Rustling noises wake me up. A tall figure with sculpted body was standing in front of me, arranging things into a locker.

"Oh, hey. Sorry I wake you up".

The tall figure had a dark hair, with a serene grey eyes. His features is, out of this world. As if it was sculpted by the God by His own hands. It was that of a main character in popular manga and manhwa. He was like the prince for the princess.

He wore a black singlet, revealing the veins on his trained, thick biceps.

*Ba-dump*

*Ba-dump*

*Ba-dump*

My heart races faster at explosive speed, seeing the attractive figure in front of me.

'H-hello'.

"Hi? I just got here. I am Arseus. You can call me Ars".

'Ah. I am Bell, just Bell. Nice to meet you'.

Oh. My. Gosh.

What the-

He's so...HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. I thought I was hallucinating or something.

When he turned away to continue arranging his stuffs into his locker, I placed my hand on my mouth, gasping for air.

I have never had this much of a crush at first sight in the first second I see someone. I need to behave.

I need grass. No, I need the whole forest.

*BREATH IN*. *BREATHE OUT*.

Alright. Calm down. It's fine. Act like a normal human being.

I chanted in my head that I am pure like an elf, strong like the dragonfolks, uncaring like the demons, unbothered by worldly desires like the spirits. I keep chanting the words religiously.

And it works. My heart beats slower until I finally return to its normal pace.

'I came here just yesterday. Mmm, where are you from, Ars?', I tried to strike a conversation.

"I came from Calchester, a small village in Rubiria".

'Oh. I know Rubiria. I am from the neighbouring territory Silverstein. I came from a small village too'.

Ars had a curious look on his face.

"You really are from a village? You looked like a foreign noble".

Huh?

M-my pendant! I took it off last night before I went to bath! I quickly collect my thoughts, and remain calm.

I had to use my disguise outside. So I had to show Ars anyway.

'Ars'.

"Yes?".

I took the necklace from my desk table and wore it over my neck. A tingling sensation runs through my body. My hair turned to black, and my eyes turned to black-brown from the magic.

Seeing this transformation, Ars showed a surprised look.

'Can you please keep this a secret. I have my reasons'.

Ars was collecting his thoughts before replying.

"No worry. I don't like prying into other's secret".

'Thank you, Ars', with a smile I thanked him for his understanding.

I looked out the window to see the sun high up in the sky. It was already noon.

I am hungry, should I invite Ars for lunch too? He was still busy unpacking his stuffs.

I left my room and knocked on Lucas's door.

'Lucas, are you awake?'.

I turned the door knob, it was not locked- to see Lucas still lying in bed, still sleeping.

'Lucas, its already noon', I poked him to wake him up.

He just grumbles, pulled up his blanket and turned his body sideways. I tried to wake him up some more, but its useless.

Sigh. What did he do last night to still be THIS sleepy. I slowly closed the door to not make a sound, and went back to my room.

'Ars, wanna grab lunch with me?'.

"Sure".

Ars took the white plain shirt folded on his bed, wearing it over his singlet.

I followed the signboards to the canteen, just 4 minutes walking distance.

The canteen has 2 floors. The ground floor serves buffet style food. There were different sets of cuisines to choose from, one of it is for vegetarians. We would line up and go to different counters that served different set of food, letting the staffs put the food to our plates. Each plate cost 20 Imperial Points (IP).

While on the 1st floor, the students can order from more set of menus. The price ranges from 30 up to 500 IP and even more.

The meals served upstairs are cooked by professional chefs, and high class food can be found on the first floor including Orstead beef which were highly prised for its high fat content for out of this world steak.

At least for today, we lined up at the ground floor canteen. There were some students lining up as well. There were a board of menus with different cuisine.

Looking at the menus, we have vegetarian stuff- not interested. The second one is Ogana Curry Noodle served with fish curry, green veggies and beansprout.

The third one is Squid Blood Pasta, served with calamari and olive sauce.

At the end of the line, we can go to the 3 different counters. I went with curry noodle. At the counter, we would have to swipe our silver card to pay for it.

I noticed the stares that we- no, not 'we', but Ars get.

Even on the way here, I caught many people glancing into our direction. Is this the power of being super handsome?

After I taken my food, I was looking for Ars.

He was having a problem at the counter. I quickly approaches him and sees that he forgot to bring his silver card.

'Hey, you should have called for me', I quickly swiped my card on the device.

"Thanks. I forgot to bring my card", Ars placed his right arm behind his head, feeling a bit embarrassed.

'No problem. Let's go sit over there'.

We sat down on a nearby table. Ars actual took the Squid Blood Pasta. It was black coloured, looking really weird to me. The gazes directed at us is still coming.

'Ars, don't you think you have too much calamari on your plate?'.

No kidding. The portion of the pasta and the calamari is the same.

Ars slurp the pasta into his mouth, chewing them.

"Don't know. She served it onto the plate. I thought this was the normal amount".

No, of course that wasn't normal.

'You are too handsome', I sighed.

Ars coughed as I said that, and quickly chuck down some water from his cup to relieve his choking throat.

The privilege of pretty and handsome people. That in itself, is talent. You can have the worst attribute and other talents in this world but you will still find success somehow.

We tried to chat for a bit, talking about the food, the place here ect.

We ate quietly after running out of topics to talk, returning to our dormitory afterwards.

We entered our room and lied down on our respective beds. Ars take off his white shirt, revealing the black sleeveless undershirt beneath.

His singlet slightly pulled up slightly, revealing chiselled packs on his stomach. He adjust his undershirt as he continues to play around his phone.

*Gulp*.

Dear Gods, the System, whatever higher being in this world, give me strength.

I asked for Ars phone number, which then he told me he didn't really know how to use the phone.

I came over to his side, sitting next to him to teach him how to use the phone. Showing him what the different icons on the screen means and all the functions that the device has.

Yes I liked him and I did feel slight (I mean, intermediate) excitement sitting so close to him especially when he was wearing his singlet like this but it's not like I have other ulterior motive.

And he was just a crush and I am just attracted to his otherworldly physical appearance.

I had enough experience from my past life to control my emotions.

*Creak*

"Bell-", Lucas spoke after entering the room.

'Hey', I replied.

Lucas was staring at Ars and me sitting next to each other.

After a brief staring contest, I introduced Ars to Lucas, and Lucas to Ars.

'Lucas, this is Arseus. My roommate. He came in just this morning'.

'And Ars, this is Lucas, my close friend'.

"Nice to meet you, Lucas", Ars spoke to Lucas while giving out his hand for a handshake.

Lucas looked at Ars up and down, also having the same thoughts as with me that Ars is damn handsome and hot- although with a hint of inferiority instead of amazement.

"Nice to meet you too, Arseus", Lucas also gave his hand, completing the handshake.

"Just Ars is fine".

They both politely greeted each other.

'Lucas, what's the matter?'

"Oh, I just thought of getting lunch with you. Ars, wanna join us?".

I and Ars looked at each other, trying to think of something.

I responded hesitatingly,

'Lucas, I had lunch with Ars just now".

"But-" before I could even finish, Lucas cut me off.

"Its okay. I can go by myself". Lucas went out of the room, closing the door.

I wanted to accompany him for lunch but before I could even tell him that he already went off.

I feel bad for leaving him like that. Right. I have always been with him before. Back in the village, Lucas and I are the only ones with young age so we only had each other to play or do stuffs with.

But we still have more other times to go out together.

The orientation day is tomorrow, so today is free. I want to go the Leisure Complex. There is a shopping mall there.

'Ars, want to go with me to Leisure Complex'?

"What's that?"

I told him what's written in the guidebook. Ars agreed with my suggestion.

'I want to go with Lucas too. Let's wait for him'.

After awhile, I can hear small sound of door creaking from the room next to me.

I went out and knocked the door, opening them.

'Hey Lucas. How's lunch? What did you get?'

"It was just fine. I got the Squid Blood Pasta".

'I see'.

'Lucas, let's go to Leisure Complex. There's a shopping complex there, an arcade to play games and more stuffs'.

Lucas's eye bright up. Agreeing with me instantly.

After I and Ars finished preparing ourselves, we waited at the couch in the living room. Then Lucas came out with a simple dark blue shirt with jeans.

'Let's go!'.

We walked out of the dorm to the nearby waiting point for the shuttle bus. There was a button on the sign pole to notify the driver of students want to use the service.

After a a minute or two, the bus came.

'To Leisure Complex please', I told the driver.

The bus took us to a wide area, with a big building in the centre. There was a garden here covered by transparent glass walls. There's also a big lake on the right side.

There were some people jogging around the lake. There's two people riding a boat there too.

The garden seems to have some tables and chairs. I can see students sitting there. It would be a nice place to study and do readings.

We entered the shopping complex in the middle. Different stores with different brands of clothing, magitronics, weapons and armors, and restaurants were lined up along the sides.

I see a guide map at the centre and quickly approaches it. Lucas and Ars followed me behind.

I tapped the device, showing our location and different stores available at each floor. There's also a search function.

Tap. Tap.

Oh the arcade is on the 2nd floor.

We walked to a magic elevator and get on to the floor. After walking straight and a turn, we finally sees the arcade.

'Wow'.

Is that a VR machine? I sees around 10 capsules lined up, and all of them are occupied. I want to try them, but its too bad there's not enough of it.

I went to the counter to exchange my IP to arcade tokens.

'Lucas, Ars, come over here'.

Lucas and Ars was looking and walking around. They probably never saw these kind of modern games.

We each get our own tokens and the first game we play was a table top game. When we insert the tokens, a black disk shoots out from the long side of the table, positioning the black disk at the centre.

Lucas and I had some sort of disk with a handle we grab with our hand.

The goal of the game is simple, to hit the disk into the goal (the hole at the short side of the table) at the opponent side.

We played around taking turns.

When it was Lucas versus Ars, for some reason Lucas was really serious about it, he seemed aggressive. Ars still won by landslide against Lucas though.

Ars had an inhuman reaction speed. He would always defend his goal at critical moment.

It seems that he had a talent that was even better than Lucas. After all, Lucas had Primal Instinct talent, making his reaction was better than me. But Ars was the best among three of us.

We played around some other games and went out to check other kind of stores. We visited the casino on the highest floor as well. It looked really fancy with rich looking students who looked like sons and daughters of aristocrats gambling here and there.

The staff there was looking us up and down as if questioning our status to even enters such a place.

We get out of the place after and take a look at the food court, the restaurants and finally decides to eat Eastern food for dinner. They served ramen, a type of noodle dish with different varieties. It costed 40 Imperial Points (IP) but it's definitely worth it.

Lucas and Ars too think its really good.

Right. I had 2000 IP, the cheapest food in canteen is 20 IP, and if I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner, that would be 60 IP each day. Times that by 30 that was 1800 IP used just for cheapest food served at canteen.

I think buying bread and plain water will be cheaper but I want to eat proper ones.

I spent around 100 IP today just from the food and arcade. I haven't shop for anything yet either.

Hmm I might need to start planning my spending.

We soon get tired of walking and return to our rooms.

It was a nice day. It really feels different with Ars around. It's like, we were a group of besties doing things together.

Tomorrow will be orientation day, and where school truly begins.

***