Chapter 02 Part 1
A certain National High School, Cebu City 5th January 2013 – 10:12
Kyle de Guzman, the school boy slouching on his desk was really not asleep… no, he was not even tired to begin with. He just wanted to hide his face from the endless back-biting. This boy was facing one of the dilemmas of teenage life: a bad rumor… yes, a bad rumor has spread against this otherwise normal high school student.
About the rumors… well it’s not really about how he looks… for the most part he was quite handsome 14 year old, standing 6’11’’ tall and a face that says “I’m friendly, be friends with me”. Nothing can be nick-picked from the outset. So what was the bad rumor that has been on the rampage…?
“Yo! Mr. Delinquent.” On the other side of his desk was his childhood friend and at the moment the only male student who is talking to him as if nothing has happened. His name was Gerard Cadelina; a bespectacled boy who arrogantly calls himself a genius, well on that note Gerard did rank as 2nd over all the freshmen in their school, so calling himself a genius was no understatement.
“Stop calling me that…” Kyle could only retort this way, it was about 3 days ago, when that incident gave him that title in their school. Sure like anybody he wanted to be famous, but… if no one approaches him it would be for nothing… his high school life was ending in that very instant.
“Hmm, you’re too worried about that, rumors can only last 99 days. So…” Gerard was clearly trying to calculate in his head but…
“Don’t even bother about the weeks and the hours… just thinking about it is sapping the life out of me.”Kyle could only shiver at the thought that he has to spend that long for everything to go back to normal.
“It’s not like there are any girls who would go for you in the first place… a rumor or two won’t kill you…” Gerard jokingly rebukes, but this seems to have a negative effect, no it might have triggered something bad, as Kyle just now head butted his own desk to have been reminded by his otherwise empty love life.
*sigh
“We have time. Do you want to play League of Legends?” Gerard was clearly trying to console his overly worried friend.
In tears, Kyle could only nod at the proposal.
Net games are fun because you don’t have to worry about being known by your opponents, you can have an alias or a code name and no would bother with it. This was an ideal world for him. (Especially now that his name was pasted with the word – delinquent)
That is why when a seemingly similar world opens a path in front of him… he took the opportune and seized it.
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Fuente Osmeña Park, Cebu 25th December 2012 – 11:45
A month ago on the eve of December 25, 2012, Kyle was alone since his mother and father could not spend Christmas with him because they are working abroad. Feeling a little blue, he wanted to go to an arcade somewhere to free his mind from the loneliness. On his way, he saw something magnificent; The Fuente Osmeña Park was gleaming in white as it is reflected by the white petals of the Sampaguita flowers. Kyle was a resident near that park so he knew that the trees and other plants around Fuente Park were mostly ‘non-flower’ bearing so it should have been green, but for some reason tonight it was beaming white… the aroma of the Sampaguita stimulated his nose and urge him to come closer.
That was when he learned of the Kingdoms of the Midnight Congregation, a world made of illusion, no, a world in itself; the world that could release him from his boredom and a life geared only to being a mere existence.
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A certain internet café, Cebu 5th January 2013 – 12:00
“Hey there are a lot of students here too.” Gerard could only sigh at the sheer number of people in the internet café. “Sure there was a half-day class but do they have to come in batches…“
“…let’s just go home…” Kyle could not even find the courage to wait in queue…
*grab
Kyle almost lost his balance when someone intently grabs his sleeves from the side. Do they want to kill me or something… this line was smoking in Kyle’s head, if he had no training in martial arts he really might have fallen over, and that would not be the end, with the crowd he might have been stepped over. He needed to confront who ever this person is and give him a thing or two… or so he thought but…
“… I never got to say thank you…” the person pulling his sleeves definitely was not trying to kill him (on second thought he wouldn’t mind being killed now) She was a student wearing a uniform to one of the famous all girls high schools in the city. She had her elbow length hair flow naturally; the golden earrings matched her blue pupils and her lush white skin complemented her blue laced school uniform. And this goddess… no, this girl was now shyly talking to him. This must be what heaven feels like, that was what he thought and felt.
In the midst of confusion, Gerard was taking his eyes from the girl to Kyle… like the genius he proudly calls himself. He read the atmosphere almost immediately and… “Ah! I forgot that I still have some of my books left in school, got to go back home.” And without a second to spare Gerard was gone.
This girl in front of Kyle was the reason he is savoring a bad rumor outbreak but now that he saw this girl full of appreciation, it simply did not matter. He was quite thankful for what happened that day.
“That Kyle… as expected from a genius’s friend, his fast… I wonder when those two met…” Gerard was lost in thought as he went on his way home. While lost in thought he suddenly hit something in front of him…
“Ge~!”
