#arrc

Chapter four: Welcome home Sean

“So… Seonghyeon” Martin blew out a breath

“Yeah?”

“Do you speak Korean, or are you one of those Korean kids who want to be white?” Martin cocked an eyebrow

He felt his entire body go rigid, a small voice in his head persisted Sean, Sean, Sean. Now, he knew more than ever-now was his time to put that voice to rest.

“Korean is my first language, and no-I don’t want to be white”

Martin whistled, switching the conversation to Korean.

“First language huh? Were you born there orrrrr?”

“I was born in Daejeon and lived there until I was five, then I moved to Buffalo with my mom and brother”

Martin clicked his tongue in amusement “No shot, Turtle here was born and raised in Seoul”

“Turtle?”

Keonho chimed in “That’s what we call Juhoon, I mean look at the dude- he is a turtle. Plus he’s got two at home”

Now that Keonho mentioned it, Seonghyeon had never seen anyone look so much like an animal until now. “Oh, what're the turtle's names?”

“Hm?” Juhoon glanced up from the sandwich he was eating “Oh” he raised his head, wiping crumbs from the corner of his mouth “Choco and the other one doesn’t have a name”

“Isn’t that so cool?? Like not naming your turtle is just so…punk.” Martin patted Juhoon on the back, getting a cold glare in return “Keep breaking those  social norms Juhoonie”

“I just never bothered naming it” Juhoon muttered back

While the three of them were nattering, Keonho was constantly being approached by people their age. Guys would ask about sports season, girls would ask about homework-even though it was the first day and Keonho definitely wasn’t the guy to ask about school work.

When the rush hour of people crawling for Kenoho's attention was over, he turned around and sighed.

“I remember when it was like that for me during the grade 9-11 popularity period of “Let’s all go talk to Martin right now, at the same time " sucks balls dude”. Martin's words may have been comforting but his toothy grin said either wise.

“I find that hard to believe,” Seonghyeon scoffed at the two words “popularity” and “Martin” being used in the same sentence. So far, that guy seemed like a total geek.

“Nah, Tin’s like the most popular guy in our grade” the words came out of Juhoon between sips from his water bottle

“Seriuosly?” Seonghyeon was shocked, Martin? Popular? Well sure he had the looks and style for it but he just seemed like such a doofus.

“Yes sir ski, grade 12s are just a lot more chill you know” Martin gave a wink as the bell rang, ending lunch.

English class was easy enough, it was the one class he had without Keonho so there was some quiet. The teacher was nice-though he didn’t remember her name he knew he’d learn it eventually.

The period flew by and before he knew it, third period had ended which meant the class he was looking forward to most was next: gym.

The school's gymnasium was huge, easily twice the size as Seonghyeon's old school. Keonho waved him over to a group of guys he was standing with in the corner.

There were five others-one of them being Martin, each boy excluding the former introduced themselves as Woojin, Nathen, Andy, and Jongseob-but everyone just calls him “Seob”

“My name’s Seonghyeon, nice to meet you” Seonghyeon smiled at the group, feeling a sense of belonging.

Nathen spoke up first “You chill if I call you Sean?”

The front door clicked shut softly behind him, shoes came off before the trek to that room was made. His bag hit the floor with a loud thud, first the tie came off, then the blazer, then the shirt, then the pants.

“Welcome home Sean”.

He looked around the room, at a stranger's clothes in a closet that didn’t belong to him. The bed wasn’t his, the desk wasn’t either-someone lived here for a very clearly short period of time.

No trace stayed of whoever was here before, the place was not his and yet-something said