The month of dread

The April sun shines up in the crystal blue sky. The birds sing, and the flowers bloom as they release a sweet smell of perfume.
In the city of Seoul, South Korea. A large man in a jumpsuit approaches a large gate and stops before it. After fumbling with his shiny silver keys, he unlocks the gate and slides it to the right as he waits beside it.

Time passes, and students begin to come through the gate, all wearing a uniform in blue and black and a patch of the initials J.S. on their chest. Though among those students, there is a boy with short curly purple hair and skin so smooth that you would say it's the skin of a baby but so pale that you would say he is freezing. His soft, brown eyes are so gentle and sweet that you would say it's the ones of a puppy.
"A new semester of school. Oh boy!" He thinks to himself as a smile appears on his face from ear to ear.

"Hey, Mokoto!" A voice calls him from behind. He turns around and sees a tall boy with sharp blue eyes that you would say are staring right into your soul and short orange spiky hair. On his right arm, he wears a sports watch that looks to be from a brand.
"Oh, hey, Ronald!" Mokoto greets him with a wide smile. "Are you ready for a new semester of high school?"
"Hell yeah, I am ready!" Ronald exclaims with a smile, "I am ready to go on the track and start running!"
Mokoto puts his hand on his face as he smiles and chuckles a bit as Ronald smiles widely from ear to ear in excitement. Without notice, someone from behind shoves him so hard on Mokoto that it makes him almost fall.

Mokoto takes a glimpse of the person who shoved him as he sees a tall boy with short straight blonde hair with eyes sharp and black like the night that you would say he doesn't have eyes at all. His skin is also so rough that you would say a bolder would brake in contact with him.
The boy glances back at Mokoto. "Is there something wrong?" he asks as he raises his eyebrow.
Mokoto opens his mouth, ready to say something, but Ronald quickly puts his hand on his mouth " A-Ah there, is nothing, w-wrong Jake!" Ronald says, shaking in pure fear.
"Alright." He says as he gets lost in the crowd of students.

"Ronald, what the" Mokoto tries to say something, but Ronald suddenly speaks up."You don't know who you were about to talk back to!" Ronald's eyes widen in fear as he bites his fingernails.
"What?" Mokoto looks in shock at Ronald, who acts strange.
"Jake...is a thug. And a dangerous one at that." Ronald continues to speak as he looks back to see if Jake has entered the school. "He is known in his previous school for beating an entire group of delinquents in cold blood. Some were hospitalized, but some died because of their injuries."
Mokoto eyes widen in shock. He has heard of strong people but never imagined this strong, especially in real life. A thought came up in Mokoto mind as he began to compare Jake to "Jake" from the famous manhwa "Lookism."
"Are you sure he is not a sweet person in secret?" He asks in a tone of excitement

"Mokoto!" Ronald shouts, even frowning a bit at this remark, but can't help letting out a chuckle as he tries to stop himself from laughing.
"What did I say?" Mokot scratches his head and tilts it a bit in confusion.
Suddenly, the large man in a jumpsuit arrives behind them. "Excuse me, but didn't class start?", Mokoto and Ronald turn around and see the gym teacher as they turn around and see him smiling from ear to ear, but you can see his veins popping out of his forehead.

"We're sorry, mister!" Ronald and Mokoto shout as they bow, and they run away inside the school, go to class, and apologize to the teacher for being late.

Ronald and Mokoto sit at the same desk. The teacher begins to speak up to gather the attention of the students. "Class, since today is the first day of the new semester. I decided to go on a different approach. Today we are going talk about dreams, your guys' dreams!"
Immediately, a boy with short messy brown hair and round brown eyes like a puppy with glasses raises his hand without hesitation.
The teacher turns her head and looks at the student who raised their hands " Ok, you can go first, Jiah."

"My dream is to become a photographer!" He shouts as his eyes widen with determination and excitement as he lets out a grin from ear to ear.
"Very nice, Jiah. I wish you good luck!" The teacher exclaims as she smiles, happy about the answer. "Now, who wants to go next?"
"Oh, what the hell, I will go next," Ronald says with a kind smile as he raises his hand.

"Ok, then you go, next Ronald. But again, no SWEARING in my class." The teacher says as a small vein pops out on her forehead as she smiles kindly and warmly.

"Ok..so...my dream is to become a running athlete so that I would participate in the Olympics." Ronald says with a bright smile that goes from ear to ear.
"Oh! Very interesting! Good luck with your dream Ronald!" The teacher says as she lets out a bright smile because of the answer.
After Ronald's response, everyone in class began to get excited as they all raised their hands so that they would get picked to say their dreams.
The teacher carefully chose the student one by one to tell they're amazing dreams, but one student, Mokoto, was left last.
"Let's see who is left..." The teacher looks around the room, searching for who is left to tell their dreams. And then, she spots Mokoto out " Mokoto, it's your turn to tell your dream."

Mokoto fidgets his fingers, sweat running down his forehead. He tries to say something but immediately shuts himself as he turns his head and looks at Ronald smiling at him. Mokoto then, with the light of determination in front of him, begins to speak.
"M-My dream is..." Mokoto pauses as he takes a deep breath and releases it. "My dream is to become a detective."
The teacher's eyes widen in surprise. "Wow, that is a very nice dream, Mokoto. I hope you will reach it." The teacher says with a warm and kind smile as the bell rings.

"Ok, everyone, remember that we will continue classes tomorrow." The teacher says calmly as she leaves the classroom, her footsteps echoing through the hallways.
After the teacher left the now silent classroom, students began to communicate with each other, the sound of chattering coming from both classrooms and the hallway.
Ronald and Mokto get up from their desk.
"So, you gonna go to your mom's workplace after school?" Ronald asks as he raises his eyebrow and lets out a soft smile.
They are in front of the door, and Mokoto opens it by sliding it to the left.

"Yes, she will need more help today." Mokoto face frowns a bit as he smiles softly and gently from ear to ear. "So I promised her that I would go help her after school."
They walk down the hallway, and Ronald notices a poster about a running club. Mokto stops in his tracks as he looks back and sees Ronald staring at the poster as a big smile appears on his face from ear to ear.

"Eh? Something on your mind-" Mokoto is about to ask, but suddenly Ronald shouts loud, "I am gonna join that mother fucking club!" Ronald sprints off to the gym, dodging some students there, but at the same time, leaving a shocked and confused Mokoto behind.

Time passes, and the students prepare to leave. Mokoto and Ronald leave the school as they go through the gate and walk down the street.
"Hey, Ronald, where did you run off to?" Mokoto asks, raising an eyebrow and looks at Ronlad right in the eyes. "After you saw that poster, I was alone all day!"
"Ah, sorry about that. I was registering into the running club." Ronald looks at him with a warm, big smile from ear to ear.

"For a whole day?" Mokoto speaks loudly in his head as his eyes widen in shock, and his mouth opens a bit, being speechless.
They come across a crossroads with a snack shop near it, and they part ways and wave each other goodbye.
"Bye, Mokoto, see ya tomorrow!" Ronald says with his back turned and waves at Mokoto as he goes home.
"Bye, see you tomorrow!" Mokoto says as he waves at Ronald as his back is also turned at him.

Mokoto walks down the silent street. He observes the beautiful blue sky. He hears the sweet, beautiful song of the bird, and he can smell the sweet perfume of the flowers.
Mokot footsteps echo through the empty street as he finally arrives at a karaoke and looks around left and right. 
He opens the door as he walks through the hallway. He sees an older woman that looks to be in her 30s. She has long, straight purple hair and gentle blue eyes, and once you look at them, you can feel a sense of relaxation, and her skin is smooth but at the same time rough, and you would say this woman works harder than anybody, she also has some wrinkles on her face due because of her hard work.

"Oh, Mokoto, you came." The woman says in a calm tone.
"I made a promise that I'll help you today, didn't I, Mom?" Mokoto says as a warm smile appears on his face from ear to ear.
"Aww, you could've just gone home. There was no need to come." His mother smiles wormly but with a sad and worrying expression.
Mokoto glances behind his mother and sees the trolley that his mother uses to clean around the karaoke rooms. "Let me help you." He says, closing his eyes and letting out a smile out of kindness.

"Oh, Mokoto.." The mother looks saddened as she sees her son helping her. She can see a resemblance between him with his father, that is no longer with them.
Mokoto and his mother clean the rooms in karaoke as the now-red sun starts to set and the once-blue sky becomes blue like the ocean to a mix of orange, yellow and red. Mokoto and his mother leave the karaoke, and both begin to work up and tired as they breathe heavily from the hard work they have done in it.

They walk through the crowded street as they head back home, pushing and shoving against the crowd as they finally arrive at their house.
"Finally home!" Mokoto exclaims in his thoughts as he smiles happily from ear to ear. With a dash, he goes to his room and changes clothes immediately. After he changes into his casual clothes, a sense of drowsiness takes over his body as he falls flat on his bed and begins snoring loudly.

The next day, Mokoto walks through the street towards school and notices Ronald walking towards the same direction.
"Hey, Ronald!" Mokoto shouts as he can and begins dashing towards Ronald. He notices Mokto, so he starts running towards the school Mokoto tries to catch up with him, but he is too fast for him.
"Man, what is with him today?" He breathes heavily. Not being used to running this much in his whole life made him tired and sweaty.
Mokoto walks to school, looking down at the ground as several questions pop into his head. Why did he run away, did something happen yesterday, did he find new friends?

Mokoto arrives at school, his face still looking down at the ground, but he notices in the corner of his eyes that people are looking at him with fear as if he had killed someone.
"What the hell is going on?" He thinks, still looking at the ground as sweat pours down his forehead when suddenly something heavy and fast hits Mokoto's stomach.

Mokoto coughs as he clutches his stomach and looks with eyes about to close in pain at the person who punched him.
It was a delinquent of the school, "Heh, not so very strong, huh? I guess he's just a weakly pale boy." he begins to let out a chuckle, then a grin from ear to ear as he continues to beat him up with a bunch of kicks from his right leg.
Mokoto feels the kicks, some land in his stomach area, but some can land right on the ribs. His vision get's blurry, and the place becomes darker and darker as he passes out, but his beaten doesn't stop, as the last thing he hears is the delinquent laughing and chuckling.

Mokoto finds himself in the nurse's office, as his eyes suddenly open, and he begins to hold his chest with one hand and pant loudly.
Mokoto gets out of bed, but his stomach hurts like as if he was stabbed with a knife. He continues to pant till his phone lights up with a notification. He quickly checks it out and sees a video of a delinquent.

In the video, a delinquent at his school reviews the best ways to beat up scrawny-looking guys Mokoto realizes that the video happens in an alleyway. Where in the background, the karaoke was seen in plain sight. It continues with the delinquent blabbering about how to beat a scrawny guy When he suddenly notices Mokoto in the background and tells Jiah, who is filming, to zoom in.

Mokoto stops watching the video. With a sad expression, his eyes water and tears pour down from his eyes. He already saw the video of almost ten thousand views.
"God damn it...why...?" He whispers to himself as he feels a great sense of dread and misfortune has fallen onto him while his eyes also water more as tears pour from his now-red eyes.

 The passing days are torture for Mokoto as he is beaten up every day, humiliated and made fun of. And because of him having pale skin, the bullies and thugs called him "Pale kid". Even Ronald, his best friend, ignores him as he gets badly beaten up, as Mokoto is filled with dread.

On April 29th, something strange happened.
Mokoto is being beaten up by some thugs and delinquents near the karaoke where his mother works at.
"Hey, isn't this where pale boy's mother works at?" One of the delinquents as he lets out a devilish grin from ear to ear as he raises one of his eyebrows.
"Oh yeah! Wait, it is! Haha!" One of the thugs lets out a loud chuckle.
Mokoto, even with a plumped-up, the face looks at the thugs and delinquents as his face changes into an expression of sadness, paranoia and fear.
One of the thugs looks at Mokoto and says to the group. "Should we beat up that old hag too?"

Mokoto expression changes into anger as he frowns and clenches his teeth. And the delinquents and thugs laugh and chuckle at his face. He tries to get up, but they all just beat him up more, kicking him and throwing rocks at him as they go into the karaoke.
Mokoto watches in horror as his eyes widen in fear as he hears his mother scream, as he brings all his strength to go in but can't. His body is too bruised and broken to even get up as the sound stop, and he watches in horror as his eyes water and tears pour down his eyes.

The next day Mokoto approaches his school, which is now empty. He wanders around the halls as he is dressed in a black suit, his eyes which were once soft and gentle, now dead and cold, as if someone killed him and he was now just a corpse that wandered around.
He arrives at the rooftop as he approaches the edge of it. "Well...I guess this is it." he sighs as he takes one jump.

He wakes up in a dark area with no life and no light. He floats around nothingness, and his mind goes blank with just questions.
"Is this the afterlife?" He thinks to himself, not sure of what this place is.
Suddenly a burst of light beings out of nowhere. Startling him just a bit as the once-dark void lights it up in pure white before noticing a pair of wings and an eye in the centre of it all, and it began to speak with him.

"Greeting there, mortal. My name is Amazu, the goddess of rebirth and gifts!" The voice of the goddess echoes through the void.
Mokoto eyes widen in shock as he tries to say something, but his voice won't come out.
"Now I have to congratulate you, mortal." The goddess continues to speak. "You are the first person in thousands of years to have been selected by me, to be brought back to life. So I will give you an ability you wouldn't forget." The goddess says as he eye begins to glow a gold colour.
"Wait, so this means.." Mokto thinks to himself, his eyes still widening in shock. "I can prevent the month of dread?!"

The gold colour engulfs the entire void as Mokoto eyes slowly open, the sun of April shines in the crystal blue sky, and the birds sing a beautiful melody. As the flowers bloom, they release a sweet sense of perfume.

"W-Wait!" Mokoto thinks to himself as his eyes widen in shock. He checks his phone real quick and sees that the date is.
Mokoto looks at the school and begins to let out a grin from ear to ear. "I will not let this opportunity go to waste!" He talks to himself as he takes his first step into the school's new semester again, to prevent the so infamous month for him...the month....of dread.