The Rejected One (Woosan)

Chapter One

Wooyoung slowly opened his eyes as he heard the community centre's staff members calling everyone for breakfast. This was something he had heard since he was a child. Every morning, midday and dinner, get called to something that the centre provided for them. He didn't like eating here but it was the only thing he would be able to get, so he couldn't complain too much. It was better than nothing. Wooyoung opened his eyes and he could see the room around him. Well, half of the room. He could only see out of his right eye as he was blind in his left eye. Since he was half blind, he had to be more careful when he was walking because he could bump into anything more easily than most people would normally do. Wooyoung pulled the blanket off himself and sat up, giving himself some time to adjust to the fact that he was awake and that he was getting up from bed.

He took in a deep breath and eventually got up from his bed, looking over at the bunch of people that were walking over to where the breakfast was normally given out. As much as he wanted to join them, Wooyoung knew that he would have to wait for a little because if he joined the bunch of people now, he would be looked at weirdly and sometimes he would hear murmurs between other people who lived at the community centre. He watched as the bunch of people slowly become less and less, getting up and joining them once he was sure that there wasn't more people that weren't in their beds. Well besides from him. Wooyoung followed the bunch of people, all of them talking about a variety of things such as how long they have been at the centre and sometimes how the food wasn't the best because of it being from leftovers that people who donated it.

Wooyoung would join in the conversation but because of the amount of times of being rejected, he had given up on trying. Well, he had given up years ago. He looked down the hallway that he has been down multiple times and found some small cracks as well as paint that was falling off. This place has certainly changed since I was one, Wooyoung thought, Now twenty, almost twenty one and it has become a little run down.

"Wooyoung," a staff member said, catching Wooyoung's attention, "Stop staring at the wall. We're probably going to get them redone soon."

"Sorry ma'am," Wooyoung apologised. He walked into the area in which they normally had every meal or as everyone who lived at the community centre called, 'The Eating Area'. It was something that someone had come with and before it could be changed, it kind of stuck with everybody and no one bothered to change it. Even the staff have begun to call it 'The Eating Area'. Wooyoung was the last one to enter the eating area and since he was the last one to enter the area, it meant that he got the very few last pieces of what was left. It also meant that whatever pieces he got probably wasn't the best tasting like everyone else's. But he couldn't really complain because it was better than nothing and going through the day on an empty stomach. Everyone who lived at the community centre started picking out what they wanted from the food table that was laid out near the entrance of the eating area. Wooyoung didn't bother waiting near the food table as he knew that it would be a while before he would be able to get anything for himself. So, instead, he went over to one of many circular tables that was in the eating area.

He pulled out a chair and sat down, looking at the crowd of people that were grabbing what they wanted to have. This was something that Wooyoung was used to by now, considering that he was basically raised here since he was one year old when his parents found out that he was blind in his left eye and when he was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. He was diagnosed with a condition that causes episodes of rapid heartbeat because of extra electrical pathways in the upper and lower chambers of his heart. He was immediately rejected by his own family because of it and he was then he was brought to the community centre, not that it was much different. He was still rejected here by people living here. Remembering all that made Wooyoung both upset and frustrated at his own family.

"Wooyoung," someone said as they sat down next to the male, catching Wooyoung's attention, "Aren't you going to eat something? Everyone else is." This was the first time someone had asked him something in the many years of him being here.

"Not yet," Wooyoung responded, "I'm waiting for the line to be lowered first."

"Right," the person stated, their voice becoming sotto voce (quiet). From the corner of his functioning right eye, he saw the person getting up from the chair beside him and leave to a different table. Again, that was something that he was used to. He had become so accustomed to it to the point in which it didn't offend him nor did it emotionally hurt him. If anything, it only helped him build a metaphorical wall around his heart and himself. It was a metaphoric wall that was helping him from being emotionally and mentally hurt. Wooyoung took a deep breath and looked up over at the food table, seeing that there wasn't anyone standing there but there was only very few food items on the food table. But, he still wasn't going to complain about it because it was still better than nothing.

He got up from his chair and walked over to the food table, grabbing a plate along the way as well as using the tongs to put whatever was left on the food table. He knew that everyone else was looking at him since he was the only one who was still getting something from the food table, despite seeing it happening multiple times over the years. Wooyoung picked up a fork along with a knife and got the very little food that was left over from other people didn't want, going back to the table that he sat at before he stood up. He sat down on the same chair and began to eat what was on his plate. The only things that were on his plate was plain toast and a small pancake, both food items only being slightly warm. Wooyoung first started to cut the pancake into pieces, even though it could only be cut into three smaller pieces as the pancake was small enough already. He used the fork to move the pieces of pancake from the plate into his mouth, chewing and swallowing it before moving on to the next piece.

Eating the pancake didn't take very long, so Wooyoung was able to start eating the toast straight after finishing the pancake. He knew that he would be the first one to finish eating but he was used to it. Since he was often the first one to finish, he would normally be excused from from the eating area early, which normally resulted in either him going back to his bed and just lay there until lunch or him going for a walk around the block that the community centre was located on. Wooyoung picked up the toast with his right hand and took a bite out of it, this time taking a bit longer to chew, swallow and to completely finish eating it. He looked around the room, seeing that everyone that he could see were talking to each other and some were laughing at something that had been said by someone else. He silently sighed. He wished he was able to have conversation with those around, but he didn't publicly show it. That was one thing he hated about being rejected.