2 weeks later...
Since that day, It had been uneventfully peaceful.
As for my relationship with Ria? It could be better but there has been some improvement. She no longer fought over little things that had no business being a problem.
Of course, it would still take time to mend our corrupted relationship.
As for the plot, I was starting to believe that the heroine wasn't set on capturing June. Had she lost interest and found a better target? I hadn't seen her or June since the cafeteria incident, neither alone or together. It was for the best in my opinion. Those two were my least favorite people right now.
"Hey, Seven!"
Jin waved at me from the school entrance. He ambled awkwardly towards me with a large art folder balanced on his hip and gripping his heavy knapsack full of books.
I had asked why he won't use a tablet or laptop to store his books as there are ebook versions offered by the school. However, he explained to me why he never took the easy route--
"I like the smell of books."
A weirdo yandere, that's what he is.
Sighing, I offered to lessen his load a little by taking his folder. He expressed his thanks with a long sigh.
Together we made our way to first period which was the dreaded calculus.
Fortunately, I wasn't a materialistic guy and only had a wallet and the clothes on my body. I had thought ahead that if I needed to escape the classroom, I didn't have much things to lug with me..
Unfortunately, our walk to class was prolonged due to Jin's excessive load.
"Did you get offered a seat to join the student council?"
Jin suddenly asked out of blue.
Sometimes, he'll asked about things that had never crossed my mind. What joining the student council? Boy, I wasn't even in a club. Well, none that I know of anyway.
I glanced at him sideways. "No?"
Jin shrugged, almost dropping his load with the light action.
"No reason," He said mysteriously, "I just thought you might have been contacted by Greene already."
I raised an eyebrow, wondering why he'd think that and who the hell this Greene character was but he made no effort to further elaborate. Jin was terrible at explaining things let alone finishing off what he had to say. I wasn't even surprised when he started talking about what he'd done in the weekend.
I let it slide since that's what made Jin Jin. I found out the hard way.
In short, there was an incident last week that involved Jin, a bus, a pissed off driver and terrible explanations. If I hadn't picked up his call that day, he would have probably been absent from school for a few weeks.
Sighing, I kept my mouth shut and let Jin lead our way to class while talking about things that had no connection with each other whatsoever. One moment it was fried fish the next it was his sisters firsts words. Yeah, I just found out he has a little sister called Haley.
Apparently, she has a different mother too.
Once we arrived to class, I hurriedly dumped Jin's load off at his desk and took a seat at my own. I was greeted by a few students whom I had come to know since starting. They were kind and easy to get along with -
They were all female.
Maybe it's due to being a female in my past life. Perhaps, that explains why I connect more with females than males in this life. But, I soon threw that explanation out the window. Why didn't I have friends in my past life as a female?
What a depressing thought.
Of course, I had tried befriending a few guys in class but they suggested doing things that were too obscene or glared at me until I had no choice but to turn around and accept maybe I'm just not made to befriend guys.
Jin is an exception since a majority of his friends are female too.
"Hey seven, did you like the book I gave you?"
I smiled at the class tomboy, Sharon, who had dared to cut her hair short like a boys and dye it a bleach blonde. Fortunately, the school was very open to her eccentric style and hasn't brought her up on it. Probably because she was known to always dye her hair back to its original color after a day. She had a strange habit, and that was only one of them.
"It was very informative, thank you." I chuckled, pulling a small black book from my shirt and sliding it over to her, "Tell your brother he has a very interesting mindset."
Sharon grinned widely, tucking the book gently into her handbag as if it were a prized possession.
"Right? I always tell him he could sell his books for millions but-" Sharon sighed, her excitement visibly dimming, "He says he isn't interested."
I opened my mouth to ask the identity of her brother but the teacher had entered and called the class to attention.
"Everyone! Listen up, I have something important to tell you...Jin, put the damned paper crane down and pay attention!"
Jin flushed and hid the cranes he had started folding. I glanced at his creations and saw he had prinely printed Ria's name onto the wing of the cranes. I swallowed my judgement reminding myself that Jin was a friend who was still experiencing love. Best not kill is ideals with my pessimistic views.
Mr Brawn, our calculus and physical ed teacher, cleared his throat. After clapping his beefy hands together, he announced a few shocking words.
"Today, we have physical examinations. If you'll kindly make your way to the recreation hall, please."
Silence fell over the entire room for a minute or two before it erupted into many heated exclamations.
"What?!"
"This...this is so sudden though!"
These were the words that swarmed the air, full of idignation and annoyance. And they kept building and building to become an almost buzz of irritation to my ears.
"BE QUIET!"
Mr brawn yelled angrily, his booming voice successfully cowering all the students back into their chairs. His face was flushed and his eyes almost popped from his shiny, bald head. When he saw everyone was silent again, only then did he breathe out.
"You will go to the assembly hall and get your examinations done, do you hear?"
A sea of heads started bobbing.
**
Twice a year, the school would do a physical examination on the students. This examination was to determine the fitness and health of a student. If you fell below the average for your supposed height, then you would be giving pointers and offered help to achieving your healthy median.
To be honest, I was pumped to see my results. Even though Seven barely worked out, opting to run and do situps here and there - he had a rather toned body. It was full of muscle but there was some abs and length added in. No one would ever think this lean guy packed a big one.
In the recreation hall where the examination was held, girls and boys were separated by a long line of metal partitions. These partitions were solid and even if someome rammed into it, it'd probably remain standing.
The area where the boys were designated was an open space, and the entire ground floor was shared with boys from varying classes. On the otherside, the girls had temporary rooms set up for them to get individually checked. This was all I could see through a small gap before my view was blocked.
I smiled at the nurse who frowned at me, and wisely walked further into the boys den. I had to force myself to look straight ahead when I saw the guys stripping to their bare torso. After all, I was once a female and I didn't have a habit of staring at naked men younger than me - especially not a child. If he was eighteen, then I wouldn't have minded, but most of these boys were little pubes still in their developement stage.
Admiring and lusting were two different things in my book.
I walked a wide circle around a group of boys sparring with each other; using their rolled up shirts and towels as weapons. I couldn't help but screw my nose up in disgust when one of these shirts came into contact with me. The boys laughed it off but I couldn't even muster a smile and quickly found a corner that wasn't loud or obscenely wild.
I sighed with relief when I finally had my own breathing space, rubbing a hand across the back of my neck and closing my eyes.
After rubbing the strain away from that spot, I turned to ask Jin about our first check but my eyes fell on empty air.
I blinked stupidly for a second or two. Somehow, I had lost Jin along the way here, and I had no clue where he lost himself until someone behind spoke up.
"If you're looking for Jin, he was dragged away by some seniors a second ago."
I turned to put a face to my informer. So far, I had seen many goodlooking boys, some I even became aquinted with on a certain level.
However, this guy was probably the icing on top among the lot.
Olive skin, almond shaped eyes and chocolate brown hair brushed away from a face that could make whole cities crumble. His gaze was neither overbearing nor under bearing. It was the gaze of someone you'll gladly be lost looking into its depths.
But even that couldn't compare to his lean body, sporting the right amount of muscles in areas you could only dream about. I take that back what had I said earlier. Not all the guys present were little pubes.
This guy was like a greek statue - perfect and well sculptured. Gorgeous in every sense...
He is also a capture target.
I didn't need to wait for the overload of information to pour into my head because it was already there to begin with. Of all the capture targets, the one I wanted to meet the most was standing in front of me.
Hail Academy's handsome but offset artist, Qin.
Fortunately, he was already 18 years old and I didn't have to feel like an old pervert. He was repeating a year because his academic grades fell because of his obsession with art and, well, never making it to class.
Among the capture targets, Qin is the tallest. Reaching a godly 6'5 with his brusque personality. He was the epitomy of sex on legs. I could say this about the guy because he was officially registered an adult last year, and my real age wasn't that much older.
Qin applied for a business course within the school but always spends most of his study time in the art department, obsessing over his current project. Why he didn't apply for Art as his main study was beyond me. Perhaps his obsession wasn't that large?
As a capture target, Qin is popular for his peaceful atmosphere and godly appearance. But what I liked most about his character was his deposition within the game.
Unlike the other capture targets, his route took some next-level connecting and pursuing. It didn't require a genius, just someone who was genuine about their feelings and answers.
In the game, his character wanted to really get to know a person before becoming an item with them. So, whoever played the herione had to do more than flatter or bat their eyelashes to get Qins attention, and that was only the beginning.
Within the game, Qin is also popular due to his painting of a small girl crying on a swingset. The top half of her face is covered by thick, dark hair and her lower half is shown with tears dripping from a fair chin. He named this painting Anabell.
No one knows who Anabell is or why she is crying in the middle of the night because Qin stays silent whenever it is brought up. But, what everyone does know is that this small girl obviously has a place in Qin's heart - or why else would he paint her so beautifully in a moment of sadness? You don't have to be an artist to understand that much.
Besides, Qin was known for only painting things that had interested him. Even when he was offered millions for the Anabell painting, he refused to sell it and kept it nearby, religously taking it too and from school.
I hadn't seen the painting in real life. I only saw snapshots of it from the game. Whoever created the character Qin obviously didn't want to take the focus away from him.
However, now that it was possible, I had the desire to see the real thing. From my favourite character himself.
"Can you show me the painting Anabell? I have been dying to see it in reality."
Qin turned around with surprise.
Only after the words had left my mouth did I realise how rude I must have sounded. This was the first time we had met and I spoke as if we were old acquaintances.
"I mean, you don't have to..."
I muttered with embarrassment.
"Sure."
"Huh?"
Qin bobbed his head, stripping off the rest of his clothes so he was bare down to his boxer underwear and picking up a robe we were handed when entering the hall.
He said smilingly, "I'll show you the painting during first break."
After loosely tied the white robe around himself, Qin walked towards one of the visiting nurses who was responsible for doing the examinations.
Meanwhile, I was half lost in thought and half lost in admiration - admiring how such a perfect specimen was created. I had the mind to even thank his parents, and on another plane, the creators if I ever got to meet them.
It wasn't until I had come back to myself and let his final words sink in that I came to another realisation.
Wait, he'll show me? But, I didn't even tell him my name nor did he tell me where to meet. Just how will he show me...
My eyes instantly dimmened. Was I hated?