a trip to corporate land

Towering spirals reaching into the sky, advertisements left and righ, people swarming the streets like ants.

The skies were cloudy and dark, alleyways riddled with crime and disease

A towering city floating right above new york

York-3 etched onto the bottom of the platform that held up the entire city. The difference in the city below and the city above was like night and day.

The top were always above

New york they called it

The corporate dream

________________________________________

I was 16 at the time, a first grade student in Haneul High School. I sat all the way at the front of the class with Kyung-sook sitting down next to me, her desk cluttered with papers, right behind her was a group of yangachi. I was the one who brought her here actually

A kid with dark brown hair glanced over at Kyung-sook and a smirk appeared on his face as he reached out and grabbed my sisters hair

"H-hey!" Kyung-sook gasped at the tug and tried reaching back

"Do something about it!" The boy and his group giggled. And in that instant i got up from my chair, landing a left hook on his nose before wrapping my hands around the back of his head and kneeing him

"Dont touch her you fucking bastard!" I spat out and gave him a backhand, one of his friends tried kicking me in the face but i ducked down like i dodged a knife before grabbing him by the leg and sweeping him off balance

My hand instantly reached out for a chair and picked it up

"Jae-wook stop!" Kyung-sook reached out and desperately held onto my arm, before i could slam the chair down onto the students face a teacher grabbed my wrist

"I think Thats enough! Jae-wook you are expelled!" The teacher turned his attention to the yangachi "you four are also expelled!"

"You cant do this to us! H-hes the one who started attacking us" the girl shouted towards the teacher with a look of annoyance

"Oh no, you arent expelled Hye-rim" the teacher grinned at the girl and she smiled back, they clearly had something going on

『I have to say something-』

But i didn't, i couldn't defend myself when i lashed out so violently. And the look of sadness on Kyung-sook's face made me feel even more guilty

I opened the door to see my two parents, Kyung-ah and Dong-seok beom stand before me, the former had one hand on her hip while the other hanged limply like a hanged man. The latter had his arms crossed

"Seriously, do you know how much trouble you are in? Its unbelievable that you could do something like that! You were about to hit a kid on his head with a whole chair!" My father spoke disapprovingly

「This brat is gonna make my head explode」father thought

My mother on the other hand just kept on looking, an unlit cigarette between her middle and index fingers.

BOOM

My head exploded into many colors at that moment, so many thoughts, so many feelings

『Why did i do that?』

『I have the right to protect my disabled sister!』

『Its all my fault for doing that to him』

『I was defending someone!』

But to my parents i was just standing there with a blank expression on my face, not speaking or moving an inch

Blink

I occasionally blinked while thinking about what i could say in order to defend myself. I simply glanced at the hallway, a plant on my right side and a cabinet on my left with two family pictures, candles and a norigae hanging off the door.

『Its my fault?』

"What i did was wrong" i wanted to kill him "i lashed out in the heat of the moment, i should have thought before acting that way" i wanted to rip his skull out at that moment.

Me and my parents stared at eachother for a while, trying to figure out what the other was thinking. But in the end we all sat around the dinner table, Kyung-sook akwardly sitting next to me with her hands folded in her lap

A soft jawline, black hair... and... and... and...

『Why were you born that way?』

________________________________________

2215, united states of America, new york 2:02PM

The plane had just made its landing in new york, specifically Newark Liberty International Airport. I could see a harbor in the background and a bunch of behemoths quickly fly overhead. It was a cloudy first day, but tommorow an event was occuring, the The August Victory Parade. A parade lasting from the fifth till the eighth, an event celebrating America's victory against canada during the ten year war that started in August 1st of 2123 and lasted until August 5th of 2133. A war which burried canada to the ground... well what was formerly known as canada now know as the reformed states of the north.

『This air is-』

Cough! Cough!

This air was so different from Seoul.

"Don't worry, you will get used to it" Dae-hyun reassured me with a pat on my shoulder as he walked next to me. "you will have to, we are gonna be training here. Training starts tommorow." Squad 2,344 along with other squads gathered around in lines, the squad leaders leading each line as we walked through the airport with heavy luggage. People stared at us as we walked through, our boots creating a steady rhythm as they hit the ground, i was 6th in line and i felt someone poke me from behind "hey Jae-wook right? How the hell did you survive that blast back then?"

『Hes asking me now?!』

"That was a while ago, i don't remember honestly, all i remember is everything going white and that was it"

Eventually we reached the airport entrance and stepped outside, being greeted by lined up massive black trucks with guards around them, american kaiju exterminator's.

I looked up at the towering sky scrapers and got slightly shocked

『Who needs this many towers? And there is so much smog too...』

Clack clack

One by one we jumped into the back of the truck and sat down, outting on our seatbelts and leaning back to get ready for a 30 minute drive