District 9 | SKZ [ Book 1 ]

D4

Soon after the two broke off sprinting, Seungmin following Hyunjin closely. They headed to a building and his there for the time being, catching their breaths and waiting for the school day to officially be over in order for their parents to pick them up.

Seungmin gasped for air, he wasn't as fit at Hyunjin, since he spent more time working on homework than (secretly) working out. "Fun." He said between gasps. "So..." Hyunjin said, grinning. "How does it feel to be a rebel? How does it feel to be one of us?"

Seungmin cringed internally, knowing the second person that made up "us" was Changbin, whom Seungmin wasn't too fond of for some unknown reason, even to Seungmin. He had no reason to hate him, but no reason to like him either, as Seungmin would think. Seungmin gave Hyunjin a thumbs up, but once he had caught his breath.

"I may be doing this now, but that doesn't mean I'll join you and Changbin in your 'adventures.'" He said doing the quotation marks sign with his hands when he said adventures. Hyunjin knew why.

"Oh come on! What did the dude ever do to you?" Hyunjin said laughing, being well-aware of Seungmin's dislike of the older. Seungmin shrugged and was about to speak when the bell rang, and the two immediately sprinted back to the group, knowing that at the end of the day the officials checked who was there and who was not.

They made it in time and were the last two to get checked by the officials, seeing their names and seeing their presence, they thought nothing about it, so when they were out the building once more, they high fived and went their separate ways when they saw their parents picking them up.

—

Seungmin and Hyunjin's whole class skipping didn't go unnoticed, as a pair of eyes caught the pair running away.

Lucky for them, the pair of eyes wasn't a threat and wasn't against them. Instead the owner of the eyes too was a "rebel", or well soon to be rebel.

Chan heard some voices and suddenly turned around when he heard a door open, seeing a pair of students running. They briefly spoke to each other and one sprinted through the cameras' blind spots, the other following closely.

Chan chuckled, knowing right away who the pair was. He was surprised to see the class's valedictorian running away, but then he remembered the mischievous eyes of the younger. So that's what it is. He thought.

Chan noticed the taller running through the camera blind spots. So he does break the rules, but is sneaky about it and knows how to get away with it. Chan thought. Hyunjin may have not been a perfect score student, but he was definitely not dumb. He was smart in his own way.

Perfect. He thought, making a plan to go to Woojin to talk to him about the kids he had observed.

—

Felix sighed, whispering "I'm so tired" in English.

"You shouldn't speak that language, y'know." A voice said behind him, so he quickly turned around and was about to scream thinking it was an official, but Chan quickly placed his index finger to Felix's lips, making the younger stop himself from yelling something in a "forbidden language."

"Right, sorry." Felix said in Korean.

"So, how are things Fe- um... Yongbokie?" Chan asked the younger, also speaking Korean. Felix cringed at his Korean name, he hated it, but no one other than Chan and their families knew Yongbok's real name, a name he couldn't go by because the system was strictly Korean and everything had to be in Korean.

"Good hyung, but tiring y'know?" He replied sighing again, resting his head on his hand. Chan and Felix spoke for a while before Felix had to go to class.

Some of the original people that had been persuaded to live under the system spoke other languages, the most common being English, not wanting to lose the language, it was secretly taught from generation to generation. Some kept the language while others forgot it, and now Chan and Felix's families were one of the only few ones that still knew the language.

Before Chan had to move out and live on his own, his family and Felix's were neighbours, and once both families realised that the other knew English, they quickly befriended each other, so Chan and Felix basically grew up together.

Felix hadn't seen Chan in such a long time and he was very glad to see him again, so before he left for class he engulfed Chan in a hug, making the older laugh.

—

Minho was exhausted and wasn't feeling well that morning. He didn't eat breakfast and he hadn't slept well as usual.

He started feeling nauseous out of the blue, so before any accidents happened, he excused himself and ran to the restroom.

Chan was sent on some errands for the day on the last graders' floor. He saw a figure running and soon recognised it as Minho. The poor younger boy almost crashed into the older one, but before that happened, Chan grabbed his arms to keep the younger from falling.

Please don't tell me I'm in trouble. Minho pleaded inwardly.

"You're out of class?" Chan questioned, not in an angry "you're in trouble" tone, but in a just curious tone.

"Yeah, and I asked, so I have permission. I'm not running away." He said before trying to release his grip and run to the restroom again, but Chan kept his grip strong.

"What's up?" He asked, genuinely concerned about the younger. Minho wanted to just run and get this ordeal over with. Why is this person being like this? He wondered, suddenly feeling extremely light headed, losing his consciousness for a few seconds, almost falling to the ground, luckily being caught by Chan before it happened.

Chan quickly sat the younger on the ground and shook him, noticing the younger's unusually pale skin and dark eye circles under his eyes. Chan didn't know if his eyes were filling him or not, but he also seemed slightly slimmer than when he had first seen him. "Hey hey hey, you okay?" He asked with genuine concern, shaking the boy.

"Stop shaking me, it's making it worse." Minho spoke with a hoarse, low voice, Chan stopping immediately, mumbling a "sorry".

"I'm taking you to the nurse." Chan said, not even bothering to see if Minho responded, and carried the younger on his back, who was surprisingly a lot lighter than Chan thought he would be.

It had already been quite some time, so Minho's teacher started growing impatient, thinking Minho was skipping. Just as he was about to call officials to go search for him, he got a call from the nurse, informing him that Minho was there.

After his errands, Chan returned to the nurse to check on Minho. The nurse gave him an overview on Minho's condition.

Chan grimaced internally at the overview. Does this boy not care about himself? Chan wondered.

Minho was exhausted, was lacking sleep, and had been skipping meals. Not only that, but he was also stressed because of school, but he always tried to hide it from his parents with a smile in order to not worry them.

Chan stayed there for a while, formulating a message in a small notepad he carried. Unbeknownst to Chan, Minho had woken up and was looking at each and every word Chan wrote, realising the older's true intents.

—

The day was over and Chan was tired, so when he arrived at his headquarters he let his body just fall on his bed, mumbling something in English about how comfortable his head felt after a long day.

He smiled at his encounter with Felix, and worried about Minho thinking about their encounter too.

Minho taught about the older and his message, wondering what he would do exactly or how he would deliver the message and to who. His mind suddenly went to the other six mysterious underclassmen that caught his attention. He sighed and shook his head. I'm probably just tired and overthinking things. He told himself and let his body fall on his bed, surprisingly being able to get some sleep and actually resting.

Meanwhile Chan was thinking on a way he could deliver the message to everyone and was further making a plan to get out.

1950 words
October 25, 00:00