Encounter
Tell Me You ExistIndex:
(YJ) – Young Jae speaking
(DH) – Daehyun speaking
(HC) – Himchan speaking
(GY) – Grandma Yoo speaking
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Why was it that life seemed to have different plans in store for a person? Things could be going terrible, then suddenly, things would take a complete one-eighty and then things would be just as that person hoped for. It could even go the other way and completely ruin a person’s life. These people who are affected may or may not have deserved what they received, but… since when was life ever fair?
It was confusing how it seemed to work that way. People could say that they worked to make their lives the way they wanted it, but that doesn’t explain why everything seemed to be handed to other people on a silver platter. If they could get what they wanted, then why couldn’t anyone else? Then again, it wasn’t fully shown as to what everyone does in the background. For all anyone else knows, that person could have worked just as hard and had better results.
That’s just what he had to do, right? If he worked just as hard as everyone else, then maybe, he could achieve the goal that he was striving for. Then, there wouldn’t be any problems in life, but…. what if that goal he was striving for was something he didn’t want? What if there was something else that he truly wanted to achieve, yet couldn’t? Then what was he supposed to do?
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“Young Jae, dearie. It’s time to get up.” (GY) Young Jae lay still for a brief moment before he slowly began to reach for the pillow on top of his head. Lifting the pillow up a bit, Young Jae turned his head towards the bedside table before looking at the alarm clock that was just simply sitting atop of the wooden surface.
From what he could see, he still had plenty of time to sleep before he had to wake up, but then again, his grandmother never was one to let him leave on time because of two different reasons. The first one was the fact that his mother had requested it. Since she wasn’t here to keep an eye on Young Jae, his mother didn’t exactly want Young Jae slacking off. Sure, his mother wasn’t exactly the meanest person on the planet and was just looking out for his wellbeing, but Young Jae didn’t exactly like losing sleep in order to get to a place at least half an hour early. The second reason was because his grandmother would end up falling back asleep right after cooking breakfast for him. Since she couldn’t make sure that Young Jae left on time, she wanted Young Jae to wake up whenever she woke up. He either had to leave early or earlier than intended. It was frustrating sometimes, especially since he almost always stayed up late studying, but it was just something that he has had to deal with and will continue to deal with until he can finally live on his own.
Letting out a small sigh, Young Jae pushed himself up, letting the pillow slide off of him as he sat up. Sitting on his heels, Young Jae covered his mouth as he yawned, looking around his room in the process. From what he could tell by how lit up the room was and from what he could hear, it was currently raining outside. That bit of knowledge was just the pick me up he needed to lift his spirits. Unlike most people, Young Jae actually quite enjoyed the rain. He loved the feel of the cool water droplets and at least it wasn’t as over powering, like the strength that a water hose gave off.
Getting out of bed, Young Jae took a brief moment to stretch before he began to get ready for the day. With the weekend behind him once more, it was time to pull out that same schedule that he followed every morning. Yes, it was a schedule that was relatively annoying to follow, but until he finished school, that schedule wasn’t going to be changing any time soon.
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“I’m leaving…” (YJ) Even though he announced that he was leaving every morning, no one ever responded. After his grandmother would cook his breakfast and prepare his lunch, she would go straight back to sleep after-wards. When he was younger, his grandmother would see him off everyday, but now… well, he was just used to it. She was getting older after all and there wasn’t any way that she could fully rebuild the stamina she once had.
Once he was out of their apartment complex, Young Jae held the handle of the umbrella as he walked down the sidewalk. Unlike most other teens, Young Jae had to take the city bus since the school bus arrived later. He had attempted to ride the school bus before, but there wasn’t much space on the bus for him to sit. So… he kind of preferred to ride the city bus anyway. With how early he usually left, there weren’t really many people out and about in the city. At least this way, it allowed him the space he needed to feel comfortable.
The sound of the rain was always something lovely to listen to. It had a sort of soothing feel to it and Young Jae quite liked that about the rain. He kind of wished that it would rain all the time, but he knew how bad that would be if it ended up raining for too long. Still… at least it gave him those few brief moments in life to enjoy the rain when it did end up showing up.
At the bus stop, Young Jae took his backpack off as he sat down on the bench. Setting his bag on top of his lap and leaning the umbrella against the glass wall, Young Jae leaned forward a bit as he looked down either street. It didn’t seem like the bus was going to be here just yet, so he had just enough time to enjoy the rain. Sitting up straight, Young Jae smiled a bit as he watched the rainfall. He would have reached forward and attempted to feel the rain on his skin, but the bench was hidden well underneath its roof.
Pulling out his phone, Young Jae stuck his tongue out at the corner of his mouth as he slid it open. Moving through the menu, Young Jae clicked on the available trial games before he started playing. Unlike most other teens, Young Jae wasn’t allowed to have a handheld gaming console or even a smart phone. Things like the game boy or the play station vita were things that his mother felt were things he would grow out of quickly and would distract him from his studies. Luckily, his grandmother did get him the bigger consoles like a play station or an x-box, but he was only allowed to play for at most two hours before he had to go back to studying.
Of course, that’s why he always loved the library at school. There were all kinds of books that he could just delve into and let his imagination run. The greatest thing about the library was when they finally began bringing in the manga. Since then, Young Jae has been reading those nonstop, waiting patiently for the newest batch of manga to come in. If it hadn’t been for these books, then he probably wouldn’t have the urge to want to become a manga artist.
He can draw, that’s for sure. Young Jae has been practicing whenever he has had the time for it, but he already knew that it would only remain as a dream. His mother wouldn’t approve of him becoming a manga artist, so… he could only continue to draw as a hobby.
Once the trials for either game had come to an end, Young Jae let out a small pout. He had hoped to get a higher score than before, but it seemed like that wouldn’t be happening today. As he lowered his arms back onto his backpack, the bus had soon come to a stop in front of the bus stop. Getting up from his seat, Young Jae held his backpack in his arms as he quickly ran across and onto the bus once the doors had opened up. Showing his ticket to the scanner, Young Jae waited patiently for the machine to scan his ticket before he went to take a seat.
Sitting down happily by the window seat, Young Jae had just briefly looked outside before his eyes landed on his umbrella. Young Jae’s eyes widened as he leaned closer, putting a hand to the window as he stared at the poor thing. He would have said something, possibly even asked the bus driver to wait, but since the doors were already closed, Young Jae kept quiet. With a small frown, he watched as the umbrella slowly left his line of sight.
Slouching in his seat, Young Jae held his frown as he tightened his grip on his phone. How could he have forgotten about his umbrella so easily? There was no way that his umbrella was still going to be there when he got back, so… all he could do was try and buy a new umbrella on his way back home. It shouldn’t be too difficult, though that meant that he would have to spend less time at the library once school let out for the day. That also meant spending his allowance, which wasn’t really much to begin with.
Letting out a small sigh, Young Jae leaned his head against the cool glass. It was something that at least helped him bring some sort of calm to his mind. It was just an umbrella and he was getting worked up over it? An umbrella is something that could be easily replaced, so he shouldn’t be worrying so much about it. He just wished that he had at least remembered about his umbrella so as to avoid this problem in the first place.
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Classes were the same as it was everyday. They learned about something that they had to learn for the upcoming test, then they would have lunch, then they would move on and have the other activities followed by another lesson. It probably would be useful, but due to all of the studying he’s had to do before hand, Young Jae was already ahead of the class. At least he could get his homework done a lot more quickly than the rest of the class. That would mean that he would have more time to either read or to draw.
Once class was let out and it was time for lunch, Young Jae packed his things up and grabbed his lunch bag before he began walking down the hallway. Unlike most students, whom usually went to go eat in the cafeteria, Young Jae usually ate in the library. He did want to talk to other people, he really did, but he normally felt awkward around people he didn’t know that well. Plus, it was much quieter in the library. It allowed him to read his stories in peace as opposed to being distracted by the constant conversations occurring all around him.
“Hey… Did you hear those rumors about a kid that haunts the school?” Young Jae’s ears peaked up a bit as he listened to the two currently gossiping by the window. He had heard the rumors before, but he hadn’t paid much attention to them. It was something that he was interested in, but a little too afraid to actually seek any more information on.
“Yeah… Scary, huh? I heard it’s a guy who died at school while he was studying.”
“Really? I heard that he was at school because he was trying to pull a prank on the teacher’s lounge and it backfired pretty bad.” Young Jae could hear the other male give out a nervous chuckle, which caused Young Jae to slow his pace just a bit more so that he could hear the rest of what they were saying.
“Well, I hear that he haunts the library and the art room. Something about him being attached to something.” That was all that Young Jae needed to know before he slowed to a stop. The library? He hadn’t seen anything at the library that would suggest that someone was haunting it. In fact, he only saw the occasional student whom needed a book that was required for class. Otherwise, he was one of the few whom occupied the library.
It was all just a rumor anyway, right? There was nothing that he needed to worry about. He shouldn’t just believe everything he heard anyway. For all he knew, those two could have been talking about him. Yeah, that’s it. They were just talking about him because people thought that he was some sort of ghost or something. He was a relatively quiet person whom kept to himself. It was understandable that they would be mistaken, right? Yeah… that had to be the case.
Taking in a deep breath, Young Jae began walking down the hallway once more.
Only a few more minutes had passed before Young Jae found himself in the library once more. After saying his greetings with the librarians, Young Jae made his way towards the back, where the fiction books were located. He looked through the shelves, his eyes scanning each and every title, before he soon grabbed the book that he had been reading just yesterday. With a small smile on his face, he took his seat in his usual corner before he set up his lunch on the small table and began reading.
He loved the medieval books, especially if they held some sort of magic to it. Young Jae couldn’t help but love that era due to how much action and drama could occur. To think, there were certain groups of people that could actually get away with pillaging a village all in the name of their king. It was surprising and yet, fascinating at the same time. Of course, the magic added a bonus of sorts since it was something that made the impossible a possibility.
As he began to lose himself in his story, the sound of humming begun to slowly break his concentration. Despite the fact that he was trying to keep his concentration on the book as much as possible, the humming only seemed to grow closer. Finally, when he finished the paragraph that he had started just moments ago, he looked up to see another student looking through the shelves. It was a bit strange to Young Jae for whatever reason, especially since the students whom did come to the library during lunch usually occupied the manga section, but he decided to dismiss it before looking back down at his book.
Before he could finish his sentence though, the sound of a voice quickly penetrated his thoughts once more. Looking up, he could see that that other student was now standing in front of him, as if he was waiting for something. What did he want? “E-Excuse me…?” (YJ)
“Do you know where I can find the world maps?” (DH) Young Jae stared for a brief moment before leaning to the side a bit. They were in the fiction section, so he was fairly surprised that this guy was looking here. Looking around for a brief moment, his eyes landed on the non-fiction section, back towards the front. He pointed, causing the other student to turn and look towards where he was pointing.
“Over there… At the um… at the front, in the non-fiction section.” (YJ)
“Non-fiction? It isn’t fiction?” (DH) Young Jae looked up at the male, a bit dumbfounded that he didn’t know the difference between fiction and non-fiction. Of course… they did have the same word in it and it was fairly easy to confuse one word for the other, so it was understandable.
“No, it isn’t.” (YJ) The other student looked back at Young Jae as he grinned happily. Young Jae wondered why he was so happy all of a sudden, but he kind of hoped that he would leave now. Young Jae wanted to go back to his reading and, well, he felt kind of awkward if he just went back to reading.
“Thanks! Mind if I join you after I get my book?” (DH) Young Jae blinked a few times before shaking his head. As much as he wanted to say that it would bother him, Young Jae couldn't bring himself to being saying it. It made him feel... rude. The other student seemed to practically brighten up as he gave a thumbs up. “Great! I’ll be right back!” (DH)
As the student ran off to get his book, Young Jae stared in confusion as he leaned back in his seat. Why did he want to join him if there were plenty of other places to sit? Young Jae had hoped for some peace and quiet, but it seemed like that wouldn’t be happening today. Well… that was alright. It would be nice to make more friends, right?
After a few minutes had passed, Young Jae looked up as he saw the book being placed on top of the table. His gaze landed on the other boy, whom had taken the seat across from him. He was still wearing that grin of his, making Young Jae look back down in slight embarrassment. He didn’t know why he was embarrassed, but it’s not like he could control it. “So, what are you ready? Is it interesting?” (DH)
“Um… I’m reading a book about Mordred, the son of King Arthur and Morgan Le Fay.” (YJ) The other teen slowly nodded as he leaned in a little closer. It looked as if he wanted more of an explanation, but Young Jae didn’t want to really say anymore. He didn’t want to embarrass himself, not that he would. He was just talking about the book after all, but Young Jae wasn’t exactly all that great at socializing.
“Hm… It sounds kind of boring.” (DH) Young Jae watched as the teen opened up his book to reveal the different kinds of maps that the book had to offer. He didn’t exactly understand how maps could be anymore interesting than the book he was reading now, but then again, his explanation wasn’t exactly the greatest. He only mentioned names and that he was their son as opposed to explaining what the storyline was about.
Looking back down at his book, Young Jae slouched a bit more in his seat as he attempted to hide his face behind the book. Hopefully, this person wouldn’t talk to him anymore. He just wanted to eat his lunch while reading and be done with it. After all, they were only given half an hour for lunch. He didn’t exactly have all the time in the world to read his book.
After some time had pass, Young Jae heard the book in front of him close. Slowly lowering his book, he looked across the table to see that the boy in front of him had closed his atlas and was now just staring out of the window. Just as he was about to cover his face once more, the boy cleared his throat before he began talking. “Say… what do you think of this school so far? Is it any good?” (DH)
“… Um… Why are you asking me? You go to this school too, right…?” (YJ) The teen seemed to be lost in thought, though he soon gave a small nod. As the male briefly glanced his way, Young Jae quickly hid his face behind his book as he began to turn a bit red. He hadn't expected him to look his way, so it was embarrassing to be caught while staring at him.
“Just wanted to know your opinion, is all.” (DH) He wanted to know his opinion? Young Jae slowly lowered his book once more as he soon found himself staring into the other male’s eyes. The other male seemed to have all of his attention on him and it was making Young Jae feel incredibly uncomfortable, but he forced himself to keep his calm as he cleared his throat.
“Well… I think this school is… okay.” (YJ)
“Really? I’ve always wanted to go to this school back when I was in middle school, so what about it doesn’t bode well with you?” (DH) Young Jae slowly set his book down onto the table as he tried to think. If it wasn’t for the fact that he constantly studied, he would probably think that this school was pretty good in terms of its education. There wasn’t really anything else about the school that he didn’t like, so he didn’t really have an answer for the other male.
“Uh… The school is okay… I don’t have any problems with it.” (YJ)
“If you say so.” (DH) The other teen leaned back in his seat as he looked back out the window. Young Jae was a bit disappointed, but relieved, that the other male’s attention was no longer on him. He didn’t like when the attention was solely on him since he got nervous easily, but at the same time, he was now in the mood to have a conversation.
“Um-“ (YJ)
“Well, I gotta go. Have fun with your book.” (DH) Young Jae watched as the male picked up the atlas and waved before turning and walking away. With a small frown, Young Jae sat back in his seat as disappointment seemed to completely kick in. He had hoped to make a new friend, but it looked more or less as if he had bored the other male. Well… if that was the case, then maybe he wasn’t the kind of friend he should be trying to make.
With a small sigh, Young Jae picked up his sandwich before he stared at it with disappointment. Maybe one of these days, he would be able to get better at creating and holding conversations.
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“Hey! Young Jae!” (HC) Young Jae looked up just as his best friend wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Himchan, a friend that he had somehow made in Orchestra, held that grin of his as he held his hand out in front of them before moving it from one side to the other. “Get this. A panoramic shot of the city. We need to go to the top most building to get this shot. Wanna go?” (HC)
Young Jae looked down as he tried to think. He wasn’t really certain if he could go, though he did want to. It was a matter of whether his grandmother would let him or not. Luckily, his mother was out of the country so he didn’t have to worry about asking her. So, maybe he would have a higher chance of getting his request approved. “I, um… I’d have to ask my grandma first.” (YJ)
“Oh, right. Well, let’s go! Time’s wasting and I want this shot before the sunset ends.” (HC) Young Jae barely caught himself as Himchan suddenly began to pull him forward a little faster. Making their way down the hallways, down the stairs, and towards the front entrance, the two split up to go to switch to their normal shoes. Just as Young Jae had opened his locker up, a voice quickly pulled his attention.
“So you’re Yoo Young Jae?” (DH) Young Jae looked off to his right as he slowly lowered his arm. His gaze landed on the teen from before, whom was leaning against the lockers with his hands behind his back. Was he going to do something to him? As much as he wanted to say no, his head instinctively nodded. The other male seemed to smile a bit as he pulled his hands from behind his back, revealing what he was currently hiding. “This is yours, right? Your name’s on the handle.” (DH)
Looking down, Young Jae’s eyes widened as he saw the umbrella in the male’s hand. With a small smile, Young Jae took the umbrella from the teen’s hand before looking back up at him. “Thank you.” (YJ)
“No problem! Just don’t forget it again, alright?” (DH) Young Jae nodded a bit as he held the umbrella close to his body. Just as the teen turned to walk away, Young Jae quickly spoke up to keep him from leaving so quickly.
“Wait! Um… W-What’s… your name?” (YJ) The male turned around and stared for a second or two before giving a small smile.
“Jung Daehyun. See you tomorrow.” (DH) Once Daehyun had went off to wherever he needed to be, Young Jae couldn’t help but give off an embarrassed smile as he quickly hid his face within his shoe locker. Did this mean that he just made a new friend? If Daehyun was going to see him tomorrow, then that had to be the case! Plus, maybe he really wasn’t bored of their talk earlier today. If he was going to see him tomorrow, then that meant that things went well.
That smile of his only seemed to grow as he looked down at his umbrella. He really hadn’t expected to see this umbrella again either, but somehow, Daehyun had managed to retrieve and return his umbrella to him. Maybe Daehyun really would be a good friend to have after all. “Hey! You’re not ready yet?!” (HC)
Young Jae nearly jumped from Himchan’s loud voice, but he quickly grabbed his shoes before kneeling down in order to hide his face. Himchan let out a small sigh as he leaned against the lockers and looked up at the ceiling. “You get lost in your thoughts so quickly! Aish… If I wasn’t here, you’d probably still be standing there while staring into your locker.” (HC)
Since he didn’t know how to respond to Himchan’s words, Young Jae decided to stay quiet for the time being. Quickly switching out of his school shoes and into his normal shoes, Young Jae put his school shoes into the locker and closed the locker door before turning to Himchan with a small smile. “Okay. I’m ready.” (YJ)
“Good! Then let’s get going!” (HC) Himchan turned Young Jae around before pushing him forward. Young Jae stumbled forward, somehow catching himself as he saw Himchan walk past him. With his eyebrows slightly furrowed and a slight frown on his lips, Young Jae quickly caught up to Himchan before walking next to him. “So, you think your grandma cooked? I’m starving!” (HC)
“I think so… She usually has food prepared after I come home from school.” (YJ) Himchan let out a triumphant laugh as he began running. Taken by surprise, Young Jae stared for a brief moment with wide eyes before he began running after him. He didn’t understand why Himchan was running, but then again, his friend was always quite a random person to begin with.
As they turned the corner where the gate was, Young Jae couldn’t help but glance over at the school building. He did want to get to know Daehyun a bit more, but maybe that could wait. After all, friendships couldn’t exactly be rushed. They would sort themselves out one way or another.
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[[ My Own Thoughts:
Hello and welcome to the beginning of this story!
I do hope that this story goes well and that everyone does end up enjoying it. X3
Comments are loved!
I love talking with everyone and learning what they think of the fanfic thus far. X3 ]]
So... I don't know if I should edit Ch. 18 & 19 or not. It's pretty angst and I cry.
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