"I can't believe it has been a night since I left."
Even though the whole Link incident happened in the late evening, it was already the next day. That meant he had spent the whole night away from campus.
'Hmm, it definitely felt longer than that, though. Does the HQ also have that time ratio thing that Lucy was talking about?'
Matt was currently walking toward his dorm room on the campus grounds. He saw a few people around, but not anyone he actually knew—thankfully.
'Now that I think of it, shouldn't there be classes going on right now?' He checked his phone and it was currently past ten in the morning.
Yep, classes had begun for sure!
Matt would have rushed there, but he really didn't feel up to it. He wanted to return to his safe space and get some alone time.
A lot of stuff had happened, after all. He needed time to mull things over and get his head straight. He already had it planned out.
'I'll take a shower to cool down. Then, I'll lay on my bed and think things through.' Everything still felt like a dream, so perhaps he needed to slow down and calmly analyze his experiences in a rational state.
Even when Rose configured the bridge and sent him back to his University—right in the middle of campus, for that matter—he was still too dazed to fully comprehend it all.
'No one around me even seemed startled or anything. Is it because of the Veil? I guess it must have looked like I was always there.'
Thinking about all of these things, while his brain still felt like mush, was making things even more complicated, so he decided to rush to his dorms.
And then, after checking himself for the umpteenth time to confirm that he didn't appear disheveled or weird in any way, the secret Chuunibyou went his way.
*
*
*
"Haa… finally."
Matt was right in front of his door now.
He realized he was in a rush the previous night so he didn't lock up properly, but he wasn't particularly worried. His campus was reputed for its security. Also, what would anyone really be looking for in his room anyway?
He entered the room with zero expectations, yawning loudly and stretching.
"Honestly, having this room to myself is the be—"Matt suddenly stopped, staring dumbstuck at the sight before him.
His eyes widened in shock, and his body froze in response to what he was looking at.
Right before him stood someone who was clad in a towel and was dripping wet. They probably just got out of the shower, so even their long dark hair was sticking to their skin.
Seeing a stranger like this in one's room, after expecting it to be unoccupied, was enough to stop any person dead in their tracks. However…
'H-huh?' Matt's cheeks slowly turned red, and he could feel his heart begin to race uncontrollably.
The reason behind Matt's reaction was the identity of the person in his room.
"A… girl?" He whispered, his voice quivering and his senses tingling.
What was he looking at here? A girl who had just come out of the shower!
Her long dark hair gleamed with a certain allure, and her striking green eyes drew him in like a siren. The girl had a slim frame and a slender physique. She was beautiful, a vision of perfection.
Matt felt like he was going to spontaneously combust just from looking at her.
"U-um… are you… my roommate?" The girl asked him, her voice very low and quite embarrassed.
'Roommate? What?' Matt's mind snapped back to reality.
What was this crazy girl talking about? No, in the first place, what was she doing in his room—or in the male dormitory?
The girl didn't seem very embarrassed, though. She merely looked surpised, though her eyes contained a bit of bashfulness. Still, wouldn't girls normally freak out in situations like this?
No, hold on, why was a girl even here?!
As Matt was trying to reconcile all his many thoughts into one, he realized he was being rude by not answering the girl's question.
"U-um… this is the boy's dormitory, you know?"
"O-oh, yes. I know." The girl responded, slowly nodding her head.
'She knows? Then why is she—?!'
Matt calmed himself by breathing slowly. He couldn't possibly overreact here. Now that he thought things through, this was a precarious situation. If he was caught with a girl in his room, especially one in nothing but a short towel, he was bound to get in serious trouble.
No one would believe that a girl simply waltzed into his room and made herself at home in his absence. Even if he ended up vindicating himself with the school, there was still the court of public opinion.
'If weird rumors start spreading about me, it's all over!'
The normie life that Matt had crafted so carefully for so long was hanging in the balance, so he had to choose his words carefully. One scream from her and it would all be over.
"T-this is my room, you know?"
"You mean, our room. It's meant to house two people, isn't it?"
Matt didn't think this dense girl was getting the point. Was she retarded, or something? Couldn't she understand what he was driving at?
'The longer this drags on, the more dangerous it is for me!' Matt wailed internally.
Even though he wanted to just relax in his dorm and think about the new development in his life, he was stuck in this mess. How bad was his luck?
'Damn, I'm just gonna say it as it is!'
Matt steeled himself and tightened his fist in resolve. He didn't want to be the one pointing out the obvious, but…
"But this is a boy's dorm, and it's a boy's room! You're clearly a—"
"Boy. I'm a boy." The 'girl' answered him with a straight face.
At this point, Matt was beyond flabbergasted. He was utterly stupefied.
"I'm a dude, like you. My name is Adrien, and I'm your new roommate."