The Ring of Solitude

Prologue - 001：Awakening to a Shattered Reality

The phone by the pillow began to vibrate and emit a cheerful alarm tone, but you had already woken up early today. The intangible pressure of the impending school year had been haunting your sleep for a week now.

You laid motionless in bed, making no effort to quiet the ringing phone. Trying to empty your mind of all thoughts, simply wanted to check out of the present situation for awhile.

"Ugh," Jacob sighed involuntarily.

Sighing had become a habitual response, but you couldn't remember when it started.

"I remember when I started high school, every time I had to return, I'd come down with a fever. I realized that my body was conspiring with me to avoid school in its own way. No matter how high my fever got, all Mom would give me was some Tylenol. I had a vague feeling she knew I didn't want to go, we never talked about it. It's been ages since we've had a conversation longer than ten sentences...

Why did it turn out like this? I've wanted to talk to someone about it, but there's no one to confide in. Mom has become like a lifeless clay statue, and Dad... He's like a painting in a dream, never truly materializing. He vanished when I was three, without any word or note, just disappeared from the face of the earth. There was a small sum of money left in his accounts, just enough to keep our crumbling family afloat. Luckily, when he was legally declared dead, mom unexpectedly received a payout from the insurance company. She used to work part-time and take care of me, but with that compensation, she started drowning her sorrows in alcohol every day and refused to work anymore.

Father's death, mother's despondency, and the poverty at home made my childhood pass through hardship and helplessness. I never suffered physical bullying, but I always felt a cold indifference in the eyes of my classmates, and gradually I grew distant, disinclined to socialize. At school, all I longed for was graduation, to escape this gloomy home and start a new life in another state. This is my last year of high school.I don't expect to change anything, just hope to graduate smoothly."

There was no way escaping for now you know that.Then you encouraged yourself, slipping into your slightly faded T-shirt while fantasizing about a new life. Glancing around the room, it was starkly minimalistic—so much that it felt empty rather than simlpe. Aside from the computer, bed, and desk, there was hardly anything else.

That run-down PC was picked up for free by your cousin during a yard sale. The left mouse button and scroll wheel have long been worn down to an ashy grey color. Several keycaps are missing from the keyboard as well.The backpack under the desk lay askew, lonely throughout the entire holiday, never opened.

"I guess I should get to school," Jacob sighed again. "The holiday is finally over. Although I spent it working as a fast-food waiter, the money I earned surprisingly brought me peace. The simplicity and purity of work, compared to the pressures of school, were downright comforting."

You casually picked up the backpack and left the room without any haste.

Mom was passed out drunk on the couch as a nomarl day, surrounded by empty, cheap wine bottles scattered on the coffee table. The house was a familiar mess, one you had grown accustomed to ignoring. The woman who birthed and raised you wore only a thin nightgown, dried drool caked at the corner of her mouth.

Jacob frowned, "She seems to have drunk more than usual, I can smell the stench of alcohol from here. Her hangover is gonna be brutal... I should cover her with a blanket."

The fridge was ceaselessly stocked with rows of six packs. Don't even look at the sink or dinner table - those areas were left dirty and in disarray. You left the house without eating. Having an empty stomach in the morning for years doesn't seem to mess with health.

The walk to school wasn't far, and you preferred it that way.That rickety, noisy school bus – always the worst choice.

The scenery along the way remained unchanged, this small town losing its vibrancy in your eyes. Time flowed slowly here, and despite the years of growing up, it hadn't etched many pleasant memories. Everything observed on the road was so familiar, yet so boring.

"Finally, the last year," Jacob murmured. "Just gotta hang tough, grit my teeth and get through it."

Watching these students, all radiant smiles and cheerful greetings, a discomfort settled in your chest.The happiness of them,like a silent mockery for you.

"We spend seven hours trapped in this place every day, or to put it differently , basically wasting a third of our lives in this prison called 'school.' I've never understood the joy of it - the popular jocks and cheerleader queens vying for mating priority. Nerds grinding through books day after day, essentially just killing time...Better keep my thoughts to myself, in this stratified society, I've already been stamped as a you all, I'm just an average Joe, right? Damn it, I'll make a change after graduation."