ALARIC’S LOG: THE SUNKEN SHIP

Back then, I was just a harmless boy. A simple otaku and gamer. I’m not handsome or tall. I look like a malnourished kid with eyeglasses. To make my character even worse, I had asthma and would cough three times every ten minutes.

It’s hard to believe that the heartthrob of Dradecim National High School is the same as the ugly nerd of Mirose Grande Junior High.

My best friend was Jeannette Amiella Fontaine von Noctis. When she first transferred to my grade school, she was very antisocial; to the point that she would cast off anyone who would come near her with that evil princess attitude. But deep inside, she’s just lonely. A hard-headed tsundere, it would seem.

She was my seatmate for all of my subjects, so if there are some questions bugging her mind, she would ask me. Time tested us until we became friends without even knowing it. That’s when I decided to call by her nickname Amy. She would call me Ric.

I may be an otaku, and she may be a kpop fan, but our different hobbies didn’t make our friendship impossible. She tutors me in my nightmarish math. And she was always my partner in every dance whether if its cultural, pop, or ballroom. We were inseparable.

I had loved Amy before I have ever understood the concept of love. Amy was so smart, beautiful and kind. She’s not hard to love with her jolly and optimistic personality. She always acts like my big sister.

She was subject to several confessions in our early years, but she knows how to deal with them. She rejected all of them.

Everything changed drastically during our junior high. Amy started having crushes on campus hunks, but me… I only had my eyes on her.

There was this basketball heartthrob named Kristoff Anderson who had taken an interest on Amy. Unluckily for me, Amy has feelings for Kristoff too. They look so good together. Kristoff is smart, athletic and handsome.

They dated every time the class dismissed. Slowly, she lost her time with me, her best friend. I was heartbroken and alone, so I tried to join a circle of friends who had the same hobby as me. That’s where I made acquaintances like this carefree friend named Heushac Efilion.

After two weeks of having a dating relationship, Kristoff and Amy had a quarrel. Amy slowly went back to me.

Every night, she would visit my house and go to my room. There, she would hug me tight and shed the infinite amount of tears to my chest. That was the first time I was hugged by a woman I loved.

Amy and I made a pinky promise. No matter what happens, we will be right there for each other.

“Ric, promise me that we will be together, forever~”

After that, I became a pseudo-boyfriend for her. We did what Kristoff and she used to do. We went on a date in a park, had shopping in the mall, and expensive dinners at a five-star restaurant.

My feelings for her grew stronger until I was unable to contain it. I had to release everything stored in my heart.

“A-Amy… do you remember the pinky swear? I wanted to be with you forever. I wanted to say that I… I love you.”

“I’m sorry, Ric.” Amy made a smile. “I didn’t love you from the start. You’re just my friend, that’s all. You’re too delusional for a beautiful girl like me to fall in love with a sickly disgusting nerd like you.”

Then she left me once more. Her reaction to my feelings as well as the insults she made shattered my heart to a million pieces.

After that, we never talked to each other. I even haven’t glanced at her since then. I was so embarrassed by myself. I was so foolish to fall for her.

After a couple of days, I noticed that Amy and Kristoff were going out again. They became the best campus couple of Mirose Grande Junior High. Their parents knew about their relationship and never had any objections about it.

They look so happy together.

They have rebuilt their relationship. But my ship with her has been crushed by an iceberg and forever will be sunken in the depths of Marianas Trench.

Upon graduating junior high, I convinced my parents for me to study at Dradecim National High. It may be fifty kilometers away from my hometown, but the education there was top notch. But the main reason is that I wanted to go far away from here. Far away from Jeannette Amiella Fontaine von Noctis.

I succumbed to stress eating because of the depression, but I never got fat for the reason that the distance from the bus terminal to my high school forces me to jog every morning and afternoon. My physique went great, and my sickness has been naturally overcome by my body.

I never trusted anyone of the opposite sex. I inherited Jeannette’s insults and applied it to every rejection I made to my stalkers.

The wimpy nerd Alaric is dead.

I am now a different person, immune to the powers of what we call love.

I am Alaric the Arrogant.