When he was bored, extremely bored, he would do things he normally would not do. He became curious.

But he always regretted it afterwards.

Because when he was bored he liked to listen into society’s life.

Which is why he was sitting on the bench at the bus stop, his headphones in his ears but not listening to music. His jacket’s hood was on his head, covering his eyes and making him seem like he didn’t want to be associated with anybody. He was instead listening to the people around him.

He was currently focused on the girl standing a little off to the left of him. She was dressed gaudily, her nails exhibiting shiny nail art with colors of pink and purple. Her clothes were no better. A white almost see-through tank top that had bejeweled rhinestones above the chest area and a short jean mini-skirt. She was talking on the phone which was a bright pink color and hanging from the crook of her elbow was a large black purse.

But he wasn’t interested in her attire, but rather her conversation.

“Oh my god. That shirt was so cute on you! You should totally like get it,” she crowed into her phone, popping a piece of gum in right after.

“Yeah, right. That shirt made you look like an ugly fat cow. And that shirt was no better. I would rather die than get caught in that,” he heard instead.

“You should definitely where it to your date tomorrow night.”

“You should wear it because then he’ll realize how disgustingly hideous you are. He’s too hot for you anyways.”

He frowned and shook his head. It was common for him to hear such things from people like her. He didn’t know why he had expected anything different.

He then slighted his attention to the business man sitting to left of him.

“What a nice day,” the man murmured to nobody in particular.

But he heard, “Nice day? It’s a freaking awful day. I don’t want to go to work. My boss is a jerk, my coworkers are rude. Life .”

Minseok stopped listening in, already knowing where his thoughts were going. Somewhere depressing and gloomy. It seemed to be normal for the everyday salary worker.

He then focused his attention on two boys in their uniforms who were conversing with each other to his right side. Most likely in high school. He thought nonchalantly about his time his high school, but he didn’t remember much about that time period.

The taller boy was good-looking. His dark brown hair glistened in the sun, a warm smile graced his lips, and his eyes looked kind. The boy standing next to him slouched over quite a bit, and was truthfully an average looking boy. His dark raven hair was cut short, but his bangs covered his forehead up to his eyes.

The taller handsomer one was speaking. “I’m glad we’re in the same classes again! I was afraid that I wouldn’t have anybody to talk to.”

“I’m really happy that he’s in the same class as me.”

Miseok sat a little straighter, a little bit more interested in this boy because he spoke his true feelings. He was honest, which was rare for Minseok to see these days.

“Me too,” the other boy replied.

“Actually, not really. Why is he so cheerful? It’s so off-putting.”

Minseok frowned slightly at that. It appeared that his friend wasn’t as honest as he was.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be there with you, buddy,” he shorter boy added, with a friendly smile.

“Ha! The only reason I’m with you is because you’re such a chick magnet. If I hang around you, I’ll sure be able to pick up some.”

The taller boy grinned happily as the bus pulled up.

Minseok stared at the only one here who could still be untainted by the world. He murmured a silent prayer that he would be able to survive the cruelty of this life. But he doubted it with a friend like that, with a world like theirs.

The four strangers all climbed on the bus, the taller brown-haired boy with a smile on his face, the smaller moodier boy with a slight smirk on his, the middle-aged man with a slump in his walk, and the garishly-looking with a walk that spelled haughtiness.

Minseok watched as the bus pulled away from the stop and was left in an empty bus stall.

He got up, walked away, and did not take a look back.

Because he didn’t care. What those four did with their lives didn’t matter. Whether they made their own failures or successes had nothing to do with him.

But he regretted, peeking in their lives.

Because like always, it was the same. The ugly and dirty truth of this world they lived in.

And it just made him feel like there really was no more hope for society.

His parents have always thought that their child was a bit different from the rest of the other children.

At first, they thought it was his childlike imagination, claiming to know what people really truly thought.

But the funny thing was that he was always right. Even if one of them told him that they weren’t angry, he would pout and say that they were lying, that they really were angry at him. Or when they would pretend they forgot his birthday to surprise him, he would giggle and tell them he knew they really didn’t forget and tell them exactly what they had planned for him.

They assumed it was intuition, that their child could pick up on what people thought easily.

But as he grew older, they realized that wasn’t the case.

Minseok started to speak less and less, only speaking when spoken to. And when he did say something, it seemed like he alluding to the fact that he knew what the other person was truly thinking. He wouldn’t explicitly say what they were actually thinking, but it seemed like he actually knew.

Minseok never told them how he knew what others were thinking, and they never asked. And after a while, he became less sociable by the day, even to them.

They didn’t know how to prove their theory since the Minseok now would not tell them. He wasn’t a child anymore; he was now someone who could properly think and understand what was right and wrong.

But perhaps that was why he never spoke to anyone. He knew that no matter how well he explained this phenomenon, there was going to be backlash with people either being afraid of him or too curious for their own good. That other people, society in general, looked strangely at something like this, something unexplainable.

Unable to help him, they left him alone. It most likely was not the best choice, but their son seemed to appreciate the fact that they did.

Perhaps they should have talked to him seriously before, maybe during high school, but those days had passed now, and Minseok was about to graduate from college.

But they still worried.

From their minuscule talks which happened rarely, they realized that their son was nothing of the sort who was warm-hearted and kind. Not even the slightest. He spoke in a bored tone and viewed everything as the same. Sad moments were the same as happy moments.

He was like an impassive stone. The rarest of expressions and a nonchalant look on his face.

He always looked at the world with an impassive glance.

He was their precious child; there must be something they could do. Anything.

Something that would allow him to live more happily.

He could hear them whisper at the dining table when he went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, yet he wasn’t paying attention to them. Not until they said his name.

He walked into the room where both his parents sat up straight in surprise, talking ceased.

“Minseok, what are you doing here?” his father asked.

Minseok stared blankly at them. “You said my name.”

His parents glanced at each other before his mother spoke up. “Were you listening to our conversation right now?” she muttered nervously.

“No,” he replied simply.

His parents looked at each other, and his father gestured to the seat across the table from them. “Sit down. There’s something we want to tell you.”

Minseok blinked once, twice, and then finally moved to sit.

He stared vacantly at them, waiting for them to say their piece so he could move on with life.

His mother pursed her lips. “Minseok, have you thought about what you’re going to do after college?”

Minseok digested the question silently, briefly looked up in thought, and then looked back down at his parents.

It was funny, really. Minseok majored in psychology, of all things.  The scientific study of the human mind and its functions.

Even though he knew what people really thought, he learned how those thoughts were affected, that the brain was more complicated than one thought.

His professors praised him constantly about his understanding of how the mind worked, but told him that he was too pessimistic. They reminded him that the how the brain worked was purely scientific. And their behavior was caused by this.

Minseok wanted to say that he wasn’t pessimistic, but rather being pragmatic, since he actually knew what people actually thought.

And his verdict was that people lived for themselves. Selfish, prideful, and tint of shared happiness.

But he never did say anything, only soldiering on in his classes, doing exactly what his professors asked.

Thus he was graduating with high honors, but Minseok never thought much about that. It was only something for students to brag and boast to others, especially to employers.

He never found the point of it. Wasn’t your work based on your performance? Certainly grades mattered, but in the end it was how well your end product is.

At least that’s what he thought.

Nor did he have any good friends. He wasn’t exactly the most sociable person out there.

And honestly, he didn’t care what he was going to do in the future. He had assumed that he would find a job and live his life in the same mundane pattern.

He continued to stare at his parents and shrugged.

They looked at each other again, and Minseok without hearing their thoughts could tell they were debating something about him from the expressions on their faces.

“Well, we hope that you find out what you want to do and tell us soon,” his father said slowly.

Minseok barely raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “That’s not true. You worried about something else, not just my future.”

His parents’ eyes widened in surprise and his mother sighed in defeat. “It’s true. We think you’ve been too secluded lately. You keep avoiding people.”

Minseok gave the briefest of laughs. “That is hardly something of late.”

“And we were wondering if you wanted to take a year off as a break. Somehow get your mind straightened out and figure where you wanted to go from there. Perhaps you will be willing to join society with a more sociable nature,” his father continued.

Minseok blinked. “Where were you thinking?”

His mother spoke up. “I’m planning on staying with a very close friend of mine in the town a few hours away, where I grew up in. Her daughter is having, erm, difficulties, and I’m going there to help. I was wondering if you would like to come too.”

“Just you? Wait, no. Yes, just you,” Minseok murmured.

His father was perceptive enough to notice that his son affirmed something that they didn’t tell him but said, “Yes, just your mother. I’ll be staying here and continue working. So, what do you think?”

He thought about it. He never liked crowded noisy places where people constantly talked and at the same time spilled their consciousness onto him.

He had managed to become accustomed to the noise, but he preferred peace and quiet. People who hardly talked so he wouldn’t accidently overhear their thoughts.

Where he could walk down the street and wouldn’t need to hear excessive bothersome thoughts.

He rather liked the idea.

He smiled slightly, something so rare that his parents were somewhat surprised. “It sounds lovely to me.”

A/N: It’s a little short and not extremely exciting.

Actually these few chapters aren’t going to be that exciting, but please bear with me.

Just need to set some background information.

Thanks for reading!