The Year 2090.
An elevated railway stretched across the city skyline, complete with hovering trains gliding above it. The glittering skyscrapers sparkled beneath the sunlight, making anyone who looked at them feel as though their eyes were burning from the beauty.
The busway that entered apartment buildings stood ready to pick up anyone waiting inside. Advanced smartphones could operate without being touched, while computers had surpassed the limits of human ability and helped people with their artificial intelligence.
Robots worked in companies just like human employees. Highways could even shift automatically to avoid unwanted accidents.
Everything mentioned above had never existed.
The Year 2090 was like a temporary hell on Earth. Instead of luxury sweeping over the world, chaos had descended upon it.
Chaos was everywhere. Crime, robbery, kidnapping, mass torture, bloodshed, and countless other forms of criminality had become daily fare across every corner of the globe.
Hospitals were packed every day. Some of them were even unable to accommodate patients in need of care. As a result, people died sprawled across the streets every day, sometimes for the most trivial reasons.
A peaceful life surrounded by advanced technology was nothing more than a fantasy from ancient times. The reality was completely opposite. Managing to survive amid the chaos of this aging world would be both an honor and a stroke of luck for all humanity.
And yet, amid all the chaos, life on Earth continued as usual. Government workers who labored tirelessly and gave all their strength to the state, laborers who broke their backs at work to support their families, and children who went to school in uniforms with backpacks full of books.
Murder in workplaces and schools had become daily fare. The prisons were too crowded, and in the end, countless criminal offenders still roamed freely throughout the city.
Utopia High School was no exception. One of the high schools in the middle of the city had turned into a breeding ground for crime.
Every day, people came and went through Utopia High School for criminal reasons. Of all the classes at Utopia High School, one of them was different.
Perhaps it was the only class that never caused trouble or chaos, even though every member of it carried the label of being cut off from the rest. It was the class in the farthest back corner, far from all the criminal cases.
Even now, while the other classrooms echoed with fistfights, none of it affected 11th-Grade Science Class 5 in that back corner.
One of its students, seated in the front row directly before the teacher's desk, focused his gaze on the classroom door, which stood wide open. His blond hair swayed in the gust of wind blowing through it.
He was trying to make sure the teacher assigned to their class would be arriving soon. Instead, the boy found something else—something far too strange and abnormal, at least to eyes that had already seen so much of the world.
“Res! What are you looking at?”
A bald student eating a chocolate wafer shouted, asking the boy named Ares what he was staring at.
Ares slowly shook his head. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”
The bald boy wasn’t satisfied. He sneered. “Oh, come on, you’re lying. Is it the teacher?”
Ares shook his head again. “Seriously, it’s not. I thought I saw...”
The girl with a ponytail sitting beside the bald boy grew curious too. “Saw what, Res? Don’t leave us hanging.”
The boy swallowed with difficulty. “Something that didn’t look human...”
The entire class, which had apparently been listening to their conversation all along, burst out laughing.
“You mean a ghost? Don’t be weird—”
“No!”
The boy was about to explain what he had seen, but a female teacher had already stepped into the classroom.
The teacher smiled sweetly. The entire class smiled too, because the beautiful teacher before them was the best teacher of all—their homeroom teacher, Mrs. Riana.
The whole class fell silent and watched. The bald boy cursed under his breath, feeling cheated. He thought Ares had actually seen Mrs. Riana earlier but simply refused to admit it.
“Okay, class. I know it’s not time for me to come in and teach yet, but I’m here because I have some good news for you.”
The entire class held its breath.
“You’re getting a new classmate.”
The room remained silent. The teacher sighed. “Good grief. Come on, kids, give me an excited response.”
Only then did the entire class cheer. The teacher could only shake her head. She turned toward the classroom door. “You can come in and introduce yourself, dear.”
A boy appeared. He walked in with confident strides and stopped right in front of the blackboard.
The entire class fell silent, waiting for their new classmate to speak. A few students had already started whispering because the boy at the front of the room was undeniably handsome.
His hair was dark brown. His face was striking, with equally sharp eyes. His irises were perfectly round and emerald green. They were mesmerizing.
The boy slipped his hands into the large pocket of the dark green hoodie he was wearing.
His thick eyebrows slanted sharply downward. Then he parted his lips slightly to introduce himself.
“Hi.”
That was all. Several students immediately returned his exceedingly stiff greeting.
But then the boy with the emerald irises smiled broadly, and the entire class was nearly spellbound.
“I’m Rajawali.”
The boy named Rajawali pulled one hand free and awkwardly placed it behind his head, looking a little embarrassed.
“You can call me Raja.”
Before the students could greet Raja, the teacher, who had remained standing behind Rajawali, spoke up.
“That’s enough for a brief introduction. You can get to know him better during recess. The math teacher will be here soon. You all know what that means, right?”
The entire class suddenly looked dejected. Math wasn’t that bad, but what made them dread it was the teacher, who was absolutely terrifying.
“Raja, you can sit behind Ares. Ares, can you raise your hand?”
Ares immediately raised his hand.
Rajawali looked at him, and the instant their eyes met, Rajawali felt something.
Something he couldn’t explain in words. Then, when Rajawali turned away and shifted his attention to the classmate beside him, he felt that strange sensation again.
The girl who would soon become Rajawali’s deskmate fell silent too, unable to say a word.
Rajawali walked over and sat down beside the short-haired girl.
The two of them were caught in a somewhat awkward atmosphere.
Rajawali didn’t know why. Neither did Ares or the girl. But they all knew one thing: the fleeting feeling they had experienced earlier was not ordinary.