“Tao?” I whispered.

He lay sprawled on the couch bed. His phone had gone off, making me wake. He looked so peaceful, sleeping that I was having doubts on whether I should wake up.

“Don’t bother.” I jumped to find that Lay was standing by me. “He hasn’t been sleeping for days. I’ve been worried, since my healing can’t cure sleep deprivation.  I don’t know what you two did last night that made it possible, but thank god it did.”

I felt my cheeks flame up. Oh god, what do all the others think? All we did was talk and sleep! “But what about school-“

“I already called them to notify he’s ‘sick’.” Lay raised hands for the air quotes.

“But Kris-“

“Says you can go alone,” he interjected. “You can also go to art club.” He glanced over to Kris’s door. “He would tell you himself, but he has a late schedule today. Meanwhile, I have to go to do some recording soon.”

I blinked. “Is it something that the tree said?”

“Yes, but you’ll learn about it soon enough. Now come on, we wouldn’t want you to be late on the second day.”

So I got onto the bus alone. Just a Tuesday morning, the countenances of the other passengers seem to say. I wondered when I would become like that. Would I ever get used to life here? Thinking about predictability both gave me hope and disappointment. Hope that I would stay here, alive, long enough for everything to become familiar. Disappointment because surprises did make life interesting.

“Where’s Tao?” Sherry asked me when we entered our literature class.

I shrugged. “He’s missing?”

She nudged me. “Don’t fake around me. I know you noticed his missing presence.”

“I seriously didn’t,” I lied.

She sighed. “Well, I hope Kungfu Panda is safe.”

“Kungfu Panda?”

Sherry smiled. “It’s his nickname within EXO. I’ll make an exotic out of you soon.”

Kungfu Panda? I love pandas, he had said with those bags underneath his eyes.  Before my thoughts could develop even further, the teacher called order in the classroom.

“Looks like our local celebrity isn’t here today,” Yinna said as she sat down with us during lunch.

I rolled my eyes. “Why are you guys making a big deal out of him? Aren’t there other guys you could pay attention about?”

“Nah,” she replied, taking out her sandwich. “All the other attractive guys are taken. While I admit Tao is not my type, he is a bit strange. I mean, he could probably get any girl in this school, but instead he goes off in his little space somewhere around this school. I get why he isn’t looking for a relationship, but the whole outcast thing is weird.”

He was an outcast? Some little space? “Who is your ideal type then?”

“Yinna likes the nerds,” Sherry said, picking up a clump of rice with her chopsticks. “She does have high expectations, and she likes a challenge even if it means talking to a robot.”

“They also have to have social skills,” Yinna retorted, glaring at Sherry. “Those guys are nice for competition, but not for friendly banter.”

Sherry her hands into the air in mock frustration. “I wouldn’t know, okay? They all sound the same in class!”

“Not outside of class.” Yinna opened her bottle of water. “Humor is pretty essential. It would be boring to hang around a guy who was only focused on memorizing formulas for his whole life.”

“How about you, Sherry? What’s your ideal type?”

She giggled. “Oh, I don’t know…I kinda like modern guys. You know, the ones that experiment with their hair color, maybe have multiple piercings. If they’re older, that’s a plus.”

Ahh, the bad boy type.  I shook my head at the cliché and took a sip from my soymilk.

“How about you, Kalyn? What’s your ideal type?”

“I don’t really have one…I mean, I guess I haven’t liked enough guys to notice a pattern.”

“Haven’t you liked a guy though?” Sherry pressed.

I slowly nodded. “Yes I have.”

“Describe him then.” Yinna laid her head in a hand.

“Yes! Please?” Sherry begged me.

“I don’t know…it’s been a long time.” I forced myself to take another bite before I lost my appetite.

“A long time?”

“The first guy I liked…” I took in a deep breath. “Is dead.” 

[A/N] Hey guys! Sorry, I know, it's a cliffhanger, but I do need time to figure out who the hell Kalyn's first love is. She's refusing to tell me these past few days, so I'm giving her a bit of her time to think it over. Hopefully she tells me, right? XD

While I'm waiting, I also have another announcement: TOMORROW IS NOVEMBER! I hope y'all know what that means. That's right: NaNoWriMo!

Every year, people write a novel during Novemeber. But only Novemeber. So you can only start writing on November 1st and you HAVE to finish November 30th. There's also a word goal: 50,000 words.

Now, if you're like me, you're like "I love writing, man, but 50 K words??? No. I do have a life!" But if you're under 17, you can do the young writer version and you can set your word goal. (I'm not sure about the adult one...Let me try...ehh I can't find it. T-T Dude I'm screwed once I graduate high school...)

That's right: My word goal isn't 50,000 words. The default is 30,000, but I'm doing 10,000. Now before you call me slacker, I just want to let you know I have a lot of academic challenges (GAHH NOT GOING TO GET A 4.0 THIS QUARTER T-T) and 10000 at least seems realistic to me. (Heck, the parts of EXONE that I have saved on my computer makes up to 33,000 words. But it's probably not fair because it's been at least over a month since I started writing this. 3 months? >.<) Not to mention I can change my goal before the 24th.

God how am I going to end a story in a month??? >.<

But yeah! If you don't see me updating this in all of November that's why. However, I'm not going to put up the Hiatus sign because I had a friend who just checking up on my story who just stopped completely. BIG MISTAKE. Although if you guys don't really want to waste your time checking (because who would want to?) I advise you to at least come back by November 30th or December 1st. I'll probably have a new chapter by then...-crosses fingers-

But yeah! Wish me luck! My novel is going to be a fanfic...but don't tell anyone! I mean, it's not really going to be a fanfic, since I'll be changing names and situations...but it'll be close >.<

HWAITING! <3 Thanks so much you guys ^_^

P.S. And because I'm a troll, here's a scenario I considered writing for the next chapter but I won't because you guys don't deserve it. Still, I hope it's funny and makes you laugh. TROLALALALALALLLLL

"He's dead?" Yinna asked, her eyes bugged out. Sherry's mouth had dropped.

"Yeah. He's this singer from the 70's? His voice was amazing, but him? SO HOT." I sighed. "Too bad he died from drug overdose. I swore to myself I wouldn't love anyone else after I learned that he was actually dead."

XD LOVE YOU GUYS!