"Have a good day!" a teenage girl said as she exited a classroom.
Clearly, she was a freshman from the well known Laxus Flare Academy as shown by her uniform.
She had beautiful blonde hair and stunning amethyst eyes.
Her face was covered with a smile, not an abnormally large one, but a strong and passionate one.
At least, that's what it seemed like.
After all, when the girl left the classroom, that smile faltered, even if only for a second.
The girl then took out her phone.
It was Thursday at 11:59 am.
The girl gazed at the time before putting her phone away.
A few seconds later, she took out the phone again, already forgetting what the time was.
Afterwards, she began walking down the school's stairs all the way to the ground floor.
From there, it took only a couple of moments for her to reach the cafeteria.
Once she did, she approached a specific table that already had two people sitting down.
One of the people noticed her.
"Hi Soriel!" Nishimoya greeted her happily.
That's right, the girl was Soriel and she was approaching Nishimoya and Tristan.
"Hello!" Soriel greeted back as she arrived at the table and sat down.
"Hey Soriel," Tristan said calmly before going back to reading.
Soriel and Nishimoya began to converse with each other, talking about a few casual topics.
But Soriel noticed something.
"Hm? It's been a while and Elliot still isn't here. Do you know where he is?" Soriel asked curiously.
Nishimoya suddenly made an expression of realization.
"You're right! Where do you think Elliot is, Tristan?" Nishimoya responded, forcibly including Tristan in the conversation.
"He's making up some work for Mrs. Moriel that he didn't finish in class," Tristan answered nonchalantly.
Soriel and Nishimoya made expressions of understanding.
"Ah, okay," they said in unison.
Nishimoya then jolted abruptly.
"Oh wait, that reminds me. I have work I need to finish in Mrs. Moriel's class too!" Nishimoya explained.
She picked up her school bag and stood up from her seat.
"I'll see you both later!" Nishimoya said as she quickly began to walk off.
"See ya," Tristan replied.
"See you later!" Soriel replied as well.
Now, there was only Soriel and Tristan left sitting at the table together.
For a few moments, the two sat in silence.
This should've been an expected occurrence. Up until then, the two of them never had a moment alone together.
Even though Tristan was the one to introduce Soriel to the group and their parents knew each other, their direct interactions were limited.
For the most part, this was due to Tristan's disconnected nature, causing him not to speak out very much.
On top of that, Soriel was usually always talking to either Elliot or Nishimoya so she never had much incentive to go out of her way to start a conversation.
However, things are different now.
"What are you reading?" Soriel asked, breaking the silence.
"Hm? Oh, the book's called Lord of the Mystery," Tristan answered, showing the cover of the book.
"Is it good?" Soriel replied.
"It's my favorite book of all time. But…it's really good," Tristan responded.
Soriel showed a gentle smile.
"That's good, I might have to read it sometime," Soriel said.
The two became silent once again, making Soriel have to think up topics.
'The weather? No, that's too basic. Games? No, I'm pretty sure he doesn't play them…' she thought deeply.
To her surprise however, she didn't have to bring up a new topic.
"How long have you played the piano for?" Tristan asked casually, still staring at his book.
Soriel blinked once, then she blinked again.
"Oh, um, I've been playing for about 4 years now," Soriel answered.
"That's surprising. You play like you've been playing for longer," Tristan stated.
"Really? Thank you. I try my best. Oh yes…didn't you used to play an instrument?" Soriel replied.
"Yeah, I used to play the electric guitar," Tristan said.
"If you don't mind me asking, why'd you stop?" Soriel asked.
"Just lost motivation, I guess," he answered.
"Aw, but music is such a wonderful thing. You get to express yourself in so many different ways."
"Honestly, I really don't care about expressing myself."
Soriel frowned.
She hesitated for a moment, but opened her mouth once again.
"Tristan, what…do you care about?" She asked.
Tristan shrugged.
"Nothing really…I guess. None of it matters anyway,"
Soriel stared at Tristan for a few seconds, and indescribable emotion lingering in her eyes.
"Nothing? As we speak there are people dying all over the world. Do they not matter?"
Tristan paused for a moment before speaking.
"Not to me they don't and I'm not gonna pretend they do. Do you know how tiring it would be to care about every little thing? To be hurt by every unfortunate situation I see? To go out of my way to help everyone?" Tristan replied in a serious tone.
Soriel's expression turned solemn. In her eyes, held fatigue, a fatigue noticed by very few.
Only after a few moments of silence, did Soriel speak up again.
"Yes, I understand what you mean. I don't agree but…I understand," she said at last.
With that, the two of them had finished their conversation.
And with that, the tension between them slowly faded, as if everything unspoken had been settled.