…
When Juin returned back to the house that he currently shared with a group of kids like him, who were orphaned by various circumstances, he was scolded by the woman who ran the place, Mrs. Martin.
"Juin, I expect better from you. It took me a lot of effort to get the board to approve the budget for the trip," Mrs. Martin said with a stern expression. Mr. Smith had given her a call earlier to let her know what had happened and that she might be visited by the cops, should there be any need.
"I'm sorry…" Juin mumbled as he looked at his feet. He then thought to himself, "I already said I wasn't interested in any field trips… You were the one who pushed me to go…"
Mrs. Martin sighed and waved a hand nonchalantly. "Fine… After what you've been through… Go back to your room and wash up. But this would be the last time I will let this kind of behavior go, alright, Juin?"
Juin nodded before walking up to his room, which he shared with another kid.
As she watched him go up the stairs, Mrs. Martin could not help but sigh. "He has to deal with the loss somewhat… It has been more than three years now, has it not?"
She did not know the whole story, but three years ago, when Juin was transferred to her home because the orphanage down the road that he used to stay in was full, the social service worker who handled Juin's case, Tiffany, told her that Juin's best friend from the orphanage was declared dead and that the son of the family that was planning to adopt the two of them could not get along with Juin.
And hence, they decided to return him after fostering him for almost a year. Since then, Juin had been even more withdrawn and quiet than how he was before he was fostered by the family.
Mrs. Martin sighed again as she walked to the kitchen. She felt bad for Juin, but with so many kids under her care, she could not take so much time out just for one kid. She only hoped that Juin could learn how to deal with this world by himself.
That night, while Juin was sleeping, he kept tossing and turning in his bed.
…
"Who are you?" Juin asked as he looked at the shadowy human-like figure that was walking around him in a circle. He was dreaming about something unpleasant, most of which he could not remember, only that he was standing on a cliff with a heavy heart, when his surroundings changed. The next thing he knew, he was in a pure white environment with no end in sight.
Just as he was trying to understand everything, he saw the shadow walking toward him and finally stopping right in front of him. It was impossible to have a shadow when there was no shade, but Juin did not know how to describe that… thing.
It was sort of black… and one minute he could see through it, the other the thing would be solid. And when it could be seen through, it appeared like those TV interferences, where some parts of its body seemed to be distorted into lines.
"Who are you?" Juin asked as he kept his eyes on the shadow nervously.
"You're not afraid of me?" the shadow asked out of curiosity. Its voice was echoey, as if it were speaking into a cave.
Juin narrowed his eyes. He knew he was in a lucid dream state at the moment. This had been something that he always managed to do; to enter into a lucid dream state. But unlike before, he could not control his surroundings.
"I'm asking you a question. Who are you?" Juin asked as he kept his eyes on the shadow.
"It's funny how your soul is so brave yet your physical self is so weak and useless…" the shadow remarked as it continued to circle around Juin, seemingly trying to see through the teenager.
"Stop walking!" Juin snapped as he glared at the shadow. Even though this was a dream, he still felt somewhat dizzy as his eyes tried to play catch up with the shadow.
The shadow stopped moving, and a moment later, his body turned somewhat even more distorted, and in his place, a naked young man that was about a head taller than Juin appeared in his place and who had his eyes closed.
Juin looked at the young man, wondering who he was as he was sure that he had never seen the young man before. He looked at the young man's handsome youthful face, hair so black that it felt even blacker than black, as well as the toned body… The young man was everything that Juin wanted but could never become… and it pissed him off that this man dared to intrude on his dream.
"I should be the hot guy in MY dream," Juin thought as he stared at the young man. "Or maybe that's who I would become once I actually hit puberty?"
When the young man opened his eyes, Juin was slightly taken aback to see the young man's eyes. Red. So red that they looked like the color of fresh blood. And when the young man stared at him, Juin felt as if the very depth of his soul was being scrutinized, and he hated this feeling.
And to stop it, he threw out a punch.
The young man's figure blurred, and Juin fell onto the ground from the momentum of his punch.
"Clumsy, not only in real life."
Juin turned around and saw the young man floating in the air. The young man was sitting cross-legged in midair with his arms folded as he looked down at Juin.
Juin glared at him for a second before turning his eyes away. "Can you please wear something?!"
It was extremely uncomfortable for him to stare at another man's junk at eye-level.
The young man glanced down at himself, and then looked up with a smirk. "Jealous? As you should be."
He then stood up. Standing akimbo, proud as a peacock, he said nonchalantly, "You think that this is your dream, so... Dress me."
Juin looked at him and tried to dress the man in a potato sack, but no matter how he tried, he could not conjure anything. "That's weird…" Juin mumbled. If this was his dream, he should be able to control everything. But at the moment, he felt as if he was losing control over everything.
The young man laughed. "Of course you can't dress me, you f*cking pathetic dumba*s." He snapped his fingers, and in a split second, a pair of red luxurious wraparound pants with an emblem on the bottom of each of the legs appeared on him.
"How about a shirt?" Juin remarked, finally comfortable enough to look at the young man properly instead of through the corners of his eyes.
The young man spread his hands open and tilted his chin up slightly as he scoffed, "Why would I want to hide this glorious body?"
As he said so, he flexed his toned body, and… his body seemed to glean a little, as if there were oil on him.
Juin watched him and secretly agreed with him. If he had that sort of body, he would probably show it off constantly as well. However…
"Can you respect me in my dream? And who are you? You still haven't answered my question!" Juin asked, annoyed.
"Respect?" The young man laughed and snapped his fingers, upon which Juin felt as if there was an invisible hand around his ankle.
"Argh!" Juin felt his vision blurring.
The next thing he knew, he was being dangled upside down and was now looking at the man's eyes from an inch away.
"Nobody ever dares to demand respect from me…" The young man sneered. He then looked at Juin from top to bottom, or was it bottom to top. And after a while, he murmured, "No combat capabilities, even as a soul. Why would you be the chosen one?"
"W-What chosen one?" Juin gulped as he looked down. Since everything was white, he could not accurately gauge the distance between him and the ground, which only made everything even scarier!
"The one to be my vessel. You should feel honored by it," the young man said as a matter of fact.
"What's a vessel?" Juin groaned.
"Low level of intelligence as well." The young man sighed and snapped his fingers again, upon which Juin felt his world turning upside down again before his limbs were pulled in four different directions.