Chapter Text
Sung Jinwoo sat on the vacant seat shortly after the person who occupied it got off. He kept his eyes at his phone, scrolling through Instagram and occasionally liking posts, particularly his friends from his previous school. He was expelled and now had to take long ass train route just to get to a place he didn’t even wish to go. Still, he loved his mother too much to break her expectation. She didn’t stop pleading to him at this morning breakfast.
He was not doing terrible in school, but it wasn’t like he’d be able to make his mother proud with those grade that barely passed the minimum marks. And it would be an obvious lie if he said that he didn’t feel sorry for her. His mother worked so hard to feed him and his sister, yet the only thing he could do in return was only to add her burden. What a disappointment. On the contrary, her younger sister was everything but him. Heck, he lost counts of how many times she had won a competition.
The sound of a train moving and stopping at stations kept repeating for almost 40 minutes. Indeed, the school was maybe a little bit too far even to anyone’s liking. Take a random guy from the street and ask them would you, they all would undoubtedly go against the idea of taking 40 minutes long train route just to get to school. There was actually another school near Jinwoo’s place and the tuition was much cheaper too, but his mother insisted for the farther school since it had better environment. As if that would matter to his son.
And there was the high school standing in front of him. It was huge, he had to admit, and the environment looked better than his previous one. There were even securities guarding the school. But nothing to change his mind.
It gave him the impression of a place where all rich chicks gather. Where there would be more of those socialites bragging their overpriced craps. It was not uncommon in his previous school. Maybe it was a common thing in every school to have that kind of group of people. The loud talks about money, the stinging smell of the perfume they use, oh, and the bullies. He had to deal with more of that now.
Looked like his mom was true to her words. She really did spend the money which should be for his sister’s school tuition. The money his sister didn’t need anymore as she received a full scholarship until graduation.
He was greeted by a man in his late 30s when he entered the teacher’s room. His now homeroom teacher, Mr. Kyrgios Rodgraim, he was quite the looker despite his age and his lack in height, he guessed he was no taller than 165 cm. The said man was all friendly talking to him and offered a hand to help Jinwoo find his classroom.
“I’m Sung Jinwoo, let’s get along from now on.”
“Alright everyone this is Jinwoo, he will be joining your class from now on. You may sit.” A woman teaching the class pointed out a seat at the very back of the class.
He nodded and observed his new classmates while reaching his desk, there were about 23 students in the room. One particular student was staring at him with furrowed eyebrows. The guy was more well-built than him but Jinwoo was sure he was taller. No doubt, he probably has a lot of fans with that attractive features he had.
“Hello, I’m Kim Dokja,” the boy sitting next to his seat smiled. He had a very visible dark circle in his eyebags and appeared quite messy. His smile was pretty though, which Jinwoo didn’t fail to notice.
“Sung Jinwoo.” The thought of that the boy’s name was weird popped in his mind, but then he looked at the pile of books on the desk, “Oh, Dokja as a reader?”
Dokja’s face brighten up like he had said something pleasant, his smile got wider. “Yes, and the guy you were looking at is Yoo Joonghyuk.”
Flustered at getting caught, he defended himself, imitating the way the guy had stared at him, “He was staring at me with this irritating face.”
“That’s just how he is,” Dokja shrugged. “Besides don’t you think he’s cool? He has a huge stream channel where he would play games weekly.”
He kept ignoring him but the boy kept babbling words to words like a fanatic enthusiast of this guy named Yoo Joonghyuk. He shouldn’t even be that famous if he had never heard about his name before. Jinwoo frowned, somehow, he got himself a noisy deskmate.
• • •
The lunch break bell really had saved his sanity. He had been staring at the whiteboard with no single clue for who knows how long. It was physics apparently, which he failed to realize until the end of class.
He couldn’t help it. Physics and math look exactly the same, it’s normal to confuse the two.
Or perhaps because he was sleeping apart from the last 15 minutes.
Many of the students took interest in him it seemed and soon enough his desk was overflowing with people. It was fine for him, he socialized and always fit in with not much problem. One thing that he noticed though, Dokja was never in any of the conversations as he talked to students who were flocking around his desk. People blatantly ignored him.
The talkative boy who didn’t stop talking about his ‘idol’ was now quiet. It could be because he was an introvert, but that didn’t add up, did it? He chatted with him just earlier and he was even the one who struck the conversation first.
Then, it leads to one conclusion.
"You're bullied aren't you?," they, or Sung Jinwoo to be exact, had managed to pushed people away and ran out of the class. Dokja was looking at him confused, unabled to form a reply, "They ignored you back there."
"Oh yeah, but I think that kind of make sense if you think about it. I don't think it's considered as bullying."
Just how weird could this boy get.
“Let’s eat then, take me to the cafeteria.”
“Oh, well, uh- I can, but I don’t usually go there,” and Jinwoo found himself willingly complying. He followed the boy, which was not a hard thing to do as how small every steps he took compared to his ones. Only then for them to showed up in front of a food stall outside the school gate.
A hand reached to Jinwoo’s shoulder so that he would lower his head. His ear tickled from the soft voice Dokja was whispering to him. For a teenager the boy seemed like he hadn’t reached his puberty yet. The lack of nutrition could be the case judging from how thin and small he was. Again, weird, the school was packed with spoiled rich brats and how come Dokja looked so un-taken-care-of.
Turned out the food they make were far from what you can call decent. They all tasted horrible. So, his new friend warned him before anything happened.
Nothing was on the table as Dokja happily chatted with the owner who didn’t seem to be bothered at all. They were close, and it was probably the reason why. For someone who lived off of selling foods and gladly let their customer to sit on their stall without ordering anything, she sure had the big heart.
Her name was Uriel and turned out she was another big fan of this Yoo Joonghyuk guy. Their conversation only included Yoo Joonghyuk, his streams, and how good Dokja would look dating him. The woman was especially interested in the said last.
Their chit-chats lasted longer than it should have been, making the both of them came late to class. People were in full disarray, moving back and forth between the desks. A group project consist of two, that was what the teacher assigned the class. So naturally people were searching for a partner and Jinwoo decided to just go with his new friend.
“Uh Jinwoo, since you don’t have a partner, would you want to join my group? That’ll make us three.” A girl approached Jinwoo as she smiled brightly to him, but her words were harsh with a good sum of sugar coating. She was basically acting as if Dokja was not there.
“Three?” Jinwoo emphasized the word.
“Yes, more people to work with, the easier it becomes. I’ll wait there with my friend.” Her lips curled once more before walking away and the veins in Jinwoo’s head could burst anytime at this point.
“What a bitch.” He got up from his seat to confront her but was stopped by Dokja’s trembling hand. The boy looked like he was about to cry and shaking his head. But Jinwoo knew better than the words coming out of his mouth saying that he was fine. He wasn’t. “Can you stop acting so rude?!”
The girl turned around to him at his remarks, “I’m truly sorry, Jinwoo, but did I perhaps said something wrong to you?”
“Not to me, but to Dokja,” he lowered his tone. Her words were surprisingly polite and Jinwoo felt kind of guilty for shouting at her earlier. Everyone in class also had moved their interest to the both of them.
“Who’s ..Dokja?” Those words irritated him so much, the fact that this girl didn’t even know Dokja. Probably this girl didn’t bother to try to know her classmates in the first place. Stuck up rich bastards.
“Hey, isn’t that a bit too much to not know your own classmate? It’s literally just 24 us here, how do you manage to-”
“Wait, what- Jinwoo, this class has 23 students including you.”
Jinwoo’s eyebrows twitched at the words. The figure of Dokja sitting at his desk near the window side was giving him this sorrow look. He could see it now, Dokja was slightly translucent. No, he can even see the view of the school field through his body. His whole body shivered when the realization hit him.
Kim Dokja was a ghost.