Chapter 64

The golden words embedded in my brain began caressing it and a feeling similar to when I first transmigrated to this world came.

I waited for the incoming unfamiliar yet familiar pain to begin its rampage.

Contrary to the expected, a weird sensitive feeling spread throughout the folds of my brain. A ticklish feeling invaded my senses and the strange feeling permeated throughout my skull.

Soon, I felt like I could call out the words imprinted on my brain at any moment: Talent without hard work is nothing; you become the greatest version of yourself when in humility.

At the mental recitation of the words, my brain once again received a heavy bang and the sensitive feeling became even stronger.

Like a thudding hammer, my brain felt waves and waves of sensitivity from the core area.

Ah, why do I suddenly have the feeling to curse like a sailor?

FUC- Stop.

Confusion?

???

Hello.

I'm Charlie Yang.

A primal instinct surged from inside me and I soon wanted to recite the words again.

Talent w—

Before I could continue reciting the quote, my brain received another shock greater than the former ones.

The sudden confusion, wanting to curse, and this innocent feeling…

I realized what was happening.

I was losing my mental age.

And for what?

I dunno.

It wouldn't make sense for the system to make me a mentally backward person.

I'll trust the process for now.

I still have cognitive thoughts, so I'm okay.

Again, the urge rose from the depths of my brain and I soon felt my resistance loosening.

A drunk feeling surged from inside me. The prefrontal cortex section in my brain controlling my decision-making loosened and my brain felt more open and flexible to any idea.

I'd always reviled and avoided alcoholic drinks to never lose my uprightness and control over situations; it seems my worry has been proven important.

With 15 points in intelligence and the great body, I'd never be like this; however, I think the system has used some otherworldly drug on me.

I'm astral right now dude.

What's that?

I saw the huge quote blaring in golden words.

"Talen—"

I received an even greater tremor and my head recoiled from the shock.

Bit—

No cursing, buddy.

Haha.

Hehe.

I wanna watch SpongeBob.

"Talent without hard work is noth—"

I almost began jumping up and dancing on the spot at being able to almost complete the first half of the quote.

My brain blanked out when I was about to voice the last word.

Interrupted, my entire body landed in a daze while my whole being paused.

Inside was a whole different story.

Similar to when I was transmigrated here, I felt my brain nerves being destroyed, re-created, and reconnected.

My entire brain was being rebuilt once again.

…

As quickly as the disruption came, it soon disappeared entirely. The void and cracks pulled themselves from inside to fit reality's shattered holes and cracks back together.

This all came from 'A Master's Disposition..?'

So weird.

[A Master's Disposition:

??? ??? ??? ??? ???

Secret System Feature]

The system's message traveled throughout my head.

Noticing its attempt to steer away from the topic, I exhaustedly complied and used my visual sense.

Why is everything black now?

The cracks that had been filling up to make up the training room where we were initially turned pure black with nothing else in sight.

Why?

Where?

…

POV: Natsumi

Charlie didn't come to class today.

Why?

Where is he?

My eyes peered around the cafeteria attempting to find his tall figure.

At the missing sight of him, my heart grew curious.

"Reed, where's Charlie?"

"Yeah, I'm wondering too. I thought you would know."

"Me?"

"Yeah, Charlie talks to you more than he talks to me now," he comically cried.

He complained at my silence,

"Ah, why are you not feeling sympathy for me? You stole my best friend."

"Huh? Since when is Charlie yours?"

"Wait, wait. Don't get so aggressive, sheesh. It was just a joke."

I kicked his leg. He's talking like he's hiding information from me.

"You're hiding something."

He scratched his head.

"I couldn't hide anything from Charlie and you're slowly becoming like him. When were you so perceptive?"

"Don't switch the subject."

"You found me out again." He shook like a doodle stick.

He sighed and turned serious.

"Charli—"

"CHARLIE WAS IN AN ACCIDENT?"

The boisterous cafeteria turned silent and stared at the culprits of the awkward silence.

Reed put his index to his mouth and motioned our numerous friends to come to the cafeteria table.

"Why'd you guys get to the cafeteria so late? Natsumi was asking about Charlie and I couldn't tell her because I was waiting for you guys to come too."

Annoyance tickled my heart.

"Why didn't you tell me to just wait?"

"Ah, she's getting angry again. Help me."

The 18 others that I've known since I was a little girl began teasing me.

"Someone get Charlie or else she'll tear the place down."

"I still remember when she was a quiet girl, now she's like a girl that's always hungry. Always mad."

"Except she's hungry for something else." Arlo hinted suggestively with a shit-eating grin.

I'll slap you.

"Shut up already," I barked with frustration. "What happened to Charlie now?"

The mood turned serious again.

"Yeah, what happened? Arlo, did you say Charlie got in an accident? How do you know?"

He looked at Reed,

"Charlotte told Amelia and Amelia told me."

I gripped my fists. I knew I should've gotten closer to Charlotte.

Does she not trust me yet? I knew she didn't trust me.

What if something horrible happened and I was totally clueless about it?

My stomach felt empty and cramped up.

"Oh, I actually knew because Charlotte told me."

Charlotte trusts him more than me?!

"I spam called his phone and Charlotte picked up and told me that Charlie was hospitalized."

Oh.

So it wasn't because she directly wanted to tell him.

Maybe I should start calling him too...

"Do you know in what hospital he is? We should go visit him after class or something."

"Yeah, it's relatively close. It's over in…"

…

"Sorry mom, I'll be back home a little later. I've got something to do."

["What's the situation?"]

"Charlie got hospitalized."

["Ah, really? Is he okay?"]

I tapped the back of my phone, annoyed.

"I don't know, we'll be visiting him now. Is that okay?"

["Yes, go ahead. You can stay however long you want to."]

Ah?

My previous annoyance dissipated.

Really?

"What's the situation, mom?"

["Stop acting so suspicious of your mother, go ahead and take care of your friend."]

"Okay… bye. Thank you."

["Have fun!!!!"]

She ended the call quickly

"Yeah, my mom said I can go."

"Wow, a miracle. She's let you go out twice this month."

She was originally against the idea of me going bowling but when I listed the people going, she immediately gave me permission.

"...Yea. A miracle."

We walked in a serious mood, for the first time in weeks unable to crack jokes.

In the beginning, everyone was joking around to calm their nerves; but now that we're going to see Charlie's situation no one dared to joke around.

He's respectful to everyone and pays attention to each individual carefully. He's unified and bonded the group with his careful maneuvering and reading of the situation.

Even Alex and Ronan who head-butted at every encounter of each other were now close friends due to Charlie's influence.

I sighed.

After walking some while, we finally reached the hospital in silence.

We entered the doors and the air immediately switched to a stricter and serious atmosphere.

I felt my hair being pulled and noticed Catherine stroking my hair.

Elle was hugging my arm and Lizbeth was holding my hand.

Tori, Macy, Juniper, Lia, Callie, and Irene formed a protective circle around us.

Have they been like this the entire walk?

I didn't even notice…

Owen spoke up for us,

"Hello, we're here to see patient Charlie Yang."

…

[Timeskip: 20 years]

I'm still waiting for you to wake up…

[Author Note: LOL IM KIDDING]

…

"How long has he been here, Reed?"

"It was on Saturday when Charlotte told me."

"Hah, imagine if he woke up right as we walked in."

"Charlie the sleeping beauty and the many princes and princesses."

It was the first joke cracked and our first giggle in hours.

"Who ends up kissing him though?"

"Every one of us."

We laughed discreetly.

We walked up the stairs as we were too many to enter one elevator.

"You saved yourself from vomiting, Reed."

"Shut up."

…

"Hey, his hair's kind of soft."

"Elijah, you're violating Charlie."

Pfft—

I looked at Charlie's face unconsciously inhaling and exhaling softly.

He's cute even when he's sleeping.

I don't have to be scared of him staring back at me right now. For some reason, he feels any single stare directed towards him and I am unable to look at him for a long time without him staring back.

His eyelashes softly fluttered.

Irene whispered into my ear teasingly, "You're drooling."

I frowned and wiped at my mouth checking for saliva,

"I'm not."

"Why'd you need to check then?"

I pouted at her.

Lizbeth hugged me from behind,

"Hey hey, are you going to make him chicken soup and personally feed him when he wakes up?"

I stared at her with a dead-pan look.

"Yes."

The girls fell out of balance and covered their shock-giggles at my straightforwardness.

Suddenly, the guys turned quiet. Their quiet whispering turned to nothing.

"Uh, I think Charlie's waking up."

We stood still frozen in our places.

"So who's going to be kissing Charlie the Sleeping Beauty?"

There was no need to kiss him as his eyes opened fully and stared blankly at the ceiling.

No one dared to say anything.

He looked around the room and sat up on the bed.

For some reason, I felt even more widely attracted to him. Not on a physical level, but more of a mental and unconscious state.

He stared at the wall interestedly after moving his gaze towards us.

His gaze landed first on my eyes.

My heart throbbed recklessly as his eyes deeply ran through and analyzed my appearance.

"Natsumi."

Why is everything about him more charming today? It's like he's turned off a switch restricting himself.

His voice, more magnetic than what I remember it to be called my name out.

My heart got even more excited and began beating quicker in a disorderly fashion.

"Ch...arlie."

Stupid stupid stupid. Why'd you almost stutter? Idiot.

His gaze lingered on me and finally moved to the rest.

One by one he named everyone in the room.

"Alex."

"Ronan."

"Tori."

…

Why does he look so disconnected from us? Has he lost some relative memories?

At least he's able to recognize us individually…

My mind drifted off to a famous rom-com. This is exactly like the plot of that one show. The boy loses his memory but recognizes people and the girl ends up taking care of him and—

I squealed internally and shook my head at the invasive thoughts.

"Hello." Charlie finished listing out everybody and greeted us with a gummy smile.

Everyone glanced at each other in confusion.

Why is he still speaking as if he's disconnected from us? Is this what other people in the school feel? His uncontrollable presence invading your senses constantly.

"Charlie do you recognize us?"

His attractive smile became overjoyed.

"Yes. My friends."

"Best friends?"

He childishly looked up at the ceiling and innocently put his finger on his chin.

After some thought, he said "Maybe," and smiled mischievously.

Is… is he a kid? Did he experience a setback in mental age?

My heart panicked a little.

This is exactly like the plot.

I brought my hand over to my heart and calmed myself down.

...