"What was that, pretty boy?"

Ren gave no response. He had earbuds jammed in to drown out Ford’s yammering, but it didn’t seem to work.

Instead of hearing a muffled stream of words, Ren heard Ford crystal clear. The Land God was speaking directly into his mind—there was no escape.

Ren sighed in defeat. He had to go to the principal's office to finish his paperwork and during all that time Ford had drone on and on. Many times, Ren had asked the principal to repeat what he said and most of the time, the wrong answers were given due to misheard questions.

When the principal told Ren he could leave, he also added, with his face wrinkled in worry, “Ren, child, please recover from your loss soon. You missed the last two months from your sophomore year so I expect you give your best to compensate, yes?”

“Yes, I will.”

“Poor child...you’re such a ditzy one too.”

Ren did not know what to say in response to that offhand comment. So, he inched out of the office awkwardly, fully aware that the principal's eyes were still watching him, b with paternal concern.

“You know, pretty boy, I think the principal has a crush on you. It’s disgusting but such romance happens among the humans all the time, right?”

Ren winced, but said nothing.

“What is that motto? Ah! True love knows no boundaries, be it gender, age or ethnicity. Aha! A load of bosh!”

Ford hovered dangerously close to Ren, making sure that his cloud tousled the blonde hair every few steps, while he spoke in a continuous loop.

"I never knew you were trained in Judo. Did your father train you? That sicko, of everything to teach, he had to teach you Judo! It's such a lacklustre sport, that is if you consider it a sport at all. Feh! Judo! Out of all the things he could have taught you!! Judo!! Well, I could spit!”

Ford circled around Ren’s head, waiting for a response. A small crack had formed on Ren’s emotionless mask—an imperceptible frown. Ford wanted a verbal response, one where Ren would defend his father. When he had none, he went on spewing his hatred for Judo.

“Doesn’t that sick sod of a father of yours know that Judo is a double edged sword? The moment you use it to wound other, a fresh spurt of your own blood would spring forth from your own gut! Judo! The beast!! Does your father not want you to have babies, pretty boy? Does the sod not! Practice Judo any more and I can assure you, yes I can assure you! that your back will give out before the first minute! Does your ignorant father not know that! Judo is a back killer!! And what is a man who has a weak back? Nothing! He is nothing!”

Ford, though his tone was vehement, was chuckling on the inside. The perils of Judo was actually told to him by Ren’s father. It was a conversation many, many years ago, when Ford was not even allowed on his own cloud. Ren’s father was only a dweeb the size of a peapod but he sure did know a lot about almost everything.

And he was talkative, Ford thought, for a moment tinged with nostalgia. He was nothing if not talkative.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Ren. Ren, Ren, Ren, Ren, Ren, Ren, Ren?”

Ren ignored him.

“Do you know why a man without a proper back is nothing? Heh.”

Ren stared straight ahead.

“Ah, you don’t know? Your useless thing of a father never educated you about ?”

Color rose to Ren’s face instantly. “Hush it, Ford,” he forced out through gritted teeth. He did not want to attract attention—as if his platinum hair wasn’t screaming LOOK AT ME already—and he especially did not want to be caught talking to personages that others cannot see.

“Hush it? When have you become so civilized?” Ford exaggerated surprise by giving a long and loud gasp whilst he shivered upon his wispy cloud. “Satan’s spawn asked me to hush!! Well, good heavens! I, for one, had never heard that come out of that pretty mouth, now have I? All I’ve heard you say were bad, baaaaaaaad words, now was it pretty boy?”

Ren rolled his eyes. At the same time, he tried to keep his head down. People were beginning to gawk, most of them freshmans by the color of their uniforms.
I’m being judged by freshmans, Ren thought. Great.

“Now you’re a reformed little precious thing, aren’t you?” Ford continued to tease, not bothered by the little words he got in return.

“But, ah, I don’t quite believe in reforms. Even soaps in mouths would not truly reform a Choi...”

Ford searched Ren’s face before continuing.

“...Not to mention your father. He was downright bratty. If only I was allowed to tell you of his past missions. Outrageous, I tell you!”

Ford thought perhaps he should throw something heavier, something that would surely get Ren riled up.

“Especially that one episode! I caught him ing with this old tramp! He had his hands all over her—”

“SHUT UP!”

Ford demurely smiled. “I thought you wanted to know more about your father. Did you not ask?”

Ren glared at Ford, thinking if only his anger could take shape and strangle the out of this toddler!! Too much was just too much! How dare he taint his father’s faithfulness to his mother! How dare he spew his lies about his father cheating on his mother! Yes, his father was rarely home but that was because he had work to do and a family to feed! How dare he!

Ford was still very much at ease. “I can hear everything you’re thinking.”

“, I don’t give a . Don’t you dare talk about my dad like that! He LOVED my mom! We were a HAPPY family!!” Ren tore his earbuds out and threw them at the hovering God.

“Tsk, tsk. I told you it was hard to reform a Choi.” Ford gave two thuds of his cane.

Soap again. Ren’s eyes watered from the base taste. He spat it out and threw that at Ford too. Only, it passed right through the God just like the earbuds did and, unfortunately, founds its target elsewhere.

“Ouch!”

Ren looked around Ford’s puffy cloud and saw a boy sitting atop the staircase, rubbing his head. By the looks of the uniform, he was also a third year. Ren saw his short blonde hair and was suddenly reminded of his own. Why can’t his own hair be as manly?

Ren shot Ford a ‘this-is-all-your-fault-because-you-are-penetrable-and-also-you-destroyed-my-hair’ stare.

“Well? Go on, help the poor soul for heaven’s sake! You’re a hoja, you’re suppose to help your earthlings. Such a disappointment.”

Ren replied in a soft, vengeful voice, “Heaven has done nothing for me.”

Ford looked at the sixteen year old boy, saying nothing this time. The Land God just looked on as Ren solemnly walked over to the victim of the soap, looked on as Ren extended a hand, looked on as Ren bowed down in apology, and looked on, still, when Ren was suddenly pulled into a crushing headlock.

“What the!!!” Ren choked, gasping for air. “Yah! Let go! Let go of me!”

But this boy who was bulkier than himself would not let go. “No! I finally found you! I finally found you! Ren, I found you!”

“Wha-what!! Are you some crazy stalker or some ?” Ren tried to wriggle to freedom, but the headlock was cutting off his air. “Let go!”

“Heehee...leggo-me-eggo! Your voice got a bit deeper, Ren, but mine got even more deep, right?”

Did this guy just make a reference to a waffle? Ren scoffed. And what’s with his weird laugh....

“Do I even know you? You creep!”

“Creep? Before you called me stupid, weak and needy, and now you call me a creep?”

The boy released his hold and Ren tumbled down the stairs, back to where Ford hovered silently. Ren thought that Ford seemed a bit too serious. Where were the snarky comments and the snide remarks this time? Especially after rolling down a flight of stairs!?  

“Ren! Battle with me!”

Ren’s attention snapped back to the one who indirectly caused his humiliating fall.

“ing creep! Who the hell are you anyways!?”

“Baekho! Kang Baekho!”

Ren furrowed his brows in thought—did he know such a person?

“I don’t know you!”

Baekho gasped. He ran down the hairs in a fit of rage. “How can you say that, Ren-ah! Don’t you remember how we met on the first day of high school and how you totally blew me off? All I did was bump into you and yet you had to be so mean! You bum! I only wanted to be friends with you!!!”

A gasping shudder for air and Ren thought tears were about to come forth, but surprisingly, Baekho held that back.

“And not only did you not want to be friends, you totally rejected me and you called me stupid, needy and weak!!! Stupid!!! Needy!! WEAK!!!!!!”

Ren was disturbed. Never in his life did he meet someone as overwhelmingly emotional as this ‘Baekho’ and nor did he ever see a built, muscular man call him ‘Ren-ah!’ with that girly air.

It sent shivers down his spine.

“Listen, I don’t know you...”

“How can you not remember!!! You broke my heart! No, you tore my life apart!!”

Ren’s jaw fell open. This boy is so melodramatic!  

“Your life? Your h-heart? What have I got to do with your h-h-heart!?”

“You broke it!”

Ren’s face flushed. This was sounding more like a confession than anything. Inwardly, a groan was being dragged out. How, he thought, how can the first day of junior year be so ty! First a weirdo that I crash with a bike, now a creeper that I had hit with soap! I can’t even properly tell them to piss off because I was the one who...ayyyy. I don’t even. I don’t even know!

“Oddball, what do you want from me then?” Ren asked in desperation. He wanted to go to class. Now. NAO.

“I want to prove that I’m a stronger person now. I don’t need your friendship!!” Baekho flexed his muscles. “I’ve changed so much over the last two years so I can prove this to you.”

“The last two years...” Ren was creeped out, but he also felt a bit touched. Here was a boy that changed for him over a span of two years and yet he didn’t even know that ‘Kang Baekho’ existed until now. Was this what they call unrequited feelings? Was he the object of someone’s fancy for two years and he didn’t even know!

“Uh...listen...Baekho?”

Baekho nodded, a little smile forming on his face.

Ren his lips, not knowing how to break the news. “Baekho-shi, two years you said. But you know, I knew nothing about you...and so you can’t expect much from my part. Especially since, you know. I’m, uh, not...uh...gay.”

The smile fell from Baekho’s face instantly. “Ew, I didn’t say I liked you! Ew!!”

Now Ren was thoroughly confused. “What?”

“You’re cute and all but, ew, I don’t swing that way! Are you a homo!? Ew!”

Ren stared at Baekho baffled. Here he thought the boy was trying to confess his feelings and when he tried to reject him in a considerate way, BAM, the one who ended up looking like a fool was Choi Ren himself.

Suddenly feeling angry, Ren lost all his patience. He replied coldly:  “I’m not gay. I thought you were.”

“Me?” Baekho laughed like thunder. “ME? GAY?”

Now Ren was just fed up. Baekho was pointing at him while laughing in that exaggerated way, all the while questioning “Me? Gay?”

, this guy’s really a lunatic. Ren gravely considered for a moment whether or not to call the police. “You know what, I need to get to class. Piss off.”

Baekho stopped his unnatural and exaggerated laughter. He wanted to say something more but Ren cut him off.

“I really haven’t got the time for this, ne, Baekho-shi? So would you mind just stepping to the side? I’ve got places to be, people to meet.” Ren shoved Baekho to the side.

Baekho was about to protest but Ren caught him off guard with a smile. It was a cold smile, one that did not come from the heart—Baekho could tell because he loved to smile—but rather came from some dark and sinister corner of Ren’s mind. But no matter the lack of warmth; the smile was still bewitching.

And it could have been more bewitching if something behind his head didn’t ing EXPLODE!

A loud boom, and Baekho felt gravel raining from above. His eyes widened in shock. Ren, too, was aghast.

“What was that?”

Ren’s face darkened; quickly, he turned away and ran towards the school building, not turning back even though Baekho shouted after him.

“Your earplugs!! And your soap!!”

No, Ren just kept on running. Through gritted teeth, he questioned Ford, “Was that in any way my fault?”

Ford smirked mercilessly. “The explosion? Or the heart-breaking?”

Ren huffed angrily, “Of course the explosion!”

“Congrats, pretty boy.”

“What? Why?”

Ford halted his cloud in front of Ren, which caused Ren to stop his mad run.

“Congratualtions, because, Choi Ren, your first power has awoken. You’ve inherited your father’s trademark ability: The killer smile.”

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