June 23, XX17

            With my vision still hazed, I got up and checked the time. It was half an hour after midnight. Canary slept soundly beside me, but Hawk was missing. Maybe, he was doing something to Sylvie. No, Hawk wouldn’t do that.

            Since I failed to find him in the second floor, I went down and noticed that the lights in the living room were lit. Hawk sat on the sofa writing on a notebook. He had already filled quite a few pages of the notebook. Hawk who was normally extremely aware of his surroundings failed to notice my presence and wrote away.

            After I yawned, Hawk finally noticed me, and I asked, “What are you doing?”

            Hawk looked at me for a while. His cheeks tinted slightly red. I sat beside him and peeked at what he wrote.

            “A description of the fighting style of the notable Players joining the Swordmaster Tournament for you to use. I wish I could train you by mimicking their style, but I even if I copied them, I lacked the skill to pull it off well.” he replied.

            “Why so late at night?”

             “The logical reason is that I didn’t want it to interfere with our daily activities.”

            “And the real reason?”

            Hawk looked at me contemplating whether he should answer or not. In the end, he said, “I wanted to surprise you tomorrow with this, but I guess not.”

            I smiled and replied, “Thank you, Hawk. I’m glad I found you here in Reality.”

            Hawk joyfully replied, “I too am glad we’re both here.”

            For around five minutes, I sat beside Hawk watching him write. He then asked, “You should get some sleep.”

            “Says the guy who’s not sleeping. If I’m not a bother, then I’d rather stay here.”

            If Hawk wasn’t in Naut City, what would’ve happened to me? I probably remained a solo-player in the beginning, but when other Parties began to show interest me, I’d eventually give in and join one of them. While I would without a doubt still enjoy Reality, meeting Hawk affected this one thing: I didn’t need to adapt to the Players of the Party I joined because Hawk wanted to Party with me with who I naturally was. Of course, we knew a lot about each other now after spending each day of two weeks together.

            Probably around half an hour passed and drowsiness took me. Half-asleep, I felt my body falling down. Fortunately, my fall was interrupted. My body was slowly laid down. My head rested on a soft and warm place. Falling even closer to sleep, I felt fingers slightly tapping my head then pulling back as if hesitating. Just before I fell asleep, the owner of the fingers seemed to finally decide and pet my head. The fingers gently passed between my hair and filled me with warmth.

            “KRIIIIIINGGGGG!!!!” the sound of the alarm clock buzzed through my ears. It was not the alarm clock sound I’m used to in Reality, but the nostalgic sound from real life.

            I got up from bed. It was not the high-quality bed I used, but the dormitory bed. I found myself at the dormitory I lived at when attending university.

            Was this a dream? Or was my travel to Reality the dream?

            The answer came immediately. I began walking to the bathroom.

            It completed my morning routine as usual and went to university. Climbing up the jeepney, I saw Hawk sitting at the seat next to the door.

            “Good morning.” I greeted. I asked the person beside him to move so I could sit beside Hawk.

            Strange… I didn’t remember exchanging greetings with Hawk when we met on the way to school. I probably replied instinctively if he did greet, but I never was the one who greeted first yet alone having other passengers move just so I could sit beside him.

            Instead of having me sit between him and the other person, Hawk moved inwards, so I could sit beside the door. I didn’t give it much thought and sat beside him.

            Hawk and I talked on the ride. While I couldn’t make out what we were saying, I felt the emanating joy from the conversation.

            After arriving at university, we went down the jeepney. Noticing the heaviness of the bag I carried, Hawk offered to swap bags because his was not filled.

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            Some of Hawk’s friends were already in the classroom when we arrived. Noticing our arriving together and swapping of bags, they approached Hawk and placed his hand on their foreheads. Well, it’s a culture thing, so most people wouldn’t understand.

Hawk left my bag on my usual seat, and I left his bag on the seat beside mine.

            Once again, my dream differed from what I remember since I never sat beside Hawk.

            The lessons went as usual with Hawk occasionally bantering with the professor. I agreed with Hawk’s statements and supported his arguments with my own.

            If this was real life, I would have been annoyed by Hawk’s disrespect for the professor and failed to see the legitimate points he was making.

            During lunch break, both Hawk’s group and my group ate together.

            This never happened from what I could remember. While some of the members of our respective groups were once part of the same group before they split, the people who joined the group I belonged to after the split, myself included, did not often eat together with Hawk’s group.

            After class, since one from Hawk’s group brought a car, we all decided to ride him part of the way back. Hawk and I as well as another person sat on the back row. Once again, we chatted a lot on our way back.

            I’m pretty sure Hawk usually sat in the middle row because he gets off first.

            As Hawk drew close to where he would get off, their conversation became understandable to me again.

            “It’s getting late. Do you want me to walk you back to your dorm?” asked Hawk.

            Of course, I would be fine. It’s not like the area is that dangerous.

            “Sure. Thanks.” I happily and unhesitatingly replied.

            So we got off together and walked back towards my dorm after swapping bags.

            I vaguely recalled Hawk offering to walk me home once. I remember refusing but being quite thankful of the offer.

            Halfway there, rain poured down heavily. Hawk immediately brought out his umbrellas. Since I lacked one, we shared the umbrella. Due to the size of the umbrella and the sheer strength of the rain, we were cuddled closely together as we went to our dormitory. Soon after, it began storming. The wind almost blew our umbrella away as Hawk desperately held on to it. I grabbed Hawk even tighter. Only a few meters away from us, we saw lightning strike. Several more were sure to come.

            I always had an umbrella ready in my bag since it rained frequently. I did forget occasionally, so it was not completely different from what I remembered.

            We entered my dormitory soaking wet despite the umbrella. I immediately grabbed my towel from the bathroom, and Hawk brought out his towel from this bag. We dried ourselves and sat on my bed.

            “I don’t think you can go home at this rate.” I said.

            “Sorry. This is because I wanted to walk you back.” said Hawk blaming himself.

            “No. It’s nobody’s fault.”

            Normally, I would blame myself for accepting his offer, but in truth, no one could predict the sudden change in weather.

            “If the storm doesn’t clear, feel free to spend the night here.”

            Hawk’s face turned red as he looked away. “Are you sure it’s fine?”

            I nodded.

            We played cards to pass the time. Even after over three hours, the storm showed no signs of stopping. Hawk had no choice but to spend the night here.

            “Have you informed your parents that you would spend the night here?”

            “Yes. They’re alright with it.”

            “You probably omitted the fact that you were spending the night with a girl alone.”

“Of course.” replied Hawk.

            I’m one hundred percent sure I have roommates that are not imaginary friends, supernatural beings, or insects. I’m also sure my bed is double-decked. Here, there was only one bed in the dorm room.

            I took my bath first, and Hawk took his after.

            Hawk probably always brought a towel and an extra shirt, but I highly doubt he would bring underwear and sleeping clothes every day to university.

            After Hawk exited the bathroom, I was sitting on my bed on the side nearer to the wall. I signaled Hawk to occupy the space beside me. The bed wasn’t exactly fit for two people to use, but it could manage. Hawk and his friends could probably fit four people on my bed if they wanted, so it was not as if we couldn’t move.

            On the hypothetical scenario of the storm, the absence of my roommates, the disappearance of the beds, I would lend the bed sheet for Hawk to sleep on the floor. While we did sleep on the same bed in Reality, I only accepted it because Canary separated us. Once again, the dream differed.

            Hawk sat beside me. We stared into each other’s eyes deeply for a few seconds. Hawk then gently caressed my cheeks. Our faces drew closer.

            I, in a shy tone uncharacteristic from me, said, “…

            A slight shake brought my consciousness back to the woken world. While still half-asleep, I felt Hawk princess-carrying me as he climbed each step slowly to not disturb my sleep. With as minimal movements as possible, he opened the door into the master’s bedroom. He then gently let me down on the bed. He caressed me one more time and whispered, “You’ve been smiling for a while now; I wonder what kind of dream you’re having? It’s not like I have never seen you smile like that, but… I want to be the reason of that smile.”

            What was I about to say? What was the dream trying to tell me?

            The dream faded into the recesses of memories to be forgotten unless it one days became reality.