Chapter 2: Strange Animals (part 1)
After surviving another 'perfectly normal' day at KPDH School, the Saja boys marched home in their usual chaotic formation. Walking along with them were Rumi, Mira, Zoey, and Irin – Jinu's younger sister and part-time chaos observer.
Rumi had enjoyed yet another excellent day. She had just received another batch of academic awards. She stopped counting after she hit one thousand, because at that point, numbers became meaningless. Naturally, none of this surprised anyone: Rumi was a top-tier student in every field, and the only honored one in the class, the school, the district, the city, and – rumors say – the whole country.
She got invited to skip grades more often than Abby breaks a sweat (which is, tragically, every ten minutes), but she always refused. Aunt Celine's "serious personal training program" was already enough trauma for one lifetime.
Everything was great ... aside from the usual crashing of floor tiles and earthquake-like noises from Mr. Gwi-ma's classroom next door.
Rumi tilted her head, watching Jinu sulk by the gate with a face so long it could sweep the whole floor.
"I thought Jinu studied well for that exam...? Why does he look like someone stole his soul now?"
She jump-scared him—as usual—and nearly made him eject his heart into low orbit.
'Did you see his face?'
'Yeah. Minus one million auras. Classic Rumi effect.'
'Ha! Now he's not depressed anymore.'
'Right, it's now depressed and terrified. A perfect combo.'
The 'depressed + terrified' Jinu they were commenting on had gone spiritually offline. Honestly, nobody withstands Rumi's jump-scares without at least temporarily exiting their body. Jinu had simply ... adapted. Slightly. Very slightly.
As the group chatted their way down the sidewalk, Mystery suddenly tripped and crashed forward – after catching his foot on the corner of a small cardboard box hidden beneath a bunch of bushes. (To be fair, he had been too busy glaring at the neighborhood dog to notice where he was walking.)
'What's in that box?'
'Probably junk they threw out.' – Jinu takes a guess.
'Definitely something heavy,' - Abby added, flexing his biceps dramatically – 'Mystery couldn't move it. Probably because he lacks the muscles I clearly have.' He flexed again. Nobody asked him to.
'Maybe it's just old books. My recycling box last year was so heavy I had to drag it on a trolley.'
...
The Saja boys then began arguing loudly, passionately, and uselessly – as usual. Their debate was so intense that they went temporarily deaf and completely missed the suspicious rustling noises coming from inside the box.
The girls exchanged one look – a synchronized expression that clearly said: 'Useless. All of them.'
Without waiting for the boys to finish their trash-talking competition, the girls crouched down, pulled the box out from under the thick branches, and began opening it. The foliage made it tricky, but at least they were doing something productive.
Meanwhile, the boys were still arguing like the box's contents would personally haunt them at night. (Which is funny, because most of them don't have enough brain cells to worry.)
Finally, the box opened.
Inside was ... well, a small brown cat (maybe?) and a black bird (probably???).
The 'cat' was absolutely filthy, its fur sticking out everywhere – but its large, dopey eyes gave it the dumbest expression imaginable. It was also noticeably bigger than the average stray cat, which made Rumi raise an eyebrow for half a second.
The 'bird', meanwhile, looked too weak to stand properly. It shuffled a little, exhausted but alive.
Both animals were thin, starving, and clearly abandoned – but at least neither had visible injuries.
The girls immediately felt a wave of sympathy.
The boys immediately felt ... nothing, because they were still arguing.
---------------------------------------------------------------
For Jinu's younger sister, I don't want to call her "Jinu's younger sister" so I've put down the name Irin (which means 'beautiful/graceful and precious gem/brightness/purity')
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen3h.Co