It's a bright day of March. School started 2 weeks ago but 7th graders are still actively greeting their classmates as if they havent seen each other for months. Early in the morning, all are busy. Parents dropping their kids off and left, some stayed for a while until the classes starts, some were with their older siblings, and some came to school on their own. Many stayed in their classrooms and talked about stuff they saw on TV; among various things. It's noisy until their teacher got in the room.

“Good morning!”, the teacher greeted enthusiastically. They greeted her with a bow in response.

They noticed their teacher is with a kid they've never seen before. They stared at the him rather curious of its attire. The kid's not wearing uniform but with their P.E tracksuits. They find that unusual because P.E's on afternoon and not morning. The kid is wearing a mask, almost covering his whole face. Too big for its small face. Some squirmed a little thinking that the kid might have contagious disease just like the one they saw on TV. They also noticed he's wearing a very thick eyeglasses. “It looks so funny” some pointed.

“Today, a new friend will be added in our classroom. Isn't that exciting? Please dear, introduce yourself”, gesturing the kid to move forward and speak to the class.

“Hello, my name is Jung Daehyun”, with a soft voice, he bowed.

No one can hear what he said. All of them were collectively confused. The teacher then suggested if it's okay for Daehyun to remove his mask just a little bit. Daehyun complied, lowering his mask and spoke.

“Hello, my name is Jung Daehyun,” now loud enough to be heard by the whole class, “My family just move into town a week ago so I am a little late. Please take care of me.” The boy bowed down again. The boy is soft spoken and his actions are rather slow compared to his classmates. Though his lips were almost covered again by his white mask, it's noticeably pale. The kid then slip up his mask back in place.

The teacher then ushered Daehyun to his desk next to the window. The students are curiously looking all his moves.

“Now, our Daehyun is not really feeling well today so I hope you guys behave. Make him feel welcome. I don't want you to cause him any trouble. Are we clear?” A collective 'Yes' are heard in response. The teacher though pleased hearing it, is visibly worried.

The class then started. Everyone resumed to their usual routine. It was during their break that the students started flocking themselves around the new kid. They bombarded him with a lot of random questions. Daehyun is overwhelmed. His eyes were wide open, looking up to all his towering classmates. The boy is rather small for his age. Even with his thick sweater over the P.E tracksuit, everyone can tell he is scrawny.

He doesn’t know how to respond to all the questions being thrown. He's never been in this kind of situation. It is overwhelming. The students around him started to get piss for his unresponsiveness. Daehyun is now even more scared to answer.

“Stop that!” a voice cut them all off. “The teacher told us he is sick. You guys shouldn’t bother him.”

All the students turned around. It was Bang Yongguk. A kid who is known full well as a troublemaker. He always punches his way through everything.

Daehyun is relieved and made a subtle bow to Yongguk.

“I have a cousin and he is always sick, and when I talked to him, I got sick too”, Yongguk continued. “don't make him talk because germs comes out of his mouth. You see that thing?”, the kid pointed to Daehyun's white mask, “That keeps the germs in.”

All the kids surrounding Daehyun backed away in disgust. Daehyun is dumbfounded. He opened his mouth and wants to say that that is not the reason. His dad told him that it is to keep bad things from entering his body and not the other way around. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to utter any words. He just stared at his classmates who turned their backs to him. He looked down and got sad.

It's already been a month since the new kid's arrival. Nothing much really change since then. The new kid, Daehyun is alienated. No one speaks to him except a seatmate who occasionally ask him questions about homeworks. Daehyun figured his classmates doesn't really like him. With this kid's perspective though, he doesn’t really mind. He is happy being in school and able to see and learn new things. He hated how he was kept inside the house ever since he can remember and how he can only go outside once in a while but only to see a man in white, who pokes him. He hated it. Being in class is better. Even though he expected to have friends and it makes him a little sad for having none, he doesn’t mind. He is happy and better. His dad even gave him an MP3 player. His dad put all his favorite songs in it. He treasures it a lot. He listens to it all the time especially during breaks.

Little did he know some kids were jealous of what he has. Some wants to ask him to let them borrow it but they were too disgusted to approach him. They don't want to get sick. Children hates being sick. They were discussing it when Yongguk arrived and eavesdropped. He went laughing.

“Are you guys afraid of him?” he chuckled.

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