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I sat in the cafeteria.
It was a bold move, and maybe a stupid one at that, because I was practically the only one sitting alone at a table. The rest of student body was fractured into groups that chatted among themselves, occasionally glancing over at the lone ones with a scornful or pitying look.
I didn't want to see any more of those.
I kept my head low, and ate fast, eager to get out of the loud silence that surrounded me. College wasn't a place where you wanted to be caught dead eating alone, but I hadn't been able to make friends. Or even allies.
High school had been easier, with teenagers who had been more prone to make new friends and hang out with people they met only yesterday, and it was much more easy to socialize. Plus, I had had my own group cut out for me, even though they hadn't been the best kind of people. I couldn't decide which was better—this, or having to hold on to the worst kind of people to thrive.
Popularity, power, pain.
I grit my teeth and ducked my head lower. The thin sticks in my hands dug into my palms as I clenched my fists around them, and the ends poked into my skin, threatening to rip through it. The food tasted like paper to my dry tongue, and the dry patch on my throat refused to let me swallow anything.
Yesterday—just yesterday a recruiter had seen me driving, and had—what?—tried to get me into a race. Was he even a recruiter? Something told me the whole ordeal hadn't been a façade, with the downtown almost floating at the horizon of the stadium.
Somehow, this world seemed to follow me wherever I went.
Vernon. Vernon. Vernon. The name rang in my ears, and I dropped the chopsticks, letting my face fall into my hands. Beautiful faces hid ugly secrets.
There was a screeching sound as the chair next to me was pulled up, and the dead weight of a familiar ravenet dropped into it. I looked up blankly, and the face from earlier in the week grinned across at me.
"Oh, come on, does this place suck that bad?" The boy who had winked at me in class grinned, running his fingers through his already messy black hair. "Need company?"
I kept my mouth straight, but the beginnings of a frustrated frown pulled at the head of my eyebrows. I didn't particularly like eating alone, and yeah, I was eager for company—but not this kind. Someone I could start over with.
"So you don't like talking either, huh?" He smiled, apparently undeterred, and pulled at the ends of his denim sleeves. It was then that I noticed that the rest of the crowd had gone a little quiet. "I'm Minhyuk."
