Convenience

'It's already half past 9, she still isn't back?'

Noele looked at the food on the table growing colder each second.

'This won't do. I made food for two people. If she had plans, she should've told me, tsk.'

After scratching his head a bit, he called Megna's phone. No one answered.

'Strange. She usually answers within 10 seconds. Maybe she's asleep? But where?'

Noele exited his apartment. He took out a key from his pocket and unlocked Megna's door.

'...It's already unlocked?'

When he entered the apartment, all he could hear were snores brimming with exhaustion. He entered her bedroom and pressed the lights.

"Aigoo, you actually fell asleep without changing. That's not appropriate."

He slowly started to unbutton her blouse while thinking of what to do with the excess food.

'I guess it will just be my breakfast for tomorrow then.'

After changing her to her sleeping attire, she adjusted her position and tucked her into her blanket.

"Haah, feels like I'm taking care of a child."

Turning off the lights, he took one last glance at Megna before leaving.

"Good night."

"Hmm, Noele..."

Noele almost jumped from shock. "You were awake?"

"Hmm~"

'Oh, she was sleep talking... how cute.'

Noele walked over to Megna's side and sat on the bed, patting her head.

Although she was 3 years older than him, it didn't stop him from treating her like a child.

"Why did you call me, hm? You must be having a good dream if you're saying my name in the middle of the night."

"N, Noele..." Megna's eyebrows slightly creased.

Noele noticed that her comfortable expression was being replaced by a desperate one.

"Noele, don't! Don't do it..."

"Shh, shh, I'm not gonna do it, don't worry..." Noele tried to comfort her, despite not knowing what she meant.

'What does she mean don't do it? Did I do something?'

After hearing those words of reassurance, her expression eased up.

Noele stood up and glanced at Megna once more before shutting the door behind him.

'What does she mean by that? Is she telling me to stop visiting the Elementalist Association to check my Compatibility Rating? Is that giving her nightmares?'

He scratched his head. 'Now that I mention it, I'm probably bothering her a lot by visiting every other day. Okay, from now on, I'll only visit 2 times a week!'

With a smile on his face, he left Megna's apartment.

-----

Noele stretched his arms as he took the blanket off his body.

Rubbing his eyes, he checked the time on his wall clock. "Hm, it's...!! It's almost time for class!"

His mind kicked into full gear, jumping out of the bed in no time.

Brushing his teeth, taking a bath, eating breakfast... everything he did would be crammed in 5 minutes or less.

"Ah! I need to fix up Megna's lunchbox as well."

Although he knew it was gonna take him longer than 5 minutes to prepare it even with leftovers, he didn't hesitate a single second.

And so, as he left his apartment, he looked at his wristwatch.

"...I'm gonna be late."

Even while saying that, he was hoping for a miracle to happen.

Of course, the contrary happened when he saw the sign on the elevator.

"Tsk, out of order? Today of all days?"

He glanced at the spiral stairway with the number "5" on its side with frustration.

Even if he didn't want to use the flight of stairs, he had no choice but to. He started rushing to at least reduce the time it took to walk down.

Before he could get to the stairway, a middle school girl passed by Noele as she grasped her bag tightly.

"Hi, Mr. Noele... Bye, Mr. Noele!"

She jumped off the railings, down the center of the stairway. Before she cpuld crash, she produced a couple gusts of wind to decelerate her descent.

Noele sighed with envy. How great would it be if he was an elementalist? He would have just jumped off his balcony then.

Alas, he was not one, and so he started to walk down the stairs step by step.

As he ran down, multiple more people opted to jump down the center of the stairway. By the time he made it to the bottom, he had counted at least 12 more people making it before him.

He walked out of the apartment building and into the sun, which was only beginning to rise.

The sun, even at its dawn, was blindingly bright, causing Noele to raise his hand to block it from his eyes.

He ran for the bus stop.

On the way, people with clouds above their heads surrounded him, making up at least 90% of the people that he passed by.

'Of course. Wind is the easiest to master and the most common element to be compatible with.'

Noele was jealous once more. Why was he not part of that 90% of people that knew how to generate a misty mini-umbrella?

His frustrations only grew as he rode the bus that had arrived. It was extremely hot inside, to the point that a toddler would probably die.

As he was forced to use his hand as a makeshift fan, he observed the people in the bus with him.

Beside him was an elderly woman who was gently generating gusts of wind towards her face.

In front was a office lady who drizzled herself with sprinkles of water from time to time.

There was also a buff gym trainer who directly pushed the heat away from his body.

These kinds of scenes served to depress Noele.

'This is bullcrap. I don't believe it. I don't believe that I have absolutely no power whatsoever!'

He thought back to yesterday's visit to the Elementalist Association.

'There was a slight spark on the orb. Even if no one else saw it, I did. If there's one thing I'm not, it's delusional.'

As the bus arrived at its destination, Noele was lost in thought, only subconsciously walking off the bus.

He did not notice that amidst his reverie, there was a soft cloud generating above his head.