Road To Cloud 9

2

So It Begins

  Waking up to the early alarm of his phone Jongseob was tempted to throw it out the window. Then he remembered that he now lives alone and if he wanted to get to school on time he'd have to take the bus. Rubbing his eyes with his hand he got out of bed and turned off his alarm. Checking the time he saw that it was around six-thirty. Groaning, he grabbed his school uniform and a towel, and headed for the shower.

  Getting out he got dressed and dried his hair, it was weird to him how silent the house was. Normally Ji-Woo would be shouting because she accidentally kicked her stuffed bunny off the bed in her sleep and can't find it. He let out a sigh as he grabbed his schoolbag, if he was being honest, the quietness of the three-bed house, plus the attic, caused a prickly feeling to crawl up his spine. It's only been about three days since he started living alone, but that doesn't mean he has to like it.

  Before he left the house he put a strawberry cereal bar in his bag, he was never hungry in the morning but he usually felt his stomach splitting apart before lunch, so he packs a cereal bar to hold himself off until lunch. On his way to his bus stop, he plugged in his earbuds and turned up the volume just enough so he wouldn't hear his surroundings. 

   During the ride to school, Jongseob noticed something peculiar. He saw a kid who was wearing his school's uniform be beaten in an alleyway. It was strange to him, the boy who had never witnessed anything that would add any sort of spice in his life. No matter how many times his family asked about how his day went he could never come up with anything other than, he went to school, studied, and came back.

  The people who were beating the kid seemed to be older, between their third year in high school and their second year of college. After they the alleyway the kid followed a few moments later, anyone who saw him passing by could tell he was in an altercation. Before Jongseob could really see what type of wounds he had the bus continued on it's way.

  Arriving at school he headed straight for his classroom. There was no reason to linger anywhere else, he had no friends after all. He placed his bag next to his desk as he sat down, taking out his textbooks for his first class of the day as he did. Class was going by smoothly, like it always did, until a beaten boy walked into class, at the start of the third period.

"As you can see, you will have a new student joining our class from now on." The teacher explained as he paused what he was doing. "Please introduce yourself."

"..." The student's lips moved but no audible sound could be heard, even the teacher who was right beside him couldn't hear even so much as a whisper.

"Alright then, his name is Haku Shota. He is not a new student but had to switch classes for personal reasons." The teacher spoke for him, a questionable look on his face as he did. "There's only one free seat... over there." He pointed to the seat that just so happened to be next to Jongseob.

  The young boy looked around him, there were indeed no other open seats. His mind was going a mile a second, someone, who looked to be less than a decent human being, was going to sit next to him. When the boy sat down he put his bag on his chair and looked over to Jongseob.

"Hey..." Shota said just loud enough for him to hear.

"H-Hey..." Jongseob said, mentally slapping himself for stuttering.

"Hm, Kim Jongseob? That's a cool name..." Shota said as he pointed to the boy's nametag that was pinned to his blazer.

"Thanks..." Now he was really freaking out. Someone was actually paying attention to him, he couldn't remember the last time someone talked to him, and he was running out of things he should say. Thankfully Shota turned away and put his head down, attention now off the other.

-

  Now that it was time for lunch Jongseob grabbed his wallet out of his bag and started to walk to the lunchroom. The hallways seemed still, his curse of nothing ever happening around him appearing yet again. He didn't particularly want anything else, he mainly enjoyed the silence. The lives of his peers being far too exciting for him.

 Just as he was about to walk down the stairs he felt someone pull at his arm, but because one of his feet was off the ground he ended up falling, whoever pulled his arm coming down with him. Thankfully he managed to hold onto the railings, keeping him from completely falling down the stairs. Looking down he saw that Shota, the kid who moved to his class, was also in the same position but had his head against the other's chest.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to make you fall." Shota said as he stood up, helping Jongseob up as he did.

"It's alright. Did you need me for something?" Jongseob asked as he picked up his wallet that had also fallen.

"I just wanted to ask if I could have lunch with you?" Shota said as he showed him his lunch that was in a corner store plastic bag. Most likely holding a meal that was no more than two dollars and was less than healthy.

"Me? I mean, yeah sure." Jongseob said quickly correcting himself. 

  The two then proceeded to walk to the lunchroom, for some reason gaining quite a few stares as they did, even a few whispers. What shocked Jongseob the most, however, was that people were saying things about him. Granted none of them dropped his name, but it was still quite obvious, most of them mentioning his hair. 

Looking over to the blonde boy next to him who had his hair tied up, wearing a sweater version of the uniform, his tie loose, something clicked in his head. His quiet life was just starting to end.