Chapter 1: The Most Ordinary Morning
The alarm rang at 6:00 a.m., not loudly, not urgently, but with the dull persistence of something that had done this far too many times before.
Shin dragged himself out of bed, pulled on his uniform with the automatic precision of habit, and grabbed his bag. By the time he stepped out of his house, the neighborhood was already awake. Dogs barked lazily, shop shutters creaked open, and the smell of frying snacks mixed with morning dust.
At the corner of the street, three familiar figures waited.
Johan was leaning against a lamppost, tie loose, hair somehow messy even though he clearly tried to fix it. He was scrolling through his phone with the seriousness of someone pretending school mattered. Beside him stood Vasco, tall and thin, glasses slipping slightly down his nose as he adjusted the straps of his backpack. And sitting on the low boundary wall, swinging his legs, was Jack—grinning as if the day ahead was not a prison sentence but a mild inconvenience.
"You're late," Johan said without looking up.
"I'm exactly on time," Shin replied. "Time just hates me."
Vasco pushed his glasses up. "We're still missing one."
As if summoned by the sentence, footsteps echoed from the far end of the road. Jin jogged toward them, bag bouncing on his shoulder, hair still damp.
"Don't start," Jin said, hands raised. "My mom decided today was the perfect day to ask me about my future."
Johan finally looked up. "And?"
"I told her I'd think about it after surviving today's math lecture."
They all sighed in unison.
Without another word, the five of them began walking toward school, their shoes hitting the pavement in a familiar rhythm. The route was so well memorized that none of them needed to think about it—left at the banyan tree, straight past the tea stall, right at the broken sidewalk. Every step felt rehearsed.
"This is it," Jack said suddenly, spreading his arms wide. "The peak of existence. Walking to school with existential dread."
Vasco snorted. "At least you're dramatic."
Shin glanced at the sky. "Do you ever feel like… nothing ever changes?"
Johan shrugged. "That's called life."
"No," Shin insisted. "I mean really changes. Same road. Same lectures. Same homework. Same future everyone expects."
Jin smirked. "Wow, Who replaced Shin with a poet?"
Shin didn't smile.
The school gates loomed ahead—tall, iron, and utterly unimpressive. Students poured in from every direction, voices blending into a dull roar. The bell rang, sharp and unforgiving.
The first lecture was mathematics.
The teacher droned on about equations, chalk screeching against the board like a cry for help. Shin stared at the numbers, but they blurred together, meaningless. Vasco was doodling in the margins of his notebook—swords, monsters, strange symbols. Johan was actually paying attention, pen moving diligently, though even he looked bored. Jack rested his chin on his hand, eyes half-closed, fighting sleep. Jin counted the ceiling fans.
By the second lecture—history—the boredom had matured into a heavy fog. Dates and names marched across the blackboard, none of them alive, all of them dead and demanding to be remembered. Hours passed like syrup—slow, sticky, suffocating. At the end of the Chemistry class the bell rang between lectures like a cruel joke, offering false hope.
By the time the lunch break finally arrived, they felt drained, as if the day had already used them up.
"Backside?" Shin asked.
"Always," Johan replied.
They slipped away from the crowd, past classrooms and corridors, toward the far end of the school grounds. Few students ever came here. Behind the old laboratory building lay a small backyard—overgrown grass, a large tree, broken benches, and silence. Real silence. The kind that felt like breathing.
They dropped their bags and sat together, backs against the tree. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling the ground.
"This," Vasco said, opening his lunchbox and giving everyone a doughnut, "is the only good part of school."
Jack nodded. "No teachers. No noise."
"No expectations," Shin added quietly.
They ate for a while, listening to the wind rustle leaves.
"So," Johan said, breaking the silence, "what are the plans for the day?"
Jin shrugged. "Same thing I did yesterday. And the day before that. ". Everyone became silent.
Shin broke the silence. "You ever think about how different life could be?"
Vasco raised an eyebrow. "Here we go again."
Shin smiled faintly. "I sometimes imagine another world. One where effort actually leads to adventure."
"Fantasy stuff? Reading too much novels and watching anime has crippled your mind" Jin asked, grinning.
"Why not?" Johan said. "Magic. Swords. Creatures. A place where you're not just… ordinary."
Shin felt something stir in his chest. "Where you could be someone else."He leaned back, staring at the sky. "A world where you're chosen. Not because of marks. But because you matter."
For a moment, none of them spoke.
Then suddenly the air felt… different.
The sunlight flickered.
"Did you see that?" Johan asked.
The ground beneath them hummed softly, like a distant echo. Leaves froze mid-fall.
Shin's heart began to race. "Guys…?"
The nearby tree's shadow stretched unnaturally long, twisting across the ground. A faint glow appeared beneath their feet—soft at first, then brighter.
"What the hell is happening?" Vasco shouted, scrambling to stand.
Jin reached out, but his hand passed through the light as if through water.
The backyard began to illuminate, golden and blinding, the air vibrating with power.
And then—
Darkness.
And then—
Light.
Shin stumbled forward, coughing, his feet hitting solid ground. He gasped, lungs burning, heart hammering wildly against his ribs. The air smelled different—cleaner, sharper, tinged with something metallic and sweet.This was it. A new place and a new start.