The rain outside looked like static on an old TV. Thin gray lines, flickering, doing everything but be an actual weather.
Everyone else in class was whining about it. Honestly, I didn't mind. Rain was quiet. And, it's really hard if not impossible to get peace in this cluster fuck of a society.
Our math teacher was halfway through a heroic attempt to make quadratic equations sound life-changing.
He was failing... How embarrassing.
I had already indulged- "Indulged"? Whatever. I had already indulged into my usual routine: staring out the window, sort of escapism. Because I really did need to escape this everlasting and annoying lecture.
But, finally… finally.. this hell ended for today.
The bell ringing was music to my ears. Overlapped by sounds of talkative students and their footsteps. It grew louder and louder, and louder, and louder… I was honestly pretty out of it.
Until the sound of something hitting my leg wake me up.
"Huh?"
Looks like something dropped near my foot.
As I glanced down. I found a beautiful looking notebook resting near my leg.
A black notebook sat there. It looked plain, it looked clean. Eerily similar to something I knew very well … Funnily enough, similar might not be the right word. It was exact same notebook. The exact size and shape I never thought I would see in real life.
"No way." I said to myself as I glanced upon first few letters of its cover page.
I leaned down and picked it up. Staring at the cover, it was exactly what I thought it said..
'DEATH NOTE'
It looked complete replica of the real thing. The font, where it's written, the cover page. Almost like… This is real deal?
"Okay," I whispered to myself. "Either someone is pulling a joke, or I've finally lost it."
I'd watched Death Note years ago. Pretty good show, honestly. It was one of my favorite anime I watched. Definitely not something I expected to role-play during math class.
'A ridiculous joke' is the only possiblity that was running around in my mind… But still, my curiosity wanted to know more.
The common sense in me screamed 'If a suspiciously specific murder notebook drops from nowhere, maybe investigate it before someone else does.'
And that's what I was planning to do… I mean, if it's just a joke and I still try it.. I would just embarrass myself at extreme. But, if it's not just a joke and I ended up not trying it..
And, so I opened it.
'DEATH NOTE
How to Use It'
I skimmed the rules. There were total of 38 rules.
"What the fuck?" I exclaimed to myself.
It was written exactly like the anime if you ignore the added rules part. If this is just a joke, whoever made this had too much free time in their hand…
I'm more inclined to believe that this is just a joke after scanning all over this ridiculous bullshit. Regardless of my belief, I kept reading, half expecting the teacher to walk over and confiscate what he'd assume was my "'kill me now' diary."
Hm, now that I think about it.. Do they think I'm emo? Whatever.
Well, in conclusion of all this thinking and reading. This is weird. This is suspicious. This is… kind of funny and maybe dangerous, depending on who else sees it.
And after letting out a faint sigh, I closed the notebook slowly.
Could it be real?
Probably not. Definitely not.… Right?
But here was the thing: unlike Light Yagami, I didn't want to become God or create a new world or whatever else he thought was a good idea at seventeen. I was simply curious. And maybe just bored enough to take the book with me.
The bell rang, cutting through my thoughts.
Everyone scrambled up like prisoners on parole. I remained seated for a second, watching my classmates get out of the classroom, still talkative as ever.
I tucked the notebook into my bag thinking If it's fake, I'll find out. If it's real… I should probably know before someone dumb picks it up.
As I stepped into the hallway, the rain hammered harder against the windows. Louder than before.
I tightened my grip on my bag and sighed.
"Well," I muttered, "looks like I'm in for a change."
And I walked home with a notebook that absolutely, definitely, hopefully wasn't real.
Yet.