The sky was a watered down blue. It was cloudy, but there weren't enough clouds to make the sky a solid gray. And it wasn't snowing at the moment.
Dae-hee looked down and stretched his neck, as it had begun to ache from watching the sky for too long. A breeze blew away a fraction of the cigarettes' fragrance, and gave him a wake-up call from the daze. He stopped leaning on the wired fence of the school's rooftop and spun to his best friend, the cigar sitting in his mouth.
"It's so quiet and nice without the rest of the guys! Isn't it nice."
The best friend, Woo-sung, looked up from his phone.
"Where did the kids go?"
Dae-hee shrugged.
"I'm pretty sure some 2nd year screwed around with them. Probably took him down to the usual alley."
Woo-sung let out a small laugh of disbelief as he stood up.
"That's pretty damn amazing, and it's the first day back."
Just as Woo-sung finished his sentence, the bell rang for school to end. Dae-hee poured water over the cigarette in his hand and threw it into the trash can on his way out. Woo-sung stopped before he went down the stairs first.
"When we skip last period tomorrow, let's buy food. I was so damn hungry."
Dae-hee nodded his head and shouted sure.
He was about to start his last year of high school the same way as last year. And he no longer anticipated anything different either.
Dae-hee began to walk across the field towards the gate, but he stopped and glanced at the sky once more. It went from a pale blue to a pink and orange hue.
The color changed a little faster that day and it seemed a lot more brighter despite it being in the middle of winter.
A gust of wind blew from behind, blowing his newly-dyed silver hair up from his forehead. His unbuttoned uniform even danced in the wind, but it was warm. He felt pleasant for the first time in a while.
Suddenly, his ears caught something that he had never imagined hearing ever again.
It was too similar to it. It was almost the same as the lullaby his mother had sang to him. And the last time he had heard it was far too long ago.
A wave of sadness and nostalgia drowned Dae-hee as he stood there, listening to the faint melody. He was struggling to breathe. And just as it had begun to fade away, he spun towards the direction it was coming from.
Maybe it could be...
But of course, it wasn't. He already knew that, but their voices were eerily similar, pulling Dae-hee into a pit of curiosity. Instead a black haired 1st year was walking towards the gate, his hands in his pant pockets.
Dae-hee couldn't take his eyes off him, and even without seeing the 1st year's face carefully, he tattooed it into his mind to remember and find the next day.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
