COTE: The Unfamiliar Familiar World

Chapter 4: The Feeling of Defeat

I realize how love could be oh so complicated when thrown in as a variable in tackling an odd anomaly known as time travel. You spend oh so many hours with the ones you love and those you had befriend only to watch that progress you agonized about go down the drain in an instance. The consequences of Time travel to the human mind tends to be overlooked in most movies, opting to focus more on the greed or desire of humanity to change the outcome of the future.

In fact, rarely you find studies of such a hypothetical outcome. The fact that I am the first time traveler in human history may prove that to be. I am the only one who possess that knowledge now. And quite frankly, I can't write a book about it.

Returning to said consequences of Time Travel, It would seem that the individual who experiences such would be subjected to mental fatigue due to the feeling of isolation at the expense of experiencing a unique scenario.

A social experiment that could be conducted to see such effects of Time Travel would be one of Ostracism, or the act of excluding an individual from societal gatherings or groups of friends. The weight of being isolated due to your circumstance tends to cause some form of depression or anxiety to manifest within your mind.

Well, that is the blunt of it, however, what if certain variables were change. What if the group of people shun you when they themselves don't know they're shunning you? What if you are the only one who knows the reason why you are alone and you are powerless to do anything about it.

I know there's a term for this...

But other than that, I walk on a thin line that should not exist in the first place. I am alone in this mad world where my father is a kind man, my mother is alive-

Kouenji Rokusuke over there gave up his seat courteously for the old woman.

Kushida Kikyou acting like the world is something she scraped off her shoe.

And HORIKITA SUZUNE acting LIKE SAKURA AIRI BEFORE I MET HER.

No, no, that last part isn't really set in stone. No, actually, none of my assessments are set in stone as of yet. I merely took everyone at face value and had hypothesized their personalities as i see them. Although, Kushida is making it easy for me.

I can easily tell that she's letting her bi- i mean... colorful personality out.

I wonder if she is secretly a softie...

A reverse of her original personality of being nice on the outside and wretched on the inside.

So yes, I am on a line that should not exist in the first place.

Well In all honesty, I shouldn't really care about this social line between ostracization and Social Suicide. However, My plans would be heavily affected if i get Isolated.

I then watched as the blonde male student stood there as he watched the outside world through the window of the bus. Not once have I heard him praise his perfection for everyone to hear.

Maybe something good could come out of this. A Kouenji that helps the class would be a surprise to be sure but it was a welcomed one. Seeing his welcoming nature, i decided to give up my seat to make my way towards Kouenji. I could care less about my chair, honestly.

What I need to do is establish myself as a proper classmate to Kouenji.

"Hey..." I calmly greeted the blonde student. My voice still as monotonous as ever but I made sure to sound as friendly as I could. Luckily he reciprocated my greeting.

Wait he reciprocated my gre-

"Hello, may I assume that you also go to the same school as I do?"

Well... so far so good...