“Hey, heyyyy! Stop walking away and listen!”

Neri was trying to get the attention of a potential club member he had just met. Why was he a potential club member? Well that’s because he had no friends obviously!

Neri had used his usual tactic and tried get him to open up to him about his problems (after all he always looked so forlorn ) by asking an open ended question that would be easy to answer. Unfortunately, as always, it did not go to plan.

“Stop following me! I’m not joining your freaky club!”

“Oh come onnn, everyone is really nice, and we don’t do anything freaky I promise!”

“Oh really?” Falis said slowing down to turn back and look at his pursuer.

“Yes!”

“Huh, cause just last week I heard you were conducting a ritual in your club room!”

“Wha- oh, yeah, we did that”

“My point stands.”

“I’ll explain it if you stop and listen!”

“I don’t care so leave me alone!”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Falis started running, hastily leaving from the front door of the school building and escaping down the street, making a few unnecessary turns to his house in order to shake off the persistent recruiter.

When Falis slowed down, he found himself standing in front of a small 24 hour shop called “Lou’s”. He wasn’t particularly hungry but after the almost constant rainfall the past few days it had become pretty warm and after his lengthy sprint he could do with something cold.

Walking to the front of the shop, the automatic doors slid open and Falis walked through, feeling the cold air from a fan above him. There wasn’t many people inside, so Falis easily found the cold drinks area.

Falis, scanning the shelves for a drink, heard two vaguely familiar voices in the background.

“Shoot! I forgot my wallet!”

“It’s fine I’ll get it for you, go ahead and pick out what you want.”

“Really! Thank you!”

“Once you have what you want come meet me a-”

Falis found his drink, a quality chocolate milkshake, which he had not had in a couple years, but hoped it was still as good as he remembered.

Reaching for the drink, he bumped hands with someone.

“Oh, sorry, you can take it.”

“Hu-huh?”

It was a girl, who had almost the exact same face as that guy from the weird ritual club that chased him around the school, except she had a softer, sweet voice, long black hair and blue eyes.

“Oh, u-um it’s fine, you can have it.”

Falis realized she was wearing the same uniform as him.

“Are you sure? It’s the last one~”

“Really, I’m fine.”

“Hmmm..? Waaaiit! You go to my school! I’ll just have to pay you back there then, what year are you in?”

“S4…”

“Ohhhh, same as me! Weird, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you… you might have met- wait, no, uh never mind. I’ll come look for you tomorrow, I’ll get you something from the vending machine.”

“It’s really fine.”

“Don’t sweat it, see you tomorrow!”

“Uh, o- okay.”

The girl was gone, and Falis was tired.

Giving up on trying to find a different drink, he left the shop, continuing home with an exasperated sigh. Today had been one of the most stressful days Falis had had in a while, the majority of that stress had been because of the elevator club guy, who he still didn’t know the name of.

Before he knew it, Falis was unlocking his front door, his usual source of stress had yet to come.