Hiding?

System.

...

Nothing. Not one sound in my head. 'She's being quiet because I told her to, but what about the system?

Hello? System?

'I think it might be ignoring you.'

System. Hoi. Hey. Respond.

'It really is ignoring you.'

... This is a shitty system.

'I agree.'

I tried a few more times. Not once did the system reply.

What's the point of having this kind of system?!

'I don't know.'

Fuck. I was planning to use class time as free time to ask questions. I really don't want to listen to class...

'At least it's one of the more interesting classes.'

I sighed in my head, before focusing back to class. Halfway through, I got bored and started to doodle. I ended up drawing cute chibi figures of everyone.

They look cute, especially Ryuu.

It's also been a while since I last saw them in 2D. It was kind of refreshing in a weird way, a small reminder that this was a game.

Though even if this is a fake world, I woulDn'T Ev3R L3AVE.

###

The last period came around, and I stood up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Akira asked as I took my bag with me.

"Since I'm still excluded by the class, I thought I'd head to the library and do some research." I shrugged as I answered.

"Alright. Be careful." Akira fist bumped my arm. "You know why."

I nodded.

Should I tell him about the stalker later? I want to have more fun with him, but he's my best friend. Should I?

Hm... I'll cross the bridge when I come to it.

"What are you researching?" I jumped when I heard Yuu speak from beside me.

Holy fuck! If I didn't hold myself back in time I would have punched him in the face!

... On second thought I shouldn't have held myself back.

"We don't have any papers to write." Yuu said as I stood up from my desk.

"It's just some personal research. Nothing to do with class." I replied as I started walking towards the door. "I'll get going now. It looks like the others are waiting for you."

"Okay! Don't forget our practice!" Yuu called out after me gleefully.

"I won't." I said as I opened the door.

Before I took another step, an arm blocked my way out. Looking up I found the owner of the arm to be Ryuu.

"Let's go together." Ryuu lowered his arm.

"But it'll be boring."

"I don't mind."

"Ok, let's go then." I smiled brightly.

As we walked out I heard a muffled scream. Though it was barely audible, I still heard it.

God damn fujoshi.

I quickly glanced back before the door closed. Instead of seeing the fujoshi, I saw Yuu with a dark expression.

The door shut close.

I didn't get what I wanted, but I got something even better.

Yuu must be mad with jealousy and his prey slowly falling out of his hands.

'We're the prey?'

He must be so pissed off with Ryuu.

'I know you're not responding because of the system but still...'

Though if he actually does something, I may have to go to jail.

'Please don't. For Ryuu at least.'

I'll just prepare for it. I'll need to buy quite a few things.

'... This is why I don't like this side of you.'

As I walked silently with Ryuu, the ding sound rang out in my head again.

[Host, would you like to see your mission?]

No, fuck off you useless piece of shit.

-was what I wanted to say.

Why didn't you answer me in the classroom?

[There was a system maintenance.] There was a nervous tone that I barely noticed.

It seemed like it was hiding from something. Something that was in the classroom. Why though? This adds more suspicion. Noting that down in my heart I replied to it.

Alright. I don't want to see the mission right now. I'll see it when I have free time.

[Yes host.]

I took my time heading to the library, walking side by side with Ryuu.

This is nice.

'Now that I think about it, this might be the first time we get to explore the library and not have to worry about Tatsuya.'

Walking together is really nice.

'...'

When I arrived, the library was pretty much empty. Since everyone was busy with prep, this wasn't a shocker.

I made a beeline towards the science section and glanced around. I'm almost positive that inter-dimensional travel has to do with physics, so I looked into that side of things.

"What are you looking for?" Ryuu walked over to my side and asked.

"Stuff like inter-dimensional travel." I started shuffling through the books.

"Why?" Ryuu questioned.

"Nothing really." I shrugged. "I just got really curious about it, that's all."

"Okay." He nodded.

I feel bad for lying, but I just love that he trusts me.

'Do you really feel bad?'

I'll make some cookies for him tonight.

'Don't forget about mine!'

"Wouldn't it be better to search the internet?" Ryuu asked me while pointing to one of the school's computers.

"You're right." I walked to the computer he was pointing at. "Thanks. You probably just saved me a lot of time."

"You're welcome." Ryuu softly smiled.

I sat at the computer and started online research, while Ryuu stood behind me, just watching me search.

Oh, jackpot!

I found it so soon. I'm really glad that Ryuu told me to search on the internet first. Otherwise, who knows how long I would have spent on the books.

"Could This be an Alternate Universe?" was the title of the news article.

Quickly reading through it, I found out that while it wasn't super useful, there was still an interesting detail.

The article stated that it seems like there was potentially a space-time rift discovered near one of the poles recently. However, only one machine detected it, and it was only for half a second.

There's currently not enough data to confirm the hypothesis, so they're on the lookout for any more anomalies.

This wasn't the interesting part. The most interesting part was the date. It was a bit later than when I arrived. It might have been a coincidence. There's not enough information.

[Host I could-]

I said I'll talk to you when there's free time!

[Yes host.]

After searching for a bit longer I stopped.

I think I've found as much as I could on my own. I'll have to keep track of any updates from the lab the rift was discovered at.

I pulled out my phone and glanced at the time. I still had a long time before the dreaded practice, so I decided to wander around the library to waste time.

"You done?" Ryuu asked as I got up from the computer.

"Yep." I nodded.

"What do you want to do now?" Ryuu asked.

"I want to find a few books to read." I answered.

"Ok. Let's go find them then."

"It'll be really boring you know." I looked up at him.

"It won't be boring."

"Really?"

"Yes. It'll never be boring when I'm spending time with you." Ryuu smiled brightly.

...

Oh my fucking god!

'Ahhhhhh! A flirt! A natural flirt!'

He's too cute! Too fucking cute!

'That was way too smooth!'

I love him so much!

'My heart can't take this!'

Ah! Ha! Ah~

'Calm down! Calm down! We still need to respond.'

"L-Let's find those books then." That was the best I could do with my melted brain.

"Ok."

We walked around the library looking at the books. Though I'm still a bit panicked, I more or less calmed down now.

Glancing back, I found Ryuu staring at a book.

"Do you want to read that?" I asked.

"No. It's fine." Ryuu denied.

I smiled as I walked to the book he was looking at.

"No wait-"

I picked up the book and read the name before Ryuu could stop me.

The title was "High School SweetHearts." From what I could from the title, this book is obviously a romance book set in high school.

"You wanted to read this book?" I raised my eyebrow.

"I-" Ryuu looked away and blushed a little. "Yes. I just wanted to know more about the type of love you told me before."

... My brain will really melt if you keep on doing this.

'I feel like I'm going to die soon with all this sugar.'

"Let's read it." I moved closer to Ryuu.

"You don't have to-" I moved my finger to his mouth to shush him.

"Let me spoil you too, ok?" I looked at him right in the eye.

"Ok." Ryuu blushed a bit more.

... I want to kiss him right now.

'Then do it! Kiss him!'

And I did.

The kiss lasted for some time, even though it wasn't a french kiss.

It felt really nice.

We backed off and looked at each other. After a while, I held Ryuu's hand.

"Let's go read now."

"Ok."

We walked towards one of the tables.

After setting up an alarm a few minutes before practice, we spent the rest of the time reading and cuddling each other.