1 Suffocating exchange of body & soul.

In a classroom, at the far end of the seats, a young man was sleeping both arms enclosed holding his tucked head.

His heartbeat was faint and dim like losing its lustre, resulting in him being soundless. Not even the resonance of his breath echoed; he turned breathless.

A sudden jolt of electric current surged through him, like a lightning bolt coursing through every fibre of his being.

His body reacted instinctively, back straightened, a bead of sweat trailing down from his forehead.

He attempted to take a large breath as if it had been an eternity since his nostrils tasted any air.

"If....aff," Inhaling deeply, absorbing every ounce of air from the surroundings he could pull in,

When the air settled down, he started to feel pain—a tormenting sensation of pain.

_Fuck,_ he murmured in his mind, clenching his chest tightly grabbing the muscles as if he wanted to pull something out.

"Raser, do you have any problem?" The chaos from his table attracted the teacher's attention, who was intensely staring toward his bench and waiting for a response.

___I am not Raser, but yes, yes, I have difficulty in breathing. It's almost like I have been drowned under a river, no, in the depths of an ocean._ Not a single word comes from his mouth.

Alex, who was now the owner of Raser's body, quickly grabbed a paper. With a struggle to hold the pen, he wrote, {"I need a doctor." }He flashed the note in front of the teacher.

"What happened to you? You look healthy. I can't—" Before the teacher could finish, Alex started coughing,

Cough, coughed. The sound was like water stuck in his throat, and when he started to talk, gurgling sounds echoed.

Furthermore, his vision started to turn blurry, as if the fluid had reached his eyes

_What the heck is happening? Just a moment ago, I was sleeping, and now I'm here, in this dream in a chronic patient's body._

"Grab him; it seems this is a critical situation," the teacher ordered. Some students rushed toward Raser, and the moment they grabbed him, his vision turned blank, and he collapsed on the ground

Thud...

Nobody realized the person they were calling for was no more; instead, it was now another one known as Alex whose original body was sleeping in a distant room beneath the ceiling with a rotating fan.

Below this fan is a small bed, cradling Alex in slumber, Alex's eyes snapped open, his golden pupil flashing with panic.

Alex began coughing while taking deep breaths as if it were the first time he had tasted any air.

Alex scanned his surroundings; his eyes trailed beside his bed, witnessing a laptop screen open in front of him. It contained word after word and a correction window.

Noticing the time: 3:00 AM. That calmed down a little, he asked himself,

"What was that dream?" His voice resonated in the room and he continued,

"This dream, it was almost like another life."

*Cough* *Cough*.

Alex placed his hand on his mouth,

"Why am I coughing? Did I catch a cold in my sleep?"

"Why am I feeling pain?"

"My lungs are filling from within?"

The moment the words "lungs being filled" echoed in the room, Alex remembered the flashes he had witnessed in his sleep.

"It's the same as that dream."

Alex exclaimed in horror as his vision turned blank, and he collapsed on the bed, only to find himself waking up in the foreign body of Raser.

In the nurse's room, on a green bed, Raser's body was placed by students.

After positioning the body, they waited a little, eager to know what had happened to their classmate.

"What happened to him?" A boy with black hair asked.

"He caught a cold." A bald student answered.

"But why did he collapse? It never happened with him."

While the students were talking with each other, Raser suddenly stood up and yelled in terror.

"What... in... the... hell... happening...?" Alex voice echoed from raser body between gurgling sounds.

"Kya!!" The bald boy exclaimed.

A boy slapped his bald head. "You almost took my breath."

"I need all of you to leave the room," the nurse said, and the students promptly exited.

"Where am I?" Alex's dreadful voice echoed.

Alex noticed the girl in front of him.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Anna."

"This is your school; are you okay? Why are you acting strange?"

Before she could react, Alex jumped up from the bed forcefully grabbing Anna's shoulder, both of their faces at the same level.

A slight blush on Anna's face.

Scanning the walls behind her, noticing a rough texture above the tiles beneath his face, and another bed beside his own.

After careful investigation, Alex stared into Anna's red eyes and said,

"Anna, I don't know what's happening to me. One moment I'm here and in next in front of a computer. At this moment, I am struggling for breath; it's almost a suffocating feeling, and I don't know." Before Alex could continue, his focus shifted deep into Anna's red pupils.

Observing the reflection in it.

Golden pupils with dark circles around them, black-haired, egg-shaped face with long hair reaching and covering his ears.

"Who the hell is this boy?" He quickly turned back, assuming someone was beside him.

But to Alex surprise, there was no one. He gulped his saliva and composed himself.

As a failed author who had experimented with multiple themes and ideas, he knew what was the most appropriate question that could answer his misery.

"What year is this?"

He felt tears in his eyes, a wet trickling water drop falling, travelling toward his mouth.

Before he could get any answers, his vision turned blank.

"It's 2030."

Still, he managed to grasp the words.

His body collapsed into Anna's arms, head clutched between her breasts.

Anna held him in her arms.

"Are you in the influence of drugs? Wait, is this an overdose case?"

The mere thought of it caused her heart to skip a beat.

She quickly placed her hand on his neck, trying to check his pulse. The result was shocking.

"He -he ..gulp ..no.. pulse."

But unaware of the mysteries unfolding around her, could Anna guess that the one she was trying to desperately revive had already succumbed, while another spirit had taken over him, which had gone to take a detour in his world.

Alex woke up in his room, still coughing and struggling to take a breath.

The pain in his chest intensified, he clenched the affected area, suppressing the urge to tear himself apart.

"What's happening to me?" he wondered aloud while remembering the event he had just experienced.

"Am I turning crazy? Am I losing my mind? What Are these hallucinations?"

His chest felt incredibly burdensome.

The familiar feelings of pressure in the thoracic cavity, stabbing touch of countless needles in the lungs and the sensation of a surging fluid in his neck

All of those symptoms led him to a startling realisation.

"Does that mean I'm getting Raser's illness and transferring it into my body?"

Despite the lack of a clear foundation for this theory, his gut feeling insisted it was true.

"What will happen when the transfer is complete?" Alex's face turned gloomy. Just imagining the worst-case scenario, a feeling of dread travelled down his spine.

As an author, his imagination was his strongest aspect, but this time it had just become fuel for his misfortunes.

"It's all because of Raser, yes, his disease. It's affecting me. I am inheriting his suffering."

"No, no, that means sooner or later, I will die."

Alex squeezed his head In an act of helplessness, clutching it tightly as if trying to block the distressing thoughts.

"I-i-i don't want to die," his faint voice echoed in the room reaching every corner.

"He is in 2030, right? That means, in the present time, his younger self is somewhere out there."

*Cough*

"I can survive." His golden eyes flashed with determination. Moving toward the table, Alex aimed to use the internet to search for Raser. "First, I can generate his image using AI. I'll also commission someone to draw him."

*Cough*

"I just need to describe his features, he look similar to me yes..."

"After I find him, I can admit him into a hospital. Yes, yes, that's right. I should do it. I should... just in case, I should search the country. What was the name of the school...

Lost in thought, he sat on the chair. Opening another document, he started to write down details to aid in his quest.

"A boy around the age of 17 to 18."

Before he could write anything more, his vision turned blank. head slammed on the keyboard, and he lost consciousness.

[6 sep2024] That was the date written on the laptop screen.