Myungsoo chuckled to himself. What a cute klutz. At least he had the guts to crash into him instead of shunning him as if he was the plague, like all the other kids were doing. That bozo was definitely the official winner of the 'least scary student' in this haunted house. He kind of already liked him, which was more than he could say about anyone else in this ridiculous school. Wherever he went there were countless students staring at him like he wasn't even human, or in this case, staring at him like he was human. Like it hadn't been enough to be plucked out of his life, roots and all, having to leave his friends, his boyfriend, but to be put in a school for the 'gifted' when he wasn't even gifted himself. Did nobody understand how high school worked? It was like making the nerdiest kid alive transfer to a class full of head cheerleaders and super jocks. He was in for nothing good, of that he was sure.

It had been way better when his parents were actively hiding their true identity from him. Their lie had become his life, so shattering the lie meant shattering his entire existence. The first hundred times or so he hadn't even believed them. They had to tell him over and over again, trying a myriad of tactics. There was the 'we're a special family' strategy, where they had told him that they were 'not quite like everyone else'. That was an understatement if there ever was one. Not knowing what to expect, he had half expected to hear that his mom had actually been born as a man, or that they had met in prison. No, the loony bin would have been more believable.

Then there was the 'brutal honesty' approach, where he just got more convinced of the loony bin story. They had also tried the 'you can have anything you want if you only listen' bribe tactic, but in the end they had to resort to explicitly proving they had powers by showing him what they were capable of. It had done the trick but still, he couldn't really process what he had witnessed. He would just rather not think about it.

Up until the very moment he opened that ridiculously huge front door of the school, he had been waiting for someone to jump out yelling 'Surprise! You're on candid camera!'. But there was no such luck. This really was his new school, if you could call it a school. It was full of all kinds of bizarre creatures that were all but happy with him stepping on their turf. By the way, who needed the door to be so unrealistically big? He wasn't sure he wanted to know, hoping it was only to scare off normal people and not to accommodate some monster of epic proportions. He shuddered at the thought.

So here he was. Stuck in a world where the currency was power, and he was fresh out of cash, completely broke. There was no question that the news of his poverty had thoroughly traveled the halls, not leaving a single stone unturned. Or maybe those kinds of people could sense whether someone was their kind or not, what did he know. Either way the conclusion was the same. Everyone avoided him like he had leprosy, probably afraid of catching his human cooties.

Or could it have something to do with who his parents were? Apparently his parents were super important people in this world. He still couldn't take it seriously. In his eyes they were two of the most uninteresting persons on the planet, and he kind of liked it that way. It was a constant in the chaos, a solid rock in a murky swamp, his safety net. Except now he had found out that his safety net wasn't safe at all. The rock had turned into a turtle that was swimming into mysterious waters with him stuck on its back. He wanted off but it was either this or to jump into the water and hope he could swim on his own. He wasn't particularly confident in his swimming abilities, so on the turtle he remained.

He wanted to go back, go back to that simpler time where everything was just what it seemed. Boring and mundane. It was grossly underrated. Suddenly everything he used to complain about had become his heart's biggest desire. To go back to the time when his biggest concerns were to not catch food poisoning in the school canteen and to be careful to hide the fact that he was gay. His best friends knew already and thankfully they were totally cool with it. It had made him appreciate them even more. Ah his friends, he missed them.

Not everyone in his old school were as understanding. He had seen what happened to guys that came out and he hadn't really been anxious to join them. Instead he decided his closet wasn't such a bad place to chill in. He even gave it a makeover so in the end it was a pretty comfortable place in which to hang out. Especially after his boyfriend had joined him in there. It had taken some convincing since he was already out at his school, but he had caved in the end, after hours of puppy eyes and kisses.

He missed his boyfriend. He missed him something awful. He reached for his phone, pulling up old text messages and photos. He paused at his favorite photo of him where he had the biggest pout ever after Myungsoo had dragged him along for one of their endless walks. He always complained, but ended up having a blast every single time. Myungsoo giggled sadly to himself. “Minseok-ah, what are you up to right now?” he whispered as he used his finger to trace the outline of his pretty eyes. He was probably running through the halls of his school right now, fighting to get to class before the hall monitor caught him, late as always.

Myungsoo had always considered it a small miracle that they had gotten to know each other. He had always been the shy guy. He didn't really make friends easily, let alone boyfriends. But Minseok had done something really silly, like he did so often, so he couldn't but laugh at him. That was enough. That laugh had brought them together, and every single day since then, they had laughed together. Until today.

He wanted to send him a text, so much so that he was tempted to break their deal. They had made a pact not to contact each other, no matter how hard it became. That was the only way they could move on with their lives. They had been forced to call it quits since Myungsoo had no idea how long he would be stuck here, and his parents had forbidden him to reveal who they really were to anyone outside the school. So they had had no choice but to end it. It had been the hardest decision he had ever had to make. But he did it for Minseok. It wasn't fair to him to make him wait for something that might never happen.

He wondered whether gayness was an issue here. Could it be? When everyone was a freak anyway, how could being gay stick out from all the other craziness that was going on? How did you measure who was such a big freak, that he was a freak among freaks? There was definitely a scale in place, this was high school after all. Superpowers or not, teenagers were teenagers. He had seen some guys earlier, all swoony-eyed, chasing after some random bloke that had behaved like he was walking on water. Not only guys though, girls as well. He had a whole swarm of groupies tending to his every whim. Maybe he was the school's prince, who knew? Myungsoo hadn't seen what all the fuss was about, it was just a run of the mill normal dude. He wasn't sure he would be able to pick him out in a line up, even if there was just a choice of two people.

But it could mean that it was normal to be gay here. He didn't really care though, since there was not a chance in hell he would ever consider dating any of those weirdos. He was just going to lay low and hope no one would notice him, biding his time until he would be able to convince his parents that they had made a huge mistake. Until he could go back. Back to his friends. Back to his cutely handsome boyfriend, hoping against hope that no one had snatched him up while he was away. Thinking about him with other guys made his insides feel like they were on fire. He was starting to feel incredibly queasy when the bell rang.

Saved by the bell.

Man. As if this day wasn't crappy enough, he had taken a wrong turn somewhere, getting completely lost. He managed to find his classroom in the end, but not before making him fashionably late. He grabbed the doorknob, but he couldn't get himself to turn it so the door would open. Everyone was already inside so the moment he opened the door, all eyes would be on him. The new kid. The outsider. The human. He hated his new role. He wasn't prepared for it, he hadn't gotten the script, he had no idea how to behave or how this would all turn out.

Realizing that he would never be able to talk some courage into himself, he quickly opened the door before he had a chance to stop himself. He hesitantly walked in, nodding towards the teacher as an apology for being late. Everyone was staring at him like he was dressed in a clown suit with a target right between his eyes. He tried to ignore it, squeezing the tiny little bear that was attached to his phone. His boyfriend had a matching one. Going as fast as he could without running, he hurried to the back and took a seat in the corner, trying to make himself disappear. Now one of those superpowers would sure come in handy.