀𝙉𝘿 𝙊𝙁 𝙎𝘾𝙀𝙉𝙀 𝙄