It started even before it really started.

The very moment Sungmin opened his eyes, waking up into a clean blue morning, something huge and terrible suddenly gripped his chest tightly. For a second, he could barely breathe from the suffocating coldness that spread throughout his body as though he’d swallowed a ton of ice.

Like the sensible boy he was, Sungmin brushed his groundless suspicions away. With a single swish of the hand, he parted the white linen curtains to reveal both the best and the worst day that ever happened in his whole life.

Best, because the gentle blue of the skies was so even it didn’t even look real. No clouds, no plane contrails, no morning moon, none of the little things that annoyed Sungmin so very much.

Under the perfect sky, Sungmin enjoyed his long walk to school even more than usually. He loved the clean pavements and the white facades of the mid-upper class neighbourhood where he had the fortune to be living. A few faces called his name, bowed or nodded in greeting. Smiling, Sungmin replied politely, careful to keep his voice and tone the same as they were whenever he greeted his neighbours.

Sungmin liked being predictable, but he loved nothing more than when other people were predictable too. White picket fence, lovely long-haired wife, two-point-five children – that’s how Sungmin imagined his future. His role-models, as weird as it sounds, were his ordinary neighbours. It even seemed unusual that they were so very ordinary.

A stray football landed right in front of Sungmin’s feet, and he returned it to the neighbor boy with a wide smile, reminding him not to chase after the ball blindly.

“Why do you talk like a grown-up or something!” complained the boy, and Sungmin laughed. Walks to school were always nice.

However, school itself was another matter entirely.

Even though he’d walked through the same school gate hundreds of times, Sungmin couldn’t help but shudder. Beyond those gates, the nice and ordered way of things Sungmin loved so much simply ceased to exist. People walked around wherever they wanted, talked noisily, ate sloppily, smoked behind the school building, more than a dozen guys got all sweaty while playing basketball, couples kissed, right there in the school yard. Sungmin would’ve puked at the sight, if only puking wasn’t equally disgusting.

Walking towards the door in a wide arch, to avoid chatty smelly crowds, Sungmin spotted a gum-chewing guy on his right. It was really the gum that caught Sungmin’s attention, flashing neon green every now and then while the guy talked. He had to be new; Sungmin would’ve noticed such a disgusting person.

Sungmin didn’t think a person could possibly commit so many horrible crimes at once.

First off: the dude was chewing gum. Dipping an elastic green thing in his saliva and stretching that sticky gooey mixture inside his mouth. The very thought instantly made Sungmin sick to his stomach.

Second, this new student had long hair. Silky brown strands covered his ears and his eyes. Every now and then, the boy would slick his hair backwards in a motion extravagant enough to befit only an opera primadonna, a world-famous model, or Beyonce.

Long hair, even only slightly long-ish, on guys, was just plain incorrect, in Sungmin’s opinion. Girls have long hair. Guys have short. Is it that difficult to cut your hair?! Sungmin thought, annoyed.

The guy’s third sin was the worst. He didn’t have the name tag the school required its students to wear.

Before he knew it Sungmin was quickening his steps, until he was practically running, over the school yard, through the big doors and up the crowded stairs, pushing and shoving as he passed. Hurrying to his classroom, he received a month’s worth of odd looks. “Why is that guy running? The bell hadn’t even rung yet!” As though possessed, Sungmin sprinted into the big English classroom to find he was the first one there. Had to make a ton of mental effort to stop himself from shutting the door and piling up furniture against it. Instead, he stumbled to his desk, feet weak and adrenaline buzzing, and tried to calm his own breathing.