Liliane quietly looked at Robert. She just stared. Quietly.
Now it was Robert's turn to feel awkward.
"~Cough~ Liliane, what's wrong? Gotta say something?" Then Kael stepped forward, breaking the awkwardness in the air.
Liliane blinked and opened her mouth to say something but immediately closed it. She then gestured for Kael to go somewhere else.
"Huh? Sorry, guys, I'll be right back," Kael said, and then both he and Liliane walked away.
"Damn it, how come that guy's so popular?" Robert said angrily.
"Totally agreed," Alex supported Robert.
"Well, he is handsome," Corin said while rubbing his hair.
"I am more handsome than him," Robert sharply denied Corin.
"Na, dude, you gotta some serious eye problems, I say," Alina said with crossed arms as she slowly moved closer to Alex.
'More handsome than Kael? Like hell. And I don't think it's even about looks, because just look at me—I'm obviously more handsome than Kael.' Alex thought to himself.
It wasn't that Robert wasn't good-looking—he was, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and he had an athletic build. It's just that he wasn't as tall as Kael.
"If anything, I'd say Alex is more… cu-cute, kyaaaa," Alina stammered. Her face turned red, and she held her cheeks, shaking from how flustered she felt after saying it out loud—especially in front of Alex.
Though it might have been taken as an offense to Alex, because his face darkened.'Cute… CUTE? Fuck, I'm a man. What's with being called cute? Am I a girl or some pretty boy?'
"DAMN! HE IS SO POPULAR!" Robert bit Corin's hand tightly in sheer jealousy.
"WAH! Leave my hand!!!" Corin screamed in pain, trying to pull free from Robert's sharp teeth.
---
In the Canteen
"This school, ahhh… even though it's the best one in the whole city, they still haven't installed an automatic dustbin robot." A man in a blue uniform aligned the four dustbins and started moving them toward the exit at the back side of the canteen.
"Not that I mind. Good for me, after all," he joked to himself.
He was just a normal school staff member. Even though the technology of his world was quite advanced—so much so that jobs like cleaning had become extinct—that was mostly true only for big cities.
Still, for a big school like this, it was strange to keep a normal worker. But one thing people often forgot was that it was a government school at the end of the day.
A tiny bit of corruption was okay, after all.
Reaching the back side of the canteen, the man saw four holes.
They were waste-collecting machines. Dump all the garbage in the correct hole, and it would be directly thrown into a truck, which would later be sent to factories that would either reuse it or decompress it.
"Okay, the last one, haaa~" The man straightened his back, then picked up the red dustbin and dumped all the waste into the red hole that contained biomedical waste.
As he dumped it, a red bottle containing some suspicious liquid also fell and spilled into the waste.
The moment the bottle landed, it shattered into pieces, and a major portion of the liquid spilled onto a slimy substance.
And after just few seconds the slime like substence seem to have came to life. First it slowly shook then some strange low sound started to echo.
---
"What is it, Liliane?" Kael asked with crossed arms.
They were at the back of the school, a bit too far from the ground.
"Mnn." Liliane looked around, as if searching for someone—but no, she was just checking if anyone was spying on them.
"Calm down. There's no one here; we already came this far," Kael sighed.
"Kael, I need your help," Liliane said with a determined face.
Kael rubbed his hair, his expression showing he already knew what this was about.
"Seriously, Liliane, how much time has passed, and you still can't even talk to Alex?" Kael said in a frustrated tone.
Liliane just quietly played with her fingers at Kael's complaint.
The truth was, Liliane wasn't the cold beauty everyone thought she was at school. No—if anything, she might have been the most simple and innocent girl.
It was just that she had a problem communicating with others. Not because she was scared or awkward or anything like that, but because people became scared or awed the moment they saw her.
"You know how bad I am at this, right? Every time I try to talk to him, he immediately tries to escape," she said in a sad tone.
Listening to that, Kael's brows twisted. 'It's not because of you. That guy is just shy when it comes to girls—especially if he's alone.'
"Why are you so dead set on Alex? Why don't we try befriending someone more approachable, like Alina? She's a girl and popular too," Kael said in a desperate tone.
After all, it had been two and a half years since he agreed to help Liliane make friends. At first, it was actually his idea to make Alex and Liliane friends, because he felt Alex was somewhat like her.
But it backfired on him—they were definitely not the same.
"Huh? Alina… that's fine, I guess…" Liliane said in a neutral tone, but from her face alone it was obvious she was depressed.
'Damn it, Kael, what are you doing? Just look—now she's sad.' Kael blamed himself for being insensitive. He thought Liliane was depressed because she still couldn't become friends with Alex, even after so long.
But what he didn't know was that Liliane had completely different thoughts. 'I'm soon going to leave this place. I really want to be friends with Alex.'
To Liliane, it was no longer simply about being friends with Alex. After all, she admired him.
She admired how he could say things she dared not say. The freedom in his voice—she had never, in her whole life, met someone like him.
Even Kael, who was always shining like the sun, couldn't give her the same feeling of freedom that Alex carried.
It was as if he wasn't bound by anything—no responsibility, no fear.
She wanted to know how she, too, could be free…
"OK! Don't be like that I have a soli-" Kael was speaking when....
BOOOM!