Chapter Text
It's hard to paint a picture of Cheol's mind, partly because it was always fluctuating. At least that was the case for most of his life. There'd be times he was entirely focused on having fun with Hwani, or times where all he wanted to do was play football with his friends. However along with the good, fun times that took up space in Cheol's mind came the bad. Things that torment him every single day. They keep him awake, they make him ashamed and they make him want to stay hidden, away from anyone's sight in fear of a repeat of before. Cheol's mind remains complicated through a mix of problems, which is why a recent... accidental or forced upon fixation, has taken up an unusual amount of space in his mind. A beautiful girl full of joy and spunk. She looks at him in a way so full of admiration and interest,that it placed a weight on Cheol's mind. A very heavy and oppressive one at that.
Nowadays, it almost be proper to make adjustments to Cheol's daily struggle, because when it came to school Mi-ae would come to his mind. Not necessarily in a good way, usually he just panics about how much attention she draws, why she talks to him so much, why she asks for help so much, why she smiles at him so much, why she waves at him so much, why she does so much stuff? It'd be a flurry of questions when it came to Mi-ae that left him in a constant state of perplexity. He'd go to school worried and come back equally worried. When he dressed up in the morning he'd wonder how'd Mi-ae would greet as sunny as always warranting horrifying evil eyes from everyone else in the room, which meant when he came back home he'd spend the rest of the night mulling over every ounce of embarrassment he'd felt that day. And when he'd come to his conclusion of self-deprecation, having run all the analytics he'd found Mi-ae had been the cause for 90% of all his humiliation feats at school (the other 10% coming from being naturally tall, which brought a lot of unwanted attention). Mi-ae's obtrusion in Cheol's plan to be as invincible as possible was becoming a very big problem and he had been trying to figure out how to solve it, or inhibit its growth. But "the very big problem" was Mi-ae was not an invincible person, she had thick bushy eyebrows that suited and accentuated the frame of her face. Her eyes were large and friendly and she dressed so casually. She was extremely approachable, almost the epitome of a sunny disposition. The princess of Goguryeo. Cheol had thought that that was all well and good but this "princess", was turning him into Lucifer. An evil sprite hovering over a purity meant to be untouched by all unworthy hands. He wasn't popular or sunny enough to match with her unusual personality, just leading him to stand out between them. Their height difference didn't help with the issue at all.
He had anticipated that on his first day he would attract a lot of attention considering his staggering height, what he didn't expect was to be immediately paired with the shortest girl in the room. Initially, he had felt bad, they were both on either side of the spectrum, making each other stand out. That was until he had found out who she was, and realised he was facing the brunt of all the negative attention. The new gangster kid tainting the precious angel of the school. It didn't do massive help for his self esteem. It was almost as though there were polar opposites, people who should've never had to cross paths, but here he was interacting with a borderline celebrity routinely every single day.
To add on, it felt like Cheol would see sides of her that only made him more confused every single day. For starters, she was very sloppy with school work. She'd fall asleep in almost every single lesson and obviously get told off by the teacher but less severely than the other kids, like Seo Jisu. She'd try to get away with secretly reading comics in class and whisper to Cheol not to tell, giggle and get back to those weird comics she read. Cheol thought the pen she had lost the other day was a one time thing, but she'd always lose something of hers! One day it'd be her hair clips, then her pencil case, her bread, her comics, homework sheets and currently her name tag, and with every surprise inspection, she'd return to class late and sweaty having ran laps as punishment. She was brazen and really intolerant to anyone. Not that anyone would dare be mean to her but wandering bullies would be faced with a threat and telling off from her. It was contradictory, Cheol wasn't sure if anyone would feel particularly threatened with her little height and otherwise cute features, she was like a little apple. Sweet. She was horrendously clumsy, but seemingly no one else seemed to notice that. Just watching her made him nervous, he'd never know when she'd just trip up on her own shoelaces, bash (accidentally) into people in the hallways, or most absurdly, just stand in the middle of streets to look up and make strange peace signs at the sky. She was stressful to be around for Cheol in all aspects. Still he didn't hate her, she wasn't hateable, in fact it seemed almost impossible, he understood the effect she had on people. Sure she had decreased his lifespan probably by half but she uplifted the mood in the class. In any case, thinking about Mi-ae left him wired and in a perpetual state of embarrassment. He'd toss around in his sleep, his body twisting the bed sheets and dragging them off of the corners of his mattress, leaving his bed dishevelled in the morning. Maybe I should tell her to stop talking to me. We aren't friends . And I guess he could say that but he was sure the backlash that would come from that would leave him off worse. He was between a rock and a hard place. Maybe he should get used to not sleeping.
***
Now, Cheol's bus rides to school was the most peaceful part of his day. No one else took the bus so he was often the only person on it. It was quiet and secluded just like he wanted. In the back of his mind he was aware that this would all end when he got to school, so he liked to savour the minutes he had to himself. He'd wanted to bike, but the bullies in the area liked to spike tires, so he had decided it best just to take the early bus. Today the bus was particularly quiet however, almost eerie. A faint yelp sounded from outside the bus and the vehicle came to a sudden stop. "Thank you so much haha!", a familiar voice. An eerily familiar voice. Green hair, green eyes, uneven bangs, A smile that was growing larger as their eyes made contact. "Cheol! You get this bus? I didn't even know you lived in the neighbourhood! That's so cool we can get the bus together every morning", no, there's no way.cn I sit here, gosh I was so worried I'd be alone in this bus because my mum was really sick of me getting to school late so she sending me off in the early bus because that was less likely to be full, but you're here so I definitely won't be alone. What a relief", I have to see in the bus too, "Hey, you know since we sit together and we get the same bus maybe we should be friends, I mean that would be good right?", she smiled at him, bright and with the impact of the sun. He looked at her, we shouldn't be friends. "No, I don't want to be friends with you" he replied, simply. Her smile faded and she laughed slightly, "Oh, I guess I read things wrong huh", she forced a smile and went to the other seat. It was painfully awkward but this was for the best even if it didn't feel like it. Even though seeing her smile fade like that felt worse than all the trouble he had been experiencing since he came to the school.
His problems just never seemed to cease.