Roomate (5)

Stephen seemed to be completely immersed in what he was doing. Therefore, Arnold decided to simply take a shower first. However, as he did not have a bath towel, or in fact, any spare clothes, he had to ask Stephen for some.

Arnold walked over and stood behind Stephen, asking, "Um. Stephen, is it alright if I borrow a spare bath towel from you?"

Stephen simply waved at Arnold while continuing his studies, completely ignoring him afterwards. Arnold decided that the wave meant yes and went over to the wardrobe.

After David had piled up all the clothes within the wardrobe, it now looks much neater. The towels were evidently folded in a very meticulous way, located at the bottom drawer. Arnold simply took the towel at the very top and headed into the bathroom, closing the steel door behind him by pressing a button besides the door.

Since there were clothes hanging about within the bathroom, Arnold had to crouch down and crawl over to the other side before arriving at the bathtub. There was a showerhead that was hanging by the holder on the wall. As this was the first time Arnold had operated a shower or a bath, he had no idea what he was doing. After switching one of the faucets on, water sprayed from the faucet below the showerhead, clearly indicating that he had switched the wrong way.

Arnold switched the faucet to the other side. Finally, ice-cold water came out of the showerhead.

Arnold removed his clothes and stepped onto the bathtub. He took the showerhead and sprayed the ice cold water all over his naked body. However, after awhile, the water seemed to have turned quite hot, which caused Arnold some pain. He immediately tried to operate the other faucet to see if it can turn the heat of the water to a warmer temperature.

He noticed that one of the faucets had a red dot and a blue dot on the opposite sides of each other. There was an arrow that was currently pointing at the red dot. Arnold assumed that it meant that the shower is now operating on the hottest setting and turned the faucet towards the direction of the blue dot. After moving the arrow to the middle, the water finally turned warm after a while, giving Arnold a sigh of relief. However, his skin was already completely wet and was causing him quite some pain when the water sprayed against his body.

Of course, when he was young, Arnold had used a shower and a bath before. However, they were all either automatically adjusted or could be adjusted manually by simply speaking to the home's AI system. There was no need to operate the shower using such an archaic method. After reminiscing about his past, Arnold immediately snapped out of it and simply sprayed some of the water against his forehead, allowing him to calm down. He gave out a deep sigh as he stared at a single spot in the wall, unmoving.

Arnold "borrowed" some of Stephen's shampoo and shower gel and used it for his body. After finally cleaning himself up, his whole body seemed to be shining. Due to the fact that he had not taken a shower since he had gotten his new body, there were quite a bit of soot on his body, causing his body to darken in color. After wiping them off, he seemed much cleaner and fresher. His skin was smooth and white, gleaming against the mirror.

Since Arnold did not have any underwear, he simply went commando and wore his cadet uniform again. Although it might be slightly unsanitary, he didn't dare to ask Stephen for his spear underwear, as it would be too embarassing.

Arnold went and took the bucket that David used earlier in the afternoon to wash his underwear. He copied the motions that David did and diligently rubbed the fabric against each other. Afterwards, he hung it around the string that was hanging close to the ceiling, along with Stephen's clothes. Then, he headed back out towards the dorm room.

Without waiting for Stephen to speak to him, he simply laid on the mattress that was devoid of any bed sheets and slept. For the past few years, he never had the luxury of sleeping in a soft bed. He either slept on the ground with a thin sheet layered between his body and the earth, or he would be leaning against a tree. Either way, he did not get the chance to have such a good bed for a long time. Therefore, Arnold slept like a log the second he laid on his bed.

Stephen, who was supposedly doing his work, took a glance at the sleeping Arnold. He seemed quite curious about him, as he did not have a roomate for almost half a year now. The person before him had a personality that was the complete opposite of David. He doesn't like speaking too much, lacks the skills to socialize and looked quite serious most of the time. At first, Stephen thought that he was also someone who paid his way to get into the military academy, like his family did for him, but from the looks of it, it seemed unlikely since he literally carried nothing with him when he came here.

However, since Stephen did not really like to be a bother, he simply immersed himself with his own studies again and ignored his own curiosities about his new roomate.

**************

The next day, Arnold went to the canteen alone early in the morning. As Stephen was still asleep, probably due to studying throughout the night, Arnold did not even ask him if he wanted to have breakfast with him before leaving.

When Arnold arrived at the food court, he seemed to have gotten selection disorders due to the different varieties of food that were offered here. In the end, since he had no idea what to eat, he simply went to a counter in the middle and took 2 different flavored nutrition bars and a glass of water. All of these were free to be distributed, as nobody within the military academy likes to eat them. In fact, when Arnold took the nutrition bars and sat down at an empty table, he saw people giving him strange looks, as if they were seeing an exotic creature. Arnold frowned but did not say anything, simply minding his own business and eating his own nutrition bar. It was then that someone barged in.

"Hey, are you fine with just eating that? Aren't those nutrition bars disgusting?"

Arnold stared towards the sound of the voice. It was that of a teenage boy. The boy had a healthy complexion, with slightly pale skin due to staying in the subterranean level for too long and gave a light friendly smile. From his sharp cheekbones and his trimmed back hair, he looked like your typical neighborhood friend. The boy sat down next to Arnold with a tray of his own food.

Arnold felt slightly uncomfortable with someone suddenly barging into his personal space. However, he still replied, "I've gotten used to it."

That was an honest answer. Since Arnold could not afford any other food back then, he either had to get used to such food or simply die on the streets.

The boy gave Arnold a look of amusement and gave a light chuckle, "Well at least try something new from time to time."

The boy's tray contained a club sandwich as the main course, with miso soup on the side and a synthetically produced zero sugar carbonated drink on the other side. Without asking for permission, he took the nutrition bar that was currently on Arnold's hand and gave him half of his sandwich and smiled, "Try this. It's good!"

Arnold stared at the boy for a long time. Seeing his innocent smile, it seemed as though the boy in front of him did not have any ulterior motives. Therefore, he simply took a small bite in order to satisfy the boy.

After seeing Arnold take the bite, he immediately smiled, "Is it good?"

Arnold simply nodded without a change in expression. Although the boy was slightly disappointed with Arnold's lackluster reaction, he did not take it to mind and added, "My name is James, what's yours?"

"Troy." Arnold replied curtly.

"Ah! As in the Ancient Greek city where the titular Trojan War took place." James exclaimed.

Arnold was not well-versed in history so he simply nodded his head in agreement. While munching on the the nutrition bar that originally belonged to Arnold, he gave a slight look of disgust. However, he still diligently finished all the food before chugging down a whole load of his drink. He wiped his mouth with his arm and protested, "That nutrition bar tastes so bad! How did you even get used to that! Although my family had to eat nutrition bars sometimes in order to safe money, I usually ask for the tablets instead."

Arnold simply looked at him and did not say anything.