Surprised, Zelo stares at the boy he met in school that day until he feels that he has been looking at him for too long. Zelo quickly looks away before they make any unwanted eye contact. A sense of nervousness tingling in his stomach, Zelo sneaks a glance at the guy leaning against the train door, head nodding to the music from his red headphones. He seems to be completely lost in it, oblivious to his surroundings as he mouth the lyrics. Zelo continues staring, taking in his face, the way he wears his uniform and the way his head moves to the rhythm of the music.

Zelo felt a tinge of excitement as he looks down at his shoes. ‘How lucky to be able to see him on the train today!’ He smiles to himself as he thought, ‘If only I can see him everyday…’

A few minutes later, Zelo finds himself walking behind his newfound interest, trailing slowly, trying not to get discovered as he enjoys the back-view of his crush as much as he wants—he won’t know. Even though Zelo is indeed heading to the same place as this guy bobbing his head with his headphones on his ears, Zelo feels like he is stalking him. Zelo scratches his head.

‘Maybe today is my lucky day.” Zelo smiles to the back of his unnamed crush.

>>>>> 

“Zelo, I need to speak to you for a moment.”

The class turns silent for a second when their teacher gestures to Zelo to see him outside the classroom. As Zelo trails behind his stoic teacher, afraid about what he is going to say to him, he feels embarrassed as the rest of the class snicker behind his back. Zelo looks down at his shoes to hide his face from his uncaring classmates. ‘They are probably laughing at me because Mr Choi is going to talk to me about my lousy grades…’ Zelo tries not to look at the rest of the class as he quickly makes his way out and shuts the door.

“Zelo, I need to speak to you about your grades.”

I knew it.

“I had a look on the records of your class tests and lecture tests. None of them are actually good enough. The best scores you had were only barely passing grades.”

Zelo looks down at the floor, unable to look at his teacher’s eyes.

“You need to do something about it, Zelo. Mid-year is coming, you need to buck up now. Even though these are rather small tests compared to the big papers, I can see that you are not understanding the topics very well.” Mr Choi pauses for a while. “I know you are smart that’s why you are good enough to get into this school. Sometimes you have to lose some time now to gain more in the future. Work harder, Zelo, don’t waste your time by retaining a year.”

Zelo watches as Mr Choi turns and walks away. His fists clenches unknowingly.

‘I know what you are thinking. You must thinking that I’m not working hard enough, I’m always playing around, fooling around, not focused on my work that’s why I’m doing so badly in school.’

Zelo bites on his lip and makes his way to the washroom, dragging his feet.

‘But I’ve already tried hard. I’m trying. But I’m still not good enough. I can’t cope. I can’t because I’m not that smart and I’m not happy. I’m not happy everyday. That’s why I can’t do well. I can’t study. All I feel is humiliation and loneliness. I feel like I’m being judged everyday.’

Zelo splashes water onto his face, rubbing at his eyes, willing them to stop crying.

‘Stop crying you idiot…’

Zelo clenches his teeth and tries not to shed another tear. He stares into the mirror. His classmates are humiliating him enough, he’s not going humiliate himself by crying like a baby.

“Let’s go Zelo. No time to be weak.”

Zelo marches himself out of the washroom, ready to go back to class. As he leaves, one of the cubicle doors opens and a student strolls out, peering at the exit of the toilet.

“Is he okay…?”

He, whose presence was unknown to Zelo, proceeds to wash his hands at the sink, checking his appearance in the mirror.

Only if Zelo knew… his crush caught him crying in the boys’ toilet.

>>>>> 

“Okay, I need to buck up!” Zelo flips open his chemistry textbook and concentrates really hard on the lines of words and complex models. The corner in the Art Room is completely quiet except for the occasional rustling of trees. There are no club activities today so Zelo decided to come to the Art Room and study. Nobody will be here to disturb him or give him weird looks. It’s his safe haven for today.

The sun sets quickly while Zelo concentrates on his revision. When he looked up to rest for a moment, the clock already reads 6.30. It’s time to get home for dinner, Zelo thought. Tomorrow is going to be another tiring day… mentally.

Zelo picks up his chemistry textbook along with his bag and makes his way out of the Art Room, his head spinning a little after sitting for so long. The door clicks to a shut behind him and he strolls along the corridor, mind filled with atoms, ions and floating electrons. Until…

“Ah—”

Zelo covers his mouth before his scream escapes full fledged. There is somebody lying on top of the desks in the room beside the Art Room. On first glance, it looked like a dead body in the run-down room. Zelo’s heart jumps inside him like a frightened rabbit. Even though Zelo got rather used to the abandoned Block E, the place is still enough to scare him when the sun is going down. The dusty tables, paint-splattered doors and the dark corners you don’t know what lives inside.

Zelo peeks pass the dusty window panes to look like the stranger. He doesn’t seem like one of the art students here. The art students don’t sleep in Block E. They don’t sleep like that, to the least. Curious, Zelo opens the creaky door as his cringes at the squeaks it made when he pushed it open, and tiptoes over to the sleeping person to take a look.

One of his arms hangs over the edge of the table and a cap saying ‘REBEL’ is covering the stranger’s face. But from how his legs are hanging free as he lies motionless on three tables placed together, Zelo can tell that this weird person is quite tall. ‘Who am I to call somebody weird…’ Zelo thought as he casually makes his way towards the sleeping person as the stranger doesn’t seem to be able to notice him, from how soundly he is sleeping.

Zelo stands beside the stranger, watching his chest fall and rise with each lazy breath. Holding onto his bag straps, ready to run whenever the person lying before him wakes up, Zelo scans the appearance of the sleeping stranger.

The shirt not tucked into pants, school badge missing from the collar, tapered pants, socks that can’t be seen—everything on this person breaks the school rules.

And this pair of red Converse sneakers… They look kind of familiar…

Where did I see it? Zelo pouts slightly as he tries to recall. His bright eyes roll in his sockets as he thinks and those inquisitive eyes suddenly widen in shock.

“Oh my...” Zelo takes slow tiny steps backwards as his eyes stay glued to the sleeping person in front of him. ‘No wonder he looks kind of familiar… How could I not notice…’ Unaware of his surroundings, Zelo kicks an empty bottle as he moves backwards. The loud clatter as it hits the door startles Zelo badly and he jumps like a rabbit.

“Urgh…” The sleeping person groans and stretches himself, like a giant awaken from its sleep. Zelo’s heart went out of control and all he wants is to run away before the person in front of him sees him but his legs won’t budge! “What time is it…” The low baritone resonates across the room and Zelo freezes as he watches, wide-eyed, the stranger sit up on the tables, cap falling to the floor.

Zelo gulps.

Yes it’s him.

The person he