Pras was always stunned by the person’s presence as how it had been for the past one and a half years. The mere sight of her had always managed to make Pras grasping for words. “G-good m-m-morning, Mana.”

Mana nodded lazily, her sharp eyes showing the signs of weariness. However, in Pras’ eyes, it didn’t ruin her proud beauty. Her fair yellow-ish skin, small nose, and soft lips were keeping her elegance intact. Not to mention her long and smooth black hair glowed like those featured in shampoo commercials.

She had the image of a queen who was bored sitting on her throne since there was no one to challenge her absolute rule.

Mana was rather slender yet a bit on the shorter side compared to Pras, probably only around 153 cm in height. Unlike most girls’ high school uniforms, she wore a long sleeve white shirt and long white skirt down to her ankles. She rolled up her sleeve up to her elbow and wore a pale purple sweater on top of her shirt.

In the mind of the helpless Pras, she was the perfect mixture of beauty and cuteness.

There was a weird silence between the two. Pras was nowhere skilled nor brave enough to start a conversation with someone he had major interest in while Mana didn’t show the least amount of interest and just blankly looked towards Pras.

“D-didn’t expect you to be so early,” Pras put his gaze away while letting his tongue work on its own without much supervision from the conscious part of his brain. An often grave mistake, but he had no other choice.

“I should not?”

Sailing in Zurefgar had caused one of the worst feelings Pras ever felt. Yet, Mana’s response to his question had him feeling worse in a different manner. The sudden chilling void enclosing his chest made him wish he could hide in a blackhole forever.

“In any way, it is Dia-nee’s mistake for being paranoid," Mana continued in sighs after a brief pause. She proceeded to walk past the school gate.

“I must have sounded so patronising,” Pras sighed in whispers to himself. Despite what Mana had said, he feared how his words might actually have negative meaning.

“Anything?” Mana turned and asked, with her still bored tone and expressions.

Pras shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Alright.”

Mana nodded and continued walking forward, leaving a bigger distance between her and Pras who could only watch the distance between them widened. He realised that it was not her that distanced herself, but it was him that always feared rejections if he tried to approach. The growing distance between them this morning was akin to a painful allegory to how their relation had grown in the past 18 months since their meeting on the first day of their highschool life.

Pras looked at a spot near the gate, the very spot he stood during that day. He could only sigh and then buried his memories of Mana’s sweet smile when she greeted him first. And he clearly remembered how he was stunned by that smile but decided to look away and answered coldly.

“We’re just a speck of dust in this solar system, Pras, a mere particle in the grand scheme of the universe,” he told himself as he passed the school’s gate, “dreams are not for us, we could only gaze helplessly. Struggle is futile.”

To avoid overtaking or getting close to Mana, due to his longer stride, Pras took another route to reach his class which was located on the third floor of the north building.

The building was part of the three main buildings of their school, which was arranged in a G shape facing east. Other than their class, the north building also houses the library on its first floor. The west or center building mostly houses classes, teacher’s office and infirmary. On the other hand, the biggest of them is the south one which is shaped like a lying down L word. The cafeteria is located on the ground floor of this building. There’s also an outdoor basketball court located in the middle of the three buildings.

The school gym was located on the westernmost part of the school’s drive with two multipurpose outdoor courts located between it and the main buildings.

Pras stopped briefly before the door of class XI-C which had it’s lights turned on, clearly the sign that Mana had entered. He drew his breath several times before opening the door.

“You disappeared,” Mana commented.

She was sitting on a chair in the first row of the central column. The desks in their class were arranged in three columns at the left side of the door with each column having five rows. Each desk has a pair of chairs.

Contrary to Pras’ expectation, Mana’s everlasting expression of boredom turned a bit concerning. Her eyes stared at Pras’ feet as if trying to check whether Pras is floating.

It is a common belief in this region that to check whether someone is real or a spectre could be done by checking if their feet are touching the ground.

“That was the real you that I met at the gate, right?”

“I…” Pras tried to find the right excuse as well as to not raise any suspicion that he was a haunting spirit or some sort, “... went to the archery room at the gym.”

Mana let out a sigh in relief. “Oh my, that was kind of fast, having long legs does have its own perk, huh?”

Pras only answered with an awkward laugh. He swiftly walked past Mana and sat on the 2nd row of the northernmost column. Pras opened the window and let the cold breeze of morning dash into the class. He took a deep breath to help control the many emotions still running amok in his heart.

“I just turned the air conditioner on,” Mana commented on Pras’ action without looking at him.

Again, Pras was stunned due to his own stupidity. He was so distressed because he felt he was at fault for not realising what Mana had done and selfishly opened the window.

Without waiting for a reply - which Pras admitted might take forever - Mana stood up and walked towards the light switch and air conditioner remote. She said, “Might as well turn off the light since sunlight would be sufficient soon enough.”

Pras didn’t dare to answer, nor did he dare to look at her. He just put his bag on his desk and laid his head on it. Closing his eyes, he wished that time would just roll faster than ever. He knew that nothing could be done to ease the awkwardness between them, just like there is no way he could fix the sins and constant mistakes he had created in the distant past and now.

Pras felt the distance between him and Mana had widened again. A thing that somehow felt natural to him, for Mana was a kind of bright endearing light while Pras himself was a kin to shadows whose heart had been tainted and lost all traces of courage.

Just like the light of the sun which slowly blessed the classroom with it’s light, hereby two individuals of light and shadow repelled each other.

Thus, silence was born.