BURN; taegyu

New Life, Same Monster

After Taehyun's sudden move, his new life started.
He had the entire month to adjust to this new place, and slowly he uncovered more issues with his past.

It was something he never ever wanted to talk about, or experience again.

He locked his past away in a vault and threw away the key, spending his days with Irene, and discovering that his new friend's love for cats was something he also shared.

They'd visited an animal shelter a few weeks after he'd arrived, and he'd quickly fallen in love with the species. He'd played with the cats for hours, practically having to be dragged out of the shelter by Irene.
Taehyun had never experienced an interaction with someone so soft and warm, and from that day on, he'd ask Irene almost everyday if they could visit the kitties.

On occasion, she'd of course agree, being unable to resist such a tortured, innocent soul like Taehyun, and on Christmas day she even surprised him at his dorm with a large Siamese cat plushie. The hospital staff that treated him, along with her, had all pitched in to buy it for Taehyun as a Christmas present, and he was so grateful that he cried for over an hour straight.

Could you blame him though? It was his first ever Christmas; his first ever gift.

Soon January 1st rolled around, exactly a month after his arrival and his sixteenth birthday, and the first day of school loomed over him.

He was terrified.
Terrified of learning about his 'gift'; The thing that had made his past sixteen years of life a living hell. He was terrified of meeting people, people thinking he's weird, or making a fool of himself.

But still, he stepped through the large wooden doors of the Academy castle, clad in a white dress shirt underneath his gray woolen vest and gray slacks, the uniform of the school.
He had freerange to accessorize, and chose to wear a light pink tie to match with his hair, and a few cat pins on his sweater.
His leather messenger bag was draped over his shoulder, the black leather matching with his loafers.

Although he was nervous, he gracefully stepped into his new life, inviting it with open arms,

And it's been over a year since that fateful day.

Taehyun, now seventeen, was a second year at the Academy.
Still clad in the same uniform, plus the new additions of cat pins on his school bag, he walked through the halls timidly.

Taehyun had become an expert at avoiding people; He knew how to blend in.
With his head down, he walked quickly to his classes, avoiding people and circling around groups to avoid interactions.
When he'd arrive in class, he'd beeline to the back of the room, sitting in the seat at the far left, with a perfect view of the window.

This was his spot in all of his classes, and he'd get there exactly three minutes early to ensure this. He was consistent, and therefore, easily forgettable.
Even with his abnormal natural light pink hair, he'd still managed to evade the eyes of students and professors.

It was what Taehyun had gotten the best at over the past year.

See, everyone at this school had a gift, something Taehyun had finally began to understand.
And, although they all wore limiters, it was still a comfortable environment to learn how to wield your powers.

Limiters, although meant to limit your level of strength when conjuring your ability, did not entirely remove the ability. It simply was a mental guard: a placebo almost.
If you wanted to, you could conjure up your gift at any given moment, limiters simply make that a conscious choice, rather than a random one.

So, naturally, at a school full of supernaturals, people used their gifts often, even flaunted them at times.
It was fun for people to know who had what gift, and what tier they were at.