‘’Morning, sunshine!’’ eomeoni stands in the shape of the door, pretending that she doesn’t see that I’m already awake.

I yawn, scratching the back of my head before answering.

‘’Good morning’’

My reply is simple and I said it without any effort in making myself sound enthusiastic or half of her excitement. I am not ready to face my annoying classmates, I am not ready to learn new stupid things which won’t help me in real life. And, if I stay to ponder on the subject, I am not ready to interact with anything that means school, aside from the piano lessons and the singing teacher that I really like. Except for those two things, everything seems to be too boring for my taste.

‘’Come on, honey. Lighten up! It’s a big day today!’’ her enthusiasm isn’t stopped because of my dejected expression.

‘’What’s today?’’ I furrow my eyebrows in confusion as she points her finger at me and touches the tip of my nose, chuckling like a teenager she wasn’t.

‘’Today I meet with Taeyeon-sshi!’’ her voice echoes like a trumpet and I have to cover my ears, rolling my eyes.

Lee Sunmi can’t be more annoying than she already is. And she embarrasses me. But that’s specifically for every mother, right? Anyway…

Pass.

I am on my way to school, wearing a grey blouse made by cotton and a pair of dark jeans when I meet one of my only ones friends in  school, Jackson. He’s used to my easily-changing moods, so he prefers to not put his attention on me and just waves from the big distance he sees me. I wave back, even if I don’t 100% mean it, continuing to walk with my headphones on, listening to some emotional drama osts. If somebody knew what music I am listening to, he or she’d probably be scared as Hell because I don’t even look like one who’s romantic and chill. I don’t even consider myself one, but who cares?

As soon as I am in class, I put my backpack on one of the chairs, near a girl I never saw until today. Even she looks a little bit strange and retired, I think she’ll be a good deskmate. At least, we have nothing to choose in between. And maybe she’s different from the other girls here.

The professor makes his way inside when I was about to take my headphones on.

‘’Mister Tuan, come over here’’ he says and points his finger on his desk, having a not-so-happy expression plastered on his old face, which is furrowed by some wrinkles. I obey and go slowly towards him, feeling how everyone’s eyes are following my moves. It is annoying, but I ignore it as always. ‘’Mark, I told you a few times to trash those thingy things.’’ he blurts out and I nod my head in answer. ‘’Good, so you aren’t going to apologize?’’

‘’I’m sorry, Mister Bars.’’ I say confidently, gulping when his angry eyes stick on my hair.

‘’What’s with that red hair? You’re in a public space!’’

I nod my head again, not really listening to what he says.

‘’You’re free to go home. You’ll not attend this school’s hours until you change that ridiculous hairstyle!’’

I frown. He has always hated me, but this time he really was exaggerating. Because of my hair? Or because he doesn’t swallow me? There’s no in in between, so probably both of them are valuable reasons.

‘’I’m sorry, again’’ I whisper, being a little bit concerned about what eomeoni will say when I’ll get back home.

The only thing I have to do is to pray that she already was gone to Miss Kim’s house. Or should I say ‘’hall’’? She owns a huge villa, just because her father is still feels young at the age of 60 and he didn’t give up on his work, yet.

‘’Goodbye, Mister Bars’’ I say before leaving the class, feeling a little bit guilty, but it disappears as soon as I close the door behind me and I sigh in relief.  Now I have to fight with eomeoni. Life’s great.

*

When I arrive home, I happily realize that nobody is inside. Being more than lucky, I have the keys with me too. So I just twist them in the door and come inside, inhaling the sweet smell of home. Everything feels great and I don’t know if I wanted or not to attend the school’s hours in the future. I liked too much my hairstyle to change it right now and I simply don’t give a about what everyone will think. I used to, but now it’s like it just enters on my right ear and comes out through the left one.  I am Lee Sunmi’s son after all.

I throw myself in the bed when I reach my bedroom and close my eyes, hoping that all the stress will fade away.

*

I am caught in an empty room, only wearing a pair of short jeans and a tank top when I look around to find something who is familiar, but I don’t find anything. I feel sleepy, and the feeling is contoured by a horrible headache as soon as a girl approaches my body, looking straight in my eyes. I suppose that she can see me, because her lips tug in a shy smile when she observes my figure. I squint my eyes, just to see who she is and I am surprised to find out that she doesn’t resemble anyone from the real life. I gulp, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat.

‘’Mark?’’ her sweet voice caresses my soul as she takes a sip from the tea cup she is embracing with both of her hands. ‘’Why aren’t you at school?’’

The question makes the crease on my forehead to grow bigger as I raise my eyebrows in wonder.

‘’Do I know you?’’ I ask.

‘’Do you know me?’’ she answers, coocking her head to the side.

**

Everything fades away when my phone rangs from nowhere.

It was just a dream… a voice in my head tells me as I sit on the edge of the bed. The weirdest dream you had so far.

Comment, muffins.<3