Having woken up at around six in the morning, I took a bath then giddied up my wear for today. I was in such a hurry since I sort of wanted to go to school a bit early.

. . . .

"Oh wait..."

I realized something when I busted out my smartphone before I almost left to check the time. I noticed the teeny-tiny date under the time on the lock screen.

Yup, it's spring break.

My mistake was as hilarious as resisting not to write last year after new year's in your notes—like you have to get used to writing the new year.

Anyways, it's been getting rarer for me to check my smartphone since I've not been setting alarms lately, figuring about tweaking up my wellbeing a bit. It does remove the annoyance of having to wake up to an alarm, but also I'm an early bird—I almost always wake up before my alarm. Most importantly, my innate sense of time gradually made me lazier to actually verify the time if it's correct.

Oh, and did I mention a smartphone? That's right, I finally have one of those futuristic touchscreen slabs that everyone's been using nowadays. Last time on our first date with Tomo, she actually went the extra nautical mile to buy me a smartphone; not only she pestered like Goliath when she's suddenly curious about my phone, but she paid it in full. I was shocked to find out that five thousand for a phone is like a breeze for her—like dang, Tomo sure is rich! And no, I didn't like her for being somewhat rich.

My new smartphone in a white finish measures four inches diagonally, a little bigger compared to my Model 300 flip phone. Of course, I kept my Model 300 back into its original box and stashed deeply into my closet because it would be awful to throw it away. We need to stop e-waste somehow.

Yeah... I don't know why I brought its box in a just-in-case scenario when I moved in here.

I sighed, calmed my nerves, and settled on the table for a while. Changing clothes after realizing there's no such occasion would be awful and illogical, so I still wore the same grey hoodie and some baggy jeans. The clothes that Tomo picked out for me? I'd say it would be reserved for special occasions. If you thought about me having clothes for home use or pajamas, I don't have any. Whatever clothes I wore after I took a bath first thing in the morning will stay until I take a bath the next day.

Sigh. "What should I do?"

Is this what it feels like to be in a time loop or deja vu?

Frankly, this standstill happens when I'm waiting before an occasion. I haven't had any problems wasting my time in seasonal breaks, like I'd freely go wild on my laptop and either practice programming or play HeroTom. Going home? If I'm in the mood that is—I'm not in one right now. But here's an even twistier twist: I don't know what's slated for today.

Reminds me of Ala-chan's 'a lie for a lie will turn itself inside out to not make it a lie' theory though.

An irony for an irony.

So it's not ironic anymore then?

If you can recall me being so overly-systematic of planning out things, that also happens to time. Let's say I have sixty minutes to spare before I go. I'd usually lay out things that will fit in that timeframe, so maybe two anime episodes or one Western drama episode would fit—or maybe six to twelve rounds of Solitaire depending on how I fare—perhaps maxing out my dailies and dungeon attempts in HeroTom?

Now it's clear why I kind of panic when I'm here doing nothing. Time is gold, you know.

Since it's still a few minutes past six, I wandered around my room for several minutes until I decided to go to Aka's room. After I knocked on the door and it opened, it's surprising to see that she actually groomed herself (probably because she was embarrassed looking silly the other day). She's in her usual mochi store wardrobe except that her long red hair isn't tied in a ponytail yet.

"Good moo—" her speech got cut off by her yawn, "—oorning Akko, why are you so early on a Saturday?" she asked while brewing her coffee in a brewing machine.

"Uh, let's just say my circadian rhythm backed off by a shot"

She yawned again while approaching the dining table and sat, "O-oh, I see, so what brings you here?"

"Got any breakfast to spare?"

"W-wh—hold on one sec."

Aka sipped her coffee until midway, noticed that she's somewhat energetic and ready to see what's at stake for today. She went back to the kitchen corner of her room to make some breakfast. After that, she came back with two fresh and steamy identical bowls.

"What's the menu for today?"

"Egg rolls, by yours truly."

Despite being called egg rolls, they're more like squished square scrambled eggs, though from the side, you can see the roll trace. Basically, it's like an omelette packed into small square pieces in one chomp.

"Oh well, time to eat." I clapped my hands, grabbed the pair of chopsticks beside the bowl, and munched on the egg rolls.

Speaking of identical dishes, that has always been the case whenever I stop by Aka's room for a meal. I'm not gonna complain like some lousy kid who ultimately says no to a broccoli meal, but it's just intriguing to point that out. I wonder when Aka would serve a different dish to me though?

"Say kid, it's unusual for you to wake up so early at the very beginning of spring break, care to ask why again?"

"Apart from the circadian rhythm fiasco, I forgot an occasion that I'll be attending today—I know I'll be attending one, but the what is missing from my memory."

"A school after-party of some sorts? I mean it's the beginning of the break after all."

"Not really..."

Thanking for the meal, I left Aka's room after a while. She was kind of suspicious as to why I just made a quick visit to her place. If it's circulating around my mind, I bet she's thinking about me visiting there just for food, as if I've found a loophole in the market to buy a sleek condominium for five percent of its price.

"Kid, don't treat my place like it's the holiest place in Jerusalem. Grow up boy, you're old enough to have something to eat by yourself."

And no, that was just a little warning from Aka before I left. Thank goodness I wasn't grounded from visiting her place. I mean isn't it cool you have some visitors in the first place?

Back at my place, I went to my laptop and powered it on to play another round of HeroTom. Since Tomo isn't a morning person, I figured that if I played much in the morning, I could at least catch up to her. But then Ala-chan had a point when she told me one night talk we had that it's usually tiring winding up in the morning because you have to wake up, cook your breakfast, and take a bath before doing anything else, which is stressful if you'd incorporate work along your morning.

Makes sense as to why work is usually in the middle of the day.

Just like how variable my trick is to make my "food" money into savings, it's the same case as trying to stress-play the game in the morning to catch up with her. It's somewhat of a diminishing return if you ask me.

We've been playing non-stop since the past month, so our levels and characters have grown much. I'm level forty, but Tomo's level forty-five. The gap of our exploration progress in the entire game is out of the question.

Anyway, I've only done my dailies because I figured we'd do the dungeons together later—and make our lives easier.

⁂

Twelve o'clock.

It's probably the laziest morning I had. While I did read a light novel I got from my shelf which roughly fifty percent of the books are still sealed and played some Solitaire on my laptop after, ultimately I literally knocked myself out to a warm nap. So I've probably exceeded the average hours of sleep a young adult should have.

Until my deep slumber was abruptly interrupted by a violent rhythm of my doorbell accompanied by a barrage of knocking like an aggressive zombie.

I groaned, slowly got up from my futon and answered the door.

"AKKOCHII!" the figure grabbed my shoulders and shook me back and forth, "HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?" exclaimed heavily.

"W-wh..." my eyes are still drowsy as I keep rubbing them, can't recognize the tall figure with short wavy hair—oh nevermind. "The hell Ala, why are you around this time?"

She hit my head, "Dummy Akko, it's Miko's birthday today!"

"..."

My head still wrapped up for exactly five seconds, I suddenly woke up to my senses, "Oh, so that's what's been bothering me all this time. Give me a second."

I walked to my closet and grabbed a paper bag which looked bombastic and eye-candy—could've fit the Christmas vibe. I went back to the door where Ala-chan was waiting.

"Let's go."

"Woah, I thought you're the delinquent type to not give a birthday gift at all."

I sighed. "Stop with the first impressions will you?"

Upon walking out of my room, I locked it and walked downstairs until we turned right past the mochi store—the same route that we went on my first hangout.

"Random thought Akkochii, what if I'll yank out your twin sticks sticking out of your hair?"

"No, that would totally lose my one key-defining element of my character."

"But..." she framed me with both of her hands while we walked, "Huh, you're right, you're not Akko without your twin sticks on your hair."

"Calling it twin sticks sounds obnoxious, I believe they're called cowlicks though."

"Ehhh... but I didn't see Akko getting licked by a cow before, is it a misnomer?"

"Isn't it derived similarly to how cows lick their calves in one spot? I mean saliva could very well be a rival to complementary hair gel. In short, it's like how cats lick around their paws and the fur they licked upwards will stay that way."

"Gross... but you have a point!"

"Hm, but I also call them ahoge though." I added.

"Ahegao?"

"No, ahoge."

"Huh, I guess I'll ask Mikochii our Japanese expert then!"

Holy hell, what's up with Ala-chan these days I wonder?

She went into a thinking pose, "I wonder though... If it's satisfying to yank Akko's twin ahoge, wouldn't it be the same satisfaction as popping bubble wrap?'

"Jeez, don't use me as an example!" I swear, I don't want to turn my hair into the world's worst bed hair. I'd look more like a cacti than a cacti, "But popping bubble wrap is satisfying and relaxing. It keeps you occupied and busy in one setting, like a distraction of some sorts. So in a way, it functions similarly to those stress balls."

"Oooo..." she reacted with a wow, "I have some orders arriving anytime soon, maybe I should do that!"

Since it's lunchtime, we had a little detour in that we surpassed the City Square and had a bento lunch at the same MinnaMart branch where we accidentally met up the other day. The contents of the bento is slightly altered compared to the last time we had it. For today, it has egg rolls, meatballs, beef and quail egg skewers, a soy dip and of course, rice.

The egg rolls totally caught me off guard because I just had that as my breakfast. Coincidence or not?

"Wow~! The bento today sure is going to be tasty!" Ala-chan exclaimed.

And so we took a munch of the lunch we had. I know it's a cheapskate, but heck—even it's delicious in such a compact package. I don't know about you comparing how delicious a food is by its price, but at least you have something to eat at the end of the day. Heck, there's street barbeque that I know that in my preference, tastes the best. I wonder why there's no bento boxes scattered around Seiru and Merumeru as far as I'm concerned.

"Oh!" Ala-chan flinched in place as we just finished up our bento lunch, "Hold on—is it already around twelve thirty already?! Oh god!" she aggressively took hold of my hand, "Akko, quick, we're going to miss the train!" she added as she panicked and dragged me wild outside the mart.

I was about to react back, but I figured it'll just make her brim with flames even more.

Shucks, at least clean up the bento boxes on the table before you go!

Despite our rush in the City Square then the Shopping District—looking inside of the train station from the outside, it was just timing when it started departing and revved its speed.

"Oh darn it, we missed the train! You're too slow Akkochii!"

Again, I remained silent, but eventually I said. "Let's just take a shade first."

We settled in one of those circle-shaped metallic benches with a lush tree in the center, perfect and cool under here.

She sighed heavily, "Hey Akko, you didn't tell me why you forgot Miko's birthday today..."

I checked my smartphone, "I'm pretty sure I indicated an event on my calendar. . . . wait, it didn't transfer some of my calendar events?"

"Wwoww~!" she suddenly leaned nearer to me, "Akko, did you finally switch to a brand new phone? I haven't seen that before! When did you buy?" she looked back and forth between me and my hand holding my phone.

"Yeah, Tomo bought it for me."

She chuckled and covered her mouth, "Ehhh? Good for you having a supportive and generous girlfriend!" she stretched her arms and leaned back, "Oh well~ I'm just glad you finally have a new phone."

"I still miss my old one though." It's a pain trying to get used to this new futuristic touchscreen silicon slab. I look like an idiot every time I ask Tomo for help on this and that—she eventually became my living service manual for this phone.

"Hehe, you're using it like it's your first hands-on in technology Akko!"

"I have to admit, my greatest technology comprehension is with computers, not this. So you're right about that."

After a little while of silence whilst waiting for the next train, Ala-chan sprang up the question, "Hey, how's you and this stalker shenanigans? Has it calmed down or is it still bothering you?"

"Well, let's just say it completely disappeared right after we talked about it."

"Oooh... so when I walked you to our house, that was the last encounter?"

"Positive."

Minutes before it's quarter to one in the afternoon, we finally boarded the train as there is another bullet train working in parallel with the one we missed a while ago. It's cool how there is another train after fifteen minutes despite this being the interward railway transit or IRT. If you're wondering about the three railway crossings I always encounter on my way to school, the first one is the IRT, while the other two are local transits operating within the Ruruteru ward.

I know my gift to Miko is enclosed in a cute paper bag with polka dots, but Ala-chan's is even more interesting.

"Uh Ala, why is your gift enclosed in a white box with a thick red ribbon wrapped around it? It looks like you've just bought a cake at some bakery or something."

"Well contrary to that, I haven't bought cake. Also I figured this would match Miko's simple but beautiful aesthetic. It's her eighteenth birthday after all."

Huh, Ala-chan would usually get frustrated over my questions, but it seems not today.

"Hold on—Miko will be turning eighteen?!"

She smacked my back, "Crazy Akko! She's a year younger than us."

Oops, I thought too early.

I was about to ask what her gift was, but I figured it's a surprise birthday present after all, so I digress.

⁂

One quarter in the afternoon, we arrived at Merumeru. After walking out of the train station, we just walked a little bit and waited at a bus shed.

"Wait, why are we riding a bus right off the bat?"

"Mikochii's house is pretty far away. If I remember correctly, we should be taking the green bus."

Green bus? Oh nevermind, I was glancing at the information board on this bus shed and it turns out, there are three more color-coded buses. The route of the green bus is mostly in residential areas. This is a whole lot better than how buses work in every place I went to so far!

"...So the red bus is the work route, the yellow bus is the recreational route, and the purple is strictly the government-paperwork-thingamajig route." I mumbled. To top it all off, they're almost color-coded like traffic lights and they make sense too; red means alert to work, while green means it's ready to go home.

Anyway, we took the bus and it felt like we traveled around Merumeru (or is it the huge buildings that make it seem like it?). We dropped off to a bus stop where it's mostly green plains and full of houses—like it's free of high-rise buildings here, so surely this is a residential area that looks more residential than it should be.

Eventually, we arrived at her house. It's a contemporary-modern looking house with lots of open (albeit tinted) windows. Ala-chan rang the doorbell.

"Coming~" said whoever was on the other side of the door, then it was opened by a woman.

"Huh?!" Ala-chan was deeply left in confusion but mustered up eventually, "Ms. Miura—o-oh, a pleasant afternoon." she bowed.

I bowed likewise.

"Oh my... hello there Ala, and... Akko I believe?" Ms. Miura put a hand on her cheek, "What brings you here?"

"O-oh, I thought it's Miko's birthday today." Ala-chan replied.

"Ah, haven't she told you? Miko moved into her condominium earlier. Your friend Tomo didn't come here so I assumed she already knew where my daughter was."

After a little conversation with Ms. Miura, regarding Miko's whereabouts, we walked back to the bus stop, good thing we still have to take the green bus for that matter.

"The heck, why didn't Mikochii chatted me about it?" she humbly said.

"Maybe she's just too busy moving into her new condo? Give it some slack."

"Aghhh!" she violently scratched her head, "But we'll be running late though!"

"Wait, it's a birthday party, surely Miko hadn't made it strict about a starting and ending time like some grandé occasion."

"Errr... you do have a point," she calmed down.

Taking the bus afterwards, we arrived at the Neo-Residential area of Merumeru. It reminds me of an I.T. park, with huge high-rise buildings and wide pavements while still maintaining lush greenery.

We entered one of those huge buildings. The lobby is huge with lots of tables and sofas, and a reception on the top-right corner of the lobby. The rest of the back is arrayed with elevators.

"Hold on, we can just walk to anybody's room in this condo?"

"Silly Akko, Ms. Miura told me about inputting her room number on the elevator then speaking towards it, then that's the time she'll grant the elevator open to her floor."

We walked towards one of the elevators. Instead of it being populated with up and down arrow buttons, it has a keypad, a text screen, and a speaker grill in its place. Ala-chan then inputted her room number on the keypad and pushed the call button.

...

"Miura residence speaking."

"Yahallo Mikochii. It's me, Alachii!"

"O-oh, hello! Is Akko there with you?"

"Yeah I'm here." I said.

"Great, see 'ya upstairs!"

The elevator door opened before us. Well actually, it looked like the elevator was really reinforced and somewhat bulletproof. It made a lot of noise like metals barraging in a factory or something. I guess it's a really security-tight area if you'd ask me.

"Let's-a-go Akko, it's still a few minutes before we hit two o'clock!" she exclaimed, grabbing my hand again and dragged me into the elevator.

I can't complain, I'm always getting dragged by. If I resist, I'd be condemned for harassing a girl.