February eleventh. Monday's just looming around the corner, which is the date for the said batch reunion.

Nothing too shabby between today and yesterday, it's been just your average boy taking average classes on some fairly average days. It just so happens that between Monday and Wednesday, they've been one of the most extraordinary days of my life.

Ever since Tuesday, Ala-chan's been waking up early and we frequently meet midway as I walk my way to uni every morning. Sad to say, maybe our primetime Akkola midnight podcasts may slowly become a thing of the past since both of us are too tired to ever stay up late.

So it'll be moved earlier in the evening!

I seldom hear news about Miko, though she's been wandering around the group conversation sending pictures and telling her moments everyday. Both Miko and Ala-chan frequently converse in that group conversation.

Strangely enough, I've only seen Tomo last Wednesday where we had lunch with Miko and visited her house. She's nowhere to be seen, even in uni. Though I see her online in game and in my Chats especially every evening, I didn't budge to message her.

"Oh it's time."

Finally, History class was dismissed.

That was just the second period of my Friday—the first being General Sciences, so I immediately headed down to the cafeteria in hopes to search Ala-chan.

Erm... it's bustling in the cafeteria because it's break time, ugh I hate crowds.

Despite my effort and courage to swim through the crowd in the cafeteria glancing around the tables, there's no sight of Ala-chan.

"Shoot, where might've she gone to, if not for the cafeteria?"

This entire time, our meeting place was always a certain corner in the cafeteria, but that awfully seems like not today. I wonder if she actually forgot to tell me where to meet up—well despite her boastfulness of having a sharp memory, I have common experiences where her memory is as milled down as a goldfish.

But it's the end of the world for me, because I have nothing to eat without Ala-chan.

I panicked, as I went around the campus like some student council body patrolling. Why panic? Well I'll definitely miss the waffle time we'd usually have.

Then I remembered, "Hm, they might have been in the school's mini-gazebo area." because it's the second most-popular place after the cafeteria, so I walked my way there.

As lousy and doofus as I am, I kept concealing myself in the area around the gazebo area. I'm not too sure, but embarrassingly, I unknowingly don't want to meet someone along the way until I get there. Me doing this meant that it's extremely difficult for me to find Ala-chan.

"Oh look, it's the group that Tomo and I stumbled across two days ago."

Unsurprisingly, they were in the same gazebo as they were two days ago, the one just in front of the stairs we took that day.

"That gazebo crossed out."

Yeah my mind turned into like one of those paper mats in a kiddy restaurant where you can draw, cross out, or trace stuff.

There's no luck in the same gazebo spot that Tomo and I situated ourselves on, so that's out of the list as well...

"Hmm..."

But I figured, Ala-chan is the type of person who loves corners. Now you see why we always situated ourselves in the cafeteria in one corner.

After checking for the gazebos adjacent to the gazebo where Tomo's friend group is, I finally checked for the gazebo opposite to the first.

"Finally." I left out a deep sigh of relief.

Looking from quite a distance no longer concealing myself, I can see Ala-chan cackling with someone that I can't recognize from this angle. Maybe another friend of hers? Because there's no way that could be Miko, she's from a university far away.

I kept walking near the front of the gazebo, getting a clearer look of the unknown person's hairdo.

"Fluffy gray hair with fluffy twintails..." I mumbled to myself.

Which means only one thing.

"....Bahahahaha, that's the exact same thing the professor said to us!"

"I know right Alachii, hehehe... he's such a laid-back Accounting teacher!"

"Hahahaha—oh hey, I'm busted here by Akkochii!"

"W-wha—oh... ...."

I walked inside the gazebo and made a faint wave towards Ala-chan and Tomo.

"Good to meet you too Akkochii~!" Ala-chan joyfully greeted me.

"..." Tomo just fell silent and looked down, seemingly can't get the gist of her face.

"Yeah, hello..." I sat beside Ala-chan.

"Akkochii, good thing you found me around here!"

"O-oh, well... Tomo introduced me to this area of the campus."

"M-mmhm!" Tomo looked back and forth between us, then back down.

The moment I settled in the gazebo, the atmosphere suddenly changed, like its worlds apart from how they were happy moments ago.

"Come on Ala-chan, you got me lost in the cafeteria like an idiot."

"O-oh didn't I tell you about finding a new spot to slack the day before?"

"Nope."

"Argh.. shucks" Ala-chan scratched her head. "My bad, I guess my super sharp memory is starting to wane away."

What'ya know, at least she admits that her memory is sometimes milled down like a goldfish.

"But!" She sat up, both hands on her hips. "I found a good gazebo in my free time! Didn't know there's this part of the campus, it's breezy outside! Then Tomochii saw me, so I invited her here since she has nothing to do!"

"I see... but does that mean that we'll be staying here in our free time from now on?"

"Yup! Ever since I settled in here earlier, I realized how closed of a space the cafeteria is... Like it's colder here outside than the cafeteria. And boy do I hate the plastic slidey chairs back there! Here, it's just one seat encircling the table, so I can sit and lay down whenever I want!"

Now she's glad, finally realizing where our tuition is going.

"Akko, here."

I glanced at Ala-chan, handing out some paper bills.

Sigh. As usual, you know what time it is.

While I was about to take the money, she suddenly drew it back.

"Hmm..." she pointed a finger on her chin. "On second thought, I've kept on asking you to do it, oh well." and stood up, sprinted outside. "I'll go get something to eat for the both of us~" finally waved and shouted from afar.

I waved back. Again, that was one of her adrenaline rushes where all of that took around fifteen seconds.

But the question is, do I get a waffle?

Tomo sighed and looked at me, "What was all of that about?"

"O-oh... Ala usually treats ourselves to a waffle galore every break time, and I usually get to do that... Now it's unusual that she's the one buying for the two of us." I trembled.

"Tch... a parasite." She looked away, arms crossed.

I'm never surprised that a day would come where someone sulks over me when Ala-chan treats me to waffles almost everyday. Is that plain jealousy, or the person hearing the story actually is worried about Ala-chan getting feeded off by a parasite like me, a poor hag, getting a waffle treat?

Does today's time blur the meaning of kindness?

"A-anyways..." She sprang up, clapped both hands. "How are you doing, Akko~?"

"Huh? Well to start, I'm fine. Just having one of those average days: eat, study, maybe play a bit, sleep."

"Mhm mhm, while mine's been average too! I've been playing Heroes of Tomorrow almost every afternoon. So from level nineteen, I'm now level twenty one!"

"Girl, slow down! I'm still level fifteen gosh darn it."

"Ehe, told you I'm not going easy on leveling up... hehee~"

Yet again, there goes her signature Ehe expression. We're back to the 99% happy Tomo as opposed to the 1% unhappy one just now.

"Yeah anyway, I'll tell you when we're going to play together."

"Yay!" She stood up and held her hands up, the vibrancy of her smile and joy instantly spread across the atmosphere.

"Hey hey, what's with all of the fun I'm missing out?" Ala-chan suddenly appeared and went inside the gazebo, placing a plate of four Belgian waffles right in the center of the table and sat right back beside me.

"Ah nothing Ala-chan, just the both of us talking about Heroes of Tomorrow, that trending open-world game everyone's all the rage about." I replied.

Before even noticing it, Ala-chan was already munching on a waffle.

"Oowhh, thwat one gwame? Yeah..." She gulped her bite. "I've heard it from a couple of my friends, though sadly, I can't get my computer to run such a beast."

"I see... by the way Ala..." I pointed to the plate of waffles, "What flavor did you get this time?" I asked whilst grabbing one.

"Ah, that would be chocolate caramel."

I handed the waffle to Tomo, "Here you go Tomo have some of my share."

"W-wha—o-oh, if you don't mind..." Tomo's speech shuddered, looking away whilst taking it from my hand.

While Ala-chan has two of those tasty chocolate caramel waffles, Tomo and I only had one—well originally I'd had two but I felt wary of Tomo especially that both of us will be eating right in front of her, so I offered my share.

From there, we had a little world of eating Belgian waffles together.

. . . .

Tomo and I were already done like in just a few minutes, but Ala-chan seems to be halfway through her first waffle. Oh well, perhaps she's savoring those waffles as if it's her last. Well you know the saying, savor the flavor.

There were also some leftover plates on Tomo's side, suggesting that she ate a lot most of the time that they were here before I arrived, yet she craved that waffle like she was hungry.

"Alachii, when do we go out next within the next couple of weeks?" Tomo asked.

"Hmm... Oh right! Miko's birthday is coming up soon! Then some more hangouts day by day!"

"Shoot, right sis. We got to start building up on a wishlist..." Tomo facepalmed.

"Can we just reuse and refine the one we drafted for her eighteenth?"

"Good idea, let me duplicate that online document later and I'll share it with you."

"Oh rightyy! Invite Akkochii to the document so he can see, suggest, and sprankle up ideas in his head!"

Welp, they've done all the talks for me to explain.

Tomo leaned over to me and asked for my e-mail address. Without words, I just texted her my e-mail.

"Ah, got it Akko, thanks."

"Hmm... what else aside from Mikochii's birthday..." Ala-chan pondered, but immediately placed her fist on her left palm, like I would've imagined a bulb lit up above her head too. "Oh wait! Akko will be occupied next monday because of an elementary batch reunion!"

Just when will I stop getting dragged by Ala-chan's shenanigans?

"Ehhh?" Tomo raised her tone. "It just so happens that I have the same event on Monday."

"Hold on..." I leaned forward to Tomo. "God, I hope the two events are a coincidence. Let me ask, where's yours gonna be held?"

"Some private convention center down at Seiru."

"The time?"

"Starts at six, ends at around ten."

"Err..." I held a deep breath. "Where the invitation came from."

"Hmmm... Sap—porow, Sapporo? Is that how you say it? Well anyways, it came from Japan."

I calmly leaned back and sat relaxingly.

Breathe in, breathe out.

"Oi, what's this~?" Ala-chan's curiosity increased by ten-fold, her smirk unbeatable. "Is it a small world after all? Tomochii and Akkochii are actually batchmates by chance? Ehehehe..."

"Can't remember!" We both crossed our arms and looked away from each other, our voices ironically harmonized upon saying that.

Speaking of living in a small world, things are just tensing up day by day, and all of this climactic brewery happened within one week.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Did God bestow too many fates and blessings upon me? If so, I have no clue what I did to become a Good Samaritan. That is, if you call any of these a blessing—it's a blessing and a curse. A curse because I still have to absorb the abundance of events that's been happening for this week.

Or is it because this is just how college life feels like?

But why is it that anything has to do with Tomo? I'm not against her or anything, but perhaps it goes to show that karma, fate, and destinies are actually real to the point that our paths are closely intertwined with each other?

This isn't the reason why I'm excited for the fourteenth, it's for a different reason.

I'm excited for the unknown, it's an unfamiliar world that everyone else is familiar with.

Anyways, we still have a lot of time remaining before third and fourth period. Nothing to do and as a 'productive' part of society, we just spared the time into studying. Yeah I know—it's a mundane task, but it's all that we can do aside from chattering and cackling like morons on this gazebo while everyone else is discussing educatively. The three of us were stuck into our own worlds of notebooks, books, and papers (only I had to prop out my laptop which is a big flex).

But even more so, I'm the most distant of us three because my career sticks out. Tomo and Ala-chan pursue more or less the same career field, so I really can't relate to those fishy and convoluted accounting terms that they would spring up here and there.

Or is it? I kept on getting invoked by Tomo about her difficulties pertaining to Calculus. As annoying as I have to lean back and forth whenever she calls for help. I decided to just sit beside her as opposed to sitting beside Ala-chan—I mean it would make sense since I occasionally get helped by her.

Ala-chan didn't budge about minding me changing, like she literally has her own world there symbolized by her sharp and serious reading glasses.

"So wait—how about this Akko? There's an exponent right here."

"Hmm, you have the differentiation rules for it on your notes. This is exponential, not logarithmic, so you just follow just that."

"Ah I see, thankoo a bunch!"

Until now, she's still having somewhat of a difficulty with differentiation rules.

It's a breather teaching someone because you also get to teach yourself—like it's testing you to see if you actually got the gist of the lesson and you have to be really cautious about teaching the person, because it would suck if both of you got it wrong, so might as well not pass it wrongly to others.

Plus, Ms. Sasami—while what I call a legendary Mathematics/Calculus teacher—is also a legendary beast when you go klutz in her class. Can't answer a participation you were 'forced' to? Get ready to be blasted with flames. While I have no problem with her at all, almost everyone in class has great anxiety towards her. Surprisingly, that includes Tomo.

If you do the right thing, then there's no problem at all—that quote I got from Ala-chan the other night, that helped a ton.

After helping Tomo with some of her Calculus misfortunes, I turn my attention to my laptop to focus on the school's asynchronous tasks. I managed to clear all of them, until a new one popped up.

CS01: Programming — Tetris and C++

"Shoot, why C++ of all programming languages, and Tetris?!" I mumbled.

"Hm?" Tomo looked at my screen "Oh, that's for your course proper right? Tetris... and C... plus plus?"

"Yeah, basically, I have to make a game... shoot I can't do this on vacant time alone."

"Woahhh!" Her eyes sparkled with a pump. "Hey hey, I can help you out at least. You have to do that within the day right? Come on, you can hang out again at my house, ehe!"

"Sure, then I can help you with your confuzzling Math shenanigans."

Yatta~! A yippie! expression she made, we unconsciously tapped both of our hands at each other. Don't know why we did it, but neither of us felt awkward about it.

But at the same time, I felt a blaze of a stare in front of me. No, this is an entirely different frequency or wavelength (or pulse?). This isn't the horror gaze that I experienced last Tuesday and Wednesday—no this is completely, entirely, out-of-this-world different. It's a gaze like it was set aflame. But I was able to decipher it instantly.

Yes, Ala-chan rose like Jack and Jill went to push Humpty Dumpty off the wall that I pictured in my head. Except Jack and Jill had flames set in their eyes full of resentment.

"Hang out... house... again...?!" Ala-chan aggressively grinded against her teeth. "Hey, I didn't know all about this, wahhh! Am I clueless, or are both of you hiding something?!" She "cried" out of frustration, rapidly moving both of her fists vertically.

Unexpectedly, Tomo went into trouble confronting Ala-chan about it. I never saw this side of Tomo where she's all troubled and worried (or I'm just plain evil and just hoping to see that vulnerable side of hers?). She explained to Ala-chan everything down to when I visited and stayed in their house for a while.

Oh shoot, I know that I'll be dead by her.

"Hey Akkochii, what is the meaning of this?" Ala-chan asked with a lowly tone equipped with a sadistic smile.

"Let's just say I was not in a good shape yesterday that my memory feint in of itself."

Then I felt a Chop! on my head, then it became a slam in my head—more like a blow in my head.

"Hmph. Crazy Akko!"

⁂

That was a quarrel with Ala-chan I've never seen level up so fast. Speaking of which, I have to level up in HeroTom real fast. Yeah, Tomo and I learned from Ala-chan that it's a popular short term for the open-world RPG that we're playing.

As time goes tick and tock, it was a few minutes away before break time ended, so we decided to go to our classes now. Both Ala-chan and Tomo have the same third and fourth period: Accounting and Business Management. While I have to deal with CS01 and Communications class. Oh and the CS01 class is the most arbitrary-looking in my schedule, it stands for Computer Science by the way.

We parted ways from the gazebo. Both of them swoonily and lovey-dovey so, headed to the East Building. Like jeez they're too close to each other side-by-side, holding hands, looking and cackling to each other like there's no tomorrow.

If it's anyone's guess, they'd frame this beauty and imagine a yuri or Girls' Love series out of this.

While I'm here walking away like a dumped idiot. If there were any witnesses, maybe they would think lowly of me for getting dumped against a lady and her secretary. But I wouldn't hold my breath there and take it with a grain of salt.

Anyway, I headed for the West Building. Speaking of the different buildings in the campus, I rarely ever get the chance to walk around the North Building—I will later with my Communications class. Obviously by the process of elimination, the South Building is famous for its cafeteria and rooms and rooms of school archives.

"Pardon for intrusion."

I took my seat in the classroom for CS01. It's as bombastic-looking as the Calculus classrooms, with an auditorium-like setup and the floor sloping down—or well it looks like a typical university classroom. There's a catch between this and the Calculus class: everyone has a laptop in this room.

You can't survive in this class without a laptop, or those high-tech looking cellphones that can act like a desktop. Unless you're really lucky that we have to move to a computer lab.

It's ComSci, how can you not?