Chapter One: Our Silent Protest Part 1

A year passed, and just as time became fleeting, it was the start of a new year. It was the end of an

old one, where many ups and downs vibrated in our hearts. It was a time when people reinvented

themselves and made promises for the new year—a period where we had the chance to have a

fresh start. Fireworks and countdowns are happening all over the world. Just as it seemed to be a

new beginning as the fireworks came crashing down, so did our lives. It was no longer just a New

Year. It was the start of a Pandemic and worldwide chaos. The Pandemic swept in like a cold

winter breeze; just like that, our lives forever changed.

The cold winter breeze that ignited a Pandemic started protests worldwide. Governments had to

make tough decisions to contain the virus, and some people didn't agree with those choices, thus

sparking protests worldwide. The sparks brought loud and silent voices. And somewhere

in between the chaos, two voices sparked silently.

I was painting when it happened. I had a nightmare around three a.m., where I constantly fell down a pair of stairs in darkness. I suddenly woke up in sweat and shock. I began to have a panic attack as my eyes opened. I began looking at different objects in my room and named them repeatedly as a calming mechanism.

After calming down, I got up from my bed, grabbed a paintbrush, and began painting my

nightmare. Sketching the stairs with every bit of detail from my nightmare, I took a break to turn

on some music and open the blinds of my window when I finished sketching it.

It was snowing vibrantly and violently. I could see the cherry blossoms on the street from my

room. The branches were dancing to the melody of the prominent solid winds

Admiring the snow and the trees moving with every movement of the wind was so captivating I

decided to add this moment to my painting. It turned from a nightmare to a daze-like dream.

Strokes after strokes. My brush took control of my entire body, my mind was well emptied, and my

primary focus was finishing my composition. This went on momentarily until the sun rose, and I

decided to put on some clothes to walk outside.

As I began to walk one foot in front of each other, loud voices were shouting from an alarmingly

close distance. And then that's when I noticed people were protesting. They all had signs to tell the

government they weren't happy with all the restrictions put in place. I was going to pass by and not

care until I saw something written on an abandoned sign.

"Lift the travel bans! Let the introverts travel in peace!"

It was a funny sign because everyone travels, not just introverts, but I liked it because it felt like me.

The sign felt like a soul that just wanted to be free and not care about the other souls around it.

Like me. I usually would just go on my way and ignore things like this, but...

This time I didn't pass by. I picked up the sign and silently protested with the crowd of people. In

In Seoul, Korea, we usually don't often fight for our rights, there aren't often protests, but for once,

it was nice to see people fighting together to be free from the government's grasp. I took a leap of

faith with people who were vocal and loud. I strolled one giant leap at a time in my steps.

As I was taking my steps, instead of looking forward to where I was walking. I looked at the

ground while proceeding forward with the crowd until I collided and fell with a gigantic human

onto the cold icy road.

I was on a man, our bodies and faced a breathe away from each other.

His ears turned red, and I began to feel something growing hard towards my lower leg. It

took me a couple of seconds to realize that he was quite excited by our little incident.

I pushed myself to the side of the ground away from him and began to breathe short breaths

intensely at a fast pace.

He turned around, facing me while still on the ground, and said;

"Um, sorry about running into you. I was captivated by the snow."

"It's alright. I... wa..s looking at my footsteps and the footsteps of the other peo..ple on the snow; it was fascinating

seeing different shapes and sizes on shiny white pearl snow." I said shyly while stuttering.

The boy got up from the ground and brought forward his arm, reaching to me to pull me off the

ground. As the sun was getting out from under the sheets of fluffy clouds. The sunlight glistened

onto his skin. I was stunned by his beauty. His frizzled, flat red hair went all the way down

to his eyebrows. His warm caramel-latte-like fair skin with freckles and his soft, shy smile. His eyes

were green, not a typical type of green like a magical emerald type of green that could make someone stare for hours.

Instead of reaching for his arm, I was just too stunned by his beauty. I must've been drooling like

I was hungry for him because he quickly turned red and started to itch his hair nervously. I quickly

snapped out of it and got myself up by taking his hand and pushing myself up. I looked around

and saw he also had a sign.

I didn't really have any friends, and I was never interested in making friends, but something inside

me wanted to know this boy.

So I did something I never do and asked him;

"Thanks for helping me; wanna walk together while silently protesting?"

He smiled and said;

"Sure!"

We began to walk side by side. I took my ear bud out, rubbed some hand sanitizer, and put one

in his ear. We stepped one foot in front of the other while listening to the same harmony.