the story of our youth.

one.

It was a fresh start.

New school, new people, new class, new everything. Sean took a deep breath in, savoring the feeling of the air rushing into his lungs. In front of him stood the metal gates, tall and proud.

Sean was so glad to be in a new campus that was on the other end of the country. At 17, this was the redemption arc he desperately needed.

Polytechnic was definitely the place for him. When he told his parents that he wanted to pursue a course in Early Childhood, you could say that there was commotion in the house for a good two months.

—— You're a guy. You should be in the office, keying in statistics, or in the lab doing research. A doctor, a lawyer, anything. Just not... a kids' nanny.

—— Education is not the line for you.

It definitely soured the relationship between him and his parents, but he didn't want to take up any other courses. Stigmatize him all you want, Sean would still choose to study in this field.

In the end, his parents gave up on trying to convince him out of it. That's how Sean came to be standing at the campus' front gate. It took him almost two hours just to get here, but he didn't mind it one bit. He could finally be somewhere far away from home for most of the day. A campus that was on the other end of the country.

A campus where no one knew who he was.

A campus where he could finally live a little.

The place was bustling with students, all scurrying around trying to find their class on the first day. Sean was no exception. He has no clue where he was supposed to go on the first day. Fuck me for skipping orientation.

The map didn't really help either and it took Sean a good fifteen minutes just to figure out which building he was supposed to go. By the time it was 9am, Sean was out of breath from running all over the place.

Finding an empty spot in the class, he sat down at the very end. Being the one and only guy, he practically had the words 'NOTICE ME' in all bold and caps plastered onto his face. Weird yet interested eyes fell onto him and Sean could feel his face burning from awkwardness.

Thankfully, it was a class full of girls because they were all too shy to talk to him. A silent thanks was muttered under his breath as he took out his laptop. The lecturer walked in and class began.

"... Sean Koh!" The lecturer called out.

"Here!" He replied, a little slow because he was not focusing while the teacher was doing role call. Sean noticed the weird glance from the authoritarian figure but decided to ignore it. I'm being judged so hard right now and role call at a tertiary level? Hello?

Sean heard murmurs from around him, probably just the girls being glad to find out his name. He didn't care and continue to stare at the google homepage that was open. Internet here sucks.

First class of the year was Academic Writing, because some people decided it was a good idea to have a format that was annoyingly standardized for the whole world to use. The class was not even half way through and Sean was already internally screaming.

What do you mean I need to indent this? Why the specific margins? What the fuck is all this shit? I have an exam on this? What?

Sean's thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the door. The loud metal handle disrupting the silence of the class.

In stepped another student, nothing out of the ordinary. However, this was a stigmatized course. Thus, the person that was stepping in was anything but ordinary.