I don't belong here

Wong Ha Jung

In his free time, Wong Ha Jung liked to walk around the hallways and wave at the random people that he saw there. Sometimes, he found that all it took was a smile and a greeting to make somebody's day and it made him happier to see other people become happier. It was nicer, in his opinion, to see people brighten outside of the range of Vermillion Summer. It usually meant that their feelings would last longer than if they had started inside of the bubble.

Today he found himself by the admissions office, not a place that he normally frequented but then again he was kind of new to the Academy anyways. There simply hadn't been enough time for him to wander over until that point. Curiously, he glanced into the office. He always liked to meet new people and he supposed that many new students would understandably be a little dazed by the transition over. Wong Ha Jung certainly was when somebody other than his family recognized his powers for what they were for the first time.

Inside of the office, there was a pale-skinned girl with a streak of green running through her hair. Her fingers were tapping against the armrest of the chair in boredom or maybe nervousness. She looked as if she had been there for a little while, staring absently at something. Wong Ha Jung checked the hallway to see if anybody in particular was coming for her but it didn't look as if anybody was.

Well, here goes! he decided as he entered the room. There was nothing especially pressing for him to do that day anyways and even if there was, barring some kind of emergency or pink slip warning, Wong Ha Jung always counted human -demonic, spiritual, angelic, animal, sentient, etc., what have you- interactions higher up on his list of priorities.

"Hello!" he said. "How are you today? Is there anything I can help you with?"

Wong Ha Jung

He blinked a little in confusion at the girl's outburst and the obvious relief that was in her voice. "I'm sorry?" Wong Ha Jung said as she flopped back into her seat. He edged a little closer to her, so that she was included into the perimeters of Vermillion Summer. He wasn't wearing his glasses or contacts so he had to squint to see her face, and the disappointment on it, more clearly.

"Are you a student here?" he asked her. "I'm sorry, I don't recognize you." Even though he had only had sessions with a few students so far, he was around the school enough that he was familiar with a fair number of faces. Or, well. Not so much faces as slightly blurred blobs with hair. He squinted at the girl again for a moment before smiling.

"I'm Wong Ha Jung," he introduced himself with a short bow. "I'm not sure what you're waiting for but seeing as I'm on the staff, I'm sure I can help some how."

Wong Ha Jung

Letter of rejection? he thought, wracking his mind for any information about the admission process that he might have heard. It wasn't much. There was some sort of way that was used to seek out people with unusual powers and abilities. Nobody talked about the details very much, it just seemed to happen in some way. Letters were sent out inviting individuals to the island, and then they got to choose whether to go or not.

Granted, it wasn't a perfect process. If it was, then Wong Ha Jung should have gotten his own letter at least a decade earlier. And I probably would have rejected it, he admitted. The childhood that he had was blessed in more ways than he could count and he treasured it entirely.

"It's nice to meet you, Xenia," Wong Ha Jung said kindly. "But I'm rather confused by what you're saying. As far as I know, the Academy doesn't send out rejection letters, only acceptances. It's a rather closed community, so it's careful not to open itself up needlessly by contacting people who only might have powers. Or unusual abilities, or unusual pasts. It's a little vague, honestly, and somebody should really go about rewriting those letters so it's more clear." He chuckled before continuing.

"The only rejection that matters in this situation is your own. As long your powers are under control, I don't think anybody will keep you from leaving if you want to." He looked her up and down. Xenia didn't look as if she had any powers but then again, most people at the Academy didn't. She had the appearance of somebody who would fit in just fine. "Special is a word that I always hesitate to use, and I certainly don't agree with its use the invitations. In most cases, it seems to imply that something is better than others or that something is the only one of its kind. It isolates things and people, basically. I won't use it for anybody on this island either. It's such a lonely word, and it goes against what the Academy is for."

"So," he smiled, "please understand that here you really are just like everybody else here. I don't know what powers or abilities you might have. You might not even either; some people's are just dormant or not readily obvious like that. I hope, however, that whatever it is, you'll be happy here. Or back home, if that's what you really want. I think that you should give this place a chance, though. You're already here, after all."

Wong Ha Jung

"Ah, that's actually kind of complicated," Wong Ha Jung said sheepishly as he sat down next to Xenia. He was glad to see that she looked much happier than before. Sometimes it really did just take some words to do that. So, she'll give the Academy a chance, then? He hoped so.

"I'm actually not a professor," he admitted. "I was asked if I could teach psychology and some languages but the headmistress never followed up on it. Classes seem to come and go based on interest, so I can only assume that something fell through and they don't need anymore teachers for those. In any case, I was hired primarily as a counselor." One of the only ones, he didn't say. There was no need to worry her about it.

He smiled, shrugging. "I taught high school psychology for two years before this. It was an interesting experience. Maybe I'll get that chance again sometime but that's not quite the position I had intended for myself anyway. The counseling job was what I really wanted and I'm happy to have gotten it."

Wong Ha Jung

Ah, that's good. How much a person asked about powers or not was always a good indicator of how comfortable they were becoming with the idea. As he had thought earlier, it seemed like Xenia would take to the Academy rather well.

"I don't mind if you ask," Wong Ha Jung reassured her. "It's a question that you hear pretty frequently here. Most people here do have some sort of power, teachers included, and it's rare that you find somebody who has an obvious one."

"Mine's kind of a strange one," he said with a light laugh. He indicates towards his head. "The side effects turn my hair into strange colors. This is really supposed to be black. As for the main part of it," he trailed off thoughtfully. He could never be certain how people would react to knowing that their emotions were nudged. Some people didn't mind it since Vermillion Summer didn't do any harm. Others felt somewhat violated by it.

Wong Ha Jung decided to be forward with Xenia. She had asked point blank, after all. "There's two parts to it. One of them is called Vermillion Summer and the other is White Autumn. I based the names off the Chinese constellations but it sounds kind of lame when you translate it over to English. The explanation on how they work is pretty long so I'll just summarize. They're both emotion focused powers but I don't use White Autumn very often. It's more of a fail safe than anything else, honestly." He shrugged in a What can you do? manner.

"Vermillion Summer makes people feel more positive. Ah, sorry." He ducked his head sheepishly. "If that makes you uncomfortable, I can move away a few feet. I can't actually turn it off-" unless he really wanted to put himself into a coma -"but the range isn't so large. If it helps any, though, I can't force you to think things that you wouldn't have been able to think up on your own."