An Unfamiliar Place

 A frail young man with a refined figure lay at his desk in the classroom. He seemed uninterested in listening to the teacher. His eyes were closed, but at the same time, they were moving, which meant that he was dreaming.

As the lesson drew close, the students' eagerness to leave was palpable. They were like a flock of birds, eager to take flight and escape the confines of the classroom.

The frail-looking young man was no different. He also wanted to go home as soon as possible, but unfortunately, he was in a deep sleep and didn't look like waking up soon.

As the students hurriedly left the class, only his teacher and the frail-looking young man remained.

His teacher was a beautiful young lady with graceful figures. She had long yellow hair and lovely blue eyes that emitted determination.

The teacher sighed while slowly walking toward the young man; she sighed and silently thought.

'I wonder why Kai became this lazy. He was the only one who attentively listened to the lesson before. Now, I feel like I am lecturing to an empty wall. I hope he will fix himself soon.'

She reached the young man and shook him slightly. Initially, he didn't seem like he was going to wake up, so the teacher again shook him with more effort.

After a few seconds, the young man woke up with both a surprised and terrified expression. As he saw his teacher's face, he seemed to be relaxed. He stretched himself a bit and then asked his teacher while smiling politely.

"Is there something wrong, teacher? If you did wake me up because of my laziness? I am sorry, but unfortunately, I do not feel like fixing myself, so please pardon me."

After he said this, he gazed around a bit and understood his situation; he slept for around 8 hours during the entire school day.

"You really are a wasted potential. I wish I could inform you of your current circumstances and turn to your past self. But unfortunately, change can't happen if there is no desire to change. As you understand, I didn't wake you up because of that; you can go. Please look at yourself carefully."

She looked at him, then turned and left the classroom. Only Kai remained in the classroom.

He gazed around the classroom for a while, thinking about the dream he had while sleeping a few seconds ago.

Even with his powerful memory, he couldn't remember the entire dream. He only vaguely remembered a sentence.

"Never forget this, Wei. There are more devils in the human race than in the devil race."

As he remembered the sentence, he thought about its meaning for a while and then burst into laughter; he laughed so soundly that his voice reverberated in the corridor.

"What was that edgy ass sentence? I am really becoming more and more edgy as time passes, argh fuck xianxia novels, really. Anyway, but who the fuck is Wei? Is there a protagonist named Wei I read recently that affected my subconscious? I don't think so; I don't really remember it."

He left the classroom while still thinking about the dream he saw; Kai gave a high possibility that it was probably from the novels he had read, but Kai understood that he couldn't deduce the reason now, so he dismissed the thought of it and began to walk towards his home.

Walking towards his home, he realized his head was starting to hurt. He put his hand to his head and began to caress it a bit; he didn't feel like the pain was going to pass off soon.

He decided to walk faster to get a painkiller from home as soon as possible. He knew that the painkiller wasn't going to solve the problem, but he didn't have high pain tolerance, so the only thought in his mind was to cease the pain.

He walked for about ten minutes and then arrived at his home. Compared to other houses, it didn't look like anything special. It had two floors and a red chimney on the roof. The walls were painted bright white, and a fence surrounded the house.

Rio did not want to wait any longer, so he walked fast towards his home. He opened the fence gate, unlocked the door, put the door handle down, and opened it.

As the door opened, he walked in and saw his mom cooking lunch for him. He walked towards his mom, whose back was looking against the door. Because of the sound in the kitchen, she wasn't aware the door had opened, and his son had already come in.

He was already in a bad mood because of his headache, and he wanted to cease it as soon as possible.

As he approached his mom, he spoke disturbed while his voice was shaky.

"Hello, Mom. It seems like I have a headache. Is there any painkiller left in the house?"

His mother was shocked by his son's sudden voice. She didn't hear him come in, so she wasn't expecting his sound. But as she heard him, she immediately became worried and said with an anxious tone.

"Oh my, what happened to you, Kai? Did you eat something wrong? Or maybe you exhausted yourself too- Ah, I'm sorry, you must still be feeling pain. The painkiller is there."

She pointed at the upper left cupboard while looking anxious. Kai strolled to the cupboard, brought him to his toes, opened it, and found the painkiller at the front of the cupboard.

He opened the painkiller's box and took one pill from it, then went to grab a cup of water to swallow the painkiller.

As he swallowed the painkiller, he immediately calmed down. He knew that this feeling wasn't because of the physical effect of the painkiller but the psychological effect of the pill.

He sighed in relief and answered all of his mother's questions one by one; while answering, he even thought that her questions wouldn't end.

He was the only child of his mom and dad, and because of that, his parents were always so doting on him.

As the painkiller slowly showed its effect on him, he was already tired because of the pain, so he decided to sleep until his mother finished preparing the lunch.

He went to his bedroom and slept immediately. As he touched his bed, it seemed like he was having his most peaceful sleep, even though he had already slept the whole school day.

After a while, his mother's voice came from the lower stairs; she was calling Kai to lunch; as for Kai, it seemed like he didn't hear his mother's voice from his reactions. he was still lying down on the bed while his eyes were moving while his eyelids were closed.

His mother's voice came again, this time a little louder. Kai heard his mother's voice this time and subconsciously stood up; as he became conscious, he immediately felt that his mind was blurry, but he didn't think about it much and came down from upstairs.

He walked to the dining room and saw his father sitting at one of the seats; he greeted him with a dreamy voice.

"Welcome... Dad"

Kai's mind was working too slowly to correct his tone of voice; he had difficulty processing the entire situation.

"Welcome to you too, son. Do you still have a headache?"

His father asked in a caring tone while looking at his son's eyes with slight worry.

"I'm just a bit sleepy as usual. The painkiller is a wonderful thing. I can't imagine enduring that pain all the time."

"I'm happy that it worked also; seeing my son endure pain was probably the last thing I would ever want."

As the conversation progressed, Kai's mind seemed to become even more blurry than before; he could hardly endure not looking like it, and he didn't want his parents to worry about him again.

His mother and father looked at each other as if they were planning something; then they looked at Kai, and his mother's voice sounded again.

"Honey, did your exam results come out? I remember you had said your exams started the previous week."

His mother asked reluctantly; they didn't want to bother him about these things when he was ill, so they decided to discuss the subject gently with Kai.

Kai's foggy mind erupted; this was the last topic he wanted to discuss, especially now. He already knew that he would get a low evaluation and that his parents must be expecting this. But with his condition now, he couldn't help but get a bit angry.

"Why ask this question when I'm in this situation? Yes, it is already finished, and I knew you looked at my results, too."

He could not help but let these words escape his mouth. He didn't want to say this, especially to his mother, but his state of mind had already affected his reasoning.

His attitude shocked his mother, but she quickly composed herself and continued to discuss gently.

"You don't need to worry about it; I won't be angry with you just because you got a low score on the exam. I just want to make sure you will learn from your mistakes."

His already messy mind became even messier as he heard this. Now, he couldn't think clearly or assess the situation; his decisions came from only one place: his instincts.

His instincts didn't want to accept something like that; he wanted to stay in his comfort zone and never leave it. He preferred to avoid being saved and wasting his time all on his phone.

"Why do you care much about it, mother? It's entirely my decision if I want to stay like that and you can't do anything about it! You know, I-I was going to get a perfect score, but you didn't believe me in the slightest; I know I refrain from studying, but if only you believed me, I could still get a perfect score. Yes, it's all because of you; I'm not even responsible; it's all your fault!"

The entire room became silent for a moment; his parents didn't expect Kai to become this illogical; they were shocked and even thought that Kai had suffered brain damage recently.

His father didn't want to see his son like this, so he tried talking to him about the current situation.

"You know that it's not our fault; you just want to avoid facing the problem; in order to do that, you blame someone. But please face the problem itself and don't blame others, Kai. Facing the problem is always better than escaping from it."

His sound reverberated in the dining room, even though it was not that empty; because of how loud his sound was, it reverberated.

When Kai heard his tone, he immediately felt that this threatened his peaceful life; he didn't want to change even the slightest. He immediately activated his defense mechanism and confronted his dad when he finished his speech.

"No... You are lying; you are jealous of me because you have never achieved something compared to mine. Yes, I'm right; your opinions don't matter."

As he said this, he immediately ran to his room, turned the key, and locked his room.

His father was very upset because he heard these words from his son. He always wanted to be the happiest version of himself and never compared himself with his son. 

"Even if he is intelligent, in the end, he is just a sixteen-year-old teenager. He will find his way, dear; you don't need to worry. Let's not bother him now; let him question himself."

His mother said to her husband. Still, she had a worried tone in her voice.

"I suppose we should."

A boy with blond hair and brown eyes lay calmly on his bed in a room with white walls and a wooden floor. It was Kai, who had just argued with his parents.

He planned to look at his phone all night while running towards his room. But as he entered the room, he realized that his mind was under too much stress, and he did not have the slightest desire to look at his phone.

So he decided to enter his bed and sleep peacefully; as he got onto it, he immediately slept without the slightest resistance.

After a while, he woke up and yawned a bit. As he was slowly opening his eyes, he realized that his mind wasn't blurry. He even felt much better than before

He opened his eyelids and gazed around for a while; as he looked around, he immediately sensed something wrong.

"Where the fuck I am?!"