Stepping into his classroom, Chris took a glance at his phone and saw the chronometer with twenty-three seconds left before going to zero.

There were already some students sitting in there, waiting for the class to begin. Without having time to catch his breath, the boy went to his seat.

When the time finally reached zero, the teacher came through the doors and the period finally started.

[][][][][]

The contents were being written on the blackboard but many students were too tired to pay attention to it. After all, nothing was easy during the fifth period.

Beginning right after lunch, it wasn’t uncommon for the people inside the school, including some teacher, to doze off during this time.

It even led to a rumor about a legend regarding those who could stay on their finest frame of mind during that period through all the high school years would achieve great happiness for the rest of their lives.

But if you took a look around this class, it was hard to find anyone that would fit in that category. And from those who could pay attention, there was one student copying down all of the contents to his notebook.

Chris wasn’t looking around his class and the only times he looked up was when the teacher was writing something else on the blackboard.

But as he was copying, the boy looked he made a mistake in a word. Instead of copying “tool”, he wrote “pool”.

With an eraser, he changed the word to the correct form and paid attention to the teacher once again.

Time went on and he kept making mistakes while copying.

Some were small that wouldn’t change the meaning of the sentence while others he would need to erase everything and copy all of it once again.

He shook his head, trying to be away from unnecessary thoughts, but even then he continued to write wrongly.

And then, the boy found one word on his note that wasn’t relevant to the class and stare at it in awe.

I want to go

The single, small and irrelevant sentence was on the top of the page, not even near the space where he was writing.

Still, he hard, scribbled over it like it was forbidden for it to exist.

Seeing that it wasn’t there anymore, the boy sighed and rested his head on the table.

(What is wrong with me…?)

He wanted to stay there and understand the subjects he had once failed.

He wanted to be there in the rather small, but comfy classroom he was part of.

Still, a part of him wanted another thing.

No, it wasn’t just a part of him. He was as if he couldn’t stand it anymore and just wanted to do what he wanted to do.

Still, he stayed on his seat like a good, everyday student.

His legs were starting to shake and he saw his fingertip tapping on the table as if they were rushing him.

And not wanting to see it anymore, he closed his eyes and thought.

(Calm down…calm down…calm down…)

Those words were repeated on his mind like a mantra and he wasn’t sure if that would help him either.

So he thought of yet another thing to calm himself.

It was a simple image, neither extraordinary nor outstanding.

Just a simple, small and warm smile.

It didn’t take a second for his body to stop moving and him to regain control of it.

His legs were firm, his hand was grasping his pencil. Confirm that they were normal, the boy lifted his head and looked ahead.

There was no need for him to be anywhere other than there.

But as he was looking at his front, something in the corner of his eyes caught his attention.

-Hmm…?

It was nothing more than the girl staring at him, looking right into his eyes. Even with the distance between their tables, the boy was able to understand she was looking in them.

However, his confusion wasn’t in the fact she was staring at him. It was because he couldn’t understand the expression of disappointment she had on her face.

As if she was waiting for him to look at her, the girl suddenly stood up from her seat.

-Teacher, I’m going to the bathroom.

-Huh…sur-

Without waiting for the teacher’s response, the girl made her way to the doors and loudly opened them, wanting to announce her leaving to everyone.

And then, before she stepped out of the classroom, Midna took one last glance at him, hoping he would get the meaning of it.

Then, the doors were closed.

But the message she sent to him was one he couldn’t understand. He just stared blankly at the closed path the girl went. However, it bothered him.

It was a glance that, for him, appeared to be a scowl for something he did or, rather, was doing and yet couldn’t understand the reason behind it.

Still, it didn’t change what he just saw and it left him agitated. A single drop of cold sweat was running down his forehead, but he quickly shook it off.

It was not the time for him to be there in confusion and...

-Teacher, may I please go to the bathroom?

Without wanting to hold himself anymore, Chris stood up from his seat.

[][][][][]

With a slam, the door was shut. A quick glance through the windows revealed the students frozen as statues.

-Midna! Where are you?

He turned around, shouting her name since he couldn’t find her in the hallway. He knew she was fast, but it didn’t seem to him that the girl would vanish like that.

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But before a dread feeling emerged from his body, he heard the echo of footsteps coming from his side.

Lured by the sound, he could see the back part of a pink-yellow summer dress dancing through with the winds as it entered a corridor, and he knew whom it belonged to.

-Midna, what are you doing? Come here!

But Chris’ shouts were in vain and the walls blocked his sight from where Midna could be, leaving him to hear the noises of each step she did further away from him.

The boy wanted to go there and grab her by the arm, dragging her back to the classroom even though he knew it would be almost pointless to do so.

However, his hands were glued to the steel, cold doorknob and his legs didn’t dare to make one step away from the classroom.

He wanted to come back inside and just wait for whatever more time was left before the day ended and they could go back home.

But for some reason, she didn’t want to stay in the classroom and left, maybe because she was going to do something he didn’t even want to think about.

-Midna!

So he dashed to follow her, hoping he could stop whatever she was thinking inside her mind with any sort of means he had.

But the moment he entered the corridor—

He was trapped against the wall in such a speed he couldn’t even react.

When he realized, two arms were placed at each his sides, not allowing him to take any more steps forward and Chris could swear he saw cracks on the wall from where the hands were placed.

And when he turned his head to see the response for his imprisonment, he saw the face of a girl staring angrily at him.

-What do you think you are doing?

She said like a question but he felt it was an order.

However, he this was not the moment for him to be flushed.

-That is my line, isn’t it? Let’s go back to the classroom.

Not wishing to be there anymore, Chris tried to pass down her arm to return to the main hallway, but Midna stopped his actions by lowering her arm even more.

From her actions, he could only sigh before facing her.

-Can we please go back to the classroom now?

Being polite, he asked her but didn’t stop using his strength to move her arm but it didn’t even budge. Chris tried to use his two arms and his weight against what he could call a living steel-bar however it was no use.

And then, the arm that was blocking his way was pulled back. Without his support anymore, the boy went to the ground.

-What is your deal now?!

He said as he glared at Midna with irritation on his face. But her answer took him back.

-Are you scared?

A simple sentence made of three words spoken with a low voice, without any deep meaning under it, only for him to hear it, and yet, it made him speechless.

-You are, right?

She asked once again, but it was not like she was trying to find out the answer, or so he felt.

-…I’m not scared.

-You know it’s not true.

-What made you think like that?

If she tells what she had tough or saw that raised her suspicion, Chris could think of one or two ways to mislead her.

-Instinct, I guess?

-Then there is nothing to worry. Look.

While sitting on the ground, Chris was showing Midna there was nothing wrong with him.

-Yeah, you are alright.

-See? Now, let’s go back end-

-But why is it that you didn’t go out today?

-…

He thought it was over when she said it was just a feeling, but now she took him by a surprise and he couldn’t even hide the face he was making.

-…I simply thought it was better to stay in the classroom.

Without looking at her, he replied. Since the first period of today, Chris had never left the classroom. The only time he went out was during lunch break.

-You know, we are students and such, even with all that is going on, if we neglect our studies, then, you know… we would be with more burdens and such, so we would not neglect the classes that often and whatnot.

He said it in a single breath, thinking about the words as he was speaking, hoping that she would agree with him, but it took a single glance at her face for him to know she wasn’t convinced.

-Oh, but it’s not like I stop worrying about the situation, you know?

She hadn’t spoken anything back to him, so Chris continued.

-Today I measure the time each it took for the others to arrive in the classroom. Since I don’t think we will find anything useful in the school anymore, I think we should stay during class for a while and see if there is some kind of pattern of when people come in and out to figure out-

-But how does that help?

He wasn’t going to stop until he managed to fool her, but her words interrupted him, taking his lead of the conversation.

-…

He couldn’t think of anything else to say for her. There was nothing he could think of that would make them return without solving this.

(There is no choice then…)

-…It could let us know when the class really starts.

-And why would that help?

-We would know the exact time the phenomenon would occur.

-And why would that-

-Because we would not encounter any more of those things! Satisfied now?!

Couldn’t handle it anymore, Chris shouted at her.

He didn’t want to admit it. He really didn’t want to, but he couldn’t change the way he felt about it.

-…I knew it.

Finally, the girl expression started to lose, as if she understood what he said.

She then sat on the ground, in front of where Chris was.

-Look, I will say it again. You don’t need to worry about it anymore.

-But how can you be sure? You didn’t know they existed yesterday!

Yesterday, as Chris was treating her wounds, Midna said that problem was solved. The boy could only nod to her words while he wrapping bandages on her arms, but her words didn’t convince his heart.

-Of course I’m. Who do you think am I?

And yet, the girl in front of him didn’t have a doubt on her face.

-All of them, no exception, were killed by me. I even buried their bodies deep into the woods to not raise attraction.

-...

(…There was no choice, you know about it.)

It didn’t feel good for him to hear her saying that, but what else could she do there? Those things couldn’t be reasoned with. That was the only way they could be safe.

He knew about it, but still…

-…It is not your fault, you know?

Seeing that Chris was in silence, alone with his own thoughts, Midna told him something that stole his attention. Her gentle voice made his eyes met hers.

-Of course it was. If we hadn’t stayed, none of that would happen.

To put them in a death situation, against something they didn’t know, resulting in her coming back home full of injuries. It all started with his selfish desire of wanting to fix everything.

-But if we hadn’t done that, then they would attack us sooner or later.

-But if we took it slowly, then we could have some information!

The girl’s words made sense to him, but it didn’t change the root of the problem.

-That was one mistake we can’t afford to do anymore!

No matter how much he wanted to escape from it--

-If the things were worse yesterday, who knows what would have happened to us?

A deep feeling inside him was slowly crawling up—

-And this only happened in after a day since we discovered the school was weird!

A realization so obvious but he didn’t want to look at it—

-After all of that, who knows what will happen tomorrow? And the day after? I’m not even sure that today will be safe!

For more than he didn’t want to say it—

-This is not the life I used to have! I'm scared!

At least, Chris spoke it. He managed to spill those heavy words out of his mouth.

He looked down, his breath was rough. His heartbeat was fast and he was trying to control it.

-I'm scared, Midna. I don’t know what will happen next. I try to be calm and reasonable, but I just can’t take it. I thought it would be fine as long that we figure out what was happening in the school and help everyone. I thought it would be fine, that we would find the origin behind it all safe and sound, but after yesterday, I'm scared to continue digging this down.

And then, he said it all the things inside him. There were no lies in his words.

-I’m not…the right person for this…

If it was someone else, then they would handle it better than him, but who would he pass the baton to? There was none he could think of and the girl was not an option for this.

-I’m sorry but please…can we go back to the classroom?

He couldn’t even look anymore. His eyes were closed, waiting for something to happen as his body started to tremble and the sweat was gluing the clothes.

(Please…just please…let’s go back…)

-…I understand.

Her words reach his ears.

-Ok, if that is you want, let’s go back.

Finally, they would go back to where they could be safe. He started to become soft and his body wasn’t rigid anymore.

However, she wasn’t done.

-But…I know you can do better.

Suddenly, his hands were grasped by a warm sensation. Opening his eyes, he could her hands on his’. Lifting his head, he saw her looking at him with a gentle smile on her face.

-…I’m happy that you shared those feelings with me, I truly am…but you are the only one that can help solve everything. You know things about this world that I don’t and, contrary to what you think of, there are so many things you had helped me in these past few days.

He heard her words with attention, not wasting a single one of them as his eyes were fixed on hers.

-This is crazy for you, I know it can be, or rather, it is, but it’s also being crazy for me too! There are so many things I don’t know when I came here that I started to panic and didn’t know how to react!

-…

-Had I not met you then, how knows what would have happened? You helped me be here today, having a life I could ever only think about it before, and for that, I’m truly grateful…

-…

-And now is my turn to help you. Don’t matter what happens, I know we will manage to pass that together. So I will ask you: what do you want to do?

-…

Either go back and be safe or continue with the things they were doing up until now. The girl now left those options for him to choose.

She finished speaking and waited patiently for his reply. Her kind words were carved deeply in his heart.

He had never thought how the things were from her perspective, seeing how happy and energetic she was with all that was happening.

He knew she was helping with everything she could do. He knew about it, but hearing all of it from her left him speechless after learning her point of view.

-I...

Chris knew what this moment meant, for both of them and for him. It was one of the few times in the life where just a word can change the entire outcome of what would happen next.

-I…I want to…

And so, the one he choose was--