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"I guess everyone else is happier than me
Can you look at me? 'Cause I am blue and grey
The meaning of my tears reflected in a mirror
Color hidden in a smile blue and grey"
-Blue and Grey, BTS
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*chapter ten*
Zhong Chenle walked home from school the day after the 'special field trip,' not knowing what to think.
At first, he didn't believe any of it. Greek mythology being real? It was ridiculous.
But slowly things had come together inside of him. The pieces that had been missing had collected inside his chest, coming together to form a whole, the first time the boy had felt whole in his entire life.
It was real. And that discovery made him feel better than he ever had before.
He'd never known his mother. He had vague memories of someone's clear, beautiful laughter that always seemed to make him happy, but that was it. He didn't know how she looked, how her actual voice sounded, or how it felt to simply have her touch him.
His father had also never told him anything about her. Anytime Chenle brought it up he would quickly shut him up, like he was scared. Like he genuinely didn't want Chenle to discover who his mother up.
When he was young, Chenle couldn't understand why he did that. But now he did.
His father was a rich business man. He wasn't the most ethical of men either. He liked to be powerful. He liked to be in control.
And he didn't like to be reminded of the woman that made him weak.
Apparently, Chenle looked a bit like his mother as- well, as most children do. That simple fact was something that had kept his father away from him. He was something his father liked to control, and he was too weak to fight back.
He did it in his own little ways though, and he was determined to talk to his father about his mother today. Even if he pushed him further away.
His phone buzzed and he groaned pulling it out of his pocket. There were messages from both his father and his driver.
Ignore this number
I sent your driver to your school to pick you up
(seen at 2:30)
Why aren't you at school?
Zhong Chenle answer me
Driver
Chenle where are you
Please answer I don't want to tell your father
(seen at 2:45)
Sorry but I told him
He's probably mad
I just don't want to get fired pls
Chenle smirked slightly to himself. His driver wasn't a bad person, Chenle actually liked him a tiny bit. But he also liked to rebel in whatever way he could, which meant walking home while it was still kind of warm outside.
His father liked everyone to know whose child Chenle was, and that meant that he sent their family limo to pick him up from school everyday. Chenle didn't mind, he went to a private school composed of other rich kids, almost everyone was picked up that way.
But his father got angry when he ignored the limo and walked home, which made it all worth it.
He stuffed his phone back in his pocket, turning it on silent as he decided to prolong his journey home by taking a different route.
He pulled his sweatshirt out of his backpack pulling it on, and then pushed his bucket hat on top of his neatly combed hair.
He turned into an alleyway, walking down it until he came to a small, run down park where no children played at anymore since older kids liked to do other things there. He reached underneath a bush, pulling out an old skateboard, and throwing it on the road, placing one foot on it and then kicking off the asphalt.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets as a slight breeze ruffled his hair and clothes.
Their town was made up two halves. One half was extremely poor, pretty much everybody there lived in poverty and either worked multiple jobs to make money or couldn't find any jobs. The other half was rich and composed of private schools and opportunities that you couldn't find anywhere else.
It might seem impossible that they were so different yet so close together, but it obviously wasn't. If the rich part just helped the poor part a bit, then maybe they could recover, but of course they didn't offer any help.
Chenle rode his skateboard into the poor part of town, knowing his driver would never think to come here to look for him. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and checked the time.
2:50 PM
He nodded his head, if he was back by 3:15, then his father would be furious. Perfect.
He quickly put his phone back in his pocket, riding his skateboard over to his special spot. Or at least that's what he called it in his head.
It was really just a small overlook that sat above a tiny river. A metal fence was on the edge, but Chenle dropped his skateboard and swung his legs over the side, sitting on it. His hands held onto the side of the fence, supporting him.
He balanced himself perfectly so that he didn't fall over, then lifted his head to the sky, noticing how there were only a couple clouds with the sun bold and bright in the sky.
Euphrosyne. That was his mother's name.
Apparently she was one of the Graces, who were basically entertainers for the gods. There was rarely a party up there that they weren't present at, singing and dancing. They were a pair of triplets that were usually referred to as one entity, they were inseparable.
But something had been special enough about Chenle's father for Euphrosyne to break away from them and be with him. Chenle knew his mother had spent a couple years here before going up to Olympus again. She had to in order to nurse her son.
Chenle wished he could see the side of his father that Euphrosyne had seen, but he didn't think he ever would.
He sat on the ledge for another fifteen minutes, not really thinking about anything in particular and just soaking up the freedom he felt from doing it.
Then he swung his legs back over, hopping back on his skateboard and riding it back into the rich part of town. He rode past other people from his school walking home after club meets, but didn't spare them a glance.
He didn't really do friends. The only people that had been friendly towards him had turned out to only be using him for his money, or were only making friends with him because their parents had told them to.
It was much better that he didn't have any friends at all. Both for himself and for his father's business, not that he cared much about the second one.
He'd had one true friend and that was Jisung. At first he'd just seen him while he was walking with his father when he was really young, and wanted to help.
His father had of course said no, so he'd snuck out to give him food and talk to him for a bit.
Jisung was the only one he could talk to without putting walls up, and was the only one that talked back without any ulterior motives.
And then he'd disappeared. Chenle pretended like it didn't hurt him, but it did.
Now he was alone, but he was okay with that. It was better than getting hurt over and over.
He stopped right outside of his house, hiding the skateboard behind some boxes in their garage. It wasn't like they lived in a mansion, but their house was decently big and in a rich neighborhood.
He walked into the house through the door in the garage, hoping he could avoid his father but not succeeding as he had been waiting there.
"Zhong Chenle, where were you?" he asked, "Every day you come back late, why don't you just get in the car like you're supposed to?"
"Why don't you just stop bringing the car to pick me up?" he asked.
"To make sure you come home on time," his father snapped, "Which you clearly can't do on your own. Go upstairs, wash up, and take that ridiculous hat off, we'll talk about this later."
Chenle sighed and listened, running up the stairs two at a time, which he knew his father also hated. Whenever his father said they would 'talk about this later,' it meant over dinner. To Chenle that just meant that he would be skipping dinner tonight.
Because 'talk about this later' also meant his father would be screaming at him while their maids and other staff listened, also something Chenle did not want to go through.
Chenle's father had hit him before. Plenty of times, but nothing more than a slap. Of course it hurt, but it never had any sort of effect on Chenle. He hated his father's yelling much more.
His father didn't seem to think that way, he thought that hitting was much worse. He didn't know that sometimes a screamed order can feel the same as a slap on the cheek.
Chenle slid into the room, dropping his stuff on the floor and jumping on the bed before sighing heavily when he realized something.
He wasn't going to get to talk about his mother with his father after all.
A little peek into Chenle's home life...