The Labyrinth of Freedom

Jayu arose from his sleep and found that his arms were being restrained by two chains. He stood up and realized that he was standing atop of the planet and one of his hands was chained to the United States and the other one to North Korea. Jayu wrestled with the chains until the point of exhaustion. “Somebody, help me!!!!! Please! I’m bound and can’t get loose! Is there anybody out there?!” Jayu bellowed. Jayu thrashed in his bed and woke up startled from the dream and felt his shirt and his bed sheets drenched in sweat. That was a pretty bad dream he thought. He stumbled towards his dresser took off his shirt and changed into a fresh one. When he turned around, he accidently knocked the plate of cookies onto the floor. He growled, but was too lazy to clean up the cookies. Jayu hopped back into his sweaty bed and suffered a restless night of sleep. While staring at the ceiling, his alarm went off. Jayu performed his normal routine on a school morning and headed out the door into a dark and brisk morning. During his classes, Jayu was overwhelmed by tiredness and fell asleep in each one of his classes. In fact, in one of his classes, he slept through the entire lesson and missed the pop quiz at the end of the class. “Please, can I make up the quiz? My grade can’t afford to suffer” Jayu pleaded. “I’m sorry, but you should have stayed awake. I’m not going to reward you for irresponsible behavior” the teacher explained. Jayu sulked for the rest of the day. Chungseong tried to create conversation at lunch, but Jayu was unresponsive and didn’t touch his lunch. Jayu returned home at the end of the day, miserable. His parents tried to talk to him and figure out what was going on, but Jayu ignored his parents. He slammed his door and stayed in his room. While debating whether to do homework or not, Jayu heard a knock at the front door, heard the door open and fragments of the dialogue that proceeded it. When he finally made an effort to open his backpack to start his homework he felt a light tap on his shoulder. Anger built inside Jayu and he screeched “What is it now?!” He turned around to see Chungseong horrified by his outburst and frozen in fear. “Uh, I was just wondering if you wanted to go for a walk tonight, maybe pick up some ice cream on the way my treat.” “No, thanks I’ll pass.” Chungseong frowned when he heard this and forcefully grabbed Jayu’s arm and attempted to pull him out of his room. At this point, Jayu’s anger was at its boiling point. “Get off of me!” “Not until you come with me! You’re stressed out and need to relax!” “Alright, that’s it. You’ve asked for it Chungseong!” Jayu immediately kicked Chungseomg in the stomach. He grunted and fell to the ground. Jayu turned around to face Chungseong, Chungseong was gasping for air when he was hit by a hard punch to the face. He fell backwards and hit his head on the wall. There was a loud booming sound and Jayu could hear the feet of his parents as they were rushing to his room. They burst into Jayu’s room and Huimang shrieked “What is going on!” Chungseong finally caught his breathe and managed to say “I was trying to help Jayu take his mind off of school for a little bit and relax, but he attacked me!” “No one will leave me alone! Everyone is probing into my business!” At this, Chungseong lifted his head, and Jayu noticed that Chungseong had a black eye, a bloody nose and mouth, and to top it off a considerable amount of swelling on his face. Chungseong shot Jayu a look of irritation and brushed past Jayu’s parents to run out the door. On-Yu tried to catch up to him, but he slammed the door before she could reach him. While Jayu was watching what was happening, he was startled by a swift smack to the face by his father. “I don’t ever what to hear of this again. Do you understand me!? What you did was selfish and cruel. You need to apologize to Chungseong.” His father closed the door and Jayu was left to think about his actions. I didn’t hit him that hard did I? I only intended to jab his face, but I guess my anger got the best of me. Jayu carelessly did his homework and contemplated his actions for the rest of the night. Jayu looked for Chungseong all over school for the rest of the week. He was nowhere to be found. Jayu walked down the hallways of his school by himself. Chungseong was his only friend since everyone else he met thought that he was either a weirdo or a hothead. When he walked the hallways he could hear his fellow classmates whispering, “Did you hear what happened to Chungseong? He was beaten up by his supposed to be friend Jayu.” “I can’t believe it. Chungseong is such a nice guy, and he’s Jayu’s only friend. Why would Jayu do such a thing?” How did the news spread? If I didn’t tell anyone, and if Chungseong hasn’t been in school Jayu thought. At least I haven’t seen him in school. Maybe he’s avoiding me and telling people about what happened. Jayu discarded the thought, he knew Chungseong would never do that. Jayu visited Chungseong’s house every day, but no one ever answered the door. Jayu knew that his parents worked long hours, and probably were not home. He deduced that Chungseong was not coming to the door. Jayu followed the same routine, he would go to school and look for Chungseong, visit his house after school, and come home to his furious parents who would scold him for not apologizing.