Huh???

  Sure, she was really hot and really pretty and her eyes were really nice—but that's besides the point, I barely knew anything about her and thus had no motive to stalk her.

  “N–no?” My voice cracked in a way that absolutely did nothing to conceal the active fright coursing through my veins or repair my already decimated first impression.

  “What are you on about? I am doing nothing of the sort, I uh," I raised the loaded bags in my arms, "I just happen to live around here and I needed to get something. To eat. For dinner” I croaked out, at least glad that I didn't stutter as much.

  Amazing answer.

  I am never going to make any friends at this rate...

  She glared daggers at me, deciding whether I was worth the energy she would waste gutting me out. She flicked her eyes down at the bag I was currently struggling to even carry with my twig-like arms, then back up to my face.

  “What a depressing dinner,” she said, the flatness of her voice marred by a faint note of patronizing pity.

  Ouch.

  “I’m, uh," Scrambling for an answer to fill the incredibly awkward silence, "budgeting.”

  "Tch." carefully folding up her receipt, and sliding it into her blazer pocket, she replied coldly. “Figures.”

  The beat-up automatic doors behind her slid open with a cheerful ding and loud squeak, letting in a gust of warm air and the sounds of rushing traffic from outside. She moved aside slightly; clearly expecting me to scuttle past like a startled mouse.

  Which I did.

  Or at least, I tried to.

  Very big emphasis on tried.

  The moment I passed her, I again, tripped the step outside of the door that I didn't even realize was there—like those quirky anime girl MCs who were overly clumsy for the sake of being endearing to the male audience. But before I could fall flat on my face and become the human equivalent of a pancake, I was pulled back by the back of my sweater.

  "You’ve got to be kidding me...” she muttered. "How inattentive are you?"

  “H–hey, you didn’t have to—” I started, indignantly smoothing out the fabric of the sweater, flustered out of my mind.

  “I know.” she said curtly. “But if I didn't stop you from falling, I would've had to jump over your body flat on the ground, and that frankly sounds like a hassle. It also wouldn't look very good for my public image.”

  That was not the response I expected.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Standing still for a moment to readjust my satchel, I realized she was glaring at me again. Staring intently at my face, eyebrows furrowed.

  “What?” I asked in an attempt to get her to stop staring.

  Suddenly, she reached out and plucked something off my hair.

  A tiny white petal.

  Where'd that come from?

  “You had something stuck to your hair..” she said, straightening up. “It was distracting.”

  “Oh,” I said weakly. “Sorry?”

  She scoffed and turned on her heel, making her way down the now dusky streets.

  “Try not to trip on your home.” she tossed over her shoulder. “Or stalk people. Or starve.”

  I stood there, watching her retreating back until she turned a corner.

  What… just happened?

  She didn’t yell. She didn’t threaten me. She just glared at me for a bit, insulted my grocery budget and stopped me from cracking my head open on the pavement.

  That was it.

  As I walked home, the sky darkening above me; I started thinking.

  She was scary,

  And annoying. And indignant. And pretty. But mostly very scary.

  By the time I got back to my apartment, unlocked the door, and dumped my groceries on the counter, I realized something else; for the first time in a long while, I wasn’t dreading tomorrow. I wasn't as scared of meeting her as I was before, and I could even make her my friend. And I was even invited to go to lunch with someone...

  That realization unsettled me more than running into her ever could.

  Whatever...

  Yawning, I put my pen down and stretched.

  Glancing at the small numbers on the dim screen of my laptop, I decided 03:07 was a good time to stop. Getting out of my chair I cursed myself for forgetting to buy any energy drinks as the exhaustion finally set in now that the fear of failing my first exam was gone.

  After that encounter with that girl from school, I had spent the better half of my day studying for that math test I had tomorrow. The material was easy enough and was really nothing to be worried about. But still, I wanted to review everything and it did help me take my mind off things. It was always better safe than sorry.

  That didn't mean that I didn't slightly regret wasting my time reviewing stuff that I already mastered at cram school years ago… Letting out another big yawn, I closed off my laptop, still thinking about all the grinding I could've done for all my precious gacha games. Trudging over to the small little futon situated next to my desk, I flopped down.

  I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. The futon was so thin it practically made no difference, and since I had no money to spare, I couldn't get a new one until I found a decent source of income.

  I pressed my head deeper into my pillow and started thinking. I desperately needed a job, as I couldn't really ask my parents for more funds as they had already spent thousands on shipping me to another country.

  I didn't want to be more of a burden than I already was. Thus, I started thinking of places that would probably hire someone that had little to no experience. Manual labour jobs were out of the question as I couldn't really do anything with my flimsy arms. Office jobs were also not applicable as they would probably overlap with school hours, plus no one would hire a 14 year-old to work at a corporate branch. This meant that service jobs were my only option. I could work as a cashier or a barista, though the latter was a stretch as that would require more physical labour than I could handle and the thought of being yelled at because of some roasted beans in a cup didn't really appeal to me that much.

  Finally, tired enough from thinking so hard and the enviable soul-crushing work I'd have to do, I drifted into a peaceful dreamless sleep that would soon be ruined by the sound of a very obnoxiously loud alarm.

  thankya for reading

  im tired, got exams next week, and the week after that... and the week after that week... whateber tho yuri is most important lol okbybeybeybee <3

  Chapter 3:

  Mai likes to stay up late, either to study or to play games.

  She likes reading webnovels at night idk,

  She thinks a lot, sometimes she gets too deep in her thoughts she starts planning out her life like a game or story, or thinks of what other people would do or say, but she usually only does this in big crowds or people she's scared of.