It was a normal day.

A normal day.

Jin stood in the metro on his way to work in a cheap suit for work, surrounded by countless other humans.

His feet ached in these uncomfortable shoes, he never liked these leather shoes but it was company policy.

And so he stood in the metro and watched the scenery of the steel buildings passing by, just like every other day.

He was a standard white collar worker, barely making enough to make a living here in the city.

He had graduated from an average high school with average grades, went to an average university and had an average graduation with a degree in economy.

His family was average, smack in the middle class with a small house in the surburbs.

And to Jin, everything in life was grey.

This was both figurative and literal, as he had been fully colorblind from birth whilst living out a mundane life.

He had average looks and build that could blend into the crowd and had no outstanding traits that defined him different from the norm.

And he was sick of it all.

But to him, it was more effort to change everything than to continue this repetitive cycle.

He looked down at his phone, it was 8:46 am. He was on schedule.

He had been late yesterday and his superior had been pissed at him the entire day for it.

He had skipped solid foods for breakfast, again, and instead had coffee. His entire body felt like it was drenched in caffeine as it sustained his functionality from day to day.

In front of him sat an elderly man whose seat had been excused by Jin as he saw the man enter.

And maybe it was this small act of kindness that caused it but the old man had been staring and smiling at him throughout the entire ride.

If it was someone else, they might've been bugged out of their minds to ask what the man wanted or might've simply moved away after being creeped out by the yellow eyes.

But to Jin, he was just an old man.

Finally, the old man had been the one to break the silence.

"Are you not tired?" The old man asked.

Jin looked down from the window and met his gaze.

"I'm always tired." Jin responded, almost instinctively. He had been asked this question too many times before and had given the same answer every time.

"But you believe that change will be more tiring." The old man smiled as he spoke.

"..." Jin looked back up at the window. "There is a price to everything. And change is expensive."

"Haha..." The old man turned his head and looked outside the window as well. "But if you were given a chance?"

"A chance?" JJin looked at the back of the old man's head. "Even if I had a chance, things won't change too much. I've walked a straight line in my life and even if I walked back to the start, the road remains straight."

"Well." The old man turned and looked down at my shoes.

And as he spoke, all the other noise seemed to have dulled out as only the man's voice rang clear in my head.

"You may think you have walked straight your entire life, but if you actually lift your head up and look back, it would've been a messy road of twists and turns."

...!?

Flashes of struggling to fit in with others at school, my first A in an exam, dealing with bullies who abused my visual impairment, people who I could truly call friends, the pain of my first love and breakup flashed past my eyes as the rest of the world turned dark.

"Here is your chance." The old man's voice rang throughout the darkness as Jin fell into slumber