isolation

엎고

chapter one

"you know" hyunjin began, looking across the cafeteria.

"he kind of reminds me of those weirdo emo kids who act like being depressed is a good thing"

jisung rolled his eyes.

"you gotta be kidding me." jisung scoffed. "he looks like he would volunteer to paint Mrs. jones toenails if it meant extra credit"

hyunjin snorted and took a big bite out of his hamburger, still eyeing the boy at the end of the giant room.

hyunjin and jisung were sitting at their usual table for lunch, both of them munching on hamburger's. there were a few girls who would sit around them too, sometimes even boys. but they were unbothered and too lazy to give them any attention.

instead, they were watching the quiet boy at the end of the room. he wasn't eating anything, just reading a book. he had glasses on, and his hair was all over his face. hyunjin was partly right, saying he looked kind of emo. you could barely see his eyes.

"and you know what else i've noticed?" hyunjin continued, whispering to jisung.

"why is he always wearing those oversized pants and long sleeved shirts? i've never seen him wear anything other than that lousy as fuck brand!"

jisung rolled his eyes, again. "look, not everyone's as bothered as  you to have a good closet!"

hyunjin narrowed his eyes and looked at the boy. "nah, something's wrong with him. do you think he's seeing a psychologist?"

jisung slapped his forehead and sighed. "no hyunjin. and i couldn't care less."

most of the school knew the boy as felix. if he had a korean name, know one really knew what it was, and a few people had difficulty pronouncing his name. not many people knew what felix really, really looked like from up close. no one knew he had those tiny freckles dusting his cheeks and eyes.

there were also rumours that he worked for some foreign agency, and was a threat to the school. in fact, people did know that felix could speak english. but some people laughed it off, saying that chan could speak english too, but wasn't in some sort of threatening mafia gang.

the boy also disappeared after school. no one really saw where felix would go, no one knew where he lived either.

"either way" jisung spoke up, scrunching up the plastic from his hamburger. "those guys are back from their basketball practice"

hyunjin looked over at what jisung was pointing to, and his eyes landed on chan, minho and jeongin.

people began to walk over to them, but jisung frowned.

"look at chan. is that seungmin behind him?!" he exclaimed.

hyunjin frowned. "it is. why though?"

chan was seen walking to felix's lonely table, and stopped in front of the boy, who didn't look up from his book.

"uhhh...felix? your little friend here got lost in the gym, and we thought that you might know him?"

"i did not fucking need your help!" seungmin grumbled, trying to get away from chan's strong grasp.

"yeah thanks" felix mumbled and quickly grabbed seungmin, pulling him away and out of the cafeteria.

"and that's another thing" hyunjin dragged on, watching felix and seungmin leave. "i barely know what that boy sounds like. all i hear are some mumbles"

jisung nodded. "there's nothing special about him, alright? looks pretty ugly from far away, quiet and a weird voice that none of us actually hears. why are you paying so much attention to him anyway?"

hyunjin shrugged.

"i don't know. he just strikes me as interesting."