“You hear voices?” Daniel’s closest friend, Chanhee, exclaimed. “Voices? Are you serious? Dude, you need to get our head checked out. First you start crushing on you-know-who, and now this?”

“Well, gee, I don’t think the people in Africa heard you, Chanhee. Why not say everything a little louder, huh?” Daniel stormed on ahead of his friend, embarrassed and completely regretting his decision to tell Chanhee. The two had been friends since they started junior high, and he figured he could trust him, but apparently not.

Chanhee hurried after him. “Wait, Daniel! I was only joking!” He caught up to the other and clapped him on the back, laughing a bit. “Sheesh. Seriously now, what’s up with these voices?”

“Well… I mean, I don’t really know. It’s weird,” Daniel said slowly as he tried to figure out a way to explain this to Chanhee. “Like… It’s always different stuff, and…and, like, half the time it sounds like some weird foreign language.”

“What?” Chanhee said, his eyes widening a bit.

“It sounds like a foreign language half the time,” Daniel repeated, giving Chanhee a confused look.

For a moment, Chanhee seemed to be thinking deeply, staring off into the distance, and walking a bit more slowly. Then he shook his head and sped up again.  “Keep talking,” he said.

“There isn’t much else to tell you.” Daniel shrugged and held tighter onto his backpack. “Whatever I understand just sounds like my name. Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. You’d think if I was insane I’d hear creepier stuff.”

But there was no response from Chanhee, for he’d seemingly fallen deep into thought yet again. Daniel didn’t bother trying to snap him out of it, since they were almost at school. Maybe he would just keep on walking and miss the school. He totally deserved it after practically shouting to the world about him having a crush.

What a jerk…

***

Daniel sat down in his seat and was immediately greeted by two of his other friends, Melanie and Julianne. They were transfer students who were in South Korea because they were accepted into a company to become trainees. It was not very surprising, what with Melanie’s amazing voice and Julianne’s powerful dances. They quickly latched on to Daniel, for lack of a better word, when they found out he had the best English in their grade, and the three were friends ever since.

“The fog today was such a pain,” Melanie complained as she brushed her hair. “It made my hair frizz…”

Julianne nodded in agreement. “Jeongmal, oppa. Totally the worst.”

“We didn’t get any fog by my house. How weird,” Daniel said. He took the brush from Melanie and began to brush her hair for her, much to her secret pleasure.

“Our dorm is almost an hour from here,” Julianne pointed out, “so the fog we had probably won’t even reach here.”

“I don’t think fog can move around like rain,” Melanie said.

“How do you know? Are you a weather person?” Julianne fired back.

“No, but my science grades have always been better than yours!” Melanie snapped.

“A weather person is called a meteorologist,” Niel piped in innocently as the two twins continued to bicker. He set down the brush and took a brief moment to appreciate his handiwork on Melanie’s now frizz-free hair, then turned towards the door when it opened. Chanhee stumbled into the classroom, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

“A-A new…new student is coming!” he shouted.

The room filled with excited chatter and Chanhee used this distraction to grab Daniel by the collar and yank from his seat. Daniel’s surprised cry was lost underneath the chatter and he was dragged from the classroom without being even noticed.

“Chanhee, what the heck are you doing?” Daniel yelled, struggling to free himself from Chanhee’s iron grip.

Chanhee did not answer and simply continued to drag the yelling Daniel down the hallway. A few curious students peeked their heads out of their classrooms to find out what the ruckus was, and then returned when they realized it was only Chanhee and Daniel.

Eventually Daniel gave up his fight and let himself be dragged out into the courtyard, where he was finally let go.

“Why, pray tell, did you just drag me out of our classroom?” Daniel demanded as he fixed his collar so it fit uniform standards again.

Chanhee ignored his question. “We need to leave,” was all he said.

“Excuse me? Chanhee, do not give me some crap answer! Tell me what your freaking deal is!” Daniel was beginning to get angry with his friend, which was a rare occurrence.

His friend only shook his head again and pointed towards the school gate.

“What the hell is yo—?”

“Excuse me, boys,” a voice interrupted, “but do I hear a fight brewing?”

Daniel visibly paled at the voice. Slowly, he looked down at the ground and shook his head. “No, Headmaster,” he said softly.

The Headmaster fixed his glasses and nodded approvingly. “That’s what I assumed. Now then, Daniel, please look up and say hello to your new classmate, Jaeyoon.”

Barely even glancing up, Daniel inclined his head in a greeting, and that was that. He could have sworn he heard that Jaeyoon girl giggle, but he just ignored it. From underneath his bangs, he could see Chanhee tense up considerably. He gave the girl a small wave, but there was nothing friendly in the motion. In fact, he seemed rather hostile towards her, which was definitely weird. Something was up with Chanhee. Maybe this was an ex of his?

Jaeyoon smiled widely at both of the boys. “It’s nice to meet you two. I’ll see you in class, yeah?”

Both boys mumbled incoherent responses, which satisfied the Headmaster, who led Jaeyoon away, but not before giving the boys a look that meant they would be in trouble if they were not in class in the next few minutes.

As soon as the two disappeared into the hallway, Chanhee grabbed Daniel’s arm and began to tug on it. “We need to get out of here, now,” he said quickly, looking back at the door as if he expected a swarm of bees to come from it. “And I mean n-o-w, now.”

“Yeaaah, no. I am not skipping school for some bullcrap you won’t even tell me about,” Daniel said as he tore his arm from Chanhee’s hand and started towards the hallway. “Call me when you come back to Planet Normal, buddy!”

Chanhee watched Daniel until he went into the hallway, then sighed and ran after him.

***

Back in their seats, Chanhee and Daniel barely listened as their teacher introduced Jaeyoon and allowed her a minute to tell her fellow classmates about herself. Then came the big moment: Jaeyoon would get to choose who she’d sit next to, and that person would also become her school guide until she was fully accustomed with everything. There were no ifs, ands, or buts; their teacher would even grade the guide on how well they helped Jaeyoon.

The girl scanned her eyes over the classroom until her eyes landed on Daniel. Her eyes practically flashed when she found him, and she eagerly pointed him out. “Daniel, please,” she said.

Melanie stood up from her seat so fast her chair toppled over. “B-but Daniel is still my guide!” she cried desperately. “You can’t make me move, Ms. Kim! You can’t!”

Their teacher sighed and tapped her ruler on the floor, thinking about the situation. Finally she said, “Melanie, please move to any desk in the back. It’s for the best.”

Flushing angrily, Melanine gathered her belongs and trudged to the back of the classroom, but not before giving her chair a good kick. Daniel turned and gave her an apologetic smile, which had her calmed down instantly.

Jaeyoon put a hand over and whispered something to the teacher, who chuckled and patted her on the shoulder. Then she walked down the row until she reached her desk, and sat down, flashing Daniel another wide smile. As she began to unload her backpack, the wind suddenly picked up outside. It was beginning to look foggier, and the windows were misting up.

Daniel.

A sudden painful burning sensation started in his forehead, making him hunch over and clutch his head. He cursed, but whether aloud or not, he did not know, and honestly did not care.

Nistan nam culatr. Nistan nam culatr.

The burning was getting worse, and he was beginning to get dizzy. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a pitiful whine that normally would have made him extremely embarrassed. A hand squeezed his shoulder. The confused murmurings from the students were beginning to echo. Was he dying? Was this the end?

“Daniel, I’m taking you to the nurse,” a voice whispered into his ear. Chanhee. He nodded and let Chanhee gently pull him to his feet and lead him out the classroom.

Treikra! Ruxan astor medete, trebal!

Daniel held onto his friend as best as he could, but the world around him was spinning and he was getting weaker by the second. “It’s happening again,” he forced himself to say as his legs suddenly gave out completely. His friend lifted him into his arms bridal style, seeing it was the quickest way to move.

Fresh air hit him as they got out into the courtyard, but it did nothing to cool his burning head. He tried to hold on, but eventually he gave in and let the darkness take him.

Ceou! Id wiev nistan nam Taridec! Nam Taridec id wiev nistan.