Project: Socialize

With a tired sigh, I slumped over my desk and pressed my face against the cold surface. Due to the fact that it was August, the temperature outside was quite high, in the nineties, and I, having just arrived to class after walking from the station to here, was suffering from my perspiration humidifying my body underneath my school uniform, which consisted of a white button up shirt and black slacks. In order to air myself out, I unbuttoned the top four buttons on my shirt and felt the cool air within the air conditioned classroom.

"Ahh." The cool air was able to alleviate the heat and provide me with a relaxing and comfortable atmosphere.

Because class begins in three minutes, many students had entered the classroom, waiting for the day to begin. While they waited, they chatted with each other; their discussions mostly centered around gossip, after school plans, and television. So basically high school stuff.

"Can you not act so incompetent?" Muria sat down in her desk next to mine. "It's going to affect other students."

"Oh." I yawned, lifted my head off the desk, and leaned back against my chair. I've given up responding to her. I lack the energy to do so...Especially after what I had to go through last night.

"You seem tired," Muria mockingly. "Stayed up too late?"

"Yeah," I yawned and rested my head on my left hand, trying my best to stay upright.

"I don't think it's because you were studying."

"You got that right."

My voice reflected my fatigue and my posture demonstrated my drowsiness. Last night, I wasn't able to fall asleep until 3:00 AM. And since I had to get up at 7:30 AM to prepare for school, I only got like 4 hours and thirty minutes of sleep. This is all that stupid APP's fault.

Class began when the bell rang, signifying the start of a long day of school. The teacher entered the room through the sliding door and took role. From there began the long boring lessons on math.

That whole lesson, I wasn't able to take in much information. I was to busy fighting off my drowsiness to care about what formulas and theorems were used. In fact, I might've dozed off for a bit during the lesson, but it wasn't to the point that it would invigorate me. Rather, it gave me a sample of the comforts of sleep and made me yearn for it even more.

Maybe during lunch break I should take a quick nap...

Once the first three periods were over and it was one more hour until lunch, I sat in my seat during the ten minute break period. Other students mobilized and moved over to stand by their friends, chatting it up and causing a loud noise to exist in the class and made it impossible for me to doze off. So, bored and with nothing to do, I took out my phone and clicked on the Socialization APP.

There's an option to convert SP to money, and it would appear that 1 SP is equal to 100 Vil, the currency we use in Vilheim. 100 Vil which doesn't seem much, but is a considerable amount of money. For example, commute train tickets are about 10 Vil, so 100 Vil is a decent amount for a high school student. Another example is that the Big Wac, a signature hamburger at the famous fast food chain WcBonalds is about 50 Vil.

In addition to redeeming it for money, items and abilities are also a choice. I clicked on the items section and browsed it, reading the descriptions and prices of each.

--

Cupids Arrow

Price: 1000 SP

Make that special someone fall for you.

--

"What the hell type of items are these?" I looked on in doubt that any of these would work.

Then, I browsed the abilities section, which is similar to the abilities menu in a video game. I could use SP to unlock certain skills and upgrade these skills by spending SP.

--

Math

Unlock Price: 50 SP

The numbers will no longer trouble you again.

--

How the hell is this suppose to work? I just click unlock and I automatically become good at math? Sounds absurd and it kinda is... But...if it's The True God, then I don't know. Besides, I don't even know if he is lying or not about these prizes.

I locked my phone and sighed at the fact that I can't afford any of these prizes other than converting SP to Vil.

I shouldn't just spend all of my SP. What if there comes an assignment that I can't complete? I don't want my SP balance to be negative. I should save them up.

Suddenly, a notification popped up on my phone, and of course, it is that Socialization APP once again. I sighed once again, and read the mission that is assigned to me.

"What is it this time?" I prayed in desperation.

--

Current Objective:

Hold Muria's hand for at least a minute.

Time Limit: 2 hr

Reward: 10 SP

--

You've gotta be kidding me...

My hands trembled in frustration as I read the objective to myself in my mind.

"You've gotta be fucking with me right now!"

Frustration made it so that I cried out to release the built up stress within me. However, this led to a weird gaze from my classmates that is directed at me to appear. I quickly noticed the situation and slumped lower down into my seat in order to eliminate my presence as much as possible so as to stop those piercing eyes from penetrating my soul.

"Should I do this?" I whispered to myself. "It's only 5 SP so I can take the cut. But...it's not as absurd of a mission as the one last night and who knows when I would need SP...I should at least try."

I looked over at the desk next to me and discovered that it was empty. I surveyed the classroom in search of Muria, but it would appear that she's not in class at the moment. Each second ticked by that she wasn't present made me more and more anxious since the countdown on my phone never stopped and continued to run.

Break ended when Muria stepped into the classroom, thus taking away my chances. I'll have to wait until lunch break to complete my task. That is my last chance within this time limit. Well...there goes my plans for a nap...

Lunch break finally came as the bell rang and notified all students of the end of the fourth period. People immediately got up from their seats, some moving closer to their friends in order to eat together, and others rushing to the student store to buy some food.

I've packed my own lunch so I wasn't part of the group that rushed to the student store, and I also don't have any friends that I would eat lunch with so I stayed put in my seat. Instead of eating my lunch, I stared at Muria, who unpacked her lunch on her desk.

The portions are quite small. Is she on a diet? She doesn't look overweight... Or is it that she naturally doesn't eat a lot? That's none of my business right now. My objective is to hold her hand for a minute. But how should I do this?

"Muria," I nonchalantly called her name, evoking the response of her looking over at me. "I've forgot to say this since the beginning of the school year, but," I reached out my hand to her, "nice to meet you."

Muria looked into my eyes and then down at my outreached hand and back up at me. "I don't think this talk is necessary," she said, ignoring my hand and looking away from me and back at her food. "Because we're not even that close. We're merely acquaintances or something below that."

"I knew it."

I sighed and lowered my head in defeat. I took out my phone from my pocket and checked the remaining time I have until the time is up.

About forty minutes... I think I should just give up...But then the five SP plus I don't wanna get punished.

I took out an aluminum can from my backpack and popped the tab. I brought the carbonated energy drink to my mouth and took a series of large gulps, feeling the burn and sting of the drink as it ran past my throat and down my esophagus. Afterwards, I set it down on the my desk.

I eyed Muria with an annoyed look in my eyes. This annoyance isn't directed at her, but at the difficulty of the task at hand.

"Where do I put this vase?" a female student asked in the background. "It's very heavy."

"Hold on," another girl said. "Let me clear a spot on this cabinet here."

Shut up! I'm thinking! What is the best way to hold her hand for a whole minute? I could always do so by force, but then I'll have to say goodbye to my daily life as I get charged with sexual assault. I could ask her, but she'll always say no. She's just not the type to hold hands with someone. In fact, she doesn't even like making physical contact with others. What should I do?

I maintained my gaze on her, causing her to occasionally glance over at me to check what I was up to. She appeared somewhat uncomfortable, but her level of unease isn't comparable to mine. My anxiety worsened as the timer slowly headed towards zero, and I still made no progress.

Please give me guidance, The True One and Only God. Don't abandon me!

My phone suddenly buzzed as I received a message from The True God.

It's called DIY. Do It Yourself.

I knew I couldn't count on this guy to help. He's useless.

The hell did you just say? I received another text from him.

I said your useless, I typed back at him.

"Can you stop staring at me." Muria's voice snapped me out of the brief conflict I had with God. "It's kind of disgusting."

"Set it down here," the female student in the background said to the other girl that was holding a large vase.

My attention was attracted to the two girls, one of which was carrying a glass vase that was filled with water while also containing some flowers of different colors. The one not carrying the vase patted the top of a cabinet at the back of the classroom, and she gestured for the other girl to place the vase there. However, the spot she wanted the vase to go was quite high and required the girl to lift it up even more. The girl carrying the vase attempted to do so, but her hands slipped and the glass vase came crashing down towards the ground and shattered.

Shards of glass flew everywhere. From my point of view looking down towards the ground, I saw a brief flash, possibly a shard of glass reflecting the sunlight into my eyes. I didn't give it much thought, but when I realized that this shard of glass is heading straight for the exposed legs of Muria, my body started moving on its own. I leaned forward from my seat with my left hand reached outwards, hoping to catch the shard with it. I was able to succeed, but the end result was that I now had a large cut on my left palm.

"Look at what you've done." The girl that was standing by the vase girl and directing the traffic scolded her.

"It's not my fault you filled it up with so much water," the vase girl replied, both raising their voices.

"It's no use arguing right now," one girl sighed. "We better clean this up before break ends and the teacher gets mad at us."

"Yeah..."

The two then left the classroom in search for a broom, dustpan, and a mop to clean up the mess that they created.

"That was close."

I let out a sigh of relief as I returned to an upright position. I then took a look at my left palm and was genuinely shocked at how much blood was coming out. The cut was deep and blood was rolling down my wrists.

"T-thank you," Muria whispered, blushing a little.

"Don't worry about it."

I stared at the cut, accepting my defeat and my bad luck. The time for the mission is probably coming to an end, so that's 5 SP that I'll lose and a punishment that I'll have to endure. And I got this stupid cut...What a bad day.

"Here," Muria got up from her chair and walked over to me. She took my injured hand into hers and began inspecting it.

"What're you doing?" I asked, but she didn't respond.

She took out a white handkerchief from her bag and gently wiped my wounds while holding up my injured hand with hers. She then proceeded to tie the handkerchief around it in order to stop the bleeding.

"You'll have to go to the Health Office to get it cleaned out thoroughly," she said with a guilty look on her face. "But the bleeding should stop now."

"Thanks," I stared at her blushing face. This is a side of Muria that I've never saw before. She's so gentle, and her hands...their cold to touch but it was softer than I expected. "I think I'm gonna go to the Health Office now."

I got up from my seat and quickly walked out. My heartbeat was accelerating as I remembered the softness of her hands and that apologetic look of her face that was also laced with a hint of guilt and embarrassment.

She's not as bad of a person as I've thought.

Once at the Health Office, I showed the school nurse my wound and she began tending to it.

"You're lucky someone helped bandage up the cut," the nurse said to me. "Or else you might've lost lots of blood before you even got here."

The nurse wrapped my left hand in the white medical bandage in order to stop any further bleeding.

"You're all set," the nurse said, telling me to return to class. "Just don't get it wet."

"Thank you."

I exited the Health Office and I was surprised by the sudden notification from my phone. Expecting a notification regarding my punishment, I unlocked it and began reading the text.

Congratulations! You've completed your assignment on time.

The reward of 5 SP has been added to your account.

Your SP balance is: 30 SP

"Oh..."

I suddenly recalled how Muria had held onto my hand when she bandaged it.