Days grew long and tiresome as time flew on for Micah. It's been a month since his mother fell into a coma, not showing any sign of waking up. Being put down from his mother's misfortune, he's been living in the hospital for the last month, barely leaving the room during the day.

"Hey, can you come by the hospital?"

One day he decides to leave his mother to rest.

Micah exits the hospital and takes a seat at the stone stairs just outside. The fresh breeze kisses his prickle cheeks, moving his head along the breeze for a short moment.

"It's a little cold outside... and I've been missing out on this and so much more. Maybe it's time to get back to school..." He pondered as he was waiting for Bianca to come by. Not paying attention to anything around him, Bianca slowly creeps up on him with a sinister look on her face. She sneaks up on him and tickles him, throwing him of guard and rolls down the stairs. Barely being able to get up on his knees, he looks up at her in pain.

"You dead or something?"

"Soon enough, if I fall down another flight of stairs."

"...How's your mom?"

He walks up the flight of stairs and pushes down his bangs as he says, "I don't know." He grows more bashful as he nears her.

"Micah..."

"I need notes from last month, I decided to get back to school, so..."

"Micah." She moves his coarse bangs away from his face and exposes his red eyes. His eyes pushes out tears, blankly looking at her before he lets out a cry. His bawling was faint, but it was enough for Bianca to be left speechless.

"Micah... you've stockpiled all of this, you've not talked with anyone about this? You're hurt and... seeing you sad breaks me. Before I met you I thought of you as someone absent of emotions, but... you're so... human. I really like him, don't I?" She thought as she had her eyes on him.

"Bianca... can you get me notes before tomorrow?"

"Y-Yes!"

"Also..."

"Hm?"

"I know that your confession is fake."

"I--"

"Before you say anything, I don't know what you gain from doing this, but I'm at fault here as well for playing along. I'm sorry."

"..." She barely contains herself before she exclaims, "Why are you apologizing!?"

He covers his face with his uneven bangs and replies, "Because I was selfish and insensitive. My bad."

He walks back and turns around at the entrance of the hospital and gives out a bittersweet smile as he looks back at her and waves her goodbye.

They parted ways and saw each other later that day when Bianca handed him her notes from last month.

"Hey Jean, are you up for some fun?"

The young man giggled, scratching his short hair on the side of his head, yawning as he says, "It sounds promising, but can't we do that after school? I'm finally coming back to school."

"Oh yeah! What were you expelled for now again?" Mark gets up from the couch, stretching a little.

"Just fighting with a guy from our class."

"Didn't you break his jaw, or something?"

"Jeez, you make it sound like I paralyzed him, it was just a punch, and another punch, and a few kicks." Jean nonchalantly recalls it and he grabs his bag and slaps Mark's back.

"Let's go, Markie!"

"We're giving ourselves nicknames now? Then you'll be... Jin!"

"...Whatever."

They left the house and began walking to school. Mark walks by Micah's house, staring at it as they go by it.

"What's up with you?"

"It's Micah's house."

"Micah? It's the homeless loner in 3-C, right?"

Mark stops and pushes his hands in his pockets before he looks down and walks past Jean, saying, "Show the guy some respect, his mom has been in a coma for a month now. That's cold, Jean."

Jean remains silent throughout the way to school, occasionally glancing over at Mark. As they entered, Mark bumped into someone in front of him, catching Jean's attention.

"Oh shit, sorry-- Mark?"

"Micah?"

Mark was caught off guard as Micah's long, coarse hair was gone and replaced with a choppy haircut, exposing his neck and his eyes and eyebrows.

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"Yo I gotta go to my class like right now, see you later!"

Jean pushed Mark forward, waking him up and walking to class.

"Micah... he looks like he's doing good."

"Yeah... he had a smile on his face... he's changed."

Micah rushes by the corridor and enters the classroom with hasty steps, exclaiming, "Sorry I'm late!"

The teacher looks at him, startled as she replies, "Y-You got just in time, Micah."

He jumps into his seat, shoving his bag under the desk. Everyone glances at Micah during the class, finding it fascinating how Micah was so different in his new hairstyle. Micah occasionally looks at Bianca who's talking with her friends across their desks.

"Micah?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Come forward and solve this equation." The teacher held the pen in her hand, waiting for him to take it.

Micah nods and moves back his chair as he gets up and nears the whiteboard.

"Come on, pretty boy!" One of the guys exclaimed, mocking Micah's feminine-looking hairstyle.

He ignores him and solves the equation, walking back to his desk after he gives the pen back to the teacher.

The class was soon over and the classroom was immediately emptied, leaving only Micah and the teacher behind.

"Is your mom getting any better?"

"I don't know." He turns around and leaves the room, only to bump into Bianca.

"Watch where you're going--"

"Thank you for lending me your notes. Really, thanks."

"S-Sure." Her voice was startled, as if she bumped into a stranger and not Micah.

"The scheme got changed, huh? I'm on my way to the room at the end of the corridor, see you."

"W-W-Wait, Micah!"

Surprised by the sudden exclamation he turns back to her, "Hm?"

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what I did to you."

"I know you are." He smiles and scratches the back of his head, saying, "Your friends aren't here with you, so your apology must be genuine."

"Y-Yes."

He closes the gap between them and pulls her into his grasp, holding her tightly. He tells her, "I've been lonely and I... needed someone's embrace. Sorry for using you, Bianca--"

Her arms were wrapped around his back, tightening her grip.

"Shut up."

He stood mute in the corridor in her grasp. His breathing stabilized as the hug prolonged and not long after -- she let go of him. Her face was red, avoiding eye contact with Micah and quickly walked off. He regains himself and jogs back to the next class. On his way he meets up with a few classmates on their way to class.

"Yo, Micah! You got yourself a new haircut, haven't you?" One of the guys said as he saw Micah.

"Y-Yeah, I tried to cut it on my own!"

The guys stood still as Micah's words entered their ears.

"You cut your own hair?" One of the guys with glasses said as he squinted.

"Y-Yeah..."

Everyone in the little group look at each other before saying, "Good job, Micah..." and enters the classroom, pulling up their hair to appear more voluminous. As they enter the room, someone could be heard from inside shouting someone's name. As they entered the room it was more clear; there was someone shouting Micah's name. Micah shoves himself through the group and sees the guy looking after him; the guy's hand were rough, worn-out by hard labor and his face was nothing different from his rough hands; his jawline was sharp and exposed itself very clearly, as well as his big nose all puffed up from constant strikes directed to it. His eyes were shallow, not as vividly detailed as the rest of the class, they were instead blank, almost with no depression or marks in his irises.

"You've been dating my girl, huh!?"

"What?"

"Huh!? You really wanna get beaten up that badly!!? Let's fight, Mika!!"

Everyone stood back as the buff student shoves the desks back, creating an open area for him and Micah to fight.

"You can do it, Micah!" The boys from the group earlier started cheering for Micah, and unexpectedly, the cheering brought out the opposite effect for Micah.

"I really have to fight this hunk of meat? And I just got back goddammit!" Micah thought as he was about to fight the giant of 3-C, Danny Aspen!