City of stars | Daerin

2

When the weather gets cold, we use thicker blankets and more layers in clothing, so the warmness comes back like a fine breeze of the summer evening in each year. Formation of such was defined by the laws of physics, a subject that was Haerin's least favorite during high school. She would always find herself dozing off or watching the birds outside. The feline would usually sit in the back and direct her camera at the birds—taking a polaroid picture and having a satisfied smile whenever it was successful. She was thankful whenever the feline remembered to cover the camera—sometimes it had a loud clicking sound—so that the teacher would notice it and confiscate it for a whole year.

It was a drag to set her foot inside her school. Each time Haerin had to endure staring from her classmates, questions from teachers and excessive look-downs, which were totally unnecessary, since the feline never did anything to dissatisfy anyone.

Usually, some girls at schools were judgmental in a way that would make you insecure. Mostly when they were rich with daddy's financial accounts, had good clothes and had numerous boyfriends up their sleeves, who, albeit to them, were using them for money. Similar things were happening to rich boys too. The categories and stereotypes were genuinely sickening—mostly noticed by Haerin after she read Animal Farm by George Orwell. She could notice the hunger for power in each of the kids' eyes—how they fought for authority and proclaiming—always seeking for domination. "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." Oh, her eyes widened after reading that exact sentence. Haerin looked around the people, the kids, noticing how many similarities were prominent in the air. She forever cherished that book after getting a chance to see unruly people slowly grow into hypocrites.

That's exactly why Haerin wasn't prominent on making friends. Her eyes would always catch a boring person, who put their selfish needs over morality and social norms, who stepped on others to seem higher.

The feline remembers, once, when she accidentally had to watch a fight between her classmates—which was about government principles. Their weird obsession with communism and socialism slowly subsided—and it became a pure scene of anarchism. They defied their own words and delved into a state of a violent quarrel. She took out her camera and pushed the button, watching how the boys stopped fighting and looked at the feline, with her polaroid camera in her hands.

Genuinely, Haerin couldn't tell pigs and men apart after this encounter. She had her knee propped up, in the backyard of her school, her elbow resting on it and her lip busted. She had some blood coming out of her nose and a slightly black eye. The boys were so engrossed in their post-fight haze, that they got mad at Haerin for capturing the moment and beat her up. The feline pursed her lips and looked in front, seeing her polaroid camera, broken to pieces. She wondered if it was wrong, when other kids were also holding their flip phones and recording the scene.

Was it really scary, that a simple picture showed more animalistic nature than a mere video? Haerin never understood why it was only her who got beat up after that commotion. After that, the news were spread around the school like a flash of light—everyone was staring at her when she was walking through the hallways, and the feline felt disturbed about how unfair it was. But, if we think about it, nothing is fair in this world, really. This whole situation taught her how consequences of unique traits and perspectives are blocked in hierarchies.

Haerin shook her head exhaled another puff of smoke, watching the now sickening view from her balcony after studying almost all night. Her eyes got teary from the bitter taste of cigarettes and sleepless nights. She coughed to clear her throat and leaned back in her chair with a sigh. The feline's phone started buzzing and she looked down to see a few messages from Kyujin. Her brows furrowed as she read them—realizing that her final decision led her to unfortunate socializing. Haerin leaned forward in her chair and rubbed the back of her hair, narrowing her eyes at the city and those stars above, wondering when it would be that she wouldn't feel so lonely.