It’s always been sometimes. Sometimes me, sometimes a stranger.

  Pure darkness was the only thing visible in my surroundings; accompanied with a tranquil sadness over a chapter I don’t remember losing.

  “Ci… Cindy… Cindy…! Cindy!” I flinched at the calling of my eyes, but my eyes quickly adjusted to my current surroundings to meet a familiar face. How much time had passed?

  I looked around.

  The classroom? Right, I was still at school.

  “Jeez, look at you. Did you not sleep well?” my closest friend, Jian, asked. Her eyes worriedly washed over my face for signs of exhaustion. I probably looked like a raccoon right about now.

  “What do you think?”

  “…Were you reading a book?”

  I almost face palmed. “I’m not like you, Jian.” I pulled out my tablet from my backpack, opening my personal art gallery in search of the culprit. “I drew this last night but I don’t think I ever finished it before I—“

  Upon further inspection of the art in question, I quickly closed my tablet shut. “…Never mind, let’s talk about something else.”

  “Huh? Come on, I want to see it!” she continued to nag me as I tried covering myself up again with my hoodie, a failed attempt to falling asleep. “Please? Please? Please? Plea--”

  “No.”

  “PLEASE?” The other students around us started to give us looks. I let out a frustrated sigh.

  “Fine! Just shut up,” I finally pass her the tablet and let her look at the drawing I dosed off to; it wasn’t atrocious, to say the least, but the anatomy was certainly lacking in places. And some of the contrasting areas looked a bit awkward from colouring so late in the dark. I could try fixing it when I get home today.

  But it seemed that Jian thought otherwise. She glanced at the dull landscape, her eyes raking in the whole image. “Wow! Cindy, this looks so good!” her usually sharp cheeks started to soften, visibly expressing her delight. “…What if I just commissioned you right now?”

  I curiously shot her a look. “If you want something, I’ll just draw it for you.”

  “No. This one is a character with a complicated design! Come on, let me—“

  “I’ve made up my mind, shut it,” I quickly replied. I loved drawing Jian’s characters anyways; at times, they even felt like my own.

  “Nonsense! You deserve my whole wallet because of this,” she said before pulling an empty chair towards me. “I’ll send you the details of the character today, so check your phone. I’ll spam you if you forget,” she grinned, “And if you refuse, I’ll never let you find peace.”

  “… Alright.” I’ll have her think she was winning and then find a way to dodge her wallet.

  Before she could pester me for more art that I was definitely hiding from her, I change the subject. “So what online novel is it this time?”

  She blinked in surprise. “How did you know…?”

  I gave her the side eye. Those eye bags didn’t do her justice. “You stayed awake for it, that’s why.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “I saw you online, you liar.”

  Instead of going quiet, Jian decided it really didn’t matter what I thought now—she was already taking out her phone to show me. “The Ritual Of The Sapphire Swordsmaster,” she dramatically spoke out the familiar book title that I must’ve heard a thousand times already. “I’m rereading it. Ahem, again.”

  I was unsurprised.

  “For what? The 20th time?” I couldn’t understand her. How could someone love a book that much? “What’s so good about it anyway? Isn’t it like every other overpowered main character fantasy story—I even remember you saying you don’t like the genre!”

  “Don’t diss it like that!” Jian quickly defended the book like it was her own child. If there was a physical copy of it, I was convinced she would be tucking the book underneath her arms and covering its non-existent ears from my harsh words. “You don’t understand, this book has everything I want! I don’t know what you have against the main character anyway, he’s my favourite. And he’s not like the others—“

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  “He literally is.” I pointed out and then paused. “I don’t have anything against him, I just don’t see why you’re obsessed with him…and almost every other character in there.”

  I knew Jian wouldn’t be able to deny it. Yeah, I haven’t read it myself, but from the short snippets she read out loud and text messages she sent me, it really was like every other novel. I could think of 10 other books with the same plotline if I tried really hard right now.

  “Your problem is that you won’t give it a try,” she pointed her finger out at me. “If you read it, you’ll understand why I like it so much.”

  Maybe she was right. “…Someday, I’ll read it,” seeing her smug smile, I quickly added, “Only so I could find its obvious faults and prove you wrong.”

  “Hah, whatever you say, Cindy,” she patted my head and I turned away with feigned annoyance. Why did it look like I was the childish one now?

  She opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted by the opening of the classroom door and an unexpected teacher appearing.

  “Good afternoon, everyone. Apologies for the tardiness.” It was our history teacher, and he looked understandably flustered.

  I would’ve been flustered just like him, since the class we were in was supposed to be English class, and the teacher who was also supposed to be here hasn’t shown up for 20 minutes. Or more accurately, she’d been absent for around a week now.

  “Your teacher is on leave at the moment, and we didn’t have time to get you guys another supply teacher,” he let out a sigh, scratching his head while looking mildly irritated. “I’ll take care of things today, but for now, I don’t have any assigned work for you guys so…” at that, I was beginning to see happy grins appear on the faces of some of my classmates, now eagerly paying attention.

  “You can either stay and work on previous assignments or go back home. I’m aware that this is last period for most of you.”

  He didn’t need to say it twice; before he could even finish his sentence, students were taking off with their books and binders. Jian was one of them, immediately throwing her things carelessly in her backpack without a second thought.

  I shook my head in disappointment at the mess in there. Jian noticed my obvious displeasure.

  “I don’t want a lecture from you!—“ she spun around, already having anticipated my next comment. She threw her backpack over her shoulder in a hurry. “I’ll see you on Monday so please get some sleep, Cindy,” she smiled and with a short wave, left the classroom in a hurry before I sent my own farewells. I could only laugh at her predictable antics.

  Although the classroom size was reduced to only a few students, I decided to stay; I had an overdue English assignment that needed my attention, and as insensitive as it may sound, I hoped my teacher would remain absent for a while.

  I opened my binder, searching for my written work. Sighing, I took out the rough draft with all the red markings; my own criticizing edits that showed faults in every sentence. I probably could’ve finished sooner if I wasn’t so hung up over my writing skills.

  Maybe if I was good at English, I wouldn’t be struggling this hard, I think.

  ‘Let’s just rewrite this part and get it over with.’ I had no intentions of keeping this paper ungraded. And I wasn’t going to risk failing English of all things and getting held back a year. Digging into my backpack for my pencil case, I frowned at the shiny notebook that was hidden between my tablet and binder.

  Taking both of them out, I immediately recognized the pink cover.

  ‘Damn you, Jian.’ I knew I couldn’t wait until after the weekend to give it back to her, and there was no way I was commuting 40 minutes to her house. In an instant, I was out of the classroom and running down the hallways.

  “Jian!” I yelled out her name. I only realized that she was no longer at school when I spotted her familiar form outside the window, her dyed blonde hair tied back in a high ponytail while her purple backpack slung side to side.

  She was already on the sidewalk and getting closer to her bus stop. It was a good thing that not many people were in the hallways, making it easier for me to breeze through and reach the exit door.

  The wind blew ominously, and I felt a sudden chill that didn’t feel right. But I didn’t have time to ponder over it as I pushed back my dark bangs off my face, scanning the area for Jian.

  It wasn’t until I was on the sidewalk that I realized why I had sensed something bad. I could see Jian properly now; she was about to cross the street when she paused to put her headphones on. I immediately yelled to her. “Jian! Wait!”

  Luckily, she seemed to hear me because she stopped as soon as the car crossed the intersection at an alarming speed. My breath hitched before quickly letting out a relieved sigh, slowing down as I approached Jian.

  “You forgot your notebook,” I called out to her, but she didn’t respond. Oddly enough, she seemed frozen, almost as if I had interfered with an unwelcoming event. I got worried so I yelled again, drawing closer. “Jian! Your notebook…?”

  That seemed to break the temporary trance she was in. She smiled at me. “Ah, thank you, Cindy,” she then flinched, holding her head. “Sorry, for some reason I’m feeling uneasy—“

  The next chain of events that followed were too quick for me to process, almost like a flashback; I remember opening my mouth to ask her what’s wrong, but my eyes caught onto something from a distance, and it was at that moment I knew something was going to happen.

  Only one word came out of my mouth as I ran over to Jian, motioning for her to get out.

  It was the sidewalk that wasn’t safe. She was momentarily confused by my actions, but she later noticed the danger by the honking of the truck driver who seemed to be, for whatever reason, driving out of control and making no attempts to stop or turn.

  I did the one thing I could do at the moment: I pushed Jian out of the way.

  Drip.

  I couldn’t remember the pain of getting hit—if even my limbs were intact. It was numbing when I gazed up at the clear, sunny sky, relaxing as I felt the hot droplets of rain soothingly falling on my face, my name being repeated over and over again in the most comforting voice.