Chereads / Empty Book 5 / Chapter 5 - Priming.

Chapter 5 - Priming.

She kidnapped me . A better way of putting it was that I let her.

How did I get myself into mess?

Why do I have to deal with this individual who practices masking? I mean, I have nothing against it, I myself practise it. In fact i would so far as to saying that if society wasn't against it, I would propagate it. There is nothing wrong with putting up a facade to maintain the peacefulness of society at the cost of your personality. It's just that, I do not feel comfortable interacting with people who practise masking. It's because you never know what to believe, it's not because I can't discern what's true and what isn't. It's because sometimes people take masking too far, unable to discern the truth for themselves, this eventually evolves into the infamous split personality disorder.

I willing to bet that behind her facade of a perfect and pretty girl, she is a narcissistic individual who doesn't even consider humans as friends. Wait, why does this incredibly brief deduction I came up with lazily sound so familiar?

Running through the hallways of the school, garnering stares from all the students around, this girl is dragging me somewhere. She clearly hasn't reached the critical stage yet as she can still tell she is putting up a facade, but I can tell she isn't very far from it. The way she suddenly flipped her personality isn't normal human behaviour. No amount of makeup will be able to hide it in the future.

Yes, I agreed to let her drag me. This isn't because I wanted to it's because out of all the options viable for me at that time under those circumstances, this one was the most optimal. I myself feel very uncomfortable with this arrangement, because I have never been in contact with the skin of the the opposite sex beside my mom. My hands are sweaty and I am a bit red and flustered.

Had I chosen to continue to resist and pulled my wrist back at that moment I would have pulled her over me. If by any chance had this happened, not only would be become a standard cliché but people would also misunderstand me as a pervert.

I know she does not actually have romantic feelings for me and is only trying to make me lose my cool and back me into a corner, but had I told her I don't care, I would have to either reject her or take her as my girlfriend. A girl as attractive as her is bound to have a horse of boys vying for her attention, therefore rejecting her would endanger my life. If I take her as my girlfriend, I would have to deal with this scary person every day and it will also a lot of attention to me which I am not a fan of. I mean it would sure feel amazing to be popular, but I don't want to attract that amount amount of attention in first day of high school.

It's almost as if she is removing all my faults and exploiting them to her own advantage. There is a high probability that she had orchestrated this whole this from the beginning. Her intellectual knows no bounds.

Leaving all that aside, why do I feel this suddenly feel a bit of fatigue . Crap! I got lost in my thoughts again. I've gotta exit my thoughts and see what is going on out there.

What!? Why am I still running? And is this girl panicking? She is drenched in sweat and looks like she will pass out at any moment. Don't tell me she still hasn't thought of a location to settle for.

I take my praise for her intellectual back, there is simply no way she could have the entrance exam. She must has be one of those few students who have the opportunity to use the infamous 'backdoor'.

Setting aside her stupidity. I need to do something about. At this treated she may simply collapse.

Sigh.. Looks like I will have to lead this girl. Now which place would not be crowded on the first day of school, that's right we can use the gym. Since it's the first day no student would feel the need to utilise its facilities. Multiple reasons have built my trust in this conclusion. Firstly, this is the first day of school therefore no classes have been scheduled yet, including gym. Secondly, since this is the first day no one would have friends to play here with. Thirdly and lastly, no romantic feelings could have been developed between students yet, therefore no one would have been rejected yet, and will for that reason have no reason to use the loneliness of the gym to mope about life.

In other words, it is absolutely perfect. It's like the gods arranged these circumstances just for me, I mean I know I know that I am favoured by them but they need to make it less obvious, otherwise people might notice that the heavens favour me and just might make me their almighty messiah. This might be nice, but it will result in my freedom being snatched away. The gods must have orchestrated this roundabout way of ruining my life. Well, I will just to conduct some religious ceremony some other time.

Oh no! I digressed yet again.

Anyways back to the topic.

I can't just suggest to her that we use the gymnasium as she would undoubtedly mistake me for a perverse individual who wants to commit improper actions with her.

Therefore , I decide to lead her to the gym, using priming.

Priming is the psychological process by which you can influence any individuals mind by stimuli that affect how you perceive short-term thoughts and actions.

So I tell, "Phew, I am completely full to the 'brim', later I better hit the 'gym' ". On hearing my comment she looked at me like I was the one with mental issues, but still acknowledges my comment by saying , "Sure, I guess." and then proceeds to keep running.

Well she sure isn't the brightest of the bunch. Seeing that she doesn't seem to understand I decide to take a different approach. I decide to stumble in the direction of the gym.

See me stumble, she helps me regain her balance and says, "Well, you sure got drunk on my beauty, didn't you?", following with a chuckle.

Huh? What is wrong with this woman? She's the one who is drunk on her stupidity. As if I would fall for her vile charms.

Thankfully, she doesn't seem extremely dimwitted, as her eyes immediately lit up when she saw the gym. She pulls me along with her towards the door of the gymnasium, and locks me with her inside the janitors closet beside, and throws the key somewhere within the closet.

WHAT THE BLOODY HELL!?

Calm down George. Breath in and breath in. I suddenly started choking on the air as I forget to breath out.

It is true I am suspecting her rather questionable actions, but I am sure she has a good reason for it.

Therefore, I calmly ask her, "Why did you not enter the gymnasium?". She gets shy and flustered once again, and her cheeks grow bright red, so much so that I can even see a bit of the room in the dark.

She answers softly, while stuttering, "W-well you s-see, in the a-anime I watch m-most of the r-r-romantic scenes take p-place in the e-enclosed places like the c-closet".

What!? She watches anime! This notion is simply inconceivable. How could an otaku girl exist in this high class business school!

Wait. What did I hear that right did she just say 'romantic scenes'?