16. University

Tristan's blond hair dances in the gentle, warm breeze as he enters the university campus. He takes a deep breath, trying to appear more calm than he is. 

Kristina can't shake off the dream she had - no, more as she can't shake off the weird feeling of a dream Tristan's body had. However, she was merely an onlooker, a witness of the past - a fraction of Tristan's memory. Memory this body shouldn't yet possess.

Tristan exhaled slowly, entering the main hall, which was far too flashy for a trashy university like this one. 

It was like entering a beehive - All the chatter, every little sound, morphed into a buzzing noise.

 'I know. You're not alone.' - repeated in Kristina's head to no end. That's right. It was in the past - Kristina couldn't turn back time to ask Tristan what he meant by these words (she could only put them a meaning she needed the most at the time), what he knew if he knew something more. 

However, she was alone, or at least now she is. There is no one trustworthy, no one who'd believe her crazy story about transmigrating into Tristan's body, no one who'd believe the dark future ahead. Why would they? It sounded way out of this world - hell, even she wouldn't buy such a novellike tale either.

Tristan opened his locker.

Nothing came as a surprise to Kristina anymore, excluding everything that did. An arm caught Tristan in a loose chokehold.

"Hey, Tristan," said the guy as his arm lowered, now resting around Tristan's shoulders - it looked strangely habitual, "you look beat up."

The school was like a neverending war for Kristina. She couldn't rely on her knowledge of the past here because she never attended the same university as Alec and Tristan. Thus, it was like throwing an infant in a river, expecting it to swim - it couldn't. 

However, even though she couldn't recognize the ones who approached Tristan - his body gave her the feeling of familiarity, and when this happened, she knew what would follow. 

"I don't," Tristan murmured.

Although Kristiana knew how Tristan acted around Alec and herself, she never saw how he treated his other friends or classmates now. It had been far too long since they attended the same school - she knew he had changed. She can never mimic Tristan's behavior to dot.

Every interaction she couldn't predict made her nauseous.

"You do," the guy laughs.

Kristina was somewhat surprised by how many people approached Tristan like this. Even over a month spent as Tristan couldn't prepare her for this. However, she knew Tristan wasn't a social butterfly, so she concluded that not everybody acting friendly must be a friend. 

"Dylan?" 

Tristan exhaled slowly - his savior was here.

'So his name is Dylan.' However, Kristina knew that a tiny piece of information like that wouldn't stay in her head for long.

Alec smiled brightly. However, knowing him, this smile is forced. Alec slid Dylan's arm off Tristan's shoulders. Dylan didn't notice it, or maybe he did and decided to ignore it.

"I thought you took a year off," Alec sighed.

"I wanted to, but my parents wouldn't allow it," Dylan scratched his head embarrassedly. "They said that even if I took a year off, I'd be only slacking off. And they are right, but it still hurt, you know." Dylan whined.

Alec tried to avoid bursting into laughter. 

Tristan felt lightheaded. He looked over at Alec, whose focus remained on Dylan. Seizing the opportunity, Tristan snuck off to the bathroom unnoticed.

Tristan splashed his face with cold water. He lifted his gaze to see his reflection in a mirror. Tips of his hair soaked, water still running. However, it wasn't his reflection that greeted him.

Kristina froze as the reflection in the bathroom mirror showed her instead of Tristan. She rubbed her eyes - the image remained. The longer she looked, the more she understood what she saw. It was indeed her reflection. - A reflection of herself in the past two years before her death, before her transmigration.

And what exactly she saw? She saw the haunting image of herself from Tristan's dream. Her eyes were blood red, her face stained by tears, tired expression, lifeless eyes, tangled oily hair - she closed her eyes and splashed some more cold water on them.

'Get it together. This part of you died - you died. Don't get distracted.'

If Tristan's face hadn't been wet, one would have noticed his reddened eyes. 

The bathroom door swung open, and two girls walked in. They were so engrossed in gossiping that they almost missed Tristan standing before the mirror.

One of the girls squealed when she finally noticed Tristan. The other spat: "Get out, you pervert! This is a woman's bathroom - can't you read or what?"

Tritan stopped the running water and quietly walked out. The girls blabbered something about politeness and creeps loudly enough for him to hear. His gaze lingered over the red letters stating 'WOMEN' combined with a little pictograph of a silhouette in a dress.

Kristina was so out of it that she, by default, entered the women's bathroom. 

Tristan bit his lip. 

'This can't happen again.' - Kristina thought as a bell rang, signaling the start of the first period.