Prologue

Our story begins with an alarm clock desperately banging its internal workings to wake up our very handsome, responsible, intelligent, and... actually, let's skip the responsible part... charismatic protagonist.

I really wanna imagine this moment to be like all the anime's you've seen and mangas you've read: they start with our dear Nico being late for a very special occasion.

Imagine this: he wakes up to the sound of the alarm and grabs the poor metal guy towards his face, there's a sudden flush of color to his cheeks and his eyes widen like he has seen a ghost, he drops to the floor in an effort to hasten his pace and get ready as soon as possible for his college graduation. Then he says, "OMG. I'm so late. I'll run downstairs and grab like a piece of bread my mom made and dash off to my event."

I mean don't we always see that scene on Japanese manga and anime? Why do they always begin that way?

But not for this reality. Oh no. See, this is a special point in the universe where Nico decides to wake up on time - his alarm was set an hour before he usually wakes up.

I never really understood why in this particular reality, I decided to wake up to my alarm's command.

Maybe because this was the very moment I finally realised that I am leaving everything behind: my old friends, my school, my terrible sense of self, and my lives... literally.