211 "Return"

Standing before the closed elevator door and waiting for the elevator to arrive was Muria. The sight of this pretty girl standing patiently before the closed elevator door while hanging onto the strap of her school bag with both hands and letting it rest against her legs had become the norm. Thinking back on the day that I first found out that she was moving into the house directly opposite of mine on the same floor, I was quite worried back then. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why I was so worried back then cause now, I feel quite indifferent about her and Mura living next to me. We don't usually interact and mostly stay in our own homes, so I guess there really isn't much of a difference. Even the sight of her has become a norm to me.

What is different though, is the presence of this other girl that stood next to me. She resembles me to a great degree, yet every single feature of her is feminine. As the female form of me, it would appear that she still holds that peaceful relationship she had developed with Muria while I was her. The two smiled at each other and exchanged brief greetings before the wait resumed. This time, instead of just Muria waiting with me, it is Muria waiting with me and Alvelyn.

The digital display next to the elevator door showed the progress of the elevator, and by the looks of it, the elevator should be arriving within the next few seconds. Therefore, I just waited. However, a gaze disturbed my peaceful wait and looking over, I saw that the gaze was cast by Muria.

"What is it?" I mumbled to her.

"You're back," she answered me in a cold and indifferent voice.

This is the Muria I know, I thought to myself.

When I was Alvelyn, Muria's voice towards me was rather soft and kind. Since I'm so used to Muria speaking to me the way she is now, I never truly did get used to it during my one month tenure as Muria. In fact, I sort of did miss this condescending voice of her's. Now that I am back in my original body and is being addressed in the same manner as before, I can finally feel at peace.

"Why do you have that disgusting look of pleasure on your face?" she frowned and made a disgusted look on her face.

"Nothing," I chuckled as the elevator door finally opened and I entered followed by Alvelyn and Muria. "It's just that I haven't seen you in a while."

I was lying cause I had seen Muria almost every day in the past month. However, I also did not lie because this is the Muria that I personally know, not that girl who treated me similar to how she treated Irina.

We took our usual commute route to school and arrived there with some time to spare. As we neared the school, I intentionally slowed my pace so that others wouldn't assume that Muria is with me. This is something that I usually do to not cause her any problems or disturbances. However, today things appear to be somewhat different. Usually, Muria would also increase her walking pace somewhat, but today she did not. Instead, she maintained her usual pace and occasionally, she would glance back at Alvelyn and me.

I looked over at Alvelyn and concluded that Muria must be waiting for Alvelyn. In the past month while I was Alvelyn, I had walked with Muria to class, so Muria must see that as routine now. Why Alvelyn did not just abandon me was something that I'm not entirely sure of as she wasn't communicating that to me, and I cannot decipher anything from her emotional state. Therefore, I speculate that it is because she does not want to leave me, the male form of her, alone by myself. It almost makes me wanna cry how nice of a person she—no, how nice of a person I am.

I saw that Alvelyn was also somewhat unusual, with a slight crease in her brow as she frowned while looking directly in front of her. With a sigh, I decided that I do not need my own company at the moment.

"Go ahead," I muttered to Alvelyn.

Alvelyn did not respond to me with words. Instead, there was a slight nod that communicated her gratitude to me. I wonder why she even bothered doing that. Like why would you thank yourself? It's not like people just say "Thank you" to themselves when they pour themselves a glass of water. Well, I guess this is a different situation.

I watched as Alvelyn increased her walking pace to catch up with Muria before matching her's so that the two were walking at the same pace and side-by-side. They didn't seem to speak much, so I do not understand the point of them walking side-by-side, but I guess it's that sense of companionship that's being the major factor.

"Guess who's back?" Noah announced to the others when I entered the classroom after Muria and Alvelyn. "How's it going so far?"

Noah wasn't asking me about the month that Alevian was "reportedly" visiting relatives. Instead, he was asking more what I feel about having a female me living with me.

"A bit weird," I muttered to him as I made my way over to my seat in the back row and by the window. I sat down on this seat that I missed dearly, crossed my arms and laid them on the desk, and rested my head on it.

"Hey, Alevian," Loyd greeted me.

"Hey," I yawned as the sense of security my desk provided me made me feel drowsy once again. It would appear that Alvelyn was also affected by what I was feeling as she also yawned.

"Welcome back, Alevian," Irina walked over to my desk and said to me. "How was your visit?"

"It's alright," I responded to her in a tired voice.

"In the time you've been gone, we got a new member to our club," Irina continued enthusiastically. On her face was a joyful and pleasant smile. "Her name is Erith. She's one of Luna's friends."

"I know," I yawned. "Alvelyn told me."

Right...I have Erith to deal with. Irina reminded me of her existence as well as the fact that joined the club and stayed for an entire month to wait me out. I still don't know what she's after exactly, but I should prepare myself and be careful.

"Oh," Irina frowned slightly, maybe it was because what I said rendered what she was going to say useless.

"So what's she like?" I suddenly asked after feeling looks of blame from Muria and, surprisingly, Alvelyn.

"She's a nice person," Irina smiled and continued to inform me. "But it might take a bit getting used to her though. She's...quite physical."

The ringing of the bell cut our conversation short as zero period homeroom began. Following the side of the front door being slide open came the familiar sound of Mura's heels making contact with the floor and the sound of the sliding door closing. I had my head on my desk and my eyes closed as I prepared myself for a nap so I wasn't able to see her walk in. However, since I've seen it so many times, I really didn't need to see to visualize it. All I need is the sound.

After Mura made her way to the podium at the front of the classroom, she began the day by taking attendance, calling each student's name as she went down the list on the tablet in her arms.

"Alevian?" Mura called my name.

"Here," I yawned and answered.

"You know to show up after missing a month of school?" Mura chuckled then continued onto the next name. "Alvelyn?"

"Here," Alvelyn responded in a voice that was awake.

It would appear that Alvelyn does not share my own drowsiness, or if she did, she ignored it. I guess she has an image to maintain, unlike me. I've given up quite some time ago, but as a girl, she must care. In fact, when I became a girl, I was quite conscious of my image. Maybe it was the idea of a fresh start or whatever that influenced me into caring back then.

Mura soon finished taking attendance and homeroom was then able to be pushed into the next segment, which is announcements. Mura then read off of the announcements that she had loaded up on her tablet that the school had sent to each teacher. There were announcements on school events such as a soccer match this Friday after school against another high school, a tournament game for the chess club. These announcements are pretty bland in general.

"And finally," Mura placed her tablet down on the podium. "Spring break will soon be on us."

"Yeah!" students cheered when Mura made that announcement.

"Winter is slowly ending and Spring is beginning. In a few more weeks, you will get two weeks off for the season," Mura announced. "I'm sure that you all know that during breaks like these, different clubs have their own activities and such. For specifics on those activities, make sure to ask your club leaders."

Come to think about it, since I don't know a single thing about what our club's purpose and overall activity are, will we have anything over break? I hope not. It would be such a hassle leaving the house every day just so that everybody gathers and do nothing. Once in a while, it's alright. But if it's too frequent, then it's a no for me.