8 When You Fall Throughout Life, Fall Forward

11:12 PM in a street in the lower districts.

Whoosh...

An airboard passed at a crazy speed and turned into an alley. Over it, a woman of about 21 years old with short, pink hair and blue eyes had been running away for over ten minutes from more than twenty Bliss police officers.

As she accelerated and turned to the left, she caught another airboard mounted by a policeman coming towards her and trying to cut her off to make her fall. She then looped it before passing it on. But a wall of police officers stood in front of her.

She then made a candle and climbed high before stabilizing and heading to the right. Shots were fired in her direction. She lowered her head and spins out of control to avoid them and accelerated again. She has to lose them.

The girl turned around to see how far away her enemies were and saw that she was beginning to gain more and more distance.

"Finally got them!", she thought.

But when she looked again in front of her, she saw a man blocking her path.

She has the feeling she couldn't pass him, so she had maneuvered her airboard and dropped herself into the void, but the man also dropped himself and approached her at a dangerous speed.

Fsssh!!!

She had barely avoided it. She then dropped aside and headed for an alleyway. The man pulled out a taser gun.

BZZZ!

Missed. But it had been close.

So annoying. Can't he just leave her alone?

The young woman was sweating heavily. And her airboard was beginning to fail to keep up with her dangerous maneuvers. After all, it wasn't made for a hunt in the middle of the city. She was already lucky that it had held on until now.

Earlier in the evening, she had been lucky. She was singing on stage for the umpteenth time since the beginning of her tour in town, but screams of fear had been heard from the audience.

The girl noticed the police quickly and took the opportunity to exit through the emergency door with her airboard. But, as if they were expecting it, several police officers had chased her away.

She underestimated. them. They came prepared this time.

She felt the man bringing her closer and closer. He obviously had a better airboard than her and made for a chase.

BZZZ!

She felt an electric shock running through her body. She lost her balance and her airboard deactivated. As she was falling down, by a final reflex, she managed to put her body back straight and grab onto a fence before falling to the ground on her knees.

Her head was turning, and her eyelids were getting heavy. A feeling of lightheartedness and nausea took over, and she felt like she'd pass out in a few moments, but she had no time to lose. She immediately got up and ran. At that time, she regretted her high heels.

The man responsible for her misfortune arrived in front of her and deactivated his airboard.

She threw a desperate punch at him, but he blocked her easily. She then lifted her leg up to give him a kick—Leave me alone already!—, but he blocked it with his own leg. He finally turned her over before tackling her on the ground and putting one knee on her back to hold her in place.

How can you be rough with a girl? Monster!, she thought.

She glared at him but he didn't care.

"That's enough. Enough running. You're under arrest for violation of the music law. I'm going to ask you to come with me to the station for questioning. It would be better for you to follow me quietly."

The woman gave a despicable laugh and glare at him before speaking him coldly and determinedly.

"You, Bliss, may have stopped me, but my voice will continue to be heard. Even if I fall today, I will fall forward and others will rise in my place and take over. Our will... the music will not lose!"

After using her last strength to talk to him, she lost consciousness.

*******

The next morning, Jae Hyun was once again awakened in the strongest way by Hye Rin. After uploading his song to the site, he had been online for a good hour waiting to see how people would react.

Of course, since it was late, it was with a lost cause that he had resigned himself to going to bed. He yawned as he entered the kitchen and greeted everyone.

"You're not a morning person, aren't you?" Kylian said to him.

Since Kylian had accepted him, he seemed easier to approach. However, there was no doubt that he was an introverted person who didn't like to mingle too much with others.

"If you know a way to be, I'll take it."

"Yeah. It's called an alarm clock and going to bed at reasonable times."

Kylian didn't lack retorts anyway, he thought. It was quite shocking to see how different he was from Hye Rin and So Won in personality terms. The latter entered the kitchen, and Hye Rin greeted him.

"You're up early today."

She got up and went to get him a plate and waffles. As So Won sat in the free space, he replied.

"Yes. I start at 8:30 today."

After finishing lunch, they each headed their own way. Upon entering the school, Jae Hyun noticed that the atmosphere was rather heavy. Several students whispered in their corners looking at their watches. Since he hadn't activated the system, he wondered what news could generate so much interest.

He entered the classroom and sat at his desk. Tiffany arrived running to join her friends who were greeting Jae Hyun.

"Oh my God!!! Did you hear that?! Lee's been arrested! Fuck. I loved her songs too much!!!"

Lee? Jae Hyun then remembered seeing her name on the site last night. She was the singer on tour in the city. She had been arrested? It seems that the censorship of music was worse than he imagined.

Emma affirmed.

"Yes, everyone talks about it. The news just came in this morning. It seems she has been found guilty and will go to the highly secure prison in the East."

Daniel, who had just arrived, was surprised by the news and joined the conversation.

"What? The one you never come out of again? The one in the middle of nowhere whose location no one knows? Isn't it exaggerated for only singing without Utopia's permission?"

Emma shrugged her shoulders.

"It seems that singing is a harmful and unhealthy influence on people now. Well, according to Utopia and Bliss."

Jasmine tapped heavily on her desk and called them names.

The conversation had piqued Jae Hyun's curiosity and in a way, this affair was related to him since he wanted to become a singer, he might have to face a similar situation. He turned on the system and typed Lee into the search engine. There was a lot of news. He had learned that in addition to her, several fans had been arrested and fined over $2,000 each and had their watches confiscated for possession of illegal materials within them.

What was that? We passed the era of censorship for a while, didn't we? Clearly, only technology was advanced in this world.

The morning went faster than the previous day and dinner time rang. The trio of girls and Daniel suggested that they went eat on the roof. He gladly accepted and sent a message to Hye Rin to tell them that he would eat on the roof of the right wing at noon.

Jae Hyun quickly went to the cafeteria to buy himself some food. He had to think about buying himself some food before going to school to avoid this endless queue. Then, he headed for the roof where his classmates were waiting for him. When he opened the door, the first thing he saw was Sumire and her brother eating on a nearby table. Her brother exclaimed.

"My God! Are you following my sister or what, dredger? Just because you're handsome doesn't mean you can afford anything!"

Jae Hyun rolled his eyes and went to blow him off when Jasmine had interfered.

"What's your problem? The roof is open to everyone that I know. He came for us so don't think the world revolves around you."

Her arms were crossed and she glared at him. Hye Rin, who had seen him in the distance, had come to greet him. As a herd had formed around Jae, an older student, probably a senior, approached Sumire and handed her a rose.

"Hi, honey. Did you miss me? We haven't seen each other all summer. You've become even more beautiful since."

He had black hair and heterochromia eyes; one was green and the other one blue. He also had a mole under his right eye. He was handsome and seemed to know it. Yuuto turned around and threw his fist at him.

"Am I dreaming?! I look away for a moment, and you hit on my sister. She's not interested, find someone else, Drake!"

Drake avoided with a close call and raised his arms as a sign of peace.

"Come on. I was just greeting her. I couldn't do it yesterday because I wasn't in school. And if it bothers her, she can always say it.", said Drake.

Sumire seemed embarrassed by the situation unfolding before her eyes. Hye Rin intervened.

"All right, guys stop it. You're disturbing, and Sumire seems embarrassed by the situation."

Drake turned around to face the voice.

"Oh, if I had known there was another such beauty there, I would have brought another rose. Can I pay you a coffee after school?"

Hye Rin stared at him and looked at his crotch.

"Sorry. I like guys who have a big one."

Total silence. Drake started blushing embarrassed before he left. Jasmine gives her a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"I really like you. I love how you just shut him down!"

They finally spent dinner time together and exchanged contacts. Jae Hyun had Sumire's number to his brother's great dismay.