It’s been a while since she’s been in front of the computer but she really needed to go to sleep.

“Mirai, go to sleep!”

Here we go. Why did the Wi-fi have to be so weak that she had to move her laptop in her parents room.

“I’m just finishing a download okaa-san!” She said, still looking at the computer.

Her mom said no more, too busy watching the dorama on tv. She was getting old, aside from working, what would she do when she got home right?

“Turn the lights off after alright…”

Mirai laughed to herself. Oh mothers… But really, she was just going to finish downloading this song then head on to sleep. It was her first day at Miyato university tomorrow and she needed to be wide awake.

“Don’t forget the lights!”

Her mom yelled. Without a word she closed the lights then headed to her own room, carrying her laptop.

She can do this. Tomorrow was just like any other day except she was going to university, taking up Biology as a major, no biggie.

The next day she went through her daily routine whenever school was here, but this was different, this was university. She was still in her comfort zone when she was at highschool but not anymore.

“Ready to go Mirai-chan?” Her mom asked.

At least every morning she’d be going to school with her mom. They had the same way, her to school and her mom to the office where she worked as an accountant.

“Ganbare Mirai-chan!” Her goofy father cheered. Things were mixed since her dad was the house husband and her mom worked. Giving one last smile to her father, she and her mother made their way to the bus station.

“Don’t forget your wallet Mirai-chan, and you can always go to my office if you need anything…”

“Hai okaa-chan!”

They stepped onto the front area of the university where many students were ready to enter the hallowed halls of knowledge. Breathing in, Mirai took everything around her, the halls, the same nervous freshmen roaming around. Alright.

She whipped out her phone and started messaging her friend, Haruna whom she knew would also be taking up her university life there.

Haruna, where are you? I’m at the lobby…

Gosh was she sweating? Mirai sat down at one of the lounge chairs, taking out her blue handkerchief and dabbing it at her face. This was just first day jitters. Everything would be alright. And why wasn’t Haruna replying to her texts?!

“Mirai!”

The call caused her to lift her head up and to her relief, she saw Haruna padding over to her, out of breath.

“I got lost!” Haruna said, still out of breath which only caused Mirai to chuckle. At least she was no longer alone.

“Where’s your first class anyways?” She asked her friend.

But instead of answering, Haruna turned to her and returned with another question. “Are we supposed to head to class on the first day? Aren’t we supposed to attend the freshman orientation?”

“There’s a freshman orientation?” Mirai asked in a clueless tone. At least now she knew.

“Yeah! Weren’t you listening to your interviewer when you enrolled?”

Mirai looked at the ground and remembered that the interviewer did tell her that there’s was something on the first day of classes. But the interviewer didn’t really mention what it was so she really wasn’t informed.

“Well let’s go! So where’s the orientation?” Mirai asked, wringing one arm around Haruna’s arm. The other girl was relatively taller so she was looking like a midget right now.

“Anou, I don’t know.” Haruna giggled nervously. She started rummaging around in her bag to pull out a map.

“You have a map?!”

“Well this school is large!” Haruna said defensively. Mirai noticed that the map was hand drawn by most probably Haruna herself.

“Well ikou,  orientation is most probably in the auditorium right?” Mirai said as she and Haruna both peered into the small piece of paper. The auditorium took up the whole  fourth floor so they headed on their way.

A lot of other students packed inside the elevators and Mirai and Haruna were able to squeeze their way in without getting crushed. Now Mirai was getting nervous again. Chill Mirai, at least you’re with Haruna right now.

The elevator bells dinged, signalling that they were at the fourth floor, almost all of the other students went straight for some seats since the auditorium was slowly filling up. The two girls found comfortable one right at the middle.

Unlike her, Haruna had a different major, she was going for photography while Mirai would be dissecting frogs and all that. This was one step for her to become a doctor and no one was going to stop her.

“I think I’m going to barf Haruna-chan, what if I can’t do this?” Mirai whispered, feeling her clammy hands getting sweatier.

Haruna waved it off and smirked at her friend. “Oh will you stop Mirai, after a few days this will be like our second home and we’ll get used to all of this.”

They settled down once a fierce looking professor made her way to the stage and stood at the podium.

“Welcome to Miyato university!” The professor exclaimed so loud that Mirai snapped into place at the sound. Said professor began welcoming them and started with the program as she introduced presenters here and there. They were oriented to the different offices and programs of the school with some intermissions here and there. Frankly, Mirai wasn’t listening. The thought of beginning university was still there on her mind. Before she knew it, everyone was standing up and they were dismissed to head on to their classes. When she checked her wrist watch, it was already 10:00. Her first class started at 8 and would end at 11, so they still had one hour left.

“Mirai, this I have to get to my own class, but text me alright?” Haruna said, smiling at Mirai.

The latter really didn’t want to part, but they had different majors and therefore would have different classes.

“Ou! I’ll see you later then!” Mirai smiled. But as Haruna turned away, she felt her sweat erupting from her pores yet again.

Ganbare Mirai!

She checked her schedule one again. Botany. Their class was at the 8^th floor, no way was she taking the stairs. A lot of students were still running for the elevators and she was one of them.

One certain elevator was just closing and she dashed for it, which was not easy considering her bag was so heavy. Almost there!

“Oof!”

“Augh!”

DING

Mirai stood there, rubbing her shoulder in pain and scowling at the closed elevator. She realized she had collided into someone who was also rubbing his arm in pain.

“Ah gomen, I was rushing.” She apologized.

The young man she’d bumped with nodded his head dismissively as he glared at the elevators moving number on the small screen up by the ledge.

“Are you also a freshman?” He asked.

She nodded her head but couldn’t help but stare at this guy. He’s so handsome! He was pretty if Mirai could say so, and was he glowing or something? He seemed to be glowing. But then she realized the guy wasn’t there anymore! Oh god she hoped she wasn’t staring or doing anything horrific for that matter.

Darn it she was late!

Instead of taking the elevator, she opted for the stairs rather than be late for her first ever class as a university student. She sort of regretted that seeing that she was out of breath once she reached the damn 8^th floor. Obviously the said floor was especially made for the laboratories.

Once she was sure sweat was no longer running down the side of her face, she headed straight for their room, 802. The small window allowed her to see inside and to her relief, the professor wasn’t in yet. But shouldn’t the professor be here already?

Oh well, she should be getting inside. The moment she did, about 40 sets of eyes looked at her. Darn it, was she the last to enter? Some kept chattering, some glanced at her then returned to whatever they were doing and others smiled.

Since it looked like she was the last to enter, all the available chairs were at the back which she had no problem sitting in. But she stopped midway when she saw who was also at the back row. Elevator guy. He looked pretty bored sitting there and was playing with his phone. Great, means he won’t notice her. So she sauntered her way over and sat one chair away from the guy.

She took a look at her surroundings. Some students were quiet and some yapped like ducks. Well, everybody handled first day jitters in their own way. Her? She stayed quiet and started doodling on one of her notebooks, where was the professor anyways?

“Anou, is someone sitting here?”

Mirai looked up at the voice and saw a tall looking girl smiling at her while gesturing to the chair between her and Elevator guy.

She shook her head a little too furiously. The girl bowed her head in thanks before proceeding to drop her rather large bag on the floor and sitting. From the corner of her eye, Mirai took a look at the girl, she looked a little familiar. But they were all new here so she had no idea where she saw her.

“Watashi wa Ohgo Suzuka desu, namae wa?”

The girl suddenly asked.

Mirai blinked her eyes awake, realizing that the girl just asked her a question. “Oh! Anou, Shida Mirai desu, yoroshiku onegaishimasu!”

Suzuka answered with a simple smile, her cheeks puffing up. “Na, where do you think the professor is?”

“Beats me.” Mirai replied with a shrug of her shoulders. But she was thankful the professor wasn’t there yet, at least she had time to relax and not to dive with the subjects head on. “Na so where do you live? I have a dorm just a bus away.” Suzuka said.

Mirai smiled. “Our house isn’t far, we’re just at Kanagawa avenue…”

“Na kakkoi ne!”

“Mm! Kare mou!”

Mirai and Suzuka turned at the voices and saw a group of girls glancing their way, well, rather at elevator guy and the guy sitting in front of him. The two girls looked at each other and couldn’t help but laugh quietly. University… perfect time for girls and guys to get together but Mirai was having none of that. She’d rather focus on her studies.

“Na! I’m leaving the professor isn’t even here!” A guy stood up, dragging his bag.

As if playing follow the leader, all the other students grabbed their bags and sauntered out of the classroom. Mirai grabbed hers and followed after Suzuka.

“Lunch time!” Suzuka smiled happily.

The moment Suzuka and Mirai stepped onto the cafeteria floors, people pushed around just to get to the front to buy their food. The two girls took one look at each other and had a mutual decision.

A lot of other establishments surrounded the university so both Mirai and Suzuka had no idea why there were so many people crowding the cafeteria. They got their answer when they entered a small coffee shop a few blocks away from the school.

“It’s crowded here too!” Mirai said in a frustrated tone.

But Suzuka wasn’t one for giving up. She nudged Mirai and pointed to a certain table just by the windows. “Ne, isn’t that a classmate of ours? Go on, ask him if we can sit, he’s alone anyways, I’ll get our orders.”

Mirai hesitantly did so, looking back to Suzuka but the latter was already speaking to the cashier. She shrugged and breathed in, approaching the lone young man. She realized it was the boy who was sitting quietly in-front of elevator guy.

“Anou…”

At the sound of her voice the young man looked up from his cup of coffee. He was cute too! The next door neighbour type cute. And even though he was sitting, Mirai could tell that he was tall.

“Ah, can my friend and I sit here?” She gestured to Suzuka who waved back from the cash register. The young man looked around, understanding that the coffee shop was already full. He gave a small nod.

“You’re Nakajima right?” Mirai asked.

The guy looked confused so she pointed to his ID hanging around his neck then laughed softly when he realized how she knew him. He nodded his head yet again.

“I’m Shida Mirai, yoroshiku!” She said with a small smile.

“Nakajima Yuto.” He answered, looking a bit shy.

Mirai was thankful that at that moment Suzuka had come back from ordering holding a tray with two sandwhiches.

“Ah, Suzuka, this is Yuto.”

“Domo…” Yuto bowed to the tall girl who smiled back. “Y-you two are my classmates right?” He asked. Both Mirai and Suzuka smiled and nodded their heads.

A loud noise disrupted their would be conversation when 3 boys entered the quaint old coffee shop. Mirai wrinkled her nose when she realized that these were probably university students too.

“Yo!!! 3 iced mochas please!” The seeming leader of the group yelled.

Mirai rolled her eyes. People shouldn’t be disturbing the peace, she guessed these guys never got the memo. It was then she realized that one of the three was looking at her. He had a lean face but was inarguably handsome. Immediately, Mirai looked away, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks and pretended to be looking at something on her phone. Why was he even looking at her?

“Oh, wasn’t he the guy sitting beside us Mirai?”

Mirai looked up at Suzuka’s inquiry. Elevator guy was entering the coffee shop looking miffed that there were no more chairs. He was about to walk out when he spotted Mirai. The latter sat straight, surprised when he suddenly smirked her way.

“You know him?” Suzuka asked. When they all looked back he was no longer inside the coffee shop.

Mirai shrugged this off. “Iie, I don’t know him…”

The peace was brought back when thankfully the three guys decided to just buy coffee and drink them somewhere else instead of causing too much noise inside.

Basically it was Mirai and Suzuka who chatted up during the whole lunch hour, Yuto stayed quiet, just listening and drinking from his coffee. A few minutes before 1 in the afternoon, they gathered up their stuff and walked back to the university which didn’t really take long.

Since they were a block section, all of their classes were together. “I think we’re at the 5^th floor…” Yuto said as he stared down at his class schedule. Both Suzuka and Mirai looked at theirs and nodded their heads.

“Let’s get going, we have 10 minutes left…”

The classroom was surprisingly not opened yet when they arrived. All their other classmates were standing around and chatting to each other.

Mirai was so thankful that the school had centralized air-conditioning or else she’d be sweating buckets by now.

She leaned down on one of the lockers, gripping her books close while Suzuka tried chatting Yuto up, too bad the guy was as shy as a pre-schooler on his first day of school. But then  movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention and she noticed someone approaching her.

Elevator guy…

He was looking straight at her as he walked her direction. She straightened up just in time when he reached her. “Anou, you’re live at Kanagawa avenue right?”

Mirai stopped for a minute when she remembered that he was sitting next to her and Suzuka a while ago, that’s why he probably heard where she lived. In answer, she nodded her head.

He smiled slowly. Wow, he had a bright smile. “I’m from there too. Is it alright if we go home together? I’m Yamada Ryosuke.”

Mirai looked at him once again. He seemed like a nice enough guy, he wasn’t going to do something bad to her right? Besides, he was her classmate so if he did something bad, she’d have info. “Uh, sure, it’s alright.”

From the sides, she saw Suzuka giving her a look. In a swift second, the girl approached her, smiling at Ryosuke before pulling Miria to the sides.

“I didn’t know you knew him…” She stated.

Mirai simply shrugged her shoulders. “I saw him at the elevator this morning and apparently he heard that we live in the same place.”

“Souk a…” Suzuka said. She had this glint in her eye.

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“Jaa, see you tomorrow!” Suzuka bid them goodbye, walking away.

To Mirai’s surprise, Yuto waved a small goodbye before following where Suzuka was headed. Mirai was about to head on to the bus station when she remembered elevator guy! She kept calling him that even when she knew his name.

“I thought you were going to leave me…”

She turned to the left and saw Ryosuke smirking at her. He really was handsome, it didn’t matter that he lacked height!

“Anou, ikou?” She asked, giving a friendly smile. The two of them were about to head out when Mirai heard a few whispers just to their right. A few girls, seemingly older than them were there.

“Are they together?”

“I thought he was single!”

“He looks too good for her…”

Mirai tried not grimacing. These girls… All were so malicious! She didn’t even know the guy!

Now they were being gossiped.

“Ikou…” Ryosuke said, pretending not to hear anything. He led the way, not even looking at Mirai.

Was he suddenly embarrassed about being with her? He was the one who asked if they could go home together! The nerve… Whatever, he wasn’t that great anyways. Mirai huffed. What a fine first day this turned out to be.