#Corestory is a community collaboration, written by Steemit's fiction writers.
Chapter One - Part I; Written by 
Chapter One - Part II; Written by 
Chapter One - Part III; Written by 
On arriving at the bus stop, ten minutes later, Korede could not remember the journey there. He had been so abstracted by uninvited curiosities of the macabre dream he had the night before, that he was unable to pay any mind to his immediate surroundings.
Had it not been for the group of young boys at the bus stop, huddled around a phone and laughing hysterically, Korede thought he would likely have continued on past his stop without even seeing it.
Their enthusiastic laughter rescued him from his imagination, and immersed him back within the realm of reality. After overhearing the cause of their hysterics, however, Korede wished he could return to his thoughts of last night's disturbing dream.
There was no mistaking it. The boys were watching that same viral video that had been the source of Korede's motivation to get fit. He failed to comprehend how anyone could find it funny.
"Music. That's what I need," he thought, feeling a little proud of himself. That pride was promptly extinguished upon realising that he had yet again forgotten his ear phones.
"Great!" Korede mocked himself. It was about a twenty minute bus ride to his university, and now there would be no chance of escaping his mind during the journey.
"Oi, mate," one of the boys called out from behind him.
Korede's body was overrun with a sudden spate of terror. He wondered if he was about to receive a leading role in the next viral video. Without his permission, his spine began to arch as his hips moved forward to escape the arm that he knew was about to grab him.
"Mate!"
This time the voice sounded much louder-- and a lot closer. Korede spun around swiftly, taking a step backwards and widening his stance, ready to defend himself. This is what he had been training for, and a surge of adrenaline replaced his fear with a desire to put his new skills to the test.
"What on Earth is wrong with me today?" Korede thought as he realised how greatly he had overreacted. The boys had not moved closer. They were still at the corner of the bus shelter. The only thing that had changed was that, instead of laughing at the video on one of their phones, they were now laughing at him and the cowardly jump he had taken backwards away from them.
"Do you know when the next bus is?" One of them asked, his words muffled with laughter.
Korede was overcome with a crippling embarrassment. With a voice fractured by shame, he offered a reply.
"It should be here in a min--"
"Never mind," the same boy replied as he began to look past Korede and into the distance.
The sound of the bus approaching from behind filled Korede's ears, and he began a silent prayer. He prayed that there would be enough seats available on the bus that he wouldn't have to endure the ridicule of being forced to sit next to them.
