Act III. Part II.

"Excuse me?" Mila asked while standing, unfazed by Ryu's outburst.

Ryu took a long, silent, and awkward look at her. What made the situation even worse was how the entire class was eagerly waiting for what Ryu had to say next.

Her hair was let down, a lot like Mila's, and she seemed to have a lighter complexion compared to the girl from the bakery. She spoke in a primmer and more proper way. The only thing they had in common was the red hair. Even after noticing all this he still felt they were similar… Is what he thought to himself.

"I thought you were someone else, silly me," Ryu said in disbelief as he took his seat. "Could someone lend me a pencil?" He asked as he looked around the class.

"Well," Laveda said as he clapped his hands. "Now that we're all here, shall we start the history period. Before the Isochron was formed, there was a totalitarian form…" Mr. Laveda spoke to the class but his words fell on deaf ears, the class' attention was entirely fixed on the new student.

"So, your name is Mila?" Toshiko asked the new girl.

"Yes, my father picked the name. He wanted all of his children's names to have 'intrinsic value'. Thus, he always chose very deep names- in other words, unpopular ones." She laughed.

Sending everyone around her into a burst of laughter after seeing her magnetic smile.

"That's very funny, especially seeing how we also have a Mila in this class." Said Toshiko as he looked in the direction of Mila who sat across from him. "So how should we address you, your majesty?"

"I did not know that. To prevent any tedious misunderstandings why don't you all call me by my middle name seeing as how she has seniority." She said with a shy smile.

"That sounds perfect, Elin," Toshiko replied with a charming smile. "With you being royalty, you're surprisingly easy to talk to."

She responded with a smile and a nod and turned to focus on Laveda's lesson. Toshiko felt challenged, to him the challenge was to keep Elin's attention. Almost pathological really. Ryu was face down on his desk, fast asleep when Toshiko turned to face his direction.

"And that there is our boy wonder, Ryu, I'll never say this in front of him, but he's a good guy." He said to Elin.

"I see." She said while still focused on Laveda.

Toshiko fidgeted in his seat as he racked his brain. He wriggled his left foot and rapidly tapped on his desktop. Suddenly, he stopped doing all that, and turned his chair to face Elin, set his elbow on the desk, and leaned in to rest his head on his palm. Reverting to his normal cool and level-headed demeanor.

"And why did he think he knew you? From a bakery no less." He asked.

She contemplated on whether she should indulge his curiosity. She quietly laughed to herself and turned to face Toshiko,

"All things considered, my face is everywhere so I understand why seeing me would give him some sense of... nostalgia. "She said with a smile, as she tilted her head meeting his eyes.

"That actually makes sense," Toshiko said as he continuously nodded his head, left stunned by her gaze.

After what felt like a few seconds the first period had ended. As soon as Laveda left the class, everyone else knew that was the queue to leave for their next lesson.

Toshiko grabbed his bag which he always left on the back of his chair, and started to walk out of the room. After taking just a few steps he stopped to look back.

"Talking to you really helped pass the time, it felt like we were only in class for seconds" He laughed. "You coming?" He asked Elin, who was still seated.

"Why yes of course jus—" Before any other words left her mouth, she paused, and made a face of realization, "Oh you know what, I just remembered I'm supposed to go to the administration office. Immediately after the first period."

"Do you need me to esc—"

"No!" She answered quickly, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Sorry, no. Don't want to keep you from class." She said with a smile.

"Okay... Oh, and wake up that guy before you leave. He on the other hand doesn't seem to be bothered by the thought of missing class" Toshiko playfully said as he walked out of the class with his bag worn over one shoulder.

Toshiko left the class and walked past the windows until he disappeared from any place he could be seen from the class. Elin, finally alone, unhurriedly crept up to Ryu's desk. She stood over him with a smile and waited expectantly.

But after realizing that Ryu wasn't going to wake up, she felt irritated that even while she stood so close to him, nothing happened.

She slightly bent over him, causing her hair to drop and cover Ryu, who somehow still didn't wake up. Elin grew more irritated, she gently pushed back her hair that covered Ryu's face and continued to go down further until she met Ryu's ear.

"Peek-a-boo." She said slowly, sounding out each letter.

Ryu woke up and fell to the floor on his chair, he sprung to his feet, hyperventilating and confused as he looked at Elin.

"I'm sorry did I hurt you, princess?" He asked, with a concerned expression. "I didn't mean to hurt you, I don't know what happened, I felt something-"

"Relax with the formalities Ryu." She said with a breathy chuckle.

Ryu looked at her completely lost, after all, why would the princess of all people talk to him like this. He was at a complete loss of words and just stood there looking at her. Convinced he had done something wrong.

"It's me, Ryu! Plus, Toshiko is exactly how you described him" She said and laughed even harder.

"Ba- Bakery girl?" He asked with a puzzled expression as he scratched his left shoulder.

"Took you long enough." She said as her cheeks flushed, and quickly smirked to hide the fact that she blushed.

"How are you a princess? And your name is Mila? Why do you like these types of jokes? Also, did I sleep through the first period?" He asked as he turned his attention to the class behind Elin, which was of course, empty."We need to run now."

"We can miss this period, don't you think?"

Ryu grabbed her arm and the two started running through the school corridors until they reached the door to the chemistry lab, completely winded.

The two were seated on stools that were next to each other in the laboratory, and it was as if she wasn't the same person he knew. She looked completely composed, and truly like a princess. He stared at her without breaking concentration, utterly mesmerized by her.

[snap]

Toshiko snapped his fingers by Ryu's ear, catching him off guard and breaking the trance-like state he was in. It caused his ears to ring and he scrunched up his face in slight discomfort. Toshiko sat close to the two but Ryu didn't even pay any attention to anything around him but Elin. Toshiko moved close to Ryu so that he could hear him whispering.

"I've said your name like four times already, the period's over. Mila said she had something she seriously needed to talk to us about." He whispered with a stern expression. "Maybe she's mad that you've cozied up to the princess." He jokingly said as he moved away from Ryu.

Ryu stood up from his seat but before he could leave Elin called out his name,

"Ryu, your neck, it's bleeding." She said, with a shocked expression as she held her hands to her face with praying hands.

He stretched out his arm and reached underneath his blazer to touch his back. The moment he made contact with his back, he slowly raised his hand until he reached his neck. He felt this cold sensation as if he had just touched ice. The higher he went the stronger the sensation became. He pulled back his hand and brought it to his face, and what was on his fingers was blood but it started to disappear, almost like his fingertips absorbed it.

"What? What happened? Where did the blood go?" Elin asked Ryu with a puzzled expression.

"I'll be back. Uhh, just give me thirty minutes. I'll try and explain." He said before he ran out of the lab.

The three met in their now-empty class. Mila stood at the front of the class while Toshiko and Ryu sat in the front.

"Have you guys noticed anything… weird about today?" She asked the two.

They looked as if they fell into deep thought, and began stroking their chins, but after just a few seconds they shook their heads simultaneously.

"You're useless. You don't find how fast you guys came here strange? Or how fast the day's going, we've literally been in class for five minutes but we've gone through four hours' worth of class?!"

"Now that you mention it, every time we leave a room, we immediately find ourselves in the next, like a transition."

"We go to Laveda at the end of the day. He said he doesn't want us talking to him during school hours.

I don't want any more terrible things happening to us so please, let's stick together." She pleaded sincerely, with a warm and caring expression. "Ryu this is no time to be sleeping!" She shouted as she looked at Ryu slowly dozing off.

"I don't think he's trying to sleep," Toshiko said as he jumped out of his seat and rushed over to Ryu.

Mila was confused but soon realized what Toshiko meant and also ran towards Ryu. They began violently shaking him as his eyes slowly closed.

"Ryu! Ryu! Ryu! Ryu!" They both shouted but to no avail.

"He..." Ryu whispered as his vision faded to black.

[Black]

end