The moment Kyungsoo was born, his fate had long since been decided for him.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a fate as glorious as the other new-borns that day. Indeed, Kyungsoo was born a zero. His mother, a usually lively five, exhausted after hours of intense and painful labour, died of sorrow a few days after she had learnt what misfortune had stricken her family. Zeros were the lowest category in the hierarchy of the society, thus it wasn’t uncommon for zero children to be killed or abandoned at birth. They were a dishonour, the worst disgrace for parents. Kyungsoo’s father, although a respectable four, couldn’t bear to deal with the constant judging glares of his peers on his own. Shortly after the loss of his wife, he left his new-born son in the care of a small orphanage, leaving his only child with nothing to remember his parents except for a name: Do Kyungsoo.

The young boy grew up amongst other rejected children, but as he was the only zero, it didn’t prevent him from becoming an outcast. Even children born under number one looked down on him, although they were most-likely to be appointed to cleaning duties as they became adults. From an early age, Kyungsoo got used to playing on his own, for he had learnt what was awaiting him if he ever dared to approach another orphan. Often, his belongings would be stolen by naughty kids, and returned several days later considerably damaged. Little Kyungsoo would try not to cry as he stared at the torn pages of his favourite picture book or the broken pieces of the only toy he had received from the orphanage for Christmas. He had tried going to the instructors about this issue before, but they always ended up blaming him, so he had resigned himself to simply get used to it. In consequence, most of his scarce possessions had been clumsily mended by him with what he was able to find, for instance the torn pages had been glued back with glitter glue from a manual activity the orphanage had organised once.

Kyungsoo hated the place. Everywhere he went, the other children would point at him and snicker behind their hands, whispering to each other. Although the black zero painted on his skin like a birth mark was invisible to the eye under his tee-shirt, it was common knowledge to everyone in the establishment that he was a zero, and therefore it was completely okay to persecute him. At lunch, he would always sit by himself and observe the other kids. He envied them as he watched them eat and laugh together. He was yearning for the day he would be able to go to school, because he thought the situation would be different there. To his great disappointment, he was told that he wouldn’t be allowed to attend kindergarten like the other boys and girls his age, as education wasn’t free at this level. The orphanage didn’t want to spend precious money on a zero, whose education would certainly prove useless in the future as he wasn’t destined to a high position. Disheartened by the news, Kyungsoo stood at the tall window, gloomily watching the other four-year-olds leave to school while he was left behind in the old mansion. He would then listen intently to their conversations in the evening, hoping to catch some details about what school life was like. From what he gathered, it seemed to be even greater than in his imagination. They were taught to write their names! And to sing nursery rhymes! To draw circles and triangles! What a fantastic place! Oh, how he wished he was able to come along! But as the years passed he was only allowed to watch the other kids do their homework in the evenings, while he would colour the same pictures again and again in his worn colouring book.

When he turned seven, he received his own uniform, which was a bit too large for him as it was second-hand, but the boy was thrilled nonetheless. Almost immediately he noticed the silver zero embroidered on the left-side of the jacket and questioned the instructor who had given him the clothes about it.

“Why does it have my number on it?”, he enquired nervously, intimidated by the stern-looking adult.

“How would other people know what you’re worth if it weren’t?” the instructor retorted irritably.

At this tender age, he hadn’t been able to fully understand what the other had meant. He knew the zero on his chest somehow placed him below others, but he didn’t get why it would be important at school. (Later, as he grew up, he realised that the instructor had implied that his worth as a human being could only be proportionate to the number imprinted on his skin at birth. Even now, he could not fathom out the reason why he had to be reduced to a single number, why it would be relevant to assess his capacities and qualities.) Nevertheless, he was eagerly preparing for his first day at school, having carefully folded his uniform on his desk chair until the big day. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t sleep a wink on the night before the first day of school. Instead, he spent hours wondering if he would be in the same class as other kids from the orphanage, and whether he would be brave enough to make some friends. He got up before the sunrise to take a shower and make sure once more that his bag contained everything he needed. By the time the other boys in the room began to stir, he was already bouncing impatiently on his feet, beaming at everyone who would look his way. He was the first to get on the bus, and all the way to the school, he felt overwhelmed by a combination of apprehension and giddiness. Today was the day everything was going to change. Today was the day he would make friends and finally be able to learn.

However, the day turned out very differently from what Kyungsoo had imagined. Wanting to make a good first impression, he smiled shyly at the children gathered in the hall with him, but none of them returned his friendly gesture. Instead, just like the orphans would do, they stared and pointed at the number on his uniform, not-so-discreetly whispering to each other. He could hear the disbelief and disgust in their tone when they said: “He’s a zero! It’s my first time seeing one so close!”, “I thought zeros weren’t allowed to be near normal children?” or “My mother claims your number can decrease if you touch a zero!”. That last comment made people around Kyungsoo take a step back while eyeing him wearily, afraid he might reach out to them.

“I-I don’t think that’s true… Plenty of p-people have touched me before!” he denied, stuttering shyly, but nobody was listening to him.

The new elementary school students had suddenly turned to the front as they had heard a booming voice call for their attention from a microphone. The headmaster was standing on an elevated stage, explaining that they would be called by their names one by one and put in three different classes. Minutes passed and children were gathering next to their respective head teachers. The only number zero in the hall noticed that all the teachers were sporting bright eights on the