White Roses Dyed Blood Red

The first class on her schedule was none other than legal writings and research, it was a class meant for law students and sometimes business.

The interior of the academics building was inspired by Roman and Greek architecture. Paintings of well-known people in the academics field and influential people hung on the walls with golden plaques displaying their names.

The floors were made of white marble but appeared light yellow due to the warm lighting used.

The windows were tall and grand, arched at the top with velvet curtains hanging down next to them.

Other students mingled in the grand hallways at the same time, looking for their classes.

Humanities, Language Arts, and Social Studies subjects were all on the first floor, the second floor was for the language and cultural classes.

Her class wasn't big, but it wasn't small either, it could fit about fifty people in the rows. She took her seat in the second row and was pleasantly surprised to find Lan Yue and Ma Liang sitting next to her. Though the two seemed to bicker a lot despite Lan Yue's quiet nature.

A tall man walked in, sending looks to every light-skinned, black hair person in the room. He shot dirtier ones to the ones with both dark hair and dark skin.

The man looked like he made a living off of drinking beer and eating pizza. He had a potbelly, a nearly bald head, a suit, and an impossibly arrogant look on his face.

"Don't tell me that he's our professor," Ma Liang looked at him, disgusted.

"Professor Chad Smith, an ace in business law and has a record of taking only white clients," Lan Yue reported what she knew. "He's got a record for being racist to anyone not entirely white,"

"And he became our professor, how?"

"He's good at what he does," She gave a short and simple answer. But there might also be another explanation, to bring about more chaos and divide them.

The man started his lecture after a simple introduction and a few more stink eyes.

"You there!" He pointed at a late student wearing the colour assigned to the Kenyan team, "You're late, get out and come back next class on time, go and don't come back,"

The Kenyan boy nodded, embarrassed and rushed out, most likely heading for the library or one of the greenhouses.

Not five minutes later, another late student arrived, the only difference between the two was the colour of their skin.

The professor did nothing more than glance at the late boy before returning to his lecture.

Lan Yue wrote some notes in a separate journal with a disapproving smile and a mischievous glint in her eyes.

The late boy was sent a few spiteful glares leaving him confused and distraught.

______________________

Lu Sheng Rong's POV

Entering the creation building, she was stunned silent by the interior of the building. There were explosions of colour, optical illusions, arts of all sorts, robots, androids, and mini-cities all over the halls.

Jian Nu was just as awed as she was, with her arm looped through his, they found their class together and entered.

They took their seats in the middle rows, looking down at the podium and giving them a perfect view of the movie theater sized screen. There were many more students in the class as she had thought there would be.

Their first class of the day was design fundamentals with professor Childe Williams, a woman with many awards. She was one of her many idols.

Childe Williams was a rounder woman of both a Hispanic and European descent. Just like most women in her field, she was belittled and underestimated by the males.

She remembered when she was younger, her brother had given her a poster of Childe Williams and told her her story. That was when she learned who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do, though that isn't really wasn't what her brother was going for.

At that time, she had just met Kahn Yexing and was in the honeymoon phase with him, her brother had brought the poster home as an indirect way of telling her to stay away from boys.

Her brother was relieved when he learned that they were going to separate elementary schools, but that was short-lived when she brought her NuNu home.

Now that she thought of it, she had a talent for making her brother jealous when she was younger. Ahh~ the good old days.

"Hi, I'm Serene, you look familiar, have I seen you somewhere?"

A blond girl with blue eyes pulled up next to Jian Nu with a flirtatious look on her face, typical French models, Sheng Rong rolled her eyes.

"Of course you have, I'm a top model and actor with a net worth of 2.5 million," Jian Nu answered back in perfect French, there was a plus when your stepmother is French.

"What's your name?"

"Sheng Rong's boyfriend," He answered back in Mandarin.

Sheng Rong's eyes widened, her hands were tempted to slap him on the back.

The French girl repeated the four characters poorly, oblivious to its actual meaning. Sheng Rong struggled to breathe as she desperately tried to contain her laugh.

Meanwhile, Mu Jian Nu was paying close attention to her efforts, she didn't show any signs of hating the idea of him being her boyfriend. That was all he needed to send a message out to the team group chat announcing that they were finally an official couple.

The expression on Sheng Rong's face when she read the message gave him absolute bliss.

Alas, their professor entered the room, and everything had to be cut short.

___________________________

Lunchtime arrived, and they pulled out their lunch boxes made by their fellow teammates in the morning. They were, yet again, seated next to Japan's team.

They traded contacts and got to know each other.

None of the other teams came up to them nor tried to, they all just minded their business or mingled with others.

A few of them sent them hateful looks or scared ones, depending on the power of the school they came from. Most students were arrogant, thinking that because they were chosen that they were automatically on top. That was something that could destroy them, arrogance and underestimating your enemy is a fatal weakness.

It was better to overestimate than to underestimate.

By the entrance, the leaderboard hung in the wall displaying the ranking of all 35 teams.

The order of the teams was shifting non-stop as gaps closed, and some grew bigger. Australia had managed to close their gap a bit while Kenya had lost some points, no doubt because of the racist teacher.

Lan Yue was busy typing away an article to post on the school's gossip app, telling them of the injustice the teacher performed while teaching a subject in law.

It won't be long until professor Chad Smith becomes famous on campus.

The rest of the day went smoothly, and as predicted, Professor Chad Smith had become famous for all the wrong reasons. Though she didn't think he knew that. He had been walking around the hallways a bit too proudly for someone with a bad reputation.

As planned, Teams Japan and China gathered in China's team house as it was closer and therefore more convenient. Those that didn't really care about the alliance were allowed to wander the house. Most chose to stay in the living room to study or play games.

Most of the design team went upstairs to continue their projects and designs.

The meeting took place in the dining room, a place where if wanted, people from both the living room and the kitchen could throw in their opinions and requests.

They assigned a member from the Japanese team to type out the contract and another from their own team to revise it.

The conditions are as-is:

1. Team China will inform Team Japan of any dangers they are aware of.

2. Team Japan is not to directly nor indirectly challenge Team China.

3. Neither party shall scheme, take from, or betray the other.

4. Other conditions may be added or removed with the approval of both teams.

Beneath were two signatures, one belonging to Long Ao and the other belonging to Kana Ito.

They invited their new ally to stay for dinner, an offer they accepted with smiles and stories. They listened to each other tell bizarre stories in different languages and watched them through actions.

They laughed and ate, shared random phrases and words with both deep and funny meanings. At the end of the night, they all learned a little something, whether it be a word or a name.

Zhou Aonu and a few others volunteered to see their guests out, not forgetting to give them some flashlights and makeshift weapons should anything happen on their way back.

He watched them leave, the moon and the stars lighting up the night sky. He didn't think he'd ever get used to the sight of a clear night sky.

"There is a word in Japanese that I like to use," Naoko Gaimei came up next to him, "Ukiyo, it means to live in the moment without any worries or frustrations. I think some ukiyo will do you some good,"

Zhou Aonu stared after the man, the right-hand man of the leader was really something. It looks like there is something interesting here on the island, after all.