Project: Socialize

Ever have that one time when the teacher asked to see you after school? Well, that is the situation I'm in currently. That is the reason why I'm walking down the hallway of the first floor of the lecture building towards the faculty office.

Since it is after school, many students streamed out of their classrooms with their own destinations in mind. Some heading to their club or sport meetings, others leaving with their friends to hang out, or some students headed home. I avoided the center of the hallway in order to save myself the hassle of squeezing through the crowd and walked by the windows that looked into the courtyard.

An intersection soon greeted me. If I turn left, I will be at the front entrance of the school and I could head home. That is the direction I want to head, but the task at hand required that I proceed on straight.

I let out a fatigued sigh as I glanced over in jealousy at the students who were leaving school. I want to leave just like them, and if I do leave, I might be able to display a dazzling smile of joy as well. But, I cannot. And it's not like I'll ever let out a dazzling smile. That's just impossible. It's hard enough for me to smile wholeheartedly already, so don't force me to.

I finally arrived before the door to the faculty office, knocking on it gently before sliding the door open and entering. Inside the faculty office, which is a large rectangular shaped room that is of a different furnishing than the classrooms, were office tables packed in the center of the room in an arrangement that allowed for the most efficient use of space while retaining a respectable degree of personal space and work area. Not all the teachers were present in the room but the one that called me in is.

I immediately located her in the faculty office, sitting in her office chair and grading papers on her desk. Her long black hair streamed over the backrest of her chair and her crystal clear green eyes were focused on the papers before her. Her posture is perfect, with her back straight and head away from her desk. She used her left hand to hold the paper that she's grading down on the desk, and in her right hand she wielded the almighty red pen that could decide one's fate.

I didn't immediately announce my arrival as I approached her desk and stood behind her chair. She just seem so engrossed with her work that I didn't want to disturb her.

I winced as I witnessed the red pen left its mark all over my paper. She circled my grammatical errors, and straight up crossed out certain sections of my writing and wrote comments on the side. From how tense her wrist is, I could tell that I had messed up badly. Therefore, to prevent myself from further destroying her mood, I decided that it is time that I speak up.

"You asked for me, Ms. Edel?"

Slowly, the woman before me turned around in her chair and made eye contact with me with her beautiful green eyes. She bears a heavy resemblance to Muria, and there's a good reason for that. Mura Edel, not only is she my literature teacher, homeroom teacher, and guidance councilor, she's also Muria's older sister.

"Alevian," she sighed, making me to start fearing for what I've done. "What is this essay?" She held the essay up to me whilst crossing her legs, and just as I had seen, it is almost entirely communist with the amount of red on the paper. "The prompt should be relatively simple, and there should be no wrong answer to it."

"I ugh," I broke eye contact and looked away, "I wanted to put my own twist to it." Beads of sweat started forming on my forehead as my heart rate increased due to my lies.

"Okay," Mura crossed her arms and leaned back against her chair. "So saying you want to become the Demon King is your own personal twist."

"Yeah," I responded immediately, trying to make it seem like I was serious about the work so as to avoid being scolded for not trying. "The Demon King is cool. Plus he's a responsible adult. He has to manage a whole race by himself and he has to do that while fighting humanity. He's someone everybody should strive to be like."

To be honest, even I can barely keep a straight face with my bs story.

After hearing my explanation, Mura brought her body to her desk, rested her head against her left hand, and sighed. Her green eyes appeared fatigued and her face appeared quite troubled.

"...Sorry," I quietly apologized.

"It's not your fault," Mura responded without looking over at me. "It's my fault. I'm responsible for correcting your attitude."

"I don't see anything major that's wrong with my attitude," I jokingly said, in hopes that it'll alleviate the situation.

"That's a problem right there," she looked over at me. "Unwilling to admit the problem at hand."

"...I'll work on fixing it."

Even after my apology, Mura stared at me. She gazed into my dead, rotten gutter black eyes with her emerald eyes. Her gaze made me somewhat embarrassed, causing me to uncomfortably shift my legs from beneath me and my vision to wander around the room.

"Hey," she started speaking. This time, it isn't the voice of Mura the teacher. It's softer and more gentle, almost as if the comforting breeze that blows by in spring. "You were out with Muria last Saturday, weren't you?"

How did she know? My eyes immediately focused on her in caution.

"I'm sorry." I immediately lowered my head and apologized. "This will never happen again. I won't risk your dear sister's reputation again. I take full responsibility for this incident so please only punish me."

"So you're responsible for it," her voice sudden became stern and serious.

"Right..."

Why did I take full responsibility? It's Muria that forced me out that day... Whatever, this is the least I can do for her. I can at least protect her future. That is right. If someone between Muria and I needs to fall into the abyss, then let it be me. Wow, that sounded kind of cool.

"So...what will my punishment be?"

I frightfully peeked up at Mura's face. However, I was shocked when I discovered a beautiful smile on her face as she laughed. I'm immediately awestruck by the beauty, of her angelic grace. Since she's Muria's older sister, she too is also a beautiful woman. However, her beauty differs from Muria's by hers being a more mature beauty while Muria's is more of an innocent breeze.

"Ms. Edel?" I tentatively asked.

"I'm just asking," she chuckled. "And why would I punish you for it?" She tilted her head slightly as she looked at me with a joyful gaze in her emerald eyes.

"Why? Because I ugh...tainted your sister by being around her?"

"Don't talk down on yourself like that," Mura displayed to me a carrying smile. "You're not that bad."

"So I'm still pretty bad, just not that bad."

"No no no, you're mistaken." Her gentle smile seems to seek to eradicate all sources of my self-doubt. "I'm just glad that you're becoming more and more outgoing."

"Huh?"

"Before you would never even accept the invitation in the first place, right?"

"That's true, but ugh...I don't seem to have a choice," my voice lost all of its power as I realized how Mura looked at me with those big, emerald eyes of hers with joy and hope beaming at me.

"Thank you," she suddenly said, eyes and facial expression becoming more relaxed.

"What for?"

"For agreeing to that invitation by Muria," Mura responded. "I haven't seen her like that in quite some time."

"Hugh?"

"Muria seemed so happy that night when she got home carrying those two plushies in her arms."

"Oh that?" I recalled the two plushies that the two of us were given after finishing the movie.

"She doesn't have many close friends that she could spend time with like that," Mura continued. "So I would like to thank you for spending time with her."

"She...doesn't have many close friends?"

I'm confused by Mura's comment. In my memory, Muria is always kind and polite to others, which resulted in her popularity at our school. Almost everyone knows who she is so she shouldn't have any worries about finding friends. But her not having many close friends? Well, I guess that can also be attributed to that attitude of hers. That politeness to others creates a formidable wall called distance. This wall is almost impossible to scale due to its height so many give up even climbing over it.

"Yeah." Mura leaned back against her chair and looked up into the air with a gentle look on her face. "She's kinda like you."

"Me? That's impossible. She gets good grades, good at sports, and is polite to others, making her very likable. Me, I'm mediocre in my studies, almost nonexistent in sports, and ignored by others. How're we the same?"

"You might not be able to see it," Mura looked at me with those crystal clear emerald eyes of hers almost as if she saw through every single layer of my facade and stared at my soul itself. "The two of you are very similar. She hides behind the great ice wall, and you hide within the darkness of the abyss."

"I don't know what you're saying," I said. "Darkness of an abyss? It might be rude for me to say this but Ms. Edel, you might have to scale back on the amount of TV you watch."

Mura chuckled, her soft laughter almost as if a heavenly melody to my ears. "Well, today, the main reason I asked you to come here is to ask you this." Her laughter ceased and she looked up at me, locking my gaze into those emerald irises of hers. "Wanna head out for some food?"

"What?" I;m caught off guard by her sudden proposal.

"Do you want to or not? If not, I just might have to look at your essay one more time and see if I missed any problems."

"I'll go!" I immediately said, taking a step forward towards her with my hands out, almost as if trying to shield my paper from her so as to protect my grade.

"Then lets go." The gentle smile returned back onto her face.

As I followed behind her in the hallway towards the front entrance, my phone received a notification.

--

Current Objective A:

Acquire Mura's contact information.

Time Limit: 2.5 hr

Reward: 15 SP

--       

Current Objective B:

Kiss Mura.

Time Limit: 2.5 hr

Reward: 30 SP