Midas

'Jin Yown, as you already know, your grades haven't been the best since the past few years, and as your teacher, I believe that it is my responsibility to help- do you have to go somewhere?'

Jin, who had stood up from his seat, shoved his cold hands in his pockets as his eyes shuffled on the ground. 'I'm sorry sir, but I have tuition,' he muttered, and then took off without warning.

He glanced at the sky. It was lavender. Jin's jog trailed off to a slouched walk. There was lively chatter around him. An old lady was walking with her grandson, who held a grocery bag. A few women were walking together, arms linked and laughing. Children were running around playing tag. 

'Did you hear about Midas' new adventure?' one said.

'Are you kidding? Of course I saw it! He looked super cool too! He caught Galacto by the back and kicked him halfway across the country!'

'Boom-bash!' they giggled. One of them stumbled into Jin. His wallet dropped. The kid kept laughing into his friend.

Jin picked his wallet back up. The sky was purple.

He stepped into the lift of his building. It was an old thing, with scratched metal walls and creaky doors. Still, it made some effort to be a good host to its occupants by playing an old watered down melody. Jin hauled his bag further up his shoulder as he waited for the music to end. 

When he had first taken the apartment, the music had startled him. A few weeks later it frustrated him. Unsurprisingly, a month later, he caught himself humming along to it. 

His apartment wasn't all that different from the lift. There was moss on the window sills, webs on the threshold and dust on the walls. His only furniture, the desk, was clattered with newspaper cutouts, half empty takeout and miscellaneous stationary. 

Jin dropped his bag and went to his mirror. 

'Is today the day?' he asked.

'No' the mirror said. Jin nodded absently. He kicked a nearby pile of clothes and on afterthought, picked them up to get changed. 

The bruise in his back was sporting well. A red flower. In the dim light of his bathroom, it almost looked purple. Jin never knew how to handle bruises. He wasn't sure he wanted to handle them. He wasn't sure he wanted them to heal. 

He bought out a ceap waxy ointment and pressed it into whatever skin he could reach. Jin tore some gauze and wrapped it around himself as best he could. With aching muscle and aching pains, he crawled into bed, his eyes empty.

The next day, his teacher tried to rope him into the class discussion of 'Is Midas really the good guy?'

'Is really cool that we have a superhero though, innit?' a boy chimed in.

'Doesn't get cool when said superhero tries to bash in your homes' a girl shot back. 

Jin slunk in the shadows. He could feel them gearing up for a debate. 

'Not sure that matters if he beat up a guy who tried to explode a city' the boy said stiffly.

The girl scoffed. 'Are you talking about Galacto?'

'Which other supervillain do you see terrorizing the city?'

The situation got Jin off the teacher's radar as he tried to calm them down. The rest of the day at school went just as well.

As he was leaving, the boy from earlier bumped into him. 

'Ah, sorry man, ' he said, picking up the wallet that had dropped. Jin didn't even notice. 

'Whoa, this is really light dude!'

Jin smiled. 'It's made of styrofoam leather.'

'That's a thing!?'

'It is.'

'Yeah right bro.'

'I could buy you one of you want.'

'Wait for real?'

'Sure.'

'Is today the day?' 

The mirror grumbled. 'Yes,' it said, 'reach within.'

Jin could feel a long lost adrenaline starting to pump through him. He dipped his hand in the mirror, snatching it back out before it silvered. In his fist was Galacto's suit .

He did promise the guy a gift.