~⧪~~⧪~~⧪~~⧪~~⧪~⧪~~⧪~~⧪~~

If I were to say where everything started, it would be the moment she walked into the classroom with her strong, authoritarian aura that forces us to fixate our eyes towards the front.

To be honest, I couldn’t care less about a new person transferring in.

To me, it’s just a plain nuisance that would potentially wreck the life I’ve strived to keep.

Despite saying all that, my eyes trace her every movement.

“—!”

With every step she takes towards the center of the elevated platform, I feel the air of the classroom grow thinner, making it increasingly more difficult to breathe.

Shifting my gaze away felt impossible with the strong, resolute aura around her basically telling us, “I’m here now. Focus on me.”.

As if on cue, a gentle breeze comes flying through an open window, causing her semi-long, auburn hair to look like it’s floating in the wind. Her uniform flutters along too.

It’s a uniform I’ve never seen in my life before but one look at it and it’s clear that it’s from a prestigious school. A long, bright blue scarf wraps loosely around her neck. It can ruin the aesthetic of the wearer, but with such an entrance, it’s impossible to imagine her not to have a similar grand entrance with any other outfit.

Seconds feel like minutes as we wait for words to come out of her mouth.

Finally setting her feet at the center of the podium in a firm stance, she lifts her hair back over her shoulder.

Everything about her seems like something straight out of a fairy tale.

A fairy tale that I want no part of.

The way she looks, the way she moves, even the way her hair flows in the breeze. She is the closest thing we can get to perfection in this world.

Everything.

Everything about her—

“My name is .It’s a pleasure to meet you all!”

—could change the life I strive to keep forever.

A beautiful girl stands before the class with an intimidating yet, weirdly calm aura surrounding her.

She’s perfect. There’s no denying that. But, why do I feel like I hate her?

Everything about her screams disaster and irregularity.

My brain is screaming at me to get up and run as far away as possible, but my legs beg to differ. It’s as if my brain has lost all motor senses of my body. At the moment, it feels like something else has taken over and rendered all movements useless.

I force my eyes to break away from her magnetic hold and look at the others just to see that everyone has the same helplessly awestruck expressions on their faces. All she did was say a few words, were we all captivated by just that?

“Is Alexis absent today? That’s a first. Well, since there’s no extra table for you at the moment, you can take the seat next to Michael at the back for now.”

The only one who seems unaffected is the teacher standing a few feet away from her. Everyone else looks like chunks of flesh and bones, unable to move a muscle, except their necks as their heads follow her every step.

By the time she reaches the empty table, I catch her taking a quick glance my way.

Cold.

She places her small school bag flat on the table and sits herself down on Alexis’ chair. All the while fixing her hair up into a ponytail.

My eyes are still focused on her. I am unable to shift my attention away even if I were to sell my soul to the devil. Not even he can do anything about the cement around my neck.

“Hey,”she calls out to me. “Pleasure to meet you, I’m .”

“...”

Huh?

Did she just introduce herself?

Then… Why wasn’t I able to hear anything resembling a name?

“I hope we can get along well!”

The air around me is still thin as I am unable to say a word in response. All I could do in return is half a nod.

After a couple seconds, I manage to regain control of my neck again just to look around and see everyone staring at me as if I stole all their candy. They're all staring daggers into my body as I lay my head down on the table to avoid this unwanted attention.

I didn’t even do anything! What’s with this murderous intent all targeted towards me all of a sudden?

With silence filling the room, our teacher finds the perfect opportunity to start his lesson as he takes one big clap to get the attention of everyone in the classroom and asks about our plans for the upcoming school festival.

Since it’s the week after the exams, we haven’t begun planning for the festival yet. After explaining, the student council president, Zander, walks up to the elevated platform and takes the stage as if he wasn’t rooted to his seat just moments ago.

These things have never really been a strength of mine. Planning big events like this is one of the many things you would almost never see me participating in as it requires plenty of preparations beforehand, not to mention that working alongside other people is necessary for this too, usually in those dreadful things called “groups”.

While watching them throw out ideas left and right, my chin rests on my hands with little to no idea about what was going on. I can't just block out the things being said, as with Zander in-charge, it’s only natural that he’d put me somewhere that’s convenient… or wherever he thinks would be the most entertaining for him.

Besides that, I have more important things to worry about.

“How about you, ? Do you have any ideas you’d like to share?” Zander asks as he looks over to the girl in Alexis’ seat.

There it is again, or should I say, the lack of it?

“W-wha… I don’t really know much about these things. Hehe…”, she lets out a little laugh.

Apparently that one little line she said manages to capture everyone’s hearts as all of their faces look flustered. Do they really think of her as that much of a beauty?

I for one, don’t see anything eye-catching about her other than that out-of-place bright blue scarf around her neck and an unfamiliar uniform. I was just taken aback just like everyone else earlier, that’s all.

But still…

I catch myself glancing to my left again to see her looking around the classroom all happy and smiling. Just her presence is enough to cover my entire field of vision as I am unable to see through the many windows behind her.

There seems to be a black hole inside of her. Not for light, but for attention. The gravity of her beauty is enough to pull dozens, if not a hundred pairs of eyes and strip them of the ability to look away.

My eyes are unfortunately stuck looking at her again, a view that for some reason does not feel repetitive at all. It’s a view I can look at all day for days on end and still find something new each time. That’s how… painfully interesting this person is next to me.

“Aren’t you going to participate or somethin’? I dunno how I should feel about you starin’ at me like that, y'know.”

“Does everyone from the city sound like that?” I mutter without hesitating.

It was a sudden and insensitive question out of the blue, but she tilts her head to the side slightly and lets out another soft giggle.

“No, they don’t, silly. Hahaha! I just thought that you guys spoke like this since I walked past a few students earlier who spoke like this.”, she chuckles, throwing me off.

Even her laugh is annoying.

“Hey, I’ve already introduced myself twice now. How about you? What’s your name?”

I don’t want to get close to her. There’s something about her that makes me feel uneasy. I just can’t explain it well.

Despite that, I answer.

“The name’s Chaers, Michael Chaers. It’s pronounced as ‘Cares’.”

She never actually did introduce herself to me though. She did with everyone else, but for some odd reason, whenever she says her name, nothing comes out of her mouth.

It’s just like whenever Alexis mouths things just to tease me and to leave me in the dark. And this girl who had just transferred into my class a month before the end of the school year is doing the exact same thing to me, a person she has just met for the first time in her life…

“That’s an interesting name—”

“Thanks, my parents gave it to me.” I reply coldly.

Every little thing I’m doing is mere preparation for the future. Like I said earlier, this girl has a similar personality to Alexis.

Because of her similarities to Alexis, I can see nothing but trouble brewing within her. If I were to become acquainted with her, it’s like having two Alexis’s and I don’t think I, no, the world is ready for such a catastrophe.

To prevent that from ever happening, it’s only natural for me to try to put as much distance between us.

She could tip the balance of everything I love about my everyday life.

To put it simply, a life with her is anything but normal.

In spite of that—

“…”

—I find her oddly interesting.

I lift my heavy head off the table and place my chin on the back of my hand to better focus on the board with an abundance of stars and a bunch of poorly drawn circles to distract myself from her.

There was a moment where I wanted to do something different and participate in something to take my mind off her but one look at the unorganized board in front of me made me realize that there are times in life when sleeping is the best course of action.

“Ugh…” I let out a groan as I bury my face into my hands.

There’s nothing I can do. I can’t sleep in a situation like this. I’d love to, but I can’t. A hundred unanswerable questions circle in my head, preventing me from having a clear enough mind to have a decent nap.

There’s something about her. I just don’t know what.

Is it her aura?

Or do I just not like people like her?

“Hey, are you not feeling well by any chance?”

It’s her again. Was my snobbish act earlier not clear enough for her? Does she not understand that I don’t want to communicate at all? Why does she not get it?

Instead of paying her any attention, I feign ignorance and pretend to have dozed off.

What is it with that girl? Are all city people nosey like her, or is she just some weird exception?

Now I’m grateful that Alexis didn’t go with her parents and move into the city. I called her crazy for rejecting an offer like that, and I still do.

But now that I’ve met this transferee, I should probably start my 10-page apology letter to all those times I poked fun at her about it.

Speaking of Alexis, I should definitely tell her about this.

The transfer was so sudden that everyone was caught off-guard when our homeroom teacher announced that there is a new student joining us today. Even Zander, the president of the student council, was caught with his pants down as he expressed the same wide-eyed face as everyone when the news was heard.

And I don’t blame him.

Because on this day.

In the middle of one of the coldest autumns I’ve felt.

Monday, October the 11th, is the day when my everyday life shudders in fear.