"Why, you don't like it?"
Damien didn't want to be passive when he was already far away from supervision, plus he was already getting tired of being teased by Nathen all the time.
"No, not at all. I love it, please continue. I love being the center of everyone's attention." Nathen chuckled at Damien's attempts at turning the tables around.
If it was so easy to get an upper hand in a conversation with him, then he wouldn't have been able to become so popular, nor would it have been possible for him to remain that way.
As for Damien, he opened his mouth before closing it again to show just how flabbergasted he was.
Why did it seem like he was never going to win with how eloquent this man was?
'Just who says that kind of stuff with a straight face?'
Seeing Damien at a loss Nathen smiled and continued. "I've asked them multiple times to change it to something else, but it caught on. It's because my last name is Wei [1], so they thought that calling me Almighty was appropriate."
"Well do you live up to your name?" Damien sat down on his newly done bed.
"I don't know. You tell me."
Nathen went back to his side of the room and sat down legs crossed facing Damien
"Well, if you don't know, how should I? I've just met you."
Damien had actually already formulated some reasons in his mind, but none of which he was willing to say out loud.
"I see."
"Then I guess I'm nothing much at first glance. My personality must be amazing if people are calling me Almighty based on just that." Nathen gave him an exaggerated sigh, clearly joking, or maybe not really.
"Tell me when you figure it out." He added.
Damien didn't know what to say.
On one hand, this guy had just complimented his own personality and on the other, he was insinuating that he also had great looks, which he did, but that was beside the point.
How could someone just become like this?
"Well, you live up to something alright." Damien rolled his eyes.
"That's great!" Nathen clasped his own cheeks exaggeratedly.
He knew that Damien was in fact speaking of his 'ego', but he wasn't going to admit to it until he said it out loud.
"Can I ask you something else?" Damien looked Nathen in the eye and asked in a tone so serious, one might think that he was announcing that he had a terminal illness.
"What's up with your desk?" Nathen looked at his own desk, only to be met with piles of clothes that were trying to hide the textbooks underneath.
"Oh, that..." Nathen's voice trailed off as if he had thought of something unpleasant.
"My uniforms are just having a college party."
"Let's forget about those, I don't want to be reminded of them right now. Have you had lunch? Want to go grab something?" Nathen was dismissive about the clothes, but the food, now that couldn't be forgotten.
Damien was still confused, even if you get one uniform every quarter or semester for two years, which you probably didn't, that still wouldn't amount to the clothes that were piled up, but his rumbling stomach told him to stop thinking about it already.
"Yeah, I'm going to grab some food."
"Then I'll come with." Damien appreciated Nathen's choice of words. It was obvious that Nathen was going to be the one leading, but on the other hand, they were going together, so it didn't really matter.
And so, the two made their way to the university canteen.
***
Damien and Nathen made their way to the cafeteria, which was a fifteen-minute walk from the third housing building.
The entrance required you to scan your student ID.
In the lunch lines, students could grab whatever they liked, and then at the end of the line, one of the lunch ladies would add up the total, which would be paid with the school credits that were already allocated in your student card.
If you ate more, then you would have to go exchange for more lunch credits with money.
Nathen grabbed everything that he found appetizing, which ended up filling his tray to the brim.
The desserts were wrapped in plastic wrap, and so Nathen just stacked them one on top of the other.
"Hey, I grabbed your dessert, so you don't have to get more," Nathen informed Damien, who was reaching his hand out to grab his own food.
His eyes widened when he saw the sheer amount of food on Nathen's tray.
Just how many credits would he have to spend to eat like this?
The money wasn't necessarily the problem, it was just a little incredulous was all.
"There's no need. You look like you would exhaust all your lunch credits within the month." Nathen had already explained the concept of the credits on his way here since he knew the second years would most likely just let these freshmen figure it out themselves.
They weren't exactly the helpful type per se, but it wasn't just them, everyone was somewhat like that.
They liked to make it sound fancy too, saying that all freshmen had to go through a hazing period and that now that they were alone in the world, they had to learn to live as independent persons.
It wasn't wrong per se, but it was a seriously poor excuse for their laziness in retrospect.
"Are you worrying about me?" Nathen chuckled, giving Damien a sideways glance.
"Don't worry about it. Credits aren't an issue," he clarified.
"Well, that's not exactly what I was worried about."
'How does he even keep his figure?'
Damien was immersed in his thoughts, and so he was startled when Nathen suddenly pulled him over.
"One thing you should note in order to survive. These people also want their lunch, so don't keep up the line. Some might just eat you up alive." Nathen said in a very serious tone.
Damien looked at the people who were in line behind him. The ones closer to the back were on their phones, while the ones who were about to get to the food were staring at him.
'Noted,' he inwardly reminded himself, just as seriously.
When they reached the check-out both of them passed their student IDs, Damien noticed that Nathen's was different from his own.
At first, he thought that it was just because he was a third-year, but as he walked past some other people who still had their student IDs out, he realized that that wasn't the case.
Nathen's student ID was a little different, it had a red bar above the barcode.
Unlike anyone else.
After the two found an empty table to sit down on Damien asked Nathen about this.
"Oh, you noticed. Now, do you see how special I am?" Damien couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"I'm just messing with you. My card is different because I get unlimited credit for my food."
Damien's eyes widened.
He had never heard of such a thing before.
Damien wasn't sure if this was an insider's secret or if it was just for Nathen. Which would be even more absurd.
Even if it was just an insider's secret, it still went to show that Nathen had some serious connections. If not, he wouldn't be able to get this privilege.
Nathen watched Damien's reaction and knew exactly what he was thinking. He could almost see this freshman's gears churning in his mind.
'What was the point of this, I thought that everyone was rich here... does this young master really care about these couple of dollars?'
"No, it's not a secret. It's just newly implemented. It just started this semester, still in its testing phases." Nathen stuffed some chocolate mousse in his mouth as he spoke, cutting off on the unnecessary words, leaving them unsaid.
"Oh, how did you end up getting one?"
"Because I'm the one who proposed it. I think it should be only right that I get one. No? I mean it does save me on those extra costs."
"WHAT?" Damien's eyes widened and he did his best to keep his mouth shut so that he didn't somehow spit his food all over the guy in front of him.
It was a close call...