Without Me

School

To Jonathan's surprise and dismay, he went through the whole week without talking to Mark. Much less seeing him. He wasn't sure if the other was avoiding him or he was. But they didn't sit beside one another in class despite Mark being in his usual seats. They didn't have eye contact with one another.

Maybe it was Jonathan's own doing but he didn't know if they were instincts or just poor excuses to avoid the problem. Either ways, he was getting more uncomfortable as time passed. He knew it would take awhile before he could face Mark again.

He could only hope the other didn't think too badly of him. The weekends were coming and that meant free time and PE sessions. They would probably cross paths more but hopefully, it didn't lead to a confrontation yet. Jonathan still didn't have an answer nor a solution to his problem after all.

Mark? Chuck? Mark? Chuck? He couldn't pick. Why did he even have to pick honestly?

The day went by just like the others and he found himself in his dorm again. He and Shou got along somehow despite only ever meeting in the dorms for a short period of time before they head to bed. Waking up was always the same with Jonathan being the lighter sleeper. Turns out Shou had another 3 more alarms to wake himself up but thanks to Jonathan, he only needs one now.

"Say, we don't have a single class together, huh?" Jonathan found himself asking as he did his homework. He heard an uneasy groan before a nod followed Shou's actions.

"Yeah. Well... I don't attend classes much. Even if I do, it's mostly PE," he replied with a slight edge to his voice. So he skips classes, huh.

"Huh. Cool. You don't have to go detention for it?"

"Nope. Nobody actually cares. The first few times, I thought I was going to get caught or something but it just feels like the school doesn't bother. Sometimes I even meet teachers in the hallways but they never say anything to me."

Jonathan thought that was sort of weird in its own way. What kind of correcting school would this be without the correcting? He tapped his chin slightly. Now that he thought about it, this school was surprisingly relaxing in its own pace.

Nothing really happened even when he compared it to his previous school where gang fights broke out more and smoking in school grounds were more often. Yet, things just felt too peaceful here. Even though he had only been here for about a week now, there hadn't been a single incident that he had seen in the hallways apart from the run in he had with Viktor but even that wasn't a big deal since Viktor stayed away from him now. He guessed it was probably just the other's way of putting his foot down and trying to show off but Chuck did mention he was more bark than bite.

"Do you think...." Jonathan started but let himself trailed off as he stared at the Mathematics question in front of him. His words and thoughts were jumbled up with numbers and it wasn't helping his train of thought.

"What do I think?"

"No, no. Wait. I kind of forgot what I wanted to say." He took in a deep breath and moved his mathematics homework aside for a while to take a breather. "Do you think there's more to this school than what we know and see?"

This question got Shou's eyes sparkling and it was like Jonathan just lit a fire that couldn't be out out. He knew he regretted asking but guessed he couldn't back out now either.

"You think so too?" Shou asked in a harsh whisper. It was more gleeful than anything though as though he was a leaking dam, just waiting to gush out.

"First of, we are technically a juvenile school. A place for rotten eggs. Yet none of us really did anything worthy to come here, right?" Jonathan speculated.

Shou showed a rare grin and nodded excitedly, fingers fidgeting as he held himself back obviously.

"Secondly, the teachers don't particularly seem to be bothered by our attitudes. And to top it off, they don't even tell us off as much as I thought they would," this time, Shou spoke and Jonathan agreed.

"A correction school but with extremely normal school systems. You think that's the concept they're going for?" Jonathan asked but Shou shook his head.

"No. I think there is something more," he said softly. "Why bring us here? To a remote location. In the middle of nowhere. If we did anything terrible, help would take a long time to come. I remember when we had to call an ambulance because someone broke their leg but it took them at least 30 minutes to reach."

Jonathan was quite surprised with what he was told because that was really dangerous. What if that person had bleed out instead? What would have happened?

Something within him triggered. His curiosity flared. But then, he realised something.

"No. I can't think about this," he said it out, getting an odd look from Shou.

"Why not? You still have about a year or more to study here anyways."

"No, you don't get it. If I think about it, I'll want to know more. And I'll get into trouble and that's the last thing I want in this school right now. Or my life for that matter," Jonathan replied with a sigh following.

Shou's grin dropped and he had a rather upset look but his expression wasn't that much different from his blank look.

"I'm sorry for being excited there for a moment. I can tell something is wrong too but I don't think I want to know what it is," Jonathan said after noticing Shou's expression.

"No. It's fine. I know better than to drag someone into my problems," he whispered back a reply. Jonathan felt a lump in his throat. Not Shou too. He shut his eyes for a bit.

He couldn't just push everyone away but he had to be firm with his own decisions too. No trouble, no personal problems. Yet his curiosity sparked just like the look in Mark's eyes. The pull towards trouble was strong and the calling was almost unavoidable.

Jonathan had to take a deep breath to calm his raging mind. Better out than in.