“Say, cousin. Don’t you think I need a new armor?”

The words were quicky submerged by the noisy canteen. A certain teenager asked toward his older cousin. Though his words were too quiet, he didn’t seem to pay it any attention.

Even if he seemed to be ignored, he didn’t intent to give up.

“Well, you see. It’s not like I hate my armor or something, but it’s really too big you know. I can’t really use it for fighting, right? And you of course know what situation we’re in…

“I just want to prepare more for that event.”

 He said it as he played his meal with a spoon. He wore a white uniform. While he was in proccess trying to destroy his meal, he looked at other people wistfully. All of them had a similar age like him. They too wore an identical white uniform. The only difference was on each of their right upper arm. His older cousin had that ‘3-A’ badge on arm. It was obvious that he got ‘1-D’ for himself, as he was two years younger than his cousin.

“Weren’t you the one who wanted it like that? What was it again? You said something like we all must consider your growth spurt, and that your armor was to be made bigger than your body, to solve our financial problem or something.

“Oh, and that’s a new armor, Jino. You just got it last year.”

She mercilessly gave him an invisible jab.

“Well, you know it’s hard to get irons and steel for people like us these days… I only wanted to lessen our economical burden… That’s all.”

He gave an unconvincing excuses.

“It seems our Little Jino has matured too early. We’re sorry, Jino. We actually wanted to give the best for you.”

“…Uhhh.”

He took a big scoop of rice and swallowed it. There was really no chance for him to get a new armor. Jino was frustated. Every day, each time he woke up, he would’ve found himself gazing at his too big to wear armor in sadness. Sometimes he wished to become bigger and taller instantly. There were already seven falling stars since last year. He didn’t know why it happened frequently, but after wishing for seven times, he believed their appearances were not to fulfill his wish. They only wanted to mock him.

He felt really hopeless. Wasn’t this the time for him to get along with his new classmates? He looked at the boys that were the same class with him. In their tables, they had already formed little groups as if they were saying that they’d became best buddies. He looked at his own situation right now. Eating beside his own older cousin, it felt like he had done many things wrong these days. Well, at least the meal was good.

While munching it absentmindedly, he suddenly remembered something.

“Oh, right. Cousin, that Claude guy’s in the same class with me. Well, he hasn’t arrived at our home, so he had just skipped the whole school opening ceremonial event earlier.”

“Whatever. It’s only the principal’s speech. It’s absolutely not important, especially for us.”

Of course it was not important for her, she was already in the third year, but how come it suddenly went unimportant for him? Jino really can’t put the puzzles in one piece together.

“The event only starts to become important from tomorrow on. You see, everything’s a festival! And you must use this chance get close with your new classmates. If anything happened and I got to hear another bad rumour about you, I would not admit that I’m actually your cousin.

“Oh, and don’t try to eat with me here from now on.”

With that, she demanded without asking for Jino’s feeling.

Sun’s light traveled past the big windows and scattered into the whole canteen. Jino saw those normal students joking at each other. He believed they were normal, as he himself was very different than them. In a sense, he was ‘abnormal’. What made him become different than the others? Well, it’ll be too much to be told. Maybe that was why he can’t join with them. It was not like he envied their lives, it was just… He wanted to joke with people other than his older cousin. Those differences made him felt distance with the others. Like that, little by little, he lived more apart with all his schoolmate.

But even with that unreasonable demand, he knew she only meant well for him.

Since she was still kid, she never cared for friendships or anything related to that. No, the only thing on her mind was only to train. When the other kids learned to walk and started to play with each other outside, she single-mindedly strived to practice what their grandfather taught inside her room alone by herself.

Maybe with all the influence in her surroundings, she found that anything else was not worth to be cared of. So unlike him, having no friends was okay for her.

“Ah, we were talking about Claude right?”

Saying that name, she wore a peculiar smile.

Jino often times saw that smile of her. It was when she faced their grandfather, and she smiled like that too when she encountered a cockroach in the toilet. Well, the first one was of course because of fondness, the latter was with certainty of disgust. Maybe it was the inherent ability of a woman, but he just can never guess her feeling right now.

“Did I tell you the story when I visited his village last month?”

“Umm… no?”

She then said, “well, I directly said my reasons why I visited him, and I’ll tell you, it was really a chore to make him understand what I’m trying to say…”

Her teeth grinded as she uttered the words out of her mouth.

The surroundings suddenly became much hotter as she went mad. It was not because of some magic trickery, no, it was similar like when someone’s boss was angry at something and the atmosphere became all tense because of it.

He needed to calm her down…

“Right! At least you finally convinced him right?”

“How can it be so easy?!”

She raged.

“After I finished that whole explanation, he just asked ‘what benefits can I get?’ Can you believe it? After with all energy that I had used, he just asked that damned question?! If only grandpa didn’t ask me…”

A few gazes turned toward their table. His older cousin didn’t care, she punched the table as if trying to release all of her hidden resentment.

Now Jino was scared. But giving it a thought, he felt that it was not a wrong question. In the first place, there would’ve probably no one who dared enough to accept their request.

“Then I promised him many things. But he just yawned! I was so mad back then, so I just directly asked him what he wanted, and guess what?

“He said that he wanted to continue his study…”

Jino felt an enveloping sadness filled his older cousin’s heart.

“But it’s not like he can only depend on us to study in this school, right? Especially if we were talking about our own request. No matter how I look at it, the reward’s just not balanced.”

Jino noticed that strange point. Though his question was left unaswered.

She suddenly stood up and went away. Jino looked at her meal, she didn’t finish it yet. Left alone in this certain table, he grudgingly took her leftover meal.

Here he was, feeling lonely again. She didn’t even tell her story. She only expressed her own resentments.

A vibration suddenly came from inside his pocket. A slow yet cheerful music sound appeared. Jino took it out.

He turned on the handphone’s screen and looked at it. It was a notification from a certain messenger app. The earlier ringtone was fixed specially for his family, so he hastily read it.

It was from his older cousin. Jino sighed. Why can’t she just tell him before she left? He really can’t understand her.

Looking at it, she only sent a picture. A picture of a teenager precisely, and the first thing Jino awared of was what he was wearing… He was wearing a robe. It didn’t look like any religion’s robe that Jino had known. It was only an unassuming robe, if he didn’t carry a backpack on his shoulder. As if trying his best to look weird, the backpack’s design was what a highschooler would use.

He wore an eerie smile, and he extended wide his middle finger and index finger. It was what people would call a peace sign.

“Who’s this weirdo?”

He can’t help but blurt out the question from his thought.

Then he suddenly remembered that he was all alone in this table. Though the canteen was full of people, no one bothered to hear his question and answer it.

She sent continuous messages before he even asked why she sent this picture to him.

1stReya          : I was told that he already left his village since yesterday noon

1stReya          : So he should’ve already reached in the city yesterday night at most

1stReya          : He probably met something unexpected if he hadn’t arrived at our home yet

Jino can’t understand. The important thing right now was, he didn’t have any single clue about who was this person supposed to be. However, her next message made everything became clear.

1stReya          : He’s Claude

1stReya          : You go search for him around after school

1stReya          : …

Seeing her particular finishing ellipsis, Jino realized that even if he asked her anything, she wouldn’t reply.

No, wait! She can’t finish it just yet! He thought. In the first place, how can he search him in this wide city? From what she said, it was even not guaranteed that he was in this city. There was a chance that when in the middle of his journey toward Yangkung City, this Claude lost his way.

While furiously typing even though he knew she wouldn’t care, something just happened.

It was the sound of screams and roars from outside the canteen. It was so loud that everyone inside the canteen flocked toward the windows and tried to spectacle it.

Jino suddenly left his important question for some other time, he would look for her in the second break and ask her directly. What was important right now was this disturbance.

He quietly moved past the crowds and finally, even though he did it with ease, he arrived in front of a certain window after so many curses directed toward him as he forcefully pushed them aside. Jino felt bad for them, but it can’t be helped, he was curious too.

Looking from behind the clear window, Jino gazed at the fenced iron wall. This window was facing directly at the street. Even though the view was a little obstructed by the wall, he saw the source of those screams and roars. It was from outside the school.

A group of people was trying  to beat up a single teenager. Their hands were rising, ready to punch at him.

A girl beside Jino said without thought, “wow, he looks cute.”

She pointed at the teenager.

Jino thought that she focused at a wrong thing. That certain cute guy she was talking about was being attacked by a group of rough peoples. Well, looking at the situation, there was no reason to worry.

So was Jino’s consideration as that cute guy beat those people with lightning- fast attack. Even Jino can’t see it. In just a moment, those people fell to the ground. Then Jino realized, those people were clearly more than what he just saw. The very source of those screams and roars were those who already fell lying on the rough asphalt.

Then he smiled. That teenager’s smile was not normal. It made Jino became anxious. That smile of his didn’t match the situation he was right now. No, it would never match with any situation. That smile… it was eerie. So wide and creepy, it suddenly made Jino remembered a certain person.

Who was that again? It seemed that it was not that long since he saw that face, and so, Jino suddenly noticed that teenager’s clothes. His pure white robe fluttered by the wind. On his back, he was wearing a black backpack. He was Claude.

“He's Claude.”

Said Jino to himself, clearly doubting his eyes. Why, he had only just tried to know how he can find the person in question, but here Claude was. He didn’t attend the school. He didn’t even come to Jino’s house. He was actually fighting with people in front of his new school, right in front of everyone.

Right, he needed to stop the fighting. Well, they had already stopped fighting, as all those people had already lying on the groung with pains. But at least he must stop him from creating a scene out there. They already saw it. That smile of his was not easy to be forgotten. Jino knew. Everyone will remember him.

At that moment, Claude suddenly vanished. That smiling teenager on the street somehow disappeared. Everyone including Jino lost him.

The canteen became chaotic. A person suddenly disappeared right over there, they saw it with their own eyes. No one cared about the fighting anymore, the vanishing was more interesting for them. But this chaos was not out of fear or dread of unknown, they just felt confusion, and with that, a sense of wonderment.

“What the he—“

Jino’s words didn’t finish as he sprang his feet trying to leave the crowd. After he freed himself, he ran with a strong rage. He pushed open the door with a bang, and so, he left the canteen. But he was not outside. He was in the school’s corridor. He was still inside the school building. No matter how powerful he was, he can’t just leave using the window. That was a common sense. That was a common sense, even for him. But that Claude didn’t have that. He just vanished like that in front of normal people. Jino can’t accept it.

The corridor was quiet. A little sunlight went past the windows and brighten the corridor. No one was here, only Jino. So acknowledging it, he shouted with all his power.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”

Though he felt it like forever, he eventually left the school building. A new question popped up inside his mind. What was he supposed to do? It was not like he must chase him… right?

Jino really was upset right now. He was at school, he can’t just leave the school. Then, as if trying to make Jino pick his choice, the school bell rang.

His feet was struck on the ground. It was actually not a hard choice to him. His sense of responsibility for his family was bigger than everything. No, the reason he froze was not because of hesitation. But his mind just can’t keep up on all the weirdness he saw today. The fact that he accindentally gazed at the big lush green tree was true. The fact fact that a girl in white uniform was dangling upside down with her feet locking on the tree bark was true too. Everything was true. Even when she suddenly fell to the ground head first. With all that blood gushing out from her head, she only looked at a certain direction. It was outside the school wall. It was the place before Claude ‘vanished’.

Suddenly, a slow yet cheerful song was heard from inside Jino’s pocket. He hastily turned on his handphone’s screen and looked at the new messages.

1stReya          : Don’t worry about him

1stReya          : I got this

The very reason he fixed a song as a ringtone for a new message was weird. But it was not important right now. Jino breathed out a relieved sigh. She didn’t even have the time to type out her particular finishing ellipsis. Now, he only needed to do something about this bleeding girl.

Her white uniform was now bloody from the bleeding. That red stain on the pure white fabric made Jino’s mind got filled with anxiety. He needed to bring her to the infirmary.

He slowly walked toward her. In the first place, what was she trying to do by climbing the tree? No, why didn’t she try to do something about her head wound was the question.

Thus, he was already behind her. It was then that he heard something.

“He saw me… He really can see me…”

The small mutterings of her was heard by Jino.

He understood nothing from what she said. How can he bother to know it when he saw her head was still bleeding?

“U−umm, hey. Yo−your head. I−it was bleeding. I−I think you should go to the infirmary.”

Jino almost facepalmed himself. He actually got awkward in this situation. But he felt that he was not the one to be blamed, whose fault it was that he ended up like this? Well, thinking about it, he can’t really blame anyone but him.

He shook his head. No, he must stop with all his attitude problem. This girl needed a greater help than him.

“You… even you can see me?”

That girl bloodied face turned toward him.

“Tha−that’s not important right now! Look, your head really needs some help!”

“…How? How… can you… two… see… me—”

With that, her consciousness left from her body. With that, Jino was left alone again. However, it was not another leftover meal, but a bleeding girl.