One lesson later Adrian was in the toilets, splashing cold sink water against his skin. Feeling it prickling him like needles.

Yet when he upturned his head, it was there looking at him back frowning. His reflection. Together with the quest still there. He knew this was something different, unique even. If it was real that is.

From a young age he saw it, the system it was there one moment then the next it was gone.

[The beginning

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Now though it wasn’t disappearing. A glance somewhere else usually did it. Not now.

He smacked his cheeks and went out the toilet. Right on his way to get more knowledge and possible contacts to root himself in this unforgiving society.

He closed the door behind him and was about to go to his next lecture. His mind already thinking about another subject at hand physics.

"Adrian is that you?"

He turned around this set of words having surprised him, especially considering it was a thin girl voice saying them.

"It really is you. I still remember that face, you haven’t changed that much. Always in deep thought. Like you're always about to discover something new." He looked at this girl, her student clothes unbuttoned as much as they can be for maximal looseness while her hands were in the pocket of her skirt.

She looks like a gangster still, he thought and responded. "You haven't changed one bit Ollie."

"Neither did you Andy." Hearing her call him that he looked at her in the eyes.

"Why Andy? You never called me that?"

She giggled. "Can't I? We've known each other for centuries."

"Three years of talking here and there, but yes. Either way this is a first time you've called me that."

"Yes, it is. You on the other hand always call me Ollie."

"Isn't that your name?"

"No, it isn't."

"..." He looked at her scratching the back of his neck while his face betrayed a silly smile. "Really?"

"Yeah." She replied with a smile truly enjoying his trouble.

"Then-"

"Olivia."

"So, Olivia."

"Call me Ollie." She looked at him, hands on hips and with a wide grin showing her pristine white teeth.

"So, Ollie." Adrian waited a while to see if she wouldn't cut him off again. She didn't and her grin grew wider. "What is it that you wanted from me?"

"Just to say hi and check up on you. How's the fellow top student doing and so? We have a lot to catch up on. If you want to, we can go for lunch or something."

"Okay."

"Then that's decided, meet you at the cafeteria. Later." She started walking away.

"See you then Olivia." He smirked to himself.

She waved her middle finger as a confirmation. At that he shook his head and got on his own way.

Hours passed by and the lessons followed until the lunch came. Adrian came, took his portion of lunch and found a seat in the full cafeteria.

He saw a group of students look at him and then speaking with their friends laughing a bit. I was only one table though.

Seems like my running abilities precede myself. Adrian smiled and shook his head as he tentatively took a sip of the soup.

"So how are you doing Andy?"

He furrowed his brows at being called so familiarly again, but let it go. "It's going forward and that's what matters."

Olivia sat down right across him, putting down her own lunch. Chicken wings with rice, the soups the same as him. She took a tentative first sip before eating.

"How about you?"

"Yeah, I'd say the same."

A good amount of time passed of them both enjoying their foods. They didn’t know how, but twenty minutes passed like nothing and they were finishing their lunch.

"Let's skip the pleasantries and get to why you're here.” Adrian said scooping the last bit of potato mesh up. “After all your friends been looking this way an awful lot, haven't they?"

"Oh, you mean them. No, they're not my friends. You and your assumptions. But yes, let's get to the point if you'd like." She stripped down the last of chicken, her fingertips glistening with a thin coating of grease. "Why are you here?"

"Pardon?"

"Why pick this school, it's so unlike you. You don't care for the prestige and you don't strike me as a guy to go for contacts."

"Well, I am going for contacts and the prestige does help, besides the knowledge remains the same across schools."

Olivia stared at him, a neutral face on. "You don't know how things function here do you? You shouldn't have come here. You'll be broken before the semester ends. I'm saying this as your previous classmate, this isn't for you. None of this. Go for another school."

"Broken?" He smirked letting the word roll out his mouth naturally, with ease and expectations to match it.

"Yes, broken. Mentally, physically, spiritually. All those at once if you're unlucky or you'll be a lackey."

He leaned back in the chair and let his arm fall behind and hang over the backseat. "Don't joke with me."

"Take it as you will, you know where to find me." Her smile was back on seeming as if it never left her face and the whole conversation was but a mirage. "I mainly wanted to satiate my curiosity."

"..."

They finished the last of their lunch in silence. Each of them having their own thoughts even if Ollie looked to be thoughtlessly stuffing her mouth with remainder of chicken wings.

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She finished and stood up from the table.

"Thank you." Adrian said absentmindedly.

She spun around and nearly made a pose. "You're welcome, don't die."

"..."

She winked at him and went away into the crowd before the kitchen window.

"You're still so unpredictable." He said. At least that's a constant with you.

Soon he too had finished and returned his plate. Looking down at his phone he saw his next lessons. Programming then Management. A wide range if you ask him, but that's to be expected from Noxpolis Uni. After all, here they're not teaching people to be specialized tools, but to be successful. No matter what they have to use and that's how it functions. That's how life functions.

He looked around and saw one of the guys that was staring at him previously now leaving. His arm around what could only be called a gal. Tanned skin, thick make up on and clothes worn loosely to show of some skin, accentuating those curves.

They look so similar yet so different. What makes Ollie look so energetic and youthful makes this girl look so slutty. Yet they wear the same clothes.

The gal leaned her head on the guy’s shoulder as they passed by him. She opened her one eye just a bit to allow a low glint to pass in her eye. Meanwhile the guy snorted, a moment later they were out the cafeteria.

Adrian followed, took a right turn to go to his next class still wondering what was that about. The rest of his classes went uneventfully, like any other classes they were boring and with a lot of yet to be taught jargon. He was happy to learn them.

The day ended for him with the lesson on management and at 4:30 he was free. Free to go back into his dormitory and work on his 3d modelling, his one and only source of income and joy. For him it was much more than that, it was the very thing that'll take him to the very top. It can’t be said he was betting on it; he knew it.

While the university, degree and all that was good it was ordinary. For Joes and Janes to get a same start at another bottom of a ladder. The difference being that the label of this ladder will switch from saying UNIVERSITY to CORPORATE. But not for me, he thought.

He stood at the bus stop watching the cars pass one by one. Light rain was drumming on the pavement, a regular occurrence as Noxpolis was mere five kilometres away from the sea while having myriads of ports reaching out.

Adrian waited by in the rain, raindrops soaking him through and through. He had forgotten to take an umbrella - a side effect of this unusual morning. It didn't help that the bus stop overhang was all full. The rain drops continued to fall on him earning a cough from him. His hoodie didn't help much against the weather.

He looked at his watch, it saw 16:08 mere four minutes till the bus is here. He coughed again and tightened his hands around himself keeping as warm as possible. From the bus stop a bustle came from within the crowd before a girl popped out and walked to him.

A silly smile on her face and an unsure step to compliment it. She looked just like any girl next door. In her hand an umbrella she opened it and stepped before Adrian.

"I thought well you'd need it more than me. You know."

"Thanks." He gave her a smile that seemed to put her at ease at having done something right.

She gave him the umbrella and turned back to go below the bus stop roof. It wasn’t possible people took their chance and squeezed in as much as they could. A few people were being pushed forward and away.

“…How about we share the umbrella?” Adrian said giving her an understanding smile that she returned in kind.

She stepped forward and next to him with her shoulder next to his - so that they can be both covered by the umbrella.

"..."

"..."

"How-" They both said at the same time. It earned a smile from both of them.

"You first." Adrian said before she could present the offer.

She nodded her head before shyly saying. "What's your name? I was thinking since we're probably be seeing each other or at least on this day."

"Adrian Grey and in of flesh." He run his hand through his hair and took of his hood in one swoop. It was all wet and soggy, having it on was more of a nuisance than a benefit.

"Kathrin Bleu. What's with the ‘in of flesh’?"

"A little to spice things up, to be easier to remember. Tell me how many people do you expect to say something like that."

She covered her mouth with her sleeve to hide the growing smile. “Not many...”

"Then everything's alright and my embarrassment is not for naught."

"You feel embarrassed?" She smiled behind the sleeve.

"Yeah. I'm not a wall and do feel shame."

She remained silent.

"What? Do I not look like that?"

"I didn't say that. That was you."

"How high of an opinion you have of me, I'm moved beyond words." He bowed beyond the reach of the umbrella and the rain started hitting his hair before a sudden shower wet his whole head. He sprung up like never before, the coldness and shock adding to it.

He saw Kathrin giggling there, her umbrella inclined downward while the rain was flowing down precisely where his head was a moment ago.

Seeing him looking at her like a wet dog left outside. His hair glued to him and eyes like saucers she laughed and laughed. Her small sleeve doing nothing to hide it.

"Real funny." He rolled his eyes and grabbed the umbrella halfway up and straightened it out. Meanwhile Katherine somewhat stopped laughing.

The bus came and stopped right in front of them, the door opened and they went in. The driver was the same old smoker, though it didn't matter to him this time as he was on time.

"Where do you live?" She asked.

"Huh? Are you thinking of following me home?"

"Maybe." She smiled with closed eyes. Her face not saying a bit about her intentions.

"And here I thought I was sure to have my first stalker."

"Would you like to have one?"

"No."

"Then..."

"I don't know. Everything's for the first time. It would be an interesting experience. Southlane Dormitories are where I'm at."

"You really are hoping to get a pretty little stalker, aren’t you?"

"As if."

"St. Anna's."

"Huh?"

"That's where my dormitory is, since you've said yours."

"You too hope for a stalker, huh?"

"Maybe. That's why I take a taser with me - among other things. Besides you don't look the type."

"Then what type do I look like?"

She smiled and looked at him, she opened her mouth and closed it a few times thinking about how she should put it.

"Never mind then. You don't have to say.”

“It’s not like that.”

He waved her off. “But why did you help me anyway?"

"I just wanted to help." She said and averted her gaze to the passing road and trailing led lights of the cars. She then murmured more to herself than to anyone. "I don't know anyone here so..."

"Then I'll be your first friend? Here."

She nodded.

It unknowingly brought a smile to his lips and the rest of the way home passed by like in a dream a nice morning dream. Fragile in its length yet so sweet. He didn't know what he said, the words flowing out by themselves and her giggles that followed it. The world was blending in like a painting meant to last but a single moment in a story.

It burst.

"Wasn't this your stop?"

He looked around and into the window where he saw the dormitory in the distance.

"Yeah, it was I guess I'll take a next one. No biggie."

"Yeah."

They sat in silence the spell as if broken, each one throwing glances at each other but never having the courage to catch and hold each other’s gaze.

God, you fucked it up Andy.

The low rumbling of the engine was the single most loud thing that occupied their little world and seemed to even more jumble up their thoughts. Words rolled down to his tongue, he opened his mouth but nothing. He saw her small mouth open, her lips rosy red and parting slightly then stop and continue.

"So, this is a goodbye?" She said as she looked at him and slowly moved into the middle corridor.

"Yeah, I guess it is." He moved out and stepped next to her. He was now looking at the top of her head as he was holding onto railing of the bus.

He was about to say something to her, but she stole it from him.

"But we'll see each other, right?"

"We will. There's a day tomorrow and then the one after it and so on. We will see each other." He said looking into her clear eyes. "If you want to, of course."

"I do."

The bus stopped abruptly. It threw all the passengers forward and then backward. Kathrin collided against him and by instinct Adrian pulled her closer to him and wrapped one arm around her waist while looking through window to what’s happening. She saw his serious face from downward, her face pushed against his chest and her arms holding him for support.

"Hey you're going down or what?!" The bus driver shouted after cursing to himself in other language about the car in front.

Adrian shot him a glare which garnered him nothing but closing of doors. Not having any more time, Andrian released his hands and slipped out the doors just as they closed.

She tried reaching out for him, but all she caught was empty air. Fingers left outstretched she wasn’t sure what just happened. All she felt was her heartbeat thumping in her ears and the comforting warmth on her cheeks.

On the pavement Adrian turned around and saw Kathrin, he waved at her and she waved back after a moment. The bus went, he was waving a bit more until it was nowhere in sight, only then did he stop.

He looked at his open palm and couldn't help but helplessly smile. That didn't last for more than a second before he slapped his cheeks.

"If you want to." He shook his head like that would help get rid of these thoughts. "That was cringe and that before it. Ahhhh..."

That was enough of a motivation to get him going to his new home.

But she said yes. He thought. She really did, but when can I see her. The St. Anna's dormitory. So I just show up there and go like I'm looking for a Katherine or if there's no reception lady then I just go door to door. Yeah, yeah and the next door I'm going to get into will be of a jail cell. As if...

He sighed letting a cloud of smoke disappear along in the wind with his worries.

"She said yes... and that's what matters." He better wrapped up his hoodie around his body.

The sun was up still, bringing down soft rays of light into the city. Through the clouds now painted with all kinds of red stretching all the way to blue in a gradient. With dots of stars breaking the fold. A night was settling down. The weather though was promising change in temperature, it could be felt in the air. It was coming, a fall like no other.