System process

"Ughhhh...." I groaned as I slowly felt a trembling amount of pain inside and outside of my body. Before I knew it, blood came flowing down the floor.

I analyzed the situation using the tiny amount of consciousness I had left. It seems like a man wearing a black mask, and shirt came dashing towards me and stabbed my side. The pain I received is nothing compared to the despair I had in my mind. I don't want my mother and father to cry again. I still haven't finish reading my father's ongoing novel. I tried to stood up but I cannot. I had no choice but to accept death.

A single tear came out of my right eye, I slowly closed my eyes. While closing them slowly, I saw a familiar figure. It was my best friend, Gaia. How funny... Yesterday she said that she won't cry even if I die, but there she is, crying like there is no tomorrow. With my eyes fully closed, the world in my vision turned black. My body already accepted this thing called "Death", but my heart and brain did not. It's hard to say bye to those whom you loved. Silence filled my own world and I entered an early eternal sleep.

...

"Ughh... Wait where am I?" I opened my eyes and couldn't believe what I saw. I was in the exact same position where a man stabbed me. "Ehhh??? My body is alright...huh?!" I could not perceive what is going on. My body that was supposedly bleeding, and my strength that was supposedly fading seems to be all fine. So don't tell me that I was in a day dream. I looked around imagining if I went back to time... Maybe?

By the looks of it, I'm not... I guess I was just day dreaming. Even so, the memories from that dream doesn't seem to be fake and seem to have happened. I shrugged off the idea when I saw my friends Gaia and Mark klen running towards me from the other side of the road.

They reached my position and both of them started to giggle. Sigh, it seems like my body started taking action without me knowing. I was acting weird because of that "Day dream" . No wonder why the other people are staring at me.

"Ascrid? Are you ok? You're acting a bit weird to be honest." My friend Mark klen told me whilst a bit laughter was visible on his face. Sigh... This guy rarely teases me, but when he does... It's kinda irritating. Gaia on the other hand, was completely laughing and literally has no intention to hide her laugh towards me. She kept laughing and then started to talk, "Mark klen and I saw you imitating Loid Forger. Did your brain flew out of the Solar system Ascrid? Hahaha"

Tsssskk... Why you little!!! This girl! She's cute and kind towards others, but she's a complete menace in front of me. I told her that she could be herself when she's talking to me, and I didn't thought she's like that. Well... Even with that attitude of her, she's still sweet and caring towards me but has a slight brain problem sometimes.

"Sigh... It would be much appreciated if you silence your self woman" I said that to her with my intimidating cold tone. Mark stared at me as if he was trying to tell me something. I ignored him cause he also laughed at my weird actions. Though, to be honest, who wouldn't laugh at a guy doing a spy move in the side of the road.

I turned my attention to Gaia, "Eh---what the??? Is she gonna cry?!" I shouted inside my head. It seemed like I hurt her feelings just by telling her to shut up. Oh no... I promised to her that I will not make her cry. If she ends up crying in here, my dignity will break... Not that it didn't break because of what happened earlier...

"What do I do??!" I gave Mark a glare stating those. "Hug her" was his response. No, I say no, that is my final answer... I guess Mark is not reliable on this type of things. Sigh... I've got no choice I guess. I braced myself and grabbed her hands, wiped the tiny tears in her cheeks , and I changed my voice to something more calm and I made it a bit manly as possible. I let out a sigh and stated to her, "I am very sorry, I promised not to hurt you but I did... I swear it won't happen again, it's just because I was thinking something else and that made me forget about you and the promise I made with you."

I couldn't help but be flustered... How do I put this, she's annoying but she's my type. Cute, kind, and annoying just like my mother. Tall, calm, and very hard working like my father. She really has all of it, but still... Even if she is indeed the person I like... I made her cry. I wasn't lying about something that's bugging me. I just couldn't help but overthink about that dream. I was about to continue talking, when she suddenly stopped me.

"It's totally fine, it's partly my fault for teasing you right away. It seems like you're thinking something deep. You could tell us whatever it is, Mark and I will listen and help you.--- Hey!!! You look dumb when you're face is frowning, show me a smile." As she was saying it, Gaia's face lightened up and I think I saw her blush for a bit, but maybe it was just my imagination.

"Ye-yeah... If you say so..." I responded to her request and tried my best to smile. I forced my self to smile but in a distance, Mark was holding off his laugh. I don't really know why he's laughing, but it's a good thing his suppressing it. Unlike anyone, Mark klen knows how to adjust to the current mood. His calm and good looking, and he's one of the popular guys in our school.

We've been friends starting from the 1st year of highschool. Now we're in our 4th year, and we still managed to strengthen our friendship. We're inseparable, but in terms of traits... we are polar opposites. I'm tall and so is he, his smart and so am I, in terms of appearance he has the highest score, but in terms of seriousness I have the highest, I'm great in literary works while he's great in terms of artistic works, he attracts girls while I attract those who catches my interests. Even with those differences, we still get along perfectly well.

I'm just glad he's my friend. Though, I envy him sometimes... It just disappears after a few seconds.

Still, is it just me or if you force yourself to smile you'll look awkward? Mark really loves secretly teasing me with his smile. It's irritating but I ignore it most of the time.

I removed Gaia's hand from my grasp and leaped a few steps away due to embarrassment. Mark stared at me and Gaia, he sighed which is kinda unusual for him to do and then he started talking, "Guys, we'll be late if you keep doing your lovey-dovey skit. I won't tolerate seeing you two act like this if you are not in a relationship. For now, let's focus on going to school."

... He's got a point. Not the relationship thing, but about being late. He might sound like his mad, but actually... He's just pretending, --pretending to have the high authority amongst us-- Hate to say it, but I like that side of his.

"Ok, I think we should walk faster." I said while slowly increasing my walking speed. The two nodded and followed what I said. We arrived at our school 10 minutes early before the gate closes. We parted ways and went to our designated classrooms.

We each have our own classrooms to go in to. We weren't classmates, but we always hang out during lunch break. Setting those two aside... I felt a strange feeling about what was going on. Something is strange and I feel unsure to what I am seeing. I placed the uneasiness aside when my friend Xeno approached me.

"Ascrid, do you want to go to the park with me tomorrow? Let's visit the arcade as well, if you want?" Xeno asked me a seemingly weird thing. The question itself is not weird, but the fact that he asked me to go with him is kind of... From what I know, Xeno is a guy who doesn't like to hang out and tends to stay at his house. He trusts me and loves to talk to me... But asking me straight away is something that he can't possibly do.

I focused my attention to him and asked a question, "Are you okay Xeno?" He nodded and answered, "I'm totally okay."

Sigh... If he says so, I am probably just overthinking everything. I agreed to go with him and promised to meet up with him tomorrow morning. It's Saturday tomorrow, and I have no assignments to do, so it should be fine. Xeno gave me a warm smile before he went back to his chair. After a while, our teacher arrived and... Wait what?

It's a different teacher? She's probably a substitute. She walked towards the teachers desk, and then me and my classmates looked at her seriously. She gave off a smile and started introducing herself to us, "Good morning class, I am Miss Rhealyn and I'll be your substitute teacher for this month."

Mister Arjie seemed to have taken a live, it seems like he decided to travel to Japan. I envy adults a lot, why? Because they could make their own money and waste it to whatever they want.

Putting those aside, miss Rhealyn was actually a nice teacher and carefully explained our lessons to us. Lunch break arrived and Mark went to my classroom. He approached me and said, "Xeno and Ascrid, let's eat now".

Xeno and I nodded and we took our lunch box, then we headed to the canteen.

While we were walking, a guy suddenly approached Xeno. "Yo, Xeno what is up? How have you been?" The guy asked Xeno. I looked at the guy and realized that it was Miku. Sigh... This guy is a total bully, he always threatens Xeno even if we are around. Welp, I guess I have to give him a good punch to--- what the?!

"Xeno, I'm very worried about you. You weren't answering my calls and kept ignoring my messages." Miku said in distress. "Eh? You've been calling me? Haha, I am very sorry. My phone was broken, my cousin threw it outside the window when she was playing a horror game." Xeno tried to calm Miku with his soothing tone. Miku seemed to have calmed down, he then smiled and gave off a satisfied smile.

"Ehhh? What the hail is going on?!" I shouted inside my head. Since when did this two got along??? Miku is a pure bully to anyone, but he seems to be a different person today. I stared at Miku and said something to him, "Stop pretending."

Miku stared at me looking confused. He turned his attention to me and opened his mouth, "What do you mean by pretending though? I'm not pretending or anything. It's just me being me, Ascrid... Haha"

''———————" my mind went blank for a second. Miku's words doesn't seem to be a lie, and he is definitely not pretending. I pulled myself together and thought of a counter attack against my words. I sighed and said, "What I meant about pretending, is Mark."

"Huh?" Mark gave me a confused gaze. I responded to his stare with a gaze saying "Just play along". He nodded and immediately went with the flow, "I was pretending to be a Dog over here, then Ascrid told me to stop."

Dog. Wow, out of all the stuffs he could come up... Why does it have to be a dog? Well, it did work so I've got nothing to complain. Miku laughed and he decided to tag along with us. I feel weird having a bully with us, but I don't really feel like he's giving off a menacing vibe. Is he okay... No. What I meant is that are they all okay? They are all acting very different from what I know. Maybe I'm the one who is not okay?

I don't really know...