8 Chapter 8 Series of events

It was a very good morning. The birds chirped along joyfully. The morning breeze was oozing everything in its pleasantness. Everything was going good , Alex had finished his morning work out and was getting ready for school.

John had woken up and was preparing breakfast. It was a pretty good day, but Alex didn't feel that way, it was a bad day for him, he had to talk to people willing to make friends,but he had never had any friends , he was a lone wolf who never had the need to make any friends, but his grandpa's wish he felt that he couldn't refuse it. He felt all his energy drain away when he thought of making any friends, he rode to school that day looking like a dead man.

He went and sat at the corner seat as usual. Everything that was running on his mind was talking with people and making friends. "Make friends....make friends....", was the only thing running on his head. He was so distracted thinking about it that he was not listening to the class.

His school didn't have much of international exchange students , that day a new student had arrived to school. He was from South Korea and was having trouble finding a seat to sit. Alex had enough thoughts on his head that he didn't mind most of what was happening around him. The teacher introduced the new student and explained where he had come from and the student introduced himself, "Hi , I am Beom SeoK and I come from South Korea , I am looking forward to have a good time with everyone ".

After introducing himself he had to find a seat to sit and the only place remaining was the place infront of Alex and Alex was looking at Beom as he walked in front of him. "Can I take this seat". "Of course you can ",replied Alex and adjusted his seat and table a bit , so that he could have more space. "Thanks" ,said Beom and sat in the seat and the classes continued.

It was break time and everyone was surrounding Beom , trying to make friends with him. Alex suddenly had an idea and that was to make Beom his first friend. He waited until everyone settled down and slowly approached Beom , "Hi my name is Alex , do you need any help?". Everyone remaining in the class was suprised as it was the first time Alex had talked to someone without them taking an initiative to talk to him. "Can you help me find the cafeteria, I am hungry",said Beom.

And they took off to the cafeteria. Both of them did not talk much. Alex didn't know what friends would do and he wasn't sure whether they were close enough to be called friends and Beom didn't know what foreigners usually talked about. Alex was eating a home made snack and Beom was munching hundrily on a sandwich. Beom didn't know what Alex was eating so out of curiosity he asked Alex what he was eating , "This is a mixed nut ball that I made , do you want to try it" ,and he offered some to Beom and he took a bit and liked it . He was quite hungry so he couldn't hold himself he ate almost everything on Alex's snack box . Alex laughed a bit seeing how Beom ate everything, "Do you want something else , I got some fruits too", and he gave Beom two guavas.

Beom was literally stuffing his mouth and thanking Alex , he told Alex how he had come to England from South Korea and had to leave for some years in order to help his mam and older sister who was studying there ,and again had to come back along with them after everything was over. He went on rambling about everything till the break was over and all Alex did was listen to him , and that was the start of an epic friendship , a friendship that changed Alex and stood with him through everything.

Everyone in class looked at Alex differently because it was the first time he had come out of his corner and talked to people. That day a lot of things happened and Alex got a chance to speak with everyone in the class because of Beom , everyone in class grew close to Alex , even people who felt intimidated by him because of his achievements started speaking to him . Alex loved it at first but his social battery started to drain away it was already completely drained, then he started worrying whether he would have to do this everyday. But the day went by quickly for Alex and he got to save some of his classmates numbers along with Beom's number. They also started following him on social media.

Alex returned home and proudly showed his phone to his grandfather. John was really happy to see that Alex had found some friends . "Grandpa ! I don't know how to say this but how to know that someone is friends with someone?", asked Alex leaving John puzzled. But John understood Alex's plight, making friends when your school life is nearing an end is perplexing and bizzare, and Alex had only got one year of school left and then he had to go for college , " You don't have to worry , a friend don't need to call himself a friend to others, all he had to do is stay with you through everything and you know that they are your friends, but remember Alex don't trust everyone, not everyone is your friend know your friends well", said John with some sadness in his voice as if he had been betrayed by someone.

Alex felt strange after hearing grandpa John, but he understood that it was only meant as a warning to make sure that Alex doesn't get used. Alex was innocent he didn't completely understand people around his age , he had spent most of his time in the elderly world where they don't show hatred and much anger towards anyone , but are gentle and kind , but it cannot be said they same to youngsters. They can change quickly and no one can understand what is going on with them. But to be young and to experience the bonds and love of friendship is something anyone in the world would give anything and everything for, it will be one of the most interesting phases of life . And John knew Alex would also start knowing about it now.

Alex's school life became a bit colorful now , and he got to spend time with others in his class. He got to listen to all kinds of weird stories, but Alex kept quiet and didn't share much of what was going on in his life. He did share some stuff he found interesting and completely avoided all the hunting , blacksmithing part of his life. He started sharing his food with others and they started sharing their food with them and time passed by and Alex had gotten really close with everyone in his class especially Beom , Beom was someone he shared all the stories with and Beom believed Alex , That shredded body , rough hands and his food choices along with the way he won every event in Athletics and other sports , who would not believe if he said he was blacksmithing ,training himself and Hunting for food . No one knows about his home and where he lived and ofcourse Beom alone knew about it.

Two months passed by and Alex had asked his grandpa whether he could bring a friend home and John was really happy. John told Alex he would make snacks and dinner for him and Alex can bring any number of friends he wanted to. Alex was happy too and he had no plans to bring others , but as Beom had asked Alex that he wanted to see his home he thought of only bringing him . It was a pretty day the violet sky was setting slowly as Beom and Alex reached Alex's home . Beom and Alex had to cycle all the way to Alex's place and Beom was out of breath."Really man your house is this far away from home , how do you cycle all the way to school ?", Alex laughed at him and Beom knew it was useless to ask Alex ,because his entire life was pretty bizzare compared to others.

John and Alex had a visitor in their home for the first time after Alex had come to John's house. It was a really joyous moment for John and he was happy to see Alex's new friend. John knew Korean so he spoke with Beom time to time in Korean and really made him feel at home. Alex went around and showed his house and his daily activities and everytime he said something, Beom's jaw dropped as if he was seeing something new, even though he had heard everything from Alex seeing him live and do those things made him the strangest friend that Beom had ever had.