"U-urh…" Matt slurred lazily as he woke from his sleep.
He smacked his lips and groggily opened his eyes while rising from the lower part of the single bunk bed in the room.
His dorm room was pretty standard—and while he would usually have a roommate, they had yet to resume yet. As a result, he had the whole place to himself.
Thankfully!
'No one has to see this side of me.' He yawned, lazily dragging his feet as he walked over to the bathroom.
His mind was in a whirl, and his thoughts were foggy. All he could do was follow his usual routine; shower, eat, and get dressed for school.
He still had no idea why he was so tired, he felt so confused as he reached out for his toothbrush—looking at himself in his bathroom mirror. His black hair appeared disheveled, and he could see bags under his eyes.
How on Earth did he end up in such a state?
"Mmmhmm…" Matt ignored his unsatisfactory appearance and shelved his questions to the back of his mind.
All he had to do was to keep humming while brushing. It felt refreshing. Being clean was imperative to maintain his facade of normalcy, after all.
Clean… as clean as can be…
Suddenly, his eyes widened in realization and the fog in his head cleared. The events of the previous night began to flash in his head, and he remembered the girl he had spoken to. The girl called Violet!
"Hwowy shwih! (Holy shit!)" He exclaimed, his mouth still full of the white foam from the dissolved paste.
He instantly abandoned his intention to have a bath, and spat out the contents of his mouth, squishing water in it to get rid of the toothpaste residue. Once he was done, he sped out of the bathroom and went to his bedside for the one device that could answer his questions.
His Smartphone!
*
*
*
Okay, so last night was a bit weird.
After Violet revealed herself to be, well, Violet, things got a bit dicey.
Matt, who was still reeling in shock, could not form a coherent word, let alone have a conversation with her. Her weird way of speaking didn't help things either.
In the end, they exchanged contacts and parted on a more or less awkward note. It was late, after all.
When Matt returned to his dorm, he was so exhausted that he knew he could only manage a few more minutes before passing out on his bed, so he decided to check his smartphone one final time before clocking out. However, therein laid his downfall.
"W-what?! 41 new messages?!"
All 41 new messages came from a single chat. The person in question was none other than the infamous VIOLET!
"B-but how? Why?" In all honesty, Matt was terrified at this point.
Who wouldn't be? He got to meet his High School crush, but she wasn't quite like he remembered. The awkward interactions he had had with her all those years ago surfaced, and the mortification was enough to kill him a hundred times over.
"No… this is too much. Too much." He clutched his head, nearly doubling over with anxiety.
What was he expected to do at this point? Respond to all 41 of her messages?
>DING!<
Make that 42!
"Uh… um…" Matt stared at his smartphone, unsure of what action to take.
Finally, after taking his time to make the choice, he realized that it was best for him to ignore the messages and wait till morning, when his head would be clearer. Yes, that was the smart thing to do.
'My bed calls for me.' He sighed blissfully, as he decided to put away his smartphone.
Unfortunately…
"ARHHHHHHH!!!"
He mistakenly clicked on Violet's chat and opened all her messages. Yes, mistakenly!
"NOOOOOOOO!!!"
Pandora's Box was opened, and all the messages she sent to him suddenly appeared on his screen. Unfortunately for Matt, he had reached the point of no return when he opened the chat. His shell-shocked mind absorbed the content of the texts, and the information flowed to his brain.
If only the information within didn't cause his brain to hurt so much!
"W-what is all this? Aren't these pictures of High School?" Matt was confronted with dozens of pictures from his former High School—the one where he was a weirdo and an irredeemable creep.
He saw his classmates, his teachers, Violet, and then he saw himself.
"Guh!" Matt cringed inwardly as his eyes scanned the picture.
His heart nearly stopped, and he instantly put his smartphone away from him.
"Haa… haaa… no way. No way!' There was no way he could look at that disastrous picture.
There was absolutely no way!
[A Few Seconds Later]
"Argh! Fuck, so embarrassing!"
Matt lay on his bed, going through the pictures Violet sent to him, cringing in shock and disgust as he scrolled through each of them.
"Such a retard… damn it…" He murmured, his face flushed with embarrassment.
Still, why was his heart melting, and what was with this nostalgia that assailed him? The defiant expression on his face in their group photograph for the yearbook made him nearly burst out laughing.
He was weird—very creepy too!
He was a dork.
He looked ridiculous.
Yet…
"I can't believe I was once like that. Hahaha!"
Matt had always felt revolted by his Chuuni High School self. That hadn't changed, but he suddenly felt a wave of nostalgia.
"I must be crazy. Hahaha!" He laughed, finally reaching the end of the pictures.
If anything, the one thing he really missed was Violet.
"She really was cute back then… well, she still is." Matt found himself smiling fondly.
Violet was the prettiest girl in his class back then, and he had thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world at the time. Yes, it was very childish, but Matt had been really serious about her back then.
Even now…
"I haven't asked a girl out ever since then." He sighed, a sad smile plastered on his face.
His first and only confession had been a life-changing moment for him. He had drastically altered his life, all as a result of what happened that day. To him, it was a valuable memory, as well as a painful one.
It served to remind him how utterly miserable he was as a Chuuni, and how epic his current lifestyle was.
"Haa…" He sighed, plopping to his bed with a satisfied sigh.
He was quite sleepy, so it was time to go to bed. Sure, his day had taken a rather odd turn, but all things considered, it wasn't so bad.
Matt thought to himself that if the night could just end this way, then he would be satisfied irregardless. Unfortunately…
>DING!<
>DING!<
>DING!<
He had no idea his night was just beginning.
~Are you done feasting your gaze on the visual imagery yet?~
~I beckon you to converse with me this merry night~
~There is much to discuss.~
Matt looked at the text messages on his screen, and he was once again appalled by Violet's ridiculous use of vocabulary.
'Doesn't she understand how unusual she sounds?' He sighed.
He was extremely sleepy, but he couldn't very well ignore the 45 messages she sent, could he?
"Just a little bit. I'll chat with her for a little bit." He checked the time, noting that he could spare five minutes to simply greet the girl and clear some misunderstandings with her.
'She knows me as Martin, so she must still have this 'Chuuni' impression of me in her head. Ah, how embarrassing!'
Now that he thought of it, her mode of speaking was probably meant to appeal to him since she thought he was a Chuunibyou. If he could clarify how much he had changed, then perhaps they could converse normally.
Despite how weirded-out he was with Violet, Matt couldn't deny how interested he was in talking to her. All he had to do was clear all the bad air first.
'Yeah. I'm a cool guy now.'
~Hi Violet. Good evening. Thanks for the pictures. There's something you should know. See, I'm no longer like I was in High School. I've changed, so we can just talk normally now. Also, please call me Matt. I changed my name too. I go by Matt now.~
Once he sent this message, Matt was satisfied with how well he passed the message across. He reckoned she would be curious and respond positively, and he would wrap up the conversation by saying he'd tell her all about it the next day.
They would wrap up the conversation, and that would be it for the night.
'A dash of mystery and intrigue. I'm sure she'll be curious about it, so we can have quite an interesting conversation tomorrow.' Matt smiled to himself.
He knew his game, alright.
~Ah, yes. I heard. So you became a commoner.~
'Eh…?'
This wasn't the reply Matt was expecting.
~Do not fear , Martin. Now that we are reunited, there are certain things that are necessary for discussion.~
"No. No. No. No more discussion. And stop talking like that!" Matt yelled, tightly gripping his smartphone to type a hasty reply before things got out of hand.
~But first, a visit to the past is necessary. Let there be no haste. The moon's glow graces us with her blessings.~
And just like that, the conversation went on.
And on.
And on.
Over and over again, Matt tried to end the conversation, but it continued anyway. He was too nice to simply ignore her messages, but he was still too frustrated to return the same energy her messages gave off.
Still, he was chatting with Violet! There was no way he could ignore someone like that.
Thus, in spite of his better judgment, he kept going. He kept chatting.
By the time he was hours into the conversation, Matt had discovered two major things.
One, he still had feelings for Violet.
He couldn't believe it, but she was the only one who could keep him till 3:00AM. He didn't like the fact that the conversation kept getting prolonged. Every fiber of his body needed sleep, but surprisingly, he was enjoying Violet's company.
Matt had to admit it. He still liked her very much.
As for the second discovery he made, it was something that made him regret the first. It was absolutely ridiculous—a realization that completely changed his view of Violet.
His entire image of her was sent crashing to the ground, and a new perception of the girl he liked was formed, a perception he did his best to shake off
Unfortunately, it was too glaring for him to ignore.
"It's just as I feared." A teardrop fell from his eyes as he closed his them to sleep that early morning.
" Violet… is a Chuunibyou."