After what was most likely the most painful day so far, being scrutinised under the eye of his peers, and the deafening silence of their judgement, he found shelter from the voiceless assault in his usual concealed sanctuary: the closed off outside corridor between buildings. He was thankful to be alone, with Yifan at practice and Sehun ditching to go to town, Kyungsoo felt better in solitude during this trying time. He felt friends were all for the joyous time, and not for the trying times that his own existence would put them through; he was better than that.

It was yet another time where he'd refuse to eat, for his body had grown costumed to the void feeling around this time, not also adding that his classmates judging looks at him virtually stole any trace of hunger in him.

With his backpack as his pillow, his coat as his blanket, and the cold concrete ground as his mattress, Kyungsoo rested on the ground, eyes to the sky.

Everything seemed so distant. Whilst the people around him had goals, aspirations and solidity, his own path seemed muddled in vagueness, lost in the fog and distorted by the abstract. No occupation seem to capture his motivation, no stable state of mind seemed plausible to him and all due to his own foolishness, rebellion and self-fulfilling prophecy. Everything was distant because he himself was stepping away from the stage of existence and trying to live as an spectator, but all his witness was in downfall.

He closed his eyes, drowning in his silence.

The picture was clear in his mind: a little boy standing on the cliffs, watching the sky pass by, holding onto a heart that no longer pumped, no longer opened and closed its valves. His hopeful eyes dying as they stared into the distance. The images of smoke, oil and fire on the water, were what he painted, with the words of dread that were given to him. The longing care that he never had, the great expectations chained upon him, the cold hearth of his home, all emptied and disintegrated, all so easily, but so suddenly.

Something in that little boy broke, and it wasn't his heart, or his mind.

The world is broken

Spoke those stern little lips.

When Kyungsoo opened his eyes again, he remained unfazed; the remnants of the past were all caricatures of a time he didn't exist in. A myth that he unchained himself from.

He looked to his side, where the phone lied rested next to him. The time ticked digitally and he saw that it was time to move to class. Something within him wanted to cease, to just lay there and linger in the pointless.

“What would they say if they saw me like this... ?” he questioned himself, eyes back up to the grey sky with its cloud inhabitants moving at a slow pace. He then smirked to himself and laughed, “pointless...”

Kyungsoo begrudgingly moved to his last lessons of the day. Among the corridors, he felt the eye of the people had lessened but nonetheless remained there. That swift nap in his secret place had calmed his terrified heart, and all he could do is bask in the judgement; like bathing in filth in a tub of gold, with the erse peering eyes of a high ranking official watching, all too wrong, for the righteous.

Upon entering the classroom, he was immediately greeted:

“Kyungsoo, are you alright?” the sudden enquiry pulled the fair student out of his own bubble.

“I'm fi – “ he halted himself, knowing that that certain word would trigger another myriad set of other questions “okay, Jongin.” he finishes.

“I wouldn't be if I were you.”

“But you're not,” retorted Kyungsoo, tired of hearing the same reasoning from people, for him to show his misery “so it's best to leave it be.”

Jongin scoffed, shaking his head and smiling to himself; disbelief apparent to his face, “you're still saying that, even though your eyes are red, and you're shaking,” he then sighed, “but I'm not giving up. Whether you believe it or not, I'm on your side.”

Kyungsoo looked up to the top ranker, locking eyes with graveness “Don't be,” he warned, “as I told Sehun, my fight is a losing battle, and all you guys will be casualties in its wake.”

“It doesn't have to be this way, and I'll prove it you. You'll see.”

“I doubt it,” Kyungsoo shook his head, walking pass the top ranker and taking his seat. Just as Jongin did, next to him, “that's not your seat, Jongin.”

“It is now. I talked to the teacher. So in this class, this is my seat.”

Kyungsoo leered at the person next to him, both impressed by their tenacity but disturbed by their persistence, “I might have actually found a flaw with your otherwise perfect personality...” Kyungsoo commented.

Piqued, and amused, the top ranker leant his ear enthusiastically, “Do tell.”

“You can be quite persistent.”

“Is that a flaw?”

“It certainly can be.” Kyungsoo replied, reminded of a certain bleach-blond haired city boy.

“I'll be sure to use it to my advantage.” The top dancer smirked to himself.

“Please, don't.”

“Any other flaws you want to explore?”

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