6 Be True to Yourself
The professor moved forward. He looked as tired as someone whose run a 10-hour marathon. He yawned before to go in front of the class.
"Hi. I'm Lucas Miller. I'll be your head teacher for the year. I'm going to ask you to activate the system if you haven't already done, stop listening to music and everyone has their place."
Jasmine leaned over them and talked them softly.
"He really looks easy-going."
He rested heavily on his seat and looked towards them.
Did he hear it?
Jasmine swallowed and sat down without saying anything else.
The class had gone smoothly. No one had dared to say a word after his reaction at the beginning of class.
The next class was history. A class he was waiting for it with a certain impatience.
Since it was the first class of the year, the teacher had made a reminder. Jae Hyun had therefore confirmed the pieces of information he had and learned new ones.
Zhang Yin Jie, the founder of Utopia, had shown judgment during the war and had built cities under domes. An action that turned out to be clever because as a result of this war, more than 98% of the planet had become uninhabitable.
However, its domes had become the few places where people could live without fear of starvation or disease due to radioactive starting.
Thus, he had opened its 95 cities to people who wanted to live under the condition that they would accept to be governed by a single government. According to him, the last war was caused by conflicts between the different governments, and he wanted to prevent this from happening again. The best way; to have only one.
People who were tired of the war and who thought his words made sense had accepted. Thus, more than 99% of the population had joined the domes.
Now, there was, therefore, an average of 27 million inhabitants per city.
Also, to ensure that already rare cities didn't fall, an international law-enforcement and security group where officers gathered together, Bliss, had been created. It ensured that new conflicts leading to war didn't break out. In addition, they were in charge of sharing information and censoring wrong messages and things.
Also, to properly control the resources that were always available and not to bring polluted air from outside into the cities, travel between those was limited and monitored. According to the professor, those who had agreed to enter the domes had been the most intelligent because the radioactivity outside the cities was more than 45,000 mSv, which is deadly to humans. So there were no longer having anyone alive outside until proven otherwise.
Jae Hyun sweated and thought he was clever to say that he came from another city and not from outside.
Then, the teacher explained that all young people must be tested by "Unity", Utopia's system, so that they can be placed in a corresponding job after graduation.
He thought it was abuse because it was hurting personal happiness. For example, someone like him who wanted to be a singer might not become one if this system decided that he would be more talented as a fireman. He thought that people should be able to choose the path they wanted to take regardless of their talent in it. After all, we only had one life.
Well, except for him apparently.
The bell rang.
Daniel stretched himself. "Finally ended!"
He turned to Jae Hyun. "You want to eat with us?"
Jasmine follows up. "Yeah. It's always better than eating alone."
"Actually, I'm already planning to eat with someone else. Maybe some other time." He gives them a sorry stare.
He felt rather bad for them, but he had already promised to eat with Hye Rin and Kylian, and it was not in his personality to break an agreement.
Jae Hyun separated from them and made a detour to take the opportunity to visit the school a little. He turned left, went down a staircase and found himself in an empty corridor.
Where is this place?
He decided to look at the school map given by Lee Suri to redirect himself.
As he was about to leave, he heard the sound of a guitar coming from a room. He closed his eyes. What such sweet melody. Who was playing?
Curiosity pushed him to get closer to the sound of the guitar.
It seemed to come from the room.
The sliding door was ajar. He was about to open it to see who was playing when a soft, warm voice started singing. He remained frozen on the spot with a shiver.
"Take a breath and let it go
Until your heart feels numb
Until everything is falling apart and hurting within
Take a breath again and know
That there is nothing left 'cause the world is sore
It's done with you and me"
His heart tightened. He didn't know if it was the girl's voice or the lyrics that touched him so much. Probably a mixture of the two.
"But it's alright to run out of breath sometimes
No one will blame you, we all need to cry
And it's okay to make mistakes
Give it a go, give it a try
But saying it's alright
Are only the words of love"
Suddenly, the voice went up into the high notes.
"Whatever you've gone through
Whoever you long for
No, I don't know you
But I see how you feel, and I know.
I'm here to hold you
So let me be the one who can comfort you
I'm here with you
Take a breath and let it go"
He opened the door a little to get a view of the singer. He then saw a young girl about his age with long blond hair on her guitar. Since she was near to the window, the light reflecting on her gave the impression that she wasn't from this world. She started singing again.
"Yes, it's alright to run out of breath sometimes
No one will blame you, we all need to cry
And it's okay to make mistakes
Give it a go, give it a try
But say-"
The girl had looked up before saw him. She stopped suddenly surprised. She then tried to get up to escape through the second door but fell on her buttocks. Faced with this scene, he rushed inside to help her get up. He held out his hand to her.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I was just passing by when I heard you singing. You really have a beautiful voice. Is this song an original? The lyrics are really beautiful and speaking."
The girl accepted his hand and stood up. She smiles at him.
"No. It's a cover of Sheng Huo's original song. I suddenly panicked. Usually, no one comes through here since it's the old music class. I thought a teacher surprised me." He looked at her with an interrogating tone. "Why? Is it forbidden to sing?" She shook her head. "No. But this is a song from a singer not approved by Utopia."
"What a waste. I love the lyrics."
"Me too!"
She blushed seeing how she strongly reacted. It's only that she was happy to see someone else really read and try to understand the lyrics of songs.
Now that he could see her closer, he noticed that her eyes were bright blue and that she had very pale skin. She hesitated before finally opening her mouth.
An embarrassing silence settled between them.
"You-"
They talked at the same time.
"Go ahead."
Again.
They started to laugh. What a coincidence.
She succeeds to talk after calming her laugh. "By the way, I'm Sumire and you?"
"Jae—".
He avoided a blow. If it hadn't been for the aura his opponent flaunt, he could have been caught.
The young boy who had aimed at him landed on the ground before turning around and hitting him again.
The guy tried to attack him again. By taking a step to the side, he avoided a kick being directed at him.
He blocked one of the opponent's blows and pushed him down with his forearm. The slightly stunned boy got up.
Jae Hyun could see that he was great. His kicks were fast and strong. But why was he attacking him?
"You have some nerve to come all the way down here to pick up my sister!"
—What?
As he was about to rush back to the incredulous Jae Hyun, Sumire pushed her voice visibly angry.
"Yuuto! Stop it right now!"
He stopped and looked at his sister. She walked towards Jae Hyun and bowed.
"I'm really sorry. When it comes to me, he is hypersensitive." She glares at her brother. He looked away. "Sorry" He had clearly drawn deep into his soul to come up with that apologize. She sighed.
He then observed Yuuto since he couldn't do while fighting him and saw that he was identical to Sumire beside the fact he wore mechanical cat ears. They must have been twins.
To apologize again, she asked him to come and eat with them, so she can pay him something to eat. He then replied that he already had an appointment with other people, but that they could perhaps eat together. They left the room and went to the cafeteria.
He could feel Yuuto's gaze on him all along.
Relax, I'll not eat her.—
As they entered, they could see that there was really no more space and that there was a long line.
Suddenly, someone hailed him. He then saw Hye Rin making a big gesture.
"Jae Hyun!"
She point at a table where she was sitting with Kylian. He headed there with the twins.
Which girls stopped talking to look at him as he was about to join them.
"Wow. Who the hell is this guy? Was there such a hot guy at that school?"
"Tell me he's single!"
"Hey! I saw him first!"
He could feel a shiver running through him. At this time, he realized that some guys were looking at him jealously. At this point, he didn't know whether he should be happy or not to have an advantageous appearance. People didn't seem to realize they have their own problems too.
"We didn't know what you'd like to eat, so we got you curry. I hope you don't mind." She talks to him naturally before noticed the two people with him. "Oh. Your friends? Please, sit with us." She smiled at them.
Yuuto went to line up for him and his sister as she sat next to Jae Hyun.
Sumire talks to him.
"Hmm, could you keep the fact that I'm singing for you?"
He was surprised.
"Why? It's not like you're singing like a pan. With your talent, you could even aim to be a singer."
Sumire blushes at this remark.
"Thank you. In fact, I'd like to become a singer, but my family is against it."
"You shouldn't let other choose your path for you. Deep down you know the right way to go, so do the right thing and follow your heart."
"Completely agree," Kylian replied.
At that time, Sumire realized that she had made the request in front of his two other friends. She was such a fool. She asked him to keep it secret but said it in front of others. She blushed.
Hungry, Jae Hyun dived into his tray. He started to put the carrots aside.
When Hye Rin saw him do it, she glances at him frustrated. "Eat your carrots. It's good for health." He made a face of disgust and threw a 'yuck' while continuing to sort them. Sumire then dived into his plate to eat them.
Finally, Yuuto came back with two trays, sat between his sister and Jae Hyun, and they ate until the end of dinner time. The bell rang and they returned to class.
The afternoon passed a little faster. Seeing classes were finally finished, Jae Hyun left with Kylian and Hye Rin. Then, he felt his watch vibrating and saw a notification.
"Come to join me at the Acadie Shooting Center. I'm waiting for you. — So Won"
The coordinates were attached to the message. He said goodbye to the other two and left for the shooting center.
