End of Term, First Year.
Chii walked out of her classroom, covering her eyes immediately from the blinding rays of sunshine once she stepped outside.
The rainy season wasn't here anymore, and the blazing heat of dry season started to rise day by day.
She didn't like the rainy season that much though, it could be gloomy and the puddle created everywhere by the heavy raindrops always ruins her mood. The only joy from those grayish days is the ultimate beauty: rainbow! But it doesn't appear often, unfortunately. Yeah, it's better this way! She leapt a little on her way to the library: her new hideout. Humming her currently favourite song, she looked around the school field: the basketball rings; badminton court; futsal net; orange flamboyant flowers; all of them reflected the bright side of this clear and fine day.
Not paying attention to her front, she jolted and realised what she had done.
"Uh, I am really sorry" she bowed and slowly rose her head to face the person she knocked onto.
Eh? A familiar face? She recalled instantly this figure: the boy from the other class.
No, no, it's not that he was that impressive: she just possessed a very good memory. That's all to it. Truly.
"Chii! Wait for me!"
Araa, one of her close friend from middle school and currently her desk mate called her loudly from behind then grabbed her neck to strangle her. Gently, of course.
Casting the victim of her reckless action aside, Chii left immediately with her friend dragging her all the way.
Being ignored, that boy couldn't help but dazed by her indifference.
Well, whatever. He leave immediately then.
"Ah! By the way, who is that person?"
Araa couldn't help her curiosity: it's not that often her bestie talked to a boy willingly.
"Who? Where?"
Chii asked back, looking everywhere to find 'that boy' her friend just mentioned.
Araa tapped her head, amazed by this girl's plainly-naive response.
"T-h-a-t-b-o-y!! the one you talked to just now, my little friend!"
Rolling her eyes while recalled her short-term memory back, Chii finally could picture that figure out.
"Ohh, you mean that person just now. Some random stranger whom happened to be Ryu's friend, I guess. Why did you ask? Interested?"
Chii wore her teasing expression, asking her friend in a playful tone with a grin plastered on her face.
"Ah, my goodness. May God bless you with a more sensitive emotion in the next life-no, in the near future!
You two looks good together just now, you know? Hey, hey~ don't you get what I mean?" Araa poked her side playfully, asking her with such a huge enthusiasm. A little bit of her 'drama-queen' persona nearly bursted out. Just a little bit, as many eyes could be directed at her for overreacting at such improper timing. She needed to maintain her image for a normal high school life, you know.
"Eh is that so? We're not that close. We don't even know each other's name"
Getting the gist of her friend's babbling, Chii answered logically as usual.
'She is sharp indeed, but why isn't she sharp enough to decipher such emotion?. Yosh, it couldn't be helped then, I'll be the one to teach her those things!'. Secretly grinning inside her head, Araa planned such thing arbitrarily.
Found no fun in teasing her friend, she decided to cut the topic off, noted what she have to do with this alien next time, and continue to dragging her to the Canteens area.
"Eh??? How about the Library? I haven't finished' 'The Dancing Girl of Izu' yet!". Seeing the direction where they headed was different from her initial destination, Chii let out a small protest. A book a day was her minimum dosage, alright?. Correction, a novel a day.
Moreover, the only copy of that book only found on their School Library: not even the City's Public Library provided it. Such classic literary were their school's main collection after all.
"Save it for later, okay? We need to grab a bite and return to the classroom soon! We're in the middle of end-of-term exam and all you think about is an old book? Come on, you have no other choice now."
"Ugh"
Thinking to and fro, Chii finally surrendered by the reasoning and the force Araa applied in dragging her. Disgruntled, she followed her friend to the closer Canteens on the north building, just rightly located across of their three-story classrooms building on the southern part of the school.
All right, she needed some sugar for her brain to work on exams anyway. Sigh.
and just like that, that particular moment slid away...