Chapter 1

With a sheet of paper at hand, and his head hung low, Alice was walking towards his home. His face only reflected one emotion; frustration.

After reaching his home, Alice quietly turned the door knob to the entrance of the house, opening the door. He entered the house, took quiet steps to his room. As soon as he entered his room, he fell on his his bed. His eyes showed helplessness. The sheet of paper on his hand had a big red circle, and inside it were written: 29/100. Keeping one of his hand on top of his forehead, he let out a soft sigh.

The once brilliant student was now reduced to nothing, but a failure. The life which once had a lot of potential has now crumbled down to such a pathetic state. The uniform worn by Alice was stained with dirt. His face had a few cuts and his hair was soaking wet with dirty water.

'Had I not tried to help her at that time, would my life have been different?' Thought Alice.

Being constantly bullied, Alice couldn't focus on his studies. The mere thought of him going back to that damned classroom to give a test sent a shiver down through his spine. Alice had excellent memory, not a photographic one, but above average memory which was earned through constant revisions of materials. But memorising an answer, or a formula will not be possible if not enough concentration is paid. As a result, his grades dropped significantly, and today's exam was the 9th time he had failed. What makes it worse is that this was his final exam of his third year of highschool.

Alice stared at his ceiling for about 15 minutes. His mind was occupied with the thoughts of his failure. He didn't blame the people who bullied him, but rather himself. He wanted to escape, hide himself, run away.

After he was done staring at the ceiling, he took a glance at his study table. His table had a few books, and a packet of sleeping pills. Alice was, after all, unable to sleep properly due to extreme stress.

He kept staring at the packet of pills for a while before a small grin started to form on his face.

It was 8 o'clock in the evening. The weather was quite stormy. The wind flowed violently. The weather forecast said that there's a possibility of thunderstorm. The large waves of the sea crashed onto the big rocky cliff.

Despite such weather, a lone person was standing on top of the rocky cliff, staring down at the once gentle sea which was now unstable and violent, as if it was going devour the land. The person was none other than Alice. He was holding something very tightly.

"So....this is it, huh?" He murmured. After slowly opening his tightly clenched fist, he stared down at it. The thing that he was holding so tightly were 6 sleeping pills. He looked up at the sky and said, "I want to escape, I want to be free from this hell."

At once, he put all of the pills inside his mouth and started chewing. A nasty bitter taste spread inside his mouth, but he decided to ignore it. After he completed chewing, he gulped down the pills.

Now only one thing is left to done, He thought. After closing his eyes, jumped from the cliff, crashing into the violent sea. The moment that he had been waiting for finally arrived; he could now escape everything by going to the eternal slumber.... Or so that's how it should have been, but-

*Blegh*

Alice threw up while he was under water. The second he did so, water gushed inside his mouth, suffocating him. This sudden incident startled Alice and he suddenly became panicked. He started to desperately move his arms and legs. He was now desperate to get some air....but why? Wasn't this what he wanted? Did he not want to escape reality? Then why? Right now, Alice was only thinking of one thing, 'I need air!'

He tried to swim back up, but it was of no help. He tried to scream for help, but as he was under water, no one could hear him and it only made the situation worse, as more water entered his body.

As he was desperately moving, he suddenly realized that his vision is getting darker and darker. His body became cold. He fully understood what was happening; he was drowning. He felt...fear. He wanted this, but not in this way! 'No, this can't be happening! No!' He thought in despair. He started to lose consciousness and sink down. Yes, it was at this moment that he realized, "Death is suffocating"