Yaaawn... They woke up with a stretch and folded towel falling from their heads. Checking their phone for the time, showed it was 7:00AM.
"Oh no! I'm going to be late!" They got out of a bed in a scramble before putting on their new uniform and heading to bathroom to get ready for the coming day.
After brushing their teeth and brushing their hair, they looked up at the mirror to check if they looked fine, revealing a 15-year old girl getting ready for her second year of high school: Mei.
She had a round face with long, straight hair reaching just below the shoulder blades that was parted in the middle.
She kept fidgeting with her hair and running circles in her mind over whether to use make up or not. She couldn't help but be worried about keeping appearances up when she already missed her first official day of school and wanted to make an impact so she could find friends before winter break.
Finally satisfied after playing with her hair, she checked her phone again and... 7:30AM. At this rate she really would be late! School stared at 8AM, but as a transfer student, she would need to meet earlier with her homeroom teacher to get the rundown before starting her first day.
Scrambling once again she made her way to the living room where her mom waited with breakfast ready. As much as she wanted to sit down and peacefully eat, her school life was on the line right now.
"Mom, can we go to school right now? I can eat in the car," said Mei before grabbing the plate and running out the door.
On the way to school, she noticed a passing house. One where her childhood friend lived. Although it was a school day, the lights were closed and a car was still in the driveway. She couldn't help but wonder if he had moved away or if she would meet him at school.
When she left the house she was feeling confident in herself, but now at school, she was a nervous wreck. Going through the talks with her homeroom teacher Mister was fine, she suddenly lost all confidence as soon as she stood in front of her soon-to-be classmates. No matter how much Mei thought she had prepared herself, having a whole class staring at her was simply overwhelming.
"Uh, this is a day late, but here is our transfer student."
What if I mess up my introduction? She was nervous enough that she wouldn't put it past herself.
"We all know this is a weird time to transfer and she just recently recovered from a cold so take it easy on her okay?"
What if I can't fit in? Would I be able to make friends before winter break?
"I hope you can all get along with her."
What if I see Hui? Oh my god its been so long I wouldn't know how to react. I wonder if he still remembers me.
"...Alright, introduce yourself."
What if, what if, what if. Questions like these kept plaguing her mind. Before she knew it, Mister had already finished talking and the class was eagerly awaiting her introduction without her noticing.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Noticing Mei was spacing out looking at the ground, Mister gave her a little nudge and whispered, "Are you ok?"
"Oh! Uh... yeah I'm ok!" she yelped.
This garnered a few laughs from the class which made her shrink in embarrassment and even more nervous than before.
"Alright settle down class! Once again, could you introduce yourself?"
After a small pause, she cleared her throat and was able to manage saying "I'm M—"
— before being interrupted by the classroom door swinging wide open. Startled, she turn towards the noise before her eyes lit up in surprise and excitement.
*
"What the..."
Hui shifted in bed before noticing his hand clutching his phone. Checking the time, it was 6AM. He let out a sigh thinking, "Only four hours of sleep... there's still time before school I can rest a bit more..." before drifting back to sleep.
The night before, Hui had stayed up until 2AM playing games on his phone and conversing with an online friend. With no color in his reality, Hui often found entertainment in escaping it, i.e. playing games and immersing himself in those worlds. Because he had little ambitions for school and was able to get by without studying, he had developed an... addiction so to speak to the virtual world. An addiction in name because he was still aware in how much time he put in and capable of stopping himself whenever, but with nothing better to do, just kept on gaming which resulted in his less than ideal sleeping problem in school.
Waking up again with a distinct lack of an alarm blaring in his ears, he thought maybe I just can't sleep and checked his phone for how much time he had to kill... it was 7:40AM. He had slept past his alarm and his parents weren't home.
Suddenly wide awake, he rushed to get ready and ran out the door with a strong lack of sleep and breakfast. Luckily, Hui's house wasn't very far from the school. If he ran at full speed he would be able to make it in time... probably. Even though he had no ambitions for school, he still had the integrity to never be late drilled into him at a young age.
He reached the school at 7:55, but took a detour to the restroom to fix his hair and catch his breath. Despite his dislike of being late, he was also the type of person who hated standing out and having others see him put any effort into something. That is to say, even if he tried on something, he would downplay it as much as he could so he wasn't seen as reliable. This was mostly to protect his lazy lifestyle and persona, but also because if someone praised him for his hard work, he would be too embarrassed to know how to react. He wasn't used to getting praised.
After a short while, his breathing evened out and he checked how much time was left. 7:59AM. 1 minute before class started and he was in a restroom still some distance from his classroom to avoid being seen. Letting out an internal sigh he, began another run towards class.
"So much for catching my breath earlier," thought Hui. He was tired again after reaching class, but couldn't be bothered with appearances anymore as long as he made it in time and swung the door open. Taking a second to control his breathing, began walking to his seat and made it in front of the teacher before turning and noticing—
"Huh... Mei Mei?" he accidentally said out loud while confused.
—standing there was the girl from his childhood... and also part of the reason his world was gray.
"Huuuuuh, Hui Hui!?" cried Mei excitedly before pulling him into an embrace.
This started murmurs around the classroom about their relationship and whatnot. After the initial shock and embarrassment of that surprising hug, Hui couldn't help but let out another internal sigh. He thought he had accepted making a small scene, but this blew that right out of the water.
"Alright settle down everyone!" said Mister with a sigh of his own. "It looks like you two already know each other, but could you introduce yourself to the rest of the class?"
"Oh right," said Mei as she let Hui move to his seat. "I'm Chun Mei! First name Mei, last name Chun. I hope I get along with everyone!"
"Okay, your seat is in the back next to Hui. Looks like you already know him so he can get you situated. Alright! Quiet down, class starts now." And with that, the talkative mood was dampened once again, except this time, with an extra student present.