The sliding door opened, and instantly the room fell silent. There was one window open, so I went around to each table and closed the open window.
While closing the curtains─── I sat down in my usual spot. I still felt uncomfortable for some reason. Night fell quickly, and I remained lost in thought, immersed in my own thoughts.
If I went back into the room, would that woman bother me? Come to think of it, I had left Frederick in the room. He was probably dead by now.
I really was a cruel friend.
I kept thinking and rested my lazy head on my palm, feeling sleepy.
But I was really scared. This was the first time I had experienced something mystical in this city. If only I could ask for help, but I had no close relatives in the vicinity of Wooden Ville.
Damn light switch! If only the lights were on, I could easily ask for help. Now it was pitch black, and no sane person would want to wander through the back rooms.
Not to mention that the only flashlight I had was starting to die, I was doomed.
My eyes were starting to close, and soon I was ready to shut them completely. Maybe waiting for help until the next day wasn't so bad.
Brak
My head fell onto the table....
It seemed like the back of my nose was bleeding, I looked at the wall clock. The clock hands pointed to 12:10 a.m. How long had I been here?
Documents,
School documents??
I didn't remember these documents being here before. Carefully, I looked around my classroom, from front to back.
Nonsense, it's just your imagination, Tom. Wake up,
So I acted indifferent, even though part of me wanted to open the documents out of curiosity. What if opening them would cause something mystical to happen?
But logically, mystical events were common in this city. I had seen them with my own eyes. So I remained determined to open the documents, which were nothing more than ordinary papers.
Maybe I used this document as a pillow before.
I felt bored, so I opened the brown document with a few stains. It was dusty and smelled of insects. Inside, there was only information and details about every student in class 12-A.
Everything looked boring, just showing the identities of the students, like their backgrounds and educational histories. What was I actually looking for?
I flipped through the pages one by one to relieve my boredom and make time pass quickly. Until I found a page containing information about myself.
It didn't contain anything specific or detailed, unlike the others.
Then next to it...
Makoto Shiranai
What is this?? There was no information about him at all. Even his photo was unclear, and suddenly the classroom shattered.
The desk and chair I was sitting on disappeared, and everything turned black. Slowly, it sucked me in like a black hole.
─────────
"Aaghh? ..."
I woke up to find my entire class staring at me.
Confused, I looked at Frederick, who was looking at the hallway next to the classroom. He seemed unfocused. I slapped the dark-skinned, curly-haired man on the back.
"Why are our classmates acting so strange?" I whispered.
"You're the one who's acting weird. It's Wednesday, why are you wearing a worn-out jacket and pants to school? By the way, it's rare that Mr. Ferna didn't notice you today."
The man laughed.
"Usually, that fat, old man would immediately punish students who don't obey," he muttered.
"Frederick! No talking while the teacher is explaining."
"...."
Damn, he's looking at me.
"And Thomas Alfrein, what possessed you to wear gym clothes to physics class?"
My friends laughed, including Frederick.
"Go to the teacher's room and discuss an appropriate punishment for this violation."
I lazily got up from my seat and walked away with a sway. As I turned around, I gave the middle finger to the guy who was holding back laughter next to me.
"Thomas! Hurry up."
I just nodded while rolling my eyes in annoyance.
The teachers' room shouldn't be far from my classroom. In fact, I only had to walk straight ahead and boom, I was in a room full of misfortune. The atmosphere was quiet, but I could hear the voices of students from other classes mocking me.
I should have just gone home, after which I covered my head with the collar of my blue hoodie.
I grabbed the round doorknob and entered the teachers' room.
"Excuse me, Aunties,"
"What brings you here?"
"I was penalized or something like that for not wearing my uniform. Mr. Ferna told me to come here."
"Hm, Mr. Ferna, huh? For matters concerning uniform penalties, I'll look it up in the rulebook. Just a moment,"
The teacher with red glasses and a ponytail got up to look in another room. Even though it was just a punishment, I didn't want to be punished.
The teacher took a long time.
I looked around the teachers' room, which was completely empty and tidy. There wasn't a speck of dust. Ms. Aunties was famous for her tidiness, and I was very lucky that she wasn't my homeroom teacher.
Out of boredom, I tried to open the window curtains and look at the classroom hallway, then I saw a group of student council members and the school's student council president having a discussion.
What were they talking about?
Wait, am I seeing things? Again, that strange woman always appeared in front of me when I didn't want to see her. She was wearing her student council uniform.
What the hell, it seems like this school has low standards.
I really wanted to find out more about her and why she was so important. But just as I was peeking, Mrs. Aunties hit me on the waist with her short wooden stick.
"Young people these days have no manners," she said while adjusting her red glasses.
"Sorry, Mrs. Aunties,"
"Never mind, your penalty score will be reduced and you have to sunbathe on the field until 12 o'clock."
What? Seriously, 12 o'clock. I don't really care about penalty scores at this school because they only affect the student's popularity or accreditation.
But sunbathing in an open space? This is Russia, man, at least I don't live in Antarctica. The weather here is very cold, especially since I'm not wearing a hat.
I really miss my hat, but I don't want to complain anymore. I nodded slowly and left the room. Would it be better if I skipped school? No, don't.
That annoying guy will report me to the teacher if he doesn't see me at lunch. Who would have thought that as I was heading to the stairs, to the right of the teacher's room, I would run into the student council members.
I felt so embarrassed, but who cares because these people don't know what danger they are in by carrying a parasite.