Caius took a bit of a detour before going to his literature class after lunch. Normally he would go with Ariel if they were gathered together for lunch as they just were, but perhaps just as usual he felt he needed the time to himself to wander about by his lonesome before rejoining his friends.

The bell already rang for the end of lunch period, meaning it was almost the start of the first of two advanced classes every day that went for about fifteen weeks before their final exams. Then the next two advanced classes would start fresh in the next semester, for three semesters a year. It was already the fifth week in, so almost a third of the semester was already over.

Actually he merely remained in the vicinity of where they just were, near the entrance to the main library. The war was still ongoing, but most of the spectators retreated for their classes.

However, he wasn’t concentrating on the fight anymore. Rather, he was ruminating over what had happened in the morning. Out of nowhere a childhood friend reappeared in front of him, and not just that, but it was somebody with which he had some reservations.

Caius sighed with a forlorn expression on his face. His feelings were mixed, to say the least. It wasn’t that he didn’t get along with her, though. In fact, the three of them plus Kato got along the best. Precisely because they once did, he was at a loss at how he should conduct himself.

When Mayumi had left them, she had left them at a time when there was a falling out in the group for the very first time. Specifically, it was between him and Mayumi, and this was why he was still leaning on the balcony railings as class was about to start. Did the passage of time heal those wounds, or would Mayumi hold a grudge against him in the back of her mind? Her attitude this morning didn’t seem to point to that. He couldn’t know if it was one or the other, and at this stage he knew that he would never find out. Despite that, he couldn’t help but run the possibilities through his brain, desperately trying to recollect the events from the past that he spent so much time and effort to bury deep enough in his memories so that he couldn’t recall it easily anymore.

He turned around to lean his back against the rails as he let his eyes wander, watching the last batch of students making their way to their advanced classes. Naturally, his line of sight was drawn to the skirts, both short and long, of the female students, and of course he was smart enough to not let his eyes linger for more than even half a second. It helps to an extent, but only to an extent. The female students who were more alchemically compatible would be able to sense, from the mana flow in the ether, the feeble but uncomfortable energy coming from his glances. He was aware of it of course, but hey, it was what boys did.

Caius then noticed a tall, blonde girl with loose socks and a sweater tied by its sleeves at her hip entered the library, which was remarkable to him because no girl who looked like that would ever go to the library. Her hair was long and dishevelled, and her skirt was super short, which was part of why he noticed in the first place. However, he was not able to get a good look at her face because she already opened the doors and disappeared inside. Unfortunate. Caius liked this particular brand of street fashion of inner city popular culture, similar to Alice’s and Scarlett’s casual wear outside of school. Although they hadn’t crossed paths enough to learn each other’s names, over years of indirect contact he could still recognize that she was from Class C. At the very least, this girl had been in the Korolev school district for at least a few years.

Before the second bell rang for the start of class, Caius quickly made his way to the classroom, but was carrying none of his belongings. He asked Ariel to do that for him as a favour, and as promised he saw them on the seat next to her with a minute to spare before attendance was taken.

“How’re you feeling?”

Caius almost did a double take. He didn’t expect Ariel to speak first; usually he was the first to do so, because Ariel was the kind of girl that didn’t talk unless it was necessary.

“I’m fine, thanks.”

“What do you think of Mayumi returning?”

He smiled wryly at her question.

“Is it that obvious to you?”

“You give off too many clues. Why would you hang around outside at such a bizarre time with only minutes before class?”

“An observant person, you are. Worthy of a rival of the Elites.”

Ariel shrugged, unimpressed.

“If I wasn’t, then I would be another Scarlett.”

“That reminds me, though. This class is the first time we have class together, eh? Even though we always took the same advanced courses, we missed each other completely for the last two years.”

As she turned her head towards him, Ariel’s platinum hair waved in the air beautifully together like radiant chandeliers. It was a mystery as to why her hair was so silky smooth, but then again her sisters’ hair were also of similar quality.

“It only took you five weeks to notice? Here!”

She raised her hand at the call of her name. Unusually, the class continued on talking even while attendance was being taken, but since it was the eccentric and lenient Mr Verne who was teaching the class, this degree of freedom was expected. It didn’t help that the noise meant it would take twice as long to finish with it.

“But at least Mayumi isn’t here. If she was, it would’ve been a big oof for me. Here!”

“Is it really that bad?”

“No, I’m probably just over-thinking it. Really, it doesn’t matter to me if it falls either way. I just want to know what her motivations are, and then I’ll be at ease.”

Caius obediently returned to her initial question, to her mild surprise, but then this was one of Caius’ styles too.

“Well, what happened back in grade four was something from when we were children. Would you not take this opportunity to start off on a clean slate?”

“I think that’s the plan, eh? But it doesn’t mean that I can pretend nothing happened back then. It’ll still haunt me in the back of my mind, until she shows me what her intentions are.”

“I see, though I think this is still a you problem. But have fun waiting for that. She won’t let it slip, because she’s waiting for the same thing from you.”

“Waiting for the same thing?”

“Of course. You’re not the only one in the wrong, so to speak. Both of you are looking for—”

Ariel suddenly stopped herself, and right on cue Mr Verne closed off the attendance book to slap his desk with his ruler, finally signalling to the students to be silent and get on with class. His mind already detached from Ariel’s half-finished analysis, Caius thought it was nigh impossible to know what Mayumi was thinking, just as Ariel thought too. What was he going to do, go up to Mayumi and ask “remember the time when we fought and hurt each other? Have you forgiven me for that yet?” If it was only as simple as that.

Ariel’s face remained pensive, and usually did so no matter the subject. Her disposition was naturally calm, steady and reliable in contrast to her more emotionally-charged sisters. But it didn’t mean she was a pushover in their childish competitions; she was probably the most competitive and resourceful of them, leading the Jupiter sisters to win after win over the Elites, whether it was an athletic contest or a card game. She seemed to have a knack at solving games like no other and, having sisters whose abilities met her strategies’ high burdens of execution, made her feared by the Elites, who on the other hand largely depended on their absurd individual talents to contest the Jupiter sisters.

But outside of their competitions she was a sober and quiet girl who didn’t have much ambition, or at least she never showed it. Out of the children between the Elites and the Jupiter sisters, probably Ariel changed the least, both in personality and physical stature. Most importantly, she happened to be the most emotionally detached from the group, and that was why even the feistiest rival in Caius would talk to Ariel this easily.

They sat very far into the classroom, right next to the windows in fact. Although students could sit anywhere and didn’t have designated seating plans for the advanced classes, because Ariel was the student council’s undersecretary, she was given a lot of respect by her allies and enemies alike. Usually, having a Class B student sit together with a peon from Class F would have been an immense controversy in this socially stratified school, and that was correct. And because she held public office, it was expected for her personal life to be followed around and gossiped about, and this pairing was the most obvious choice of speculation for the busybodies.

Ariel, however, didn’t care about it as long as she commanded the loyalty of the Class B students who worked under her in the Department of the Administration, and in the Records Office that was under her department. Luckily, Class B was more or less familiar with the Elites of Class F already, more specifically those who the Jupiter sisters were friends with.

In no time, class was at its end with the end of fourth period bell ringing. Mr Verne was talking to almost the very last minute; it was one of those high intensity classes where the teacher talked by his lonesome for the entire duration. As a result, the rest of the class was in a hurry to gather their belongings with the short amount of time left before the next period. The exception was Caius, who under any circumstances marched at his own pace.

“Sorry, I have to rush. See ya later.”

Ariel, on the other hand, quickly packed her notebooks as was the rest of the class.

“There are more trials?”

“Yup. The last set of them. Skipping fifth period again today.”

“Good luck.”

Ariel cocked her head to one side, taking the spare moment to stare back at Caius with a blank expression. Caius returned the glance curiously.

“Never mind.”

Ariel finally uttered her exit line, and it was Caius’ turn to tilt his head bemusedly. This happened often, and it was an indication of the gears in her brain turning vigorously to solve a problem. Whether it was about the trials or something else, that was unknown to him.

But she hurriedly skipped away from their desks for the door. Along the way, several other girls from her homeroom class hastily joined behind her. Caius couldn’t help but be impressed by the great extent of the Jupiter sisters’ influence, whereas the Elites only had dubious authority over their own homeroom students. Their network was no doubt built up by Mirabelle’s auspicious charisma, and required the efforts of both Bianca and Ariel to manage it.

As for the trials she alluded to, it was the consequence of the senatorial investigation into the abuses of power by the PSC. Key members were put on trial for past crimes, crimes that the PSC historically got away with through sheer dereliction of their duties. The crooks who accepted bribes and put down personal enemies were the same people who were supposed to fight and protect against those very wrongdoings.

As the undersecretary, her auxiliary role was to also act as the attorney general, who performed such public prosecutions in the name of the student council. Constitutionally, the Senate should not prosecute students on issues that lied inside the areas of student life as the Senate was made up of third-year homeroom teachers, and that would break with the constitutional principle of “students governing student life”. Then again, the Senate wielded the power to investigate, so most of the leg work was already covered by them. It was then up to the student council to deliver the prosecution and argue for the offences committed by the PSC to the judges, who were specially selected students appointed by the Senate. These judges formed the Council of Six, the judiciary body that was responsible for trial proceedings like these, judicial reviews, and interpreting the supreme law.

Caius, however, was not so buoyant about the prospects of these trials. Most of the wrongdoings involved were made last year, so it was very difficult to press charges when half the operation was manned by the former third-years who had already graduated. And at most, a successful case could only force resignations from the indicted. Despite Gilbert’s preemptive resignation, Caius and most others expect Gilbert to continue exerting immense influence over the remains of the PSC.

“Caius! Come here!”

By now the classroom was cleared of most of the students, leaving only the laid-back stragglers like Caius left. He promptly made his way to Mr Verne at his call, who was sat at the tall stool at the front of the classroom. Unfortunately for Mr Verne, his chequered sweater vest gave off more of a geeky than a sophisticated feel to him.

“I need a favour from you.”

Mr Verne took a stapled stack of paper from the teacher’s table next to him and handed it to Caius.

“Another assignment set for me? I already have it.”

“I know, I know. This one’s not for you. I want you to take it to a classmate of yours.”

“Hm? Ariel’s the only one who I actually know in this class, though… and would have any chance of seeing again after class.”

Mr Verne scratched his balding head apologetically.

“Usually, I let Ariel do this job, but she left for the trials already. You can take it to Ariel if you want; she’ll understand what to do. The assignment’s for Cecilia, from my homeroom class.”

“You can’t ask another person from your class to give it to her?”

“No, and though it’s a bit rude of me to say, she doesn’t have many friends from my class. I would give the assignment to her tomorrow in homeroom, but the first part of it is due tomorrow. I want to give her a chance at least.”

“I understand. But how come she didn’t come to this class?”

“She usually skips classes. Her tardiness is going to be an issue soon, though, but until then I can only make the best out of her situation.”

Mr Verne shrugged lightheartedly as Caius put away the assignment package in his bag.

“Usually you can find her in the library, but I’d thought you’d know her through Ariel. Like I said, pass it on to Ariel if you don’t think you can find her.”

“Mhm. Okay.”

Caius was about to leave, but stopped as he recalled the girl he saw earlier.

“Cecilia. Is she a tall, blonde girl with long hair and wears super-casual?”

Mr Verne turned his head around towards him as his body was still turned away, his arms putting away the paperwork into his suitcase.

“Uh, yeah. Exactly. That description fits her.”

Caius nodded, somewhat satisfied. That girl was a friend of Ariel’s? Interesting.

“Okay, I might know who it is then. I think I saw her going into the library before class.”

“That sounds like her, yep. See what you can do. Thanks, ya big foig.”

Caius slowly bit his lip with confusion, mildly startled but also entertained at Mr Verne’s attempt to use trendy lingo. With a final bow, he left as the bell rang for fifth period, already late for the last class of the day. And as usual he was the last student to vacate the classroom.

The school’s library was on the third and fourth floors above the cafeteria. Though the third floor was spacious enough, there was more even surface area the floor above because on the fourth floor it protruded outwards over the school grounds, producing an overhang that consistently shielded the third floor windows and the cafeteria from the direct sun. In turn the edge of the overhang hugged an independent clear-glass overpass connecting the auditorium and gymnasium’s fourth floor. The fourth floor had two short connecting overpasses to that one, which served as extra emergency exits for the obvious reason that a library should only have one regular exit. On a separate note, the neighbouring classroom was the art room that also occupied the third and fourth floors, and like the library it also had its self-contained staircase.

Besides the secret rooms operated by the Records Office of the Department of the Administration, the fourth floor was a dense store of books with few desks and workspaces, which were more common on the third floor. Precisely because of that, it was prime real estate for anybody who wanted to study undisturbed, though it was almost always unoccupied during regular class hours. It was more of a place for students to catch up on schoolwork before school, during lunch or after school.

It was at one of these tables that Cecilia sat comfortably, leaning back into the chair with her head in one of the few books that she took out from the shelves and stacked neatly on the table next to a notebook. She set aside her light sweater on the adjacent chair, her dress shirt loosely clinging to her slender body. The dirty blonde hair flowed beyond her shoulders in garbs and patches, almost as if it was alive and would actively resist any attempt to comb or straighten it. Several stray strands flowed over her front, but she heeded no attention to it. Her expression was composed, her eyebrows never moving up and away from her indigo eyes. Her features had varying topography, with her tall, thin nose, deep eyes and high cheekbones, and together they were well-formed. In a normal world, with her looks she would definitely be above average in popularity, but just like Yui, other factors around Cecilia didn’t allow a fan group around her to emerge.

She had her earphones in, connected to a portable cassette tape player on the tabletop. For somebody to have one was a mark of economic status, as with Alice’s walkman compared to Kato’s lack of portable music. The new fangled thing in Auxiria proper was the portable compact disc player, but they hadn’t made their way to popular use yet; perhaps in several years as the fad gets caught up with more artists releasing their music on the new medium.

She often spent her time alone in the library like this. She didn’t like the crowded classroom where she couldn’t focus, and regularly skipped classes to self-study here. If only her grades were also just as good to justify it, because if it wasn’t for her homeroom teacher Mr Verne’s eccentricity she would have been on academic probation by now.

And she was self-studying. At least for now. What was in her hand was a major piece of analysis work on the play that her fourth period literature class was studying, the same literature class that was taught coincidentally by her homeroom teacher. Auxirian Idiot was a high-profile musical theatre stage adaptation of the story in the popular music album of the same name by the alternative rock band The Outlaws. It received critical acclaim across Auxiria, and its popularity even spilled over into the Yue language cultural sphere; both the musical and the music were originally produced in Standard Candoran in Auxiria proper. It wouldn’t be a contemporary Auxirian literature class without any study of recent Standard Candoran works.

In Korolev Senior almost all students were bilingual in Old and New Yue, but as they were part of the larger Confederation of Auxiria, and through a long, tangled political and cultural history with Auxiria proper, most Yue speakers also learned Standard Candoran; or the other way around too in a lot of cases, like the Jupiter sisters, and Cecilia herself.

“Yo. You’re Ms Cecilia, is it?”

Her reading was interrupted by a bright smile shining from across the table. The owner of the smile was a boy with short curly blond hair who waved to her warmly. He was only about as tall as she was, which for a girl might have been on the taller end, but for boys he was on the shorter end. His baby face was naturally cheerful, with round features all throughout. Momentarily, she eyed her notebook that had her name in clear handwriting on it, but she turned back to the boy quickly. She knew who he was, and that was why it took a moment to find her words.

“Uh, yeah. T-that’s me. What is it?”

Caius beamed.

“This is the assignment for today from Mr Verne.”

“Ah, thanks. Sorry for troubling you.”

Taking out the earphones from her ears, she awkwardly received the stapled assignment from him, abundantly confused. Her hands didn’t tremble but felt a bit out-of-body, and the heat on her forehead was a consequence of how unquestionably nervous she was. Why was it Caius, one of the troublemakers of Class 3-F, here?

Then, she remembered exactly what she was holding onto.

“The assignment, how come Ariel…”

She trailed off as her mind suddenly blanked out on the words to finish her question. She immediately caught it and straightened up, alarmed and embarrassed, but before she was able to correct herself, Caius answered anyway the question that was stuck in her throat.

“Ariel went off to prosecute some PSC thugs in the senatorial trials, so I’m here to give it to you in her place. Well, it was Mr Verne who asked me to do this. Ariel got away too quickly.”

“Mr Verne asked you?”

“I sit with Ariel, so naturally Mr Verne would ask me. I was going to hand it off to Ariel if I couldn’t find you here.”

He shrugged, almost as if it were normal, everyday things to do; it was an average Tuesday for Ariel and Caius, but not for most people.

“Anyway, how come Ariel’s been handing you off your assignment questions? You’re in different homerooms, aren’t you?”

At Caius’ enthusiasm, Cecilia’s eyes widened and hesitated in her response.

“W-we’re in different homerooms, yeah. But we’ve been in the same literature classes together for the last two years now, so she’s a good friend of mine.”

Friendships across different homeroom classes were uncommon due to the way it socially stratified the students. Some would remain friends if one got promoted or demoted to another class, but most others wouldn’t. Even in the advanced classes students tended to stick to their homeroom classmates.

“Not bad, not bad. Sounds like she treats you really well, then? As her long-time friend, all I get from her is attitude.”

He gave her a carefree laugh, but somehow Cecilia was still taut with tension. Maybe she was overly cautious with him and his intentions, but his last bit did pique her attention. Ariel was a close friend, after all.

“Really? She’s usually a quiet girl, but we always have something to talk about together and we’re super friendly. She’s also a really amazing person of her own abilities, so it’s interesting to be around her.”

“Hmm, that does sound like her, a super genius. You have no idea how many times she beat us in the fights we have.”

“Fights?!”

“Not fighting with our fists, but with our brains. We have been friends since primary school, so we’ve competed with each other many times during recess playing different games.”

“Ehhh, so it’s like that? The two of you have a really long history then.”

“I guess that’s true, but it’s more accurate to say that our friend circle has a long history together. We were in different homerooms since long ago too, after all.”

“To remain close friends for that long, you’re both really exceptional people.”

“If that’s the only criteria, then you’re just as exceptional. Not many can make friends across classes.”

“No, no, no. I’m just a normal person of no particular importance. Well, she’s a close friend to me, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary, is it?”

“It shouldn’t be in a normal world, but this is Korolev Senior. That Class War your class just fought at lunchtime, that shouldn’t happen in a regular school, should it?”

“Nah, that Class War’s got nothing to do with me. I stayed in homeroom while my classmates went to fight it.”

Caius suddenly stood up and held his hand out to her, still smiling warmly.

“Ah, I’m so sorry. I should have done this earlier. It was rude of me to not introduce myself before I mentioned the Class Wars. My name’s Caius Evans, Class 3-F and Member of the Assembly in Class F’s constituent. Apologies for not declaring myself earlier.”

“No, no, it’s all right. Like I said, I don’t care about the Class Wars. You don’t have to be that official with me when you talk about it.”

She waved her hand nonchalantly as she said “no”, trying to convince him that it truly didn’t matter to her.

“And also, I already knew who you were. You and your circle are infamous in this school, after all. Definitely so after that impressive defence against the PSC’s raid. That’s part of what I mean you being exceptional.”

“Ah, that. That makes sense, yeah.”

“—!”

As he listened slowly, Caius’ smile turned apologetic as his extended hand slackened, letting it droop there in the air between them. Only then did Cecilia realize she spoke too much of what she was thinking and her eyes darted away from him in embarrassment, freezing up at her mouth’s misfire. The cogs in her brain kept turning rapidly as the silence turned increasingly awkward.

“Nnnng, damn it!”

But Cecilia wasn’t one to keep it awkward. She already knew what she should have done.

“Cecilia Nightingale, Class C. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

She swiftly clutched his hand with both of hers as she forced a smile awkwardly onto her face. It wasn’t because she felt Caius was a bother, but rather she was flustered by her own absentmindedness.

“Nice to meet you.”

Caius’ smile returned to its flamboyant form, or rather it turned into a smirk. He shook her two hands just once; reminding her of this position she hurried herself into. As soon as she was made aware of that, she hastily let go of his hand and instinctively hid her hands under the desk, gripping each other with strength proportionate to how deeply coloured red her face was turning.

Caius felt a strange kind of tingling delight in his chest as he watched Cecilia fidget shyly across from him. He didn’t want to admit that he had the same obsession that Mayumi had, who always put the boys on the spot for almost everything, but he understood now why this could be addicting. He cut her some slack and sat back in his seat.

“Anyway, now that you mention it, am I really that infamous now across school? I understand that the siege of Class F was pretty sensational, but I’d imagine it was Kato and Alice whose names would be remembered.”

Cecilia breathed a sigh of relief as she was handed an easy slow ball, her whole body evidently relaxed for the first time since he appeared before her.

“That’s probably true, but they’re already kinda famous. Kato and Evianna are obviously deities, while Alice was Gilbert’s fiancée. If I don’t recognize them, I would know their names at the very least. I guess the people around Kato and Evianna got more attention because in that siege, you were actually one of the people the PSC were after, right? Even Ms Romana was named as one of their targets.”

“Oh yeah, I was actually named as one of the to-be-arrested.”

“And then, you were the one who carried the black blossom flag into the hallway after the siege was lifted. The newspaper club took a photo of that and it made their front pages, dude.”

The black blossom flag was a symbol of resistance in the neighbouring city of Lien, which was currently suffering from social unrest. The spread of the revolutionary contagion naturally sparked the aspirations of the youths who dreamed and sought for a better, just world. Or in Caius’ case, a good photo op.

“True, that was a good photo op. Well, it’ll be like that. If I’m gonna fight for a cause, I’d have to put at least that much effort into it.”

“Hey, at least you have the heart to put into it. For normal people, it’s hard to find that kind of heart to do something like that.”

As she gave him a light chuckle, she realized that she was way more relaxed than she was before and her brain was put on pause for a moment. Maybe it was because Caius was chill the whole time and not the troublemaker that the newspapers made him out to be, that she gradually loosened her wariness. She was on edge precisely because of his recently acquired notoriety, after all.

“I’m just a regular folk like you, Cecilia. I literally have contributed nothing except for that photo op in that siege.”

“Stop right there—you are definitely not regular folk. Regular folk wouldn’t be waving rebel flags, nor would they be fighting the establishment inside and outside the Assembly.”

Cecilia put her hand up in protest, but Caius just smirked.

“Regular folk wouldn’t be skipping class on a regular basis either, would they?”

“Wait, how did you know?!”

“It isn’t that hard to figure out you haven’t been to a class if I’m supposed to be in the same class as you, and Ariel’s been passing on the assignments to you the whole time…”

He trailed off as he shrugged exaggeratedly. Cecilia’s head dipped again, deflated once more as she scratched her head and gave a relenting smile. Point taken.

“Ahahaha… well, that’s true…”

“Why not come to class?”

“Uh… I don’t like going to class, I guess. I don’t like it when there’re too many people around.”

“Mah, can’t say that I can deny that if I’m doing the same right now. But you’re actually looking at the class’ material anyway, aren’t you? That’s like, some kind of companion analysis book to Auxirian Idiot, isn’t it?”

He pointed to the text that she put down earlier, to which she jumped a bit in surprise.

“You also know this book?”

“Mhm. I mean, it’s one of the few good ones that are around, innit?”

“Wait, then you know Auxirian Idiot pretty well, then?”

“Of course! It’s pretty popular, so why not?”

“No, no, no, no, no, nobody knows the musical theatre enough, and definitely wouldn’t know literary analysis works on it of their own! I mean, maybe you’d know from class, probably… but this text isn’t in the course syllabus, I don’t think.”

“Hehe. It’s not. I just like the music and the story in Auxirian Idiot so I do my own readings on it, and it was just coincidence that our class is gonna study it.”

Caius smiled brightly, and was obviously proud of his taste in music.

“How much of this have you got through?”

“Erm, most of it already. I already know the whole story though. This is like the third analysis work I’m reading through.”

“This book’s really good too. It’s a really in-depth multimedia analysis, including the music and the theatre parts, not just the lyrics. It’s written by a Yue author from Yue’s cultural perspective, so it gives more spice to it and probably more relevant to us. Although the story itself is about an Auxirian-centric social phenomenon, it definitely is not just Auxirians who share the same sentiments with this story. Even us fake Auxirians who lived in a Yue territory for our whole lives can connect with this story.”

He took the text away from her and opened it up expertly to a specific page, as if he knew the pages by heart. The text was in Standard Candoran, of course. Cecilia shook her head as she sighed.

“There you go with your dangerous use of vocabulary again. No wonder you’re in the PSC’s sights.”

“What did I say? And what do you mean ‘again’?!”

“You were the one who was quoted in the newspaper for that kind of incendiary rhetoric. At least that’s their claim. Livia is a free city in Auxirian territory.”

“Don’t tell me you’re on the blue side…”

Caius’ expression turned cautious, but comically so because it was that exaggerated. Cecilia sighed once more and put a little more force in her words.

“I’m on neither the blue side nor the yellow side. I just don’t want to get in trouble for no reason and waste my time with the PSC.”

“But your class is gonna take over the PSC’s mantle from Gilbert and Class A, aren’t you?”

“If my class has anything to do with me, I wouldn’t be skipping class like this.”

“I thought that was just a daily routine or something.”

“I didn’t have a choice to start with.”

Cecilia realized she uttered that more to herself than to him, and also let on more of her inner thoughts than she really should, but luckily Caius didn’t seem to heed too much of it.

“Hmm. Well, I’ll have to take your word on your neutrality. Then let’s get back to this.”

Ending the political distraction, he pointed one more time at the page he opened to and began.

“The part of the assignment that’s due tomorrow is about the opening act of the play. The three neighbourhood friends and highschoolers, Tommy, Mark and Susan, lived in the dreary suburban town Sunnyville, Auxiria. Tommy was the unhappy everyday boy, Mark was the bullied chubby kid at school, and Susan had the dangerous personality combination of dumb and loose. Growing up in a quiet and peaceful community filled with sugary pop and potato chips, couches and television, petty crimes and juvenile delinquency, they slowly became disenchanted with the inertia and do-nothing lifestyle of suburban Auxiria. That was the song Auxirian Idiot, and also the name of the whole stage performance.

“They saw that they were doomed to become an insignificant part of this world, destined to take on the same boring and monotonous jobs and lifestyles that their deranged, messed up or even separated parents carried. When they couldn’t handle it anymore, the three resolved to run away from home to look for a new life in the city ghetto. Before they were able to leave, Susan was found to be pregnant with her boyfriend’s kid, so only Tommy and Mark took the bus for the city. That was the song Prince of Suburbia, the epithet for Tommy.

“When they got to the city, they were obviously lost because they’re completely new to the place. Tommy found that the city was not all the lights and excitement he dreamed it was. It was hard to get by on nothing, but he continues to search for his escape. Mark, on the other hand, really couldn’t handle life in the ghetto and after seeing a recruiting ad on TV, he enlisted with the Marines and left to serve overseas.”

“Thanks for the summary, but I read the story at least fifty times over by now.”

“I thought it was only fair to deliver on the scope of tomorrow’s assignment, like Mr Verne did.”

“Is that what he covered in class today?”

“For the last three or four days, actually. We’re gonna be studying this work for the next four or five weeks as the second of three different works for this class.”

“... issat so?”

“Does Ariel ever tell you what happens in class? Or do you even look beyond the first paragraph of the syllabus?”

“Of course, I do. I just don’t know it like the back of my hand. That’s a good student’s habit, not mine.”

Caius made a hearty chuckle.

“To me, that’s the bare minimum effort needed to survive in this school, but let’s not talk about those standards right now and get back to Auxirian Idiot. Since the first question is asking about Tommy, what impressions do you have on the protagonist? It can be anything from his character to the decisions and actions he makes and takes.”

“Are you the discussion facilitator now?”

“Indeed, I am. And also a participant at the same time, since it’s only the two of us.”

She sighed, but she was also aware that she was letting her thoughts slip out too much again, so she tried her best not to get distracted from the main point of the conversation. Caius did entertain the distractions, but he always steered it back eventually, and twice now.

“It’s an autobiographical story, so we’re given the view of the characters from Tommy’s standpoint. Naturally, he’s the easiest to understand because he’s the protagonist. So, we’ll start with him. He’s a kid who’s sick of the suburban lifestyle, which festers a really unsettling feeling of uncertainty and discontent with first his daily routines, then his immediate surroundings like his school and family, then his two best friends, and then if we look forward, everything in the city as well; ironically, since the very thing he thought would cure him also becomes corrupted by, within his mind of course, his dissatisfaction with the world; which is what it really was. An unrequited dissatisfaction with how the world is.

“As for his personality, he seems to be a well-meaning kid, but he’s still in an age of innocence, still trying to figure out how the world worked, and thus becomes disenchanted seeing how it was so mismatched from ideals. In that process, he became a well-known troublemaker and went on delinquency streaks with his two friends, which is what Auxirian Idiot and a part of Prince of Suburbia served to describe.”

“Huh, not bad. You already know enough about it to already start writing something down. The first question is asking about how his surroundings shaped his decisions, and then how the author used this as a vehicle to reflect a real life social phenomenon.”

Cecilia looked down on the assignment paper in front of her. They were a series of short-form essay answers, expecting at least a few long paragraphs per answer. Typical. It would take an hour to fill out the first part with something substantial.

“Yeah, it’s an easy enough question. I mean, the whole character of Tommy is a direct comparison to suburban life. Like you said, that’s where the title Prince of Suburbia comes from.”

“Then let’s talk about that. What is this suburban life that’s described by MJA, and how much of it can be seen in the real world?”

Mary Jane Armstrong was the lead singer of the band and wrote the songs in the album, and on stage she was known as MJA because her first name was too common to sound cool in a rock band.

“Well, in the story it describes it as very boring, monotonous, has a lack of excitement, and doomed to be a place that ‘goes nowhere’, whatever that means.”

“Right, it’s about the feeling of ‘going nowhere’ in the quiet suburbs. But isn’t this where ‘ignorance is bliss’ would apply? If peace and quiet is all you ever know, then you’d be more inclined to lay back and coast through the rest of your life in easy mode, wouldn’t you?”

“Maybe for the adults who went out into the world and failed to reach their dreams. For the younger kids, they see it in the media and from the previous generation, and they start thinking ‘do I have a choice whether to live in this place or not?’. Not all kids are equal in this social order, and naturally some will not fit in and feel oppressed by it. If the conclusion they come to is that they don’t have a choice, then they’ll become someone like Tommy.”

“So you’re saying it’s more of a social issue rather than a problem with living in suburbia?”

“Of course. That’s my and also the Yue interpretation of it, no? We don’t have the sprawling miles upon miles of houses-only districts like they do in Auxiria proper. It’s just that the ideas of ‘going nowhere’ and ‘no other choice but to live in misery’ manifests themselves very visibly in suburban life. For the advantaged, they would think nothing of their quiet and easygoing lifestyle. For the disadvantaged, it’s like a slow suffocation of their minds, thinking that they have to endure this for the rest of their lives.”

“It’s even more miserable because of the physical scene too. Compared to the city, a suburban district is basically one colour, one paint brush.”

“Exactly. The physical imagery’s way more striking. In fact, where Tommy escapes is right to the busy city, just like Livia here.”

“It does sound edgy enough. Tommy’s state of mind is like this because he’s part of the ‘undesirable’ group; or so he labelled himself because the whole point of suburbia is that everybody can coexist peacefully and be in a reasonably comfortable state, physically and mentally.”

“Yes. I think we can sum up the issue as, like I mentioned at the start, a general dissatisfaction of the status quo; in the case of Tommy, he’s dissatisfied with the state of suburban life.”

“Not only dissatisfied, but completely disenchanted with the idea. He sought for a completely different lifestyle in the city that was advertised to him from afar, which he eventually went for in the end. Now, we’ve said that ‘going nowhere’ and ‘no other choice’ are the key motivating factors for his disenchantment, we need to unpack one more level deeper about what caused him to feel this way.”

“That one level deeper is more and more speculation, though, since the source material only goes this far to describe his state of mind.”

“Then good thing we can come up with our own interpretations. Songs can be interpreted from different angles, and the author is only one of these angles. That’s the beauty of lyrical work.”

Cecilia smiled lightly.

“Then what would your interpretation be?”

Caius did not let off the gas pedal.

“Let’s take a step back and look at Auxirian Idiot again. Most of that song is a rebuttal of the state of mass media in the modern age. If you’re familiar with the Auxirian press, to pursue corporate agenda they increasingly made the news more violent and sensational. References to a ‘redneck agenda’, ‘doing the propaganda’ or the ‘age of paranoia’ is basically spelling out how the media can be used to control the narrative of the day, whatever it may be; MJA didn’t explicitly say what it was.

“This power, or authority, to control the way people think is what’s dangerous, even if some of the so-called propaganda has merit to it. The Candoran Assimilation ended only a mere few decades ago, but we’re already sending troops abroad again, unrest at home here continues to rumble and the Candoran problem is still unsolved. Those in control of the media can control which side of these conflicts gets favourable or unfavourable coverage, swaying the opinion of the unknowing masses who lived in the peaceful suburbs that would never ever see the level of violence or lawlessness shown on TV or the newspapers.”

“MJA definitely has politics behind that insinuation, but she probably kept it broad to include the social aspect too. Tommy wouldn’t know about the city if it wasn’t for the very mass media that he and MJA thought were propaganda arms of the powerful. Ironically, the very thing he thought was wrong with the country also gave him an escape route.”

“Yup. The mismatch between what he sees in the media and what he sees in his suburban home is bizarre and unsettling; why is there so much injustice and carnage out there, while at home we’re just sitting on the couch doing nothing? And even at home, peace and quiet is only relative; mom and dad are separated for some reason, Susan has a penchant for unprotected sex at an age where she can barely provide for herself, and being in the lower-middle class means they didn’t have any social standing in a gentrified area. They’re ‘going nowhere’ because they’re told that they live in peace, but at the same time everything around them tells them otherwise. They conclude that them, their society, and their country aren’t ‘meant to be okay’, as in the song, and of course there seems to be no solution to it.”

“Not only that, but the media angle goes the other way around too. They see that their parents, while being led like sheep by the news, also become jaded and indifferent to the violence and injustice; they really didn’t want to become that pitiful existence either. Their naturally disadvantaged social and economic situation is already pitiful enough, and because of that they feel like they do not have the power to change this status quo. That’s what ‘no other choice’ means.”

“That would eventually feed into their anti-establishment attitudes later on. The song right after that is Holiday, after all.”

Suddenly, Caius leaned back into his chair and took a deep breath, smiling brightly.

“Not bad, Cecilia. I never get to have these kinds of discussions except in class, and usually on subjects like these, most everyone is always more diplomatic so the answers aren’t that great. Only the most edgy and whack in the head would blabber on like we did.”

“... huh.”

Taken aback by the abrupt halt, Cecilia’s hard-won energy deflated and naturally returned to a state of wariness once more.

“I’m just here to bounce ideas off of another hardcore fan of Auxirian Idiot. I thought it would be a good use of time.”

“How would you know if I’m a hardcore fan or not?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“…is it?”

She lost count already of how many times she was bewildered by his way of thinking; or rather, she thought this situation was occurring too many times.

“I mean, nobody would spend their time reading through three different analysis works on this story if they didn’t love it.”

“Uh, I guess you can say that…?!”

“Is it not? What do you like about it?”

It sort of made sense, but who normally would be able to see that? Nobody. Caius shrugged and gave a crooked grin, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. Cecilia stuttered a bit, again unsure of how much to say.

“Mmm… I guess you can say that Tommy’s story is really cool.”

“Tommy’s story is really sad and depressing, my sister. You find that cool?”

Caius bursted into laughter at her answer as she instantly straightened her back at attention, eyes wide in alarm at his insinuation.

“I mean, that’s just how it is, isn’t it?! I can’t help it if I find it cool.”

“All right, all right. I get it. Then which part of it appeals to you?”

“... I don’t know. The whole setting around Tommy, the unease he felt at home, the struggles he eventually goes through in the city, all of that are interesting to me. Maybe it’s the whole spectacle put together? I’m not quite sure what exactly...”

“Well, while you give some more thought to it, I’ll explain mine too since it’ll be only fair.”

“Okay…”

While Cecilia was incredulous, Caius didn’t hesitate in his declaration. He was either stupidly confident, or his eighth-grader syndrome was relapsing.

“I think why a lot of people, as well as myself, liked Auxirian Idiot is because a reader can, on some level, sympathize or connect with Tommy’s character. They shared some issue or struggle or whatever with Tommy, whether it is in his surrounding situation, his decisions or his story. In other words, they saw a part of themselves in Tommy and the story, which makes that connection personal. And who would identify themselves this way? Anybody who is sick and tired of suburban life, like MJA.”

“Then do you see a part of yourself in Tommy’s story?”

“Why yes, of course, but what about you? Do you agree with my analysis, and would that explain your train of thought?”

She nodded tentatively. Without a doubt she felt the same way, and only after he explained it that she realized that.

“I guess his surroundings remind me the most about myself. I do completely agree with MJA’s take on the empty life of suburbia.”

“Mhm. And given how much popularity this work has, many others probably share the same sentiment as yours.”

Cecilia’s cheeks tickled pink as the confession was a little too close to her heart, as all inner thoughts were, but she had to hand it to Caius to have the balls to bring it up in the first place. Normally others would shy away from him pressing forward into uncomfortable or personal areas of discussion.

“Then what about you? Which part of his story did you connect with the most?”

“That, uh, is… hm.”

Caius actually paused for once and so Cecilia looked on expectantly, but then he smoothly answered as if it was natural to think of the answer, which to his credit it did, and Cecilia sensed the meaning behind the pause immediately.

“You should know how Auxirian Idiot ends, right? What really hit home with me is the final song, a fitting conclusion to what happened in the song three songs before that. You get it?”

He smiled lightly, but in no way were those two songs light. Although it wasn’t directly about the social issues, it was an imaginative display of its symptoms, and symptoms of a very personal nature. Cecilia’s expression turned dry at his continuous lightheartedness.

“You’ve had… that kind of an experience? Can I confirm that, you’re talking from Tommy’s point of view, right?”

“Yes, exactly. Even I was surprised at how the events matched so closely with my own, but that’s just pure luck. MJA is good, but she won’t be writing songs about my life story any time soon.”

“I see…”

“She still haunts me in the back of my mind from time to time, but that was what Tommy’s life had become too in the end, didn’t it?”

“That part, yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

Cecilia nodded at his good-natured reply. He was still mildly cheerful, as if it wasn’t a big deal to him, to which Cecilia did not and could not know if she could take it at face value or not. But she felt it still wasn’t her place to pry into it any further, even though Caius didn’t seem to mind it at all and opened the discussion in that direction in the first place. Though, she was still fascinated by how the true rebel—true at least to her—across the table could also experience the same thing that the fake rebel Tommy did.

Almost as if done way too well, Caius seamlessly segued into the next matter at hand; probably because they should be doing it if they wanted to make good use of their little discussion anyway.

“Well then, Cecilia, let’s get started with writing down the answers, shall we?”

Cecilia forced another smile, but again, not because Caius was unpleasant, but because of her disbelief at the current situation. On these topics, she was used to being left alone in her head, but now she felt a tickling anticipation, finally finding somebody who shared the same interest to discuss about. Maybe it was because he finally shared his earnest thoughts with her that she felt much more at ease now, compared to her perception of him from before talking to him for the first time, this time. She pointed lightheartedly at him.

“Celia is fine. It’s a bit easier that way, right?”

Caius brightened up at her cooperative mood and nodded agreeably.

“Then Celia it is.”