𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐑 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘. skz (revising)

SEOUL, A BEGINNING

Bang Chan

SEOUL, A BEGINNING
April 12th, 2020
5:46 PM

"You act so tough, but you can't do anything right now. All you know is to hurt people. I wonder what you would feel if this backfires."

Those were hazy voices he hears most of the time. Stern voices he didn't know would scare him someday. He didn't know that all of the things he do will turn around and affect him this hard. Chan was tough, and he is still acting like he is. Such voices can't turn him down, he can't be disheartened by some words of people who wants him to drown. But why does it hurt so much– why can he feel all these pain?

Moving out and living with a new surrounding. Just the thought of it is hard enough, and to all honesty, he doesn't know where he would start. To come in another school in the middle of April, meet new people, see new things that he wants to try. The thought of it excites him more than anything, and Chan wanted to do feel fine, to smile, to tell himself that those voices won't define the future that will come ahead of him.

"Are we good to go?" An old man asked, sitting beside him. He is holding the steering wheel, looking at Chan with a concerning look.

He smiled at the driver and the man beside him quickly started the engine, setting his GPS to their destination. It is a long way drive to Seoul, he can already see everything that awaits him on the new city. The moment he heard his mother cry, and his best friend madly shouts at him, he knew what would happen. He needed to at least run away. Chan thought that maybe starting a new life would be easier than enduring what is on his hometown. Chan smiled a bit, putting his earphones on his ears and played a song to calm down.

A new beginning. How beautiful does it sound? Would it put him into a new feeling or will it just worsen the issues he has? He's just 17, and he's now living on his own on a town far from home. Far from the expectations set for him before. Far from the words they told him before.

Chan stares outside the window, looking at the sight of the city where he never thought he would live in. He smiles unconsciously at the strangers that pass by him, and on the cars with people he doesn't even know. He isn't a country bumpkin but he just missed how Seoul looked like after the years he last saw it. When he was still the Chan everyone liked– and not the Chan they all knew.

Soon, they pass by different buildings leaving Chan in awe. It is beautiful– the sight, the place, even the trees. He didn't know he will see this city again. He lived in Australia for a some years and moved in a countryside in Korea to get attached with the country's story and culture. Seoul isn't much of a surprise for him anymore but the small changes it had really did shock Chan so well. It changed– even some of the routes that he can't remember clearly doesn't look like it anymore.

At least Chan wasn't greeted by the said downpour that will fall from the news. It would be a mess, and it won't really welcome him to his new place. He is looking forward to the new stuffs he will see, and the friends he wish he can meet. Chan wishes deep inside that Seoul is the new start he's been waiting for after all that happened on him. He just wanted a beginning he doesn't regret– a life he's been dying to have for so long.

Later then, the truck passed by more and more buildings– making the place a little tricky for him to even recall everything perfectly. There were alleyways, and more stores that pops up everywhere he look. There were trees on the sidewalks that shadows the heat, and pathways that is paved by bikers from the whole area. There were the pop-up bars on the streets and some other stuffs. The more they get near Chan's new place, is the more he get to see so many things in his seat. Seoul really did change, but will it also change him as a whole?