1 Volume 1 - Chapter 1: The Beginning

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Pearl’s POV

Dusk came whilst the sun slowly retreats to its slumber. The busy people crowd the city, going to and from their destinations. That includes us students. Just waiting for the bell to ring, and the class to end.

“Finally!” I sighed with exasperation. “It’s weekend!” The number of schoolwork keeps piling up. It’s being a pain in the you know... ass. I wish I could watch my favorite TV series but, the devils in the form of educators might end me through my report cards. A student needs a break too you know. I really really… really need a loooong vacation after all of these cursed schoolwork!

“Pearl?... Hey Pearl? Pearl!”

“What?! Stop shouting at me. I can hear you, you know!” I frowned, facing my friend Jade. She frowned back at me while cleaning her reading glass to see me clearly. “How can I not shout at you when I’ve been calling you for like, a thousand times?” Her brows furrow in dissatisfaction while her dark, curly hair that’s been tied into a ponytail swayed back and forth in her slight movement. Her fair complexion complimented her intelligent looks along with those thick glasses she’s wearing. “You okay? You’ve been spacing out for awhile now. What were you thinking? You look... horrible.”

“Thanks for the compliment, Jade.” I rolled my eyes at her for calling out my looks. “I’m good. I’m just thinking of the mountains of homework. I don’t know which one to do first! Should I work on the essays? Or do the reasoning in our Statistics? Or maybe our daily schedule of Physical fitness program? God, then there’re also exams next week. But who am I to complain? We signed up for this as scholar students.” I scoffed, picking my things, and placing them back in my backpack.

Jade only laughed along with the other students which made me frown further. My eyes drifted towards the mischievous redhead male who tends to make fun of everything he hears. That bastard, Yujin.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. The redhead only jumped when I called him out, smiling nervously at me. “Hey now. Don’t look at me like that. You’re scaring me and your scholarship away.” It fumed me after hearing his playful banter. I quickly turned to Jade, gazing at her to help me out. “Jade! Say something!” I whined.

The girl who I called friend only laughed at me. “You two never stop, huh?” She giggled, with Yujin snickering without a care in the world.

“Let them be. Those two will never run out of energy especially when they are together. They compliment each other.” A deep voice interrupted the conversation, making all of us turn to the owner of the voice. A tall man with dark raven hair, cut right below his chin with fair complexion and a beautiful smirk painted on his lips, Noctis. My beloved Noctis!

“Don’t compare me to that pea-brain over there. We are nothing alike!” I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest whilst gazing at the man.

“What?! Hey! I’m not stupid!” Yujin fumed.

“I’m afraid I have to agree with Pearl here, Yuu. You are quite slow in here.” Noctis tapped his head, grinning further at the other male.

“Hey! You’re supposed to be on my side. Aren’t you supposed to be my pal?”

“It’s the reason why I agreed because I’m your pal. It means I know you better than anyone else.” Noctis rebated and everyone laughed at the redhead this time, making the brunette show his middle finger on the ravenette. “Why are you here anyway? You’re staying in the school dormitory right?” Yujin leaned against the desk with his arms cross over his chest and eyes on Noctis.

“Yes. I needed to buy something at the store. Have you guys seen Edward?” Noctis gaze at his wristwatch, looking out for how much time he has left before the dormitory closes.

“He didn’t tell you? He said he’s staying at his apartment since Janine is coming over to study with him.” Jade answered. Now that she mentioned it, those two are always together. They sometimes ‘coincidently’ not join us whenever we decide to go out with everyone. Suspish… very suspish. There’s definitely something going on between those two.

“Is that so?” Noctis simply answered.

“Man… Edward’s basically the baby boy of the group. Yet, it seems that our youngest will be the first one to have a girlfriend.” Yujin pouted. I snickered softly at his jealous remarks along with Noctis.

“If you’re jealous then, go look for your own girlfriend.” Noctis smirked mischievously at Yujin, teasing the redhead.

Yujin scoffed in response, crossing his arms together. “I am not! Who would get jealous just because someone got a girlfriend? Definitely not me.”

“Yes you’re very convincing, Yuu.” Noctis sarcastically replied.

The two continued to throw banters at each other while I, on the other hand is struggling to keep my eyes away from this ravenette behind me. He’s so close. I feel weird whenever I’m around him. He’s making me nervous for no reason. Just being close to him sends butterfly in my stomach. His dark medium cut hair framed his sharp looking face. Fair refined skin, sharp-eyes as dark as a void that lures you in when you gaze at him longer. His tall proud nose perfectly complimented his thin, red lips that makes you wonder how it would taste if you kiss him. Those eyebrows perfectly shaped to match his looks. He’s breathtaking. Not to mention, his tallness and his body build made him look immaculate. Strip him and wrap those white cloth or curtains around his body, you’d think he’s a god of beauty. Throw rag clothes at him, and he’d still rock it.

“You’re staring holes on my face.” Noctis muttered without looking even batting an eye on me. A frown worked on his face and expression as blank as my math answer sheets.

That snapped me from my daydreaming as heat works its way on my face, making me to push him away from me. “You have something on your teeth idiot!” I shouted, running away from him and hid behind Jade’s back. It immediately made Noctis cover his mouth and grabbed his phone to check his teeth which made Yujin laugh at him. It was a lie. Your pearly white teeth were clean and thoroughly brushed. God, the embarrassment. Someone kill me already!

“Pearl, what’s wrong?” My dear friend asked. Everything is wrong! I internally screamed.

“It’s nothing. I think I’m feeling dizzy because of the quizzes today. But that aside, has anyone seen Glory?” I immediately changed the topic to escape my death flag called embarrassment.

“She was with Andrew. I think they went to get something at who knows where.” Jade answered.

“Glory and Andrew are together?!” Yujin reacted, a little alarmed. I’m not sure if he’s aiming for Glory or just jealous because another pal of his is walking the road to be in a relationship and he’s going to get left out. I believe it’s the latter. No doubt about that.

“Oh shush, Yujin. Why don’t you stop reacting to everything and just support the two?” Jade said firmly as she wears her bag. Yujin didn’t argue and proceed to pout in silence. We decided to leave the room and proceed to go home. As we left the school, the sky grew darker. We were at the crowded park, on our way to our destination, until raindrops fell onto my skin. I held out my palm, feeling the raindrop. What a sad weather today.

“Wait. Where are the people?” Jade suddenly spoke that made me instantly to look at my surroundings. Eh?... But aren’t there people here earlier?

My eyes wandered everywhere, looking for any signs of life other than the four of us until it settled at the sky above us, which cause to grow fear inside me. Ominous clouds swirled on top of us, wind blowing hard. I look towards Noctis. His expression were serious, I can see him clenching his fist. Even Yujin’s playful persona was gone. It was as if they know something that we don’t. Jade and I gaze at each other with both curiosity and fear in our eyes. We both understood that this isn’t just a mere typhoon. It’s definitely something.

The sky cried a thunder and lightning followed, striking the tree few feet away from us, which made both me and Jade scream in surprise and fear. Jade slumped on the ground with wide eyes, watching the burning tree. “JADE!” I immediately ran to her and hug her tightly. ‘She’s trembling so much’ I said mentally. “Jade, calm down”. I said, trying to reassure her. But her fear didn’t stop her from shaking. Dear God, please make this stop.

As if someone’s been watching over us and heard my prayers, the heavy rain stopped. The dark sky disappeared as if nothing happened. And the crowd were back, people gazing at us weirdly while we were hugging each other tightly while on the floor.

‘Huh’

My eyes snapped open to see the number of people gazing at us. I snapped to gaze at the tree. It was still there and perfectly fine.

What’s going on?

I gently shake Jade’s body. “Jade! Look” I whispered. She slowly lifted her head from my shoulder, and just how I reacted, her eyes widened by surprise. We quickly got up, fixing ourselves. ‘How are they here? They were all gone a moment ago. The tree was definitely struck by a lightning earlier too.’ We went away to avoid the eyes of the crowd until we realized we were forgetting something.

I halted. “Jade… Where are Noctis and Yujin?” I asked. Fear filled our chest once again. We quickly look around to find the two males who were with us earlier.

“YUJIN! NOCTIS?! Where are you?!”

We frantically went to look for them but there were no signs even their shadows. If they’re trying to prank us, I’m seriously going to kick their asses.

We went looking for them for a good thirty minutes but we failed to find them. Could it be that they disappeared along with the storm earlier?

“Pearl, let’s leave. They must be home or something.” Jade concluded. I sighed in defeat and decided to leave, following her from behind. Millions of questions flooded my mind. ‘What in the world happened back there? It’s too real to be a dream. But whatever it is, I am sure that won’t be the last of it. We need to look for Yujin and Noctis.’

We went back safely, decided to forget about what happened today. Little did we know, this was barely the beginning of everything that’s bound to happen in the future.