"It was all me." Hyunjin argued. "Seungmin had nothing to do with it. I persuaded him into skipping." The raven haired male said, taking all of the blame. He was going to protect Seungmin and his [Seungmin's] reputation no matter what.
To say Hyunjin was scared was an understatement. He was terrified. The idea of being punished by the system never scared him until now. They say that a person might think they are not scared of something until they face the situation and don't know how to react/react and act in a completely different way than they had expected themselves to act.
"He still complied, and ended up doing it. His initiative or not." The official spoke coldly.
"I forced him to." Hyunjin said. He didn't want Seungmin to get punished. Despite his slightly rebellious spurts from time to time, the kid was still very innocent. Hyunjin didn't hare if he didn't make it with Chan and whoever the rest were, as long as Seungmin was given a chance to live a better life freely without feeling pressured to always do well, Hyunjin would be happy.
Hyunjin did not want to say it, but if it meant saving Seungmin he was going to have to say it, so fearing the consequences he spoke. "I-I threatened him." He said, trying to keep a strong, fearless facade, looking at the official dead in the eye.
Outside the room Chan was surprised. He was surprised the boy was going to great lengths to protect the younger despite the plausible punishments. Chan realised that despite his rebellious acts, the kid still had a good heart, which made him want to protect the younger, raven haired male even more. Most people who got in trouble would rat out and expose each other in order for them to not get punished, but here was Hyunjin, doing everything he could to protect Seungmin. Chan swore under his breath that no matter what, if Hyunjin was sentenced some punishment, he would save him and get him out if the system along with the rest of the kids.
"What did you threaten him with, Hwang?" The official asked, looking him dead in the eye.
Hyunjin gulped, knowing that no matter what he said, he was screwed. "That is none of your concern." He said, trying to buy more time to come up with a threat he could've possibly said to Seungmin.
The official was getting irritated, so he slammed his hands hard, causing a loud noise that made Hyunjin jump back a little. Chan observed nervously on the outside, hoping nothing would happen to Hyunjin.
"What. Did. You. Threatened. Him. With. Hwang?" He asked once more, emphasising every word, spitting out the boy's last name.
"I told him I would beat him up." Hyunjin said, grimacing inwardly at the thought of the words. Hyunjin would never, ever, lay his finger on Seungmin to hurt him. The two were so fond of each other and cared too much about each other to ever hurt the other. If they ever had an argument they talked it out right after, not wanting to be without the other for some time.
The official was shocked with his response. "Why would you do that?" He asked, slight shock and confusion lacing his voice.
"Because, not everything is what you think it is just based on what you see." Hyunjin spoke bravely, speaking of the system as a whole, and glared at the official, angering the official further.
He was so frustrated with the teen that he walked his way, punched his face so hard Hyunjin fell to the ground, and kicked his stomach harshly, knocking the air out of the younger's lungs, causing the latter to gasp for air.
This alarmed Chan and he just wanted to open the door and protect the younger.
Both the official and Chan knew that he wasn't supposed to do that, but the official had gotten so frustrated he let his anger get the best of him.
"You're lucky your offence wasn't too big and you're not facing public punishment." The official spat, pulling on Hyunjin's hair, making him look at him in the eyes. "Because if it was for me I'd sentence you to publish punishment so you're sent to rot and lose your mind." He said, kicking his stomach once more. "Get out!" The official snapped, and Hyunjin got up and walked away as best as he could, feeling sharp pain in his stomach.
When he walked out the official slammed the door shut and Chan approached him, noticing how Hyunjin was gasping for air and grabbing his stomach.
"Hyunjin-" he said when the younger avoided him and his gaze, looking obviously angered. Chan didn't know if he was angry at the situation or at him.
"Just leave me alone, Chan." The younger spoke, not using the honorific "hyung".
"Hyunjin wait plea-" Chan said but was caught off. When Hyunjin turned round once more to face the older he saw the confusion in his face, knowing it was because of his angered expressions.
"I'm not mad at you." He said simply and expressionlessly, but on the inside Hyunjin was being sincere. He really wasn't mad at Chan, he hoped he could trust the older. Turning around, he continued his way to his scheduled class.
Chan grasped his wrist firmly before the younger could even leave. "I promise I won't let them hurt you. I'll get us out of here." He whispered, making Hyunjin look at him, Chan noticing the appreciative, yet sad look in the younger's eyes.
Hyunjin simply nodded and yanked his arm out of Chan's grasp and walked away.
Hyunjin wanted to believe. He really did. He wanted to believe there was a way out and they wouldn't have to live this oppressing life anymore, but by now the idea seemed so far away that it seemed like just a tale Chan had made them believe.
He sighed, not noticing Seungmin approaching him, his expression ridden with worry.
"Hyunjin... What happened?" He asked lowly, hand gracing lightly the bruise that was forming on his face. "Leave me alone Seungmin, please." The older responded, voice low almost above a whisper, only being able to be heard by Seungmin, not looking him in the eyes. Seungmin noticed Hyunjin's eyes were now glassy, as if he was about to cry.
Seungmin just hugged him and Hyunjin buried his head in Seungmin's shoulder, a sob escaping Hyunjin's plump lips. "Let's talk about it later when you're ready." Seungmin whispered, rubbing the taller's back, and Hyunjin nodded, breaking the hug and both of them heading to their classes.
—
Minho sighed, looking at the board expressionlessly, rolling his eyes at the fellow kids who tried to solve the problems on the board but failing to get the correct answer.
What is so hard about this? Minho asked himself. Among all of the math courses he had this was probably the easiest one of them and people still got things wrong despite the countless times the teachers had explained the concepts to the kids. You're a last grader for god's sake. He thought. He wasn't expecting everyone to be geniuses, but what the hell had they been learning on the previous year's to be so clueless on how to solve this.
The value of the limit as it approaches X is always the Y value. He said mentally as the teachers tried to explain once more. They should've already had to move on with the topic, but the students just couldn't get it.
It's almost as if Minho could drown out all of the voices and noises around him and just listen and focus to the sound of the clock ticking on the wall above of him (he was seated on the very last row against the wall, so the clock was on that wall). He counted the seconds and the minutes in his head following the sound of the clock.
By the time he knew it class was ending and the kids still hadn't been able to figure out the answer.
"Student Lee Minho, please come up and answer the problem." One of the teachers said as he huffed and rolled his eyes, standing up from his seat and making his way to the board.
No calculations needed, just look at the damn graph. He thought as he approached the board, grabbing the white chalk with his right hand given to him by the teacher, every step getting closer and closer to the green coloured board.
"Oh of course he's going to get it right, he's a math prodigy."
"He's so good at math, of course they'd ask him to solve it."
"He's obviously going to get this right."
"He's the best at math in our entire class."
"He's amazing at math, like how does he understand it so quick?"
He's this. He's that. The voices of his classmates kept whispering, the words swirling around his ears and going in, his brain processing all of the spoken words. It's easily understandable if you payed attention. He thought. I am not special, I just pay attention. He would tell himself.
"How to be like him? So good at math."
"He's an excellent student, specially at maths."
He's this, he's that. I'm this, I'm that. No, I am not. He thought reaching out his hand as the chalk was beginning to scratch the board. He knew he had a few seconds of class left, so instead of writing the answer he simply wrote the words "I AM NOT" big and bold on the board. Minho didn't know how he knew English, but he just did, so he wrote those words. The bell rang as he finished writing a period in the statement.
The teachers looked shocked at the action. They were so shocked they didn't notice him leave the classroom to go after him.
Our best student, how could he? They all spoke in hushed voices among themselves.
I am not, I am not, I am not. He kept repeating the phrase in his mind, switching from Korean to English.
The teachers gathered to discuss what had just happened, and filing a report in order for officials to talk to Minho and see what was up.
난 내가 아니야.
"Why did you write those words, and what do they mean?" The official dressed in white asked, surprisingly calm and patient, which surprised Minho, but he didn't let it show.
"I am not." He spoke calmly too. No need to be rude or impatient to a person that wasn't treating him or speaking to him like that. "I wrote it because they all expect me to be something I am not. Everyone thinks I'm the best at mathematics and whatever, but they don't try themselves. If they did try, then maybe they wouldn't have such high expectations of me." He explained with a sigh. "I am not who they think I am." He finished saying.
The official nodded, grabbing her pen but slightly hesitating, immediately correcting her habit and grabbing it with her right. Minho noticed this, and took a few moments to examine her. Her skin was pale, big innocent eyes, and longish dark hair tucked into a neat, low ponytail. She looked young but not too too young, maybe late twenties. The woman had a certain sense of false security that reminded Minho of his mother.
"You're left handed too?" He asked, voice low and filled with curiosity.
"You noticed?" She asked. He simply nodded.
"Yes, I am." She said, soon continuing her sentence. "It's dumb that they force us to use our right hand." She said sighing. "I always hated how the forced me to do it, why can't they just let us be ourselves? It's just a hand." She said. "I was surprised they asked me to be an official. I don't know why I accepted it if I hated officials so much. Maybe without thinking about it my mind told me to accept kids who didn't quite want to follow the system." She kept on explaining, Minho surprised as to why she was suddenly opening up to him. Maybe because they were similar. "It's just a hand." She repeated.
Minho bitterly chuckled. "Tell me about it." He spat out, obviously not mad at the official herself, but rather at the system.
The official raised her head and observed Minho for a while, not expecting that reaction from him, but then she noticed, and it hit her.
"Oh my-" she said lowly and reviewed the kid's name on the file report once more. "You're Lee Minho." She said, and Minho immediately knew what she meant.
"Yep, that's me." He said, popping the p in yep. "I guess I have a reputation." He said, mainly to himself.
The official just eyes him again. "Look kid, this system is messed up, and I am 100% sure you agree with that." She said and Minho nodded. "Other officials know about this occurrence, but I was appointed for the questioning, so I can't just let it slide since others know. If it was me I would, but sadly it's not." She stated and pursed her plump lips into a thin line. "I'll make sure you get the most minimal of punishments. You don't deserve punishment after they did that to you." She said and both of them looked at Minho's left hand. "Good luck kid." She said and closed the folder, clicking her pen and standing up.
"Thank you." He said sincerely and bowed. "Thank you very much."
"It's no biggie kid, I hate the system too." She said and reassuringly rubbed his shoulder, shooting him an empty smile. Yep, definitely done with the system's bullcrap. Minho thought. "I'm with you in this." She said lastly and opened the door, letting Minho walk out first. Minho bowed to her and proceeded to go to his scheduled class.
—
Jisung was currently walking with the rest of his class to watch some documentary. He absentmindedly walked through the halls of the large school as they walked to the rooms with large screens where they showed documentaries or other school related videos for the class.
Most kids were groaning and complaining about having to walk, but Jisung didn't mind, that meant they had less class time and less boring lectures. Jisung's attention always disappeared after a few minutes of lectures. Whatever the teacher had to say would always pass through one ear and go through the other.
Despite often not paying attention, he somehow usually understood whatever content they were going over and was able to get good grades. Even if he didn't, he had no one to report good or bad grades to anyways. The thought would always hurt Jisung, seeing others' parents be proud (or disappointed) at their children's achievements in school.
He sighed as he saw they were nearing the room, wishing Yongbok was there to keep him company, but Yongbok had another class.
All the students entered the room and sat themselves down, Jisung deciding to take a seat towards the back of the room. The room soon got dark and a large white screen was turned on.
"So, the topic for today will be on public punishments..." All the other words went unheard by the squirrel-looking male.
Ouch... He thought, and as much as he didn't want to, his mind thought of his dear mother. It's okay Jisung, you can do this, calm down, it's just a documentary. He repeated over and over again, as the film began playing.
As the scenes played, Jisung noticed how awkward it was, as if... As if there was something missing. He started thinking of the song his mother used to sing to him, and he realised the awkwardness of the film could be filled with music, but of course the system was not going to allow that.
Jisung put his legs in his seat and hugged his legs, resting his chin on his knees, trying his best to focus on the documentary and not let his mind drift to unwanted thoughts, those thought being; his mother and how much he missed her.
As the documentary went on and on Jisung couldn't take it anymore. His mind would just keep on reminding him of his mother and the painful experience of him having to watch his mother get punished and sent off elsewhere.
The screen flashed a scene of pure white for a few seconds, making Jisung squint at the bright light, seeing the colour and realising how much he hated it. How much white there was in the system. And how much he hated the system.
As the narrator explained more, they showed a few short clips of previous punishments done, and that's when Jisung saw it. Or well, more like her. He had missed seeing her, and he saw her once more, but not in the way he wanted to.
Jisung had had enough, so he quickly and quietly excited the room, walking to the nearest restroom to calm himself down, but as soon as he entered the restroom, he let his body slip down the wall and he hugged his legs tightly once more, crying his eyes out as he lowly called out for his poor mother.
Some time passed and Jisung was starting to calm himself down, but his absence didn't go unnoticed, so soon some officials burst through the door searching for the small male.
When they spotted him, they glared at him and pulled his arm, prompting him to get up. "W-wait p-p-please!" He cried and tried clinging to the walls as the merciless officials pulled dragged him to a room to question him...
—
A few days after his questioning, Hyunjin was sent to a different building when his classes were over for the day.
He walked over to the building. His mother had been informed of his actions and of course she had been angry, but not much was known about what happened to Hyunjin at home when she was told. Because of this she told him she wasn't taking him to the "conditioning" and that he had to walk there, saying that she didn't have a "rebel for a son" and being disappointed in her only son. He didn't care too much about it. So here he was, walking. He didn't mind the exercise though, the weather was kind of chilly and the cool air tickled the skin on his face and he sighed happily, enjoying every moment of the nice weather.
His warm eyes suddenly turned cold as he stared at the building ahead of him, dreading his first session of conditioning.
He entered the building and headed to the front desk, the official immediately scanning the barcode on his wrist and instructing him where to go.
He followed instructions to where the room was. He suddenly felt nervous and scared when he saw the same official that had hit him waiting for him outside, hoping he wouldn't get hit again, but he didn't let his nervousness show.
"Hwang Hyunjin," the same official spat. "You actually showed up to the conditioning." He said with a sassy smirk. Hyunjin just fought his urge to roll his eyes, freely saying the statement as if he was one of the most rebellious person in the history of rebels. "If after your conditioning you still decide to... go around doing your things, you will have a more severe punishment." He said, avoiding saying "rebelling" as if it was the most disgusting word that existed. "You're lucky you only got conditioning." He said, pushing the raven haired boy inside the room, setting up the machine and seating Hyunjin in the chair, placing the VCR machine helmet on his head and leaving the room with a loud slam.
Hyunjin didn't know how long it had been since the beginning of his conditioning, but he knew it had been at least an hour. Feeling dizzy and with a headache, he removed the helmet, only to find the two officials long gone. He gasped and panted, being quite tired from the conditioning.
He tried getting down from the chair, but as he did so he stumbled and almost fell to the floor. Because of his dizziness and headache everything was spinning, so he leaned on the wall for support until he was more stable.
Once he was stable, he looked at the clock on the wall, only to find out he had been in the room for more than three hours. No wonder my head hurts. He thought as he exited the building, heading home, but before that, he went to the front desk for the official to scan his barcode in order for his conditioning to be registered as complete.
He walked out the building and felt the cool night air, sighing in relief after he was finally out of the conditioning and enjoyed the weather once more.
—
Whether he was forced to, started it, or agreed to doing it, Seungmin still had to go do some conditioning, but it was a minor thing, since his "offence" had been minor too, according to Hyunjin at least.
To say Seungmin felt guilty was an understatement. He felt so bad the older, his best friend, had to suffer for doing something Seungmin had asked for, and despite Hyunjin telling him it was "okay" every time he would apologise, it still made Seungmin feel very guilty. If it hadn't been for me we wouldn't be in this situation. Seungmin would argue, but being the kind soul he was, Hyunjin tried his best to not let Seungmin feel guilty about the incident.
But here he was now, going to the front desk to report for his conditioning. The female official gave him instructions and he headed to his assigned room.
When he entered the room he sighed in annoyance.
When he was younger he was good at drawing, so they sorted him in some classes to teach him to draw blueprints and the kind. He hated it. So he did bad on purpose to get out. His parents were mad, and that is when his mother started forcing him to do well in his classes.
With a huff, he grabbed the paintbrushes and began painting the first image.
By his fifth and last image he was tired and very, very annoyed, so almost as he was done with the picture, he just painted a line across it and ruined his perfect work.
He walked out of the room and signed out, not caring about how he had messed up his work...
—
Chan was asked to go around scanning a few kids' barcodes in their wrists that were inked permanently on their skins when they started school, in order to keep record of them. That tattoo would follow them until the day they died, meaning everything they did in their jobs would also be kept record.
He had an idea on who they were some of the kids, but he didn't know tho the rest were.
"This year we've had the most cases of offences." An official spoke with a sigh, a few other officials sighing with her.
"We have made them line up on the wall of the west wing, where you will have to scan their barcodes." Another official spoke, looking at Chan. "You will go there and check it and signed their names off as you scan them, here's the list." He spoke passing out the list.
Chan scanned the names of the list, and 8 of them caught his attention.
Yang Jeongin
Kim Seungmin
Lee Yongbok
Han Jisung
Hwang Hyunjin
Seo Changbin
Lee Minho
Kim Woojin
Wait... Chan thought. Woojin?! What did you do?! He wondered, that was a question for later. He didn't quite recognise the other names, but at least his targets were there, making his job much more easier.
—
Chan had the papers in hand, the messages, ready to follow along with his plan. He walked and grabbed the kids' wrists and scanning their barcodes, checking them off right after.
When he walked by Woojin, Minho, Changbin, Hyunjin, Jisung, Felix, Seungmin, and Jeongin, he left a little red roll, which the members hid fast and carefully so the officials wouldn't see it.
When they reached their headquarters they opened the red roll, revealing the infamous message, and where to meet to plan further.
They say people are born different, but why does it feel like we're all the same?
Us, brainwashed into the same system they expect perfection, so how can we be different, huh?
It wasn't until I saw my reflection that's when I woke up and realised that the truth had been hidden away from us.
A sign...
An omen...
A...
a GLITCH.
4141 words
December 19, 2018 00:02
(In 2017) the happiest day in my life because it was announced that Stray Kids would be debuting as 9 💙💙
Also... This story is coming to an end soon and I'm enjoying it so far.