The morning sun rose up and the five of them woke with a refreshing feeling.
They woke up early afternoon after sleeping in all day and found that Yi Zheng was gone.
They didn't pay attention to it, and the people separated to take a shower.
After that, they converged in the dining room waiting for Ming Jun to cook while Shae Harris shamelessly rooted him on.
Well, fresh resources were scarce, so the cooking was a symbolic gesture.
In truth, it was just him stuffing frozen food into the barely intact microwave, then arranging the piping hot food on a plate to be carried out by Shae Harris.
They ate quietly, and Mori Aoi gathered the empty plates while Wei Zhi did the dishes.
After taking care of the apartment, they waited for Yi Zheng to come back from wherever he went.
Yi Zheng came not long after, from checking out the surroundings.
He looked at their unbothered expressions and found that they were probably the only childish people left in a world that had turned to hell.
The others didn't understand his complexities, and neither did they care much for thinking about it.
Shae Harris ran outside and urged him forward.
Yi Zheng gazed at the excited backs and followed after them.
The journey was a walking distance because the music gallery, as it was called, was actually quite close to the movie hall.
That was because an old rich man who survived with his wealth was a lover of art—especially since his son and his wife, along with his grandchildren, were art enthusiasts.
The old man was a painter and sculptor.
The old man's wife was an actress.
His son was a director.
His son's wife was a singer.
Their male child was a dancer.
Their daughter was a pianist and a baller dancer.
Sadly, they died, and the old man survived the natural disasters.
So he gathered his wealth to buy a large piece of land.
Then he set up buildings containing different forms of art he could salvage and named each one after his dead relatives.
And he made it a place for only the elite to enter, just to show the world how important and special his family was.
Today they entered the building dedicated to the collection of all kinds of music and all the musical instruments created in recent years.
There were two sections.
The first for listening to music.
Each room was divided by the kinds of music—
Classical.
Pop.
Jazz.
Folk.
Modern music, which had shelves further divided by bands.
The music was stored in a square metal that would be inserted into either a headphone for personal use or in a loudspeaker.
The second section, which was for musical instruments, only had one giant hall.
There the instruments were placed onto stands and separated from the others by a box big enough for one person to play the instrument.
"So, where to first?" Shae Harris asked Noi Karn.
He blinked and pointed at the first section.
Then she dragged him inside to look.
Noi Karn happily went through the records.
He had been listening to all kinds of music since he entered the orphanage, so he wasn't new to the music community.
But the others were at a loss.
Shae Harris passed the time by playing games, so she could only say that the only tune she had heard was the game's soundtrack.
Ming Jun was too busy in the Ming household to listen to any.
In fact, the first phone he received was the one he got once he entered high school.
There was only one contact in his list, which was the young master, so that he could boss him easier in school—just because he felt that he wasn't worth it to look for him.
Well, Ming Jun agreed in his heart.
Mori Aoi was too busy working all the time to listen to any, but she had heard snippets from the places she was working at.
Some businesses would play music in their shop.
Wei Zhi couldn't afford much of anything except food.
He did try to look for a job once, but they sent him away immediately when they found out he was from the slum.
He really couldn't blame them, because the slum was a place that would strip something from you and turn you away from humanity.
For Wei Zhi, it was his belief and dignity in being human.
Just thinking about that place made him start to tremble, and he felt like he couldn't breathe from the fear.
"You—" someone exclaimed beside him, frightened.
Wei Zhi turned to Mori Aoi, who looked so distressed that she was already crying.
Wei Zhi froze and snapped out of it.
"I'm okay," he said, rubbing her head.
Mori Aoi did not seem to believe him and looked at him suspiciously.
"I'm really…" he was about to convince her but was interrupted by her next action.
She rubbed his head awkwardly while looking away, obviously shy.
"It's okay," she mumbled, then moved away with her head down.
Wei Zhi looked at her with his mouth open, very shocked.
Then it was like something exploded in his chest and he directly ran away.
He literally ran past the shocked others to somewhere deep into the room.
"What's wrong with him?" Shae Harris laughed at the back of Wei Zhi.
"Did something happen?" Ming Jun said suspiciously.
"He just ran… I didn't do anything." Mori Aoi looked at Ming Jun with red eyes, feeling wronged.
"Of course you didn't, boys are just stupid that way." Shae Harris went up to her and hugged her.
Then Shae Harris glared at Ming Jun.
Ming Jun: wronged.
He huffed and rolled his eyes.
"It's kind of boring here, why don't we liven it up?" Shae Harris wanted to distract Mori Aoi, who was still gazing beyond them to see if Wei Zhi came back.
Her eyes were obviously getting distressed.
Shae Harris picked a random chip and inserted it into the speakers.
The music started, and she found the beat to be quite nice. So Shae Harris grabbed the dazed girl beside her and spun her around.
Then Shae Harris grabbed Ming Jun and spun him around too.
Then their hands were connected in a circle and continued to spin.
Noi Karn was dragged into it too.
Noi Karn had been standing peacefully, listening to a melody he had heard once from his mother.
That was before she tossed him into the slums because she felt he was a burden.
But even with that, he seemed to still like the song.
Maybe because it was the only time he felt happy.
It was the only memory of happiness—
The soft voice of his mother and her hands tucking him into the only bed in the single-room apartment.
The feel of her hands running across his hair.
Sometimes, Noi Karn wondered whether she was already plotting to abandon him at that moment.
And Noi Karn wondered why he didn't feel resentment, even if the answer to that question was yes.
Noi Karn did feel hatred in the beginning, but then he met the principal, so he ended up hating everything around him—
The eyes that could not see.
The clothes that he was forced to wear.
The subtle mock shown to him by his caregivers.
He felt that he had so much hatred in life that hating one less person wouldn't matter.
But mostly, he felt tired.
He was tired of hating everyone, so he let go of the hatred for his mother and focused on her song instead.
He wanted to listen to the full thing for the first time, but his mood was interrupted.
He was dragged by Shae Harris into a spin while party music was blaring from the speaker.
Then he was tossed around by the three of them until he got dizzy.
Well, it was mostly Shae Harris, who would grab him and another person together and spin them around.
"I think I'm going to puke," Ming Jun begged for forgiveness.
Then once he saw a chance, he grabbed Noi Karn, who was tossed to him, and retreated far away.
Shae Harris looked at the two boys guarding against her vigilantly while holding their mouths.
She rolled her eyes and turned to Mori Aoi, who had recovered from the dizziness.
Mori Aoi saw Shae Harris's bright look and begged for mercy.
"Why don't we do another dance?" Mori Aoi begged with tears.
"Oh— which one?" Shae Harris said excitedly.
"You guys should join in too." Mori Aoi turned to the two boys far away.
Ming Jun and Noi Karn: Sister Aoi, you've changed.
Both of them had crying expressions.
But they had to walk forward once they saw Shae Harris turn to them.
"It looks better only if it's a group," Mori Aoi said innocently.
Translation: We should all go down together.
"Sister Aoi is so nice," Ming Jun said with a face that seemed to be crying.
Translation: You became such a bad person.
"So where did you get this dance from?" Shae Harris asked curiously.
"My sister is a fan of a group, so she danced on live streams and I filmed," Mori Aoi said.
Then I did the editing and posting myself, but my sister didn't become popular because she isn't that good a dancer.
The others hummed and didn't ask anymore.
After all, they had a silent agreement to never ask about each other's past.
All they knew about each other was four things:
Name.
Age.
School.
And the fact that they all had a miserable life before this.
Now they wake up and have fun every day, so they don't want to remember who they were before this.
"Can I join too?" Wei Zhi appeared from somewhere and said sheepishly.
"So you finally decided to show up." Shae Harris rolled her eyes.
"I got lost," Wei Zhi said.
Puff—
Shae Harris laughed.
Ming Jun, on the other hand, looked at him warmly and slung a hand over his shoulder to drag him forward.
In his head, he thought that Wei Zhi shouldn't be given the space to run.
Wei Zhi understood the reason for his enthusiasm and rolled his eyes.
Wei Zhi didn't actually run that far but stood at a shelf behind them.
He watched Shae Harris toss them around and didn't dare to come out anymore, so the foot that stood out retracted.
Then he found that he was still feeling the aftereffect of the sudden spike in his heartbeat.
And it was only felt when he looked at Mori Aoi.
He didn't know why, but once he heard Mori Aoi speak about teaching them, his body had already reacted and he was standing in front of them.
At that moment, he walked over to her side and apologized sincerely.
"Since you apologized." Mori Aoi crossed her hands and hmphed.
Meanwhile, Wei Zhi felt very happy just because she forgave him.
They proceeded to arrange themselves in a straight line with Mori Aoi standing in front of them.
"That… can you close your eyes?" Mori Aoi felt uncomfortable with so many eyes on her.
She was reminded of all the disgust she would see in the eyes of her sister's friends as they bullied her.
"Then how would we learn?" Shae Harris was at a loss.
Mori Aoi bit her lips and felt bad immediately.
"I'm sorry," she muttered, about to cry.
Shae Harris was distressed and comforted her.
Wei Zhi was in even more distress, but he was also stunned at the thought he almost carried out.
He actually had the idea of hugging her.
Mori Aoi happened to meet his eye at that point, and the whole person suddenly looked more aggrieved.
Wei Zhi couldn't bear it and went to rub her head and wipe her tears with his sleeve.
Just then, the shadow cat appeared holding a phone.
It walked over to Mori Aoi and handed it to her.
At this moment, Mori Aoi stopped crying and looked at the cute cat.
Then she was completely hooked and giggled at the cat handing her the phone.
Wei Zhi rolled his eyes helplessly and finally wiped all the tears.
"This is it!" she exclaimed excitedly after checking out the phone.
Shae Harris and Wei Zhi, who were beside her, leaned in to look.
Ming Jun and Noi Karn, who were still stunned by her tears, got curious and came over.
On the screen of the phone was an idol group singing and dancing.