In a Love Letter

Different

I heard a soft purring, waking me up from my sleep. It was Rondo. She was uncomfortably perched on my chest, the bell on her collar ringing quietly when I moved even just a little bit.

Seeing me awake, she strutted closer to my face and started licking me, as if comforting me. I'm confused, though. I don't remember anything particularly bad happening.

Looking at the time, I'm supposed to get up for school a bit later. Normally, I would try to go back to sleep but today, I decided to start my morning a bit early. I feel strangely more energized today. How weird.

I head downstairs and start making breakfast for myself. Well, it's still just toast but that's the best thing I could find in the kitchen that's quick to make. However, while I was humming an upbeat melody-

"Kei..?"
A voice startled me out of my thoughts.

I turned around and....mom was there.

"Kei, what are you doing up so early?"
She said, still sleepy.

"Sorry mom, I woke up a little earlier today... Anyway, why are you here?"
I ask in curiosity.

"Am I supposed to not be here..?"
...She's right. Why did I even ask that?

"Huh..."
But I can feel that something's not quite right...

I kept thinking about the matter until I actually had to leave for school. Opening the front door, the first thing I almost immediately saw was the vibrant red hair of my bestfriend, (Y/N).

(Surprise Y/N?!)

(Y/N), my childhood friend and partner in crime, was standing there, waiting for me. Still, even if they were just standing by the gate, they were still attracting a lot of attention, especially now that they dyed their hair such a bright color.

"Hey, (Y/N)!"
They turned their attention to me.

"Kei-chan!"

We smile at each other and started walking together. I noticed they kept glancing at me. Probably silently trying to communicate. Of course, as childhood friends, we already have a tacit understanding of eachother.

I reached out my hand, and they place theirs on my palm.....well, almost. Just as our hands were about to touch, the next thing I knew is that I was sitting in the classroom.

Did I space out on the way or something?

But just like this morning, my thoughts were interrupted.

"Yo, Kei!"

A boy suddenly tried to hook his arm over my shoulder. I flinched away and that seemed to have annoyed him. Still, he forced a smile and tries to get closer to me. For some reason, no matter how much he reaches out to me, he never actually manages to touche me...

"W-What do you want..?"

I was starting to feel terrible and uncomfortable with this person so close to me, and he still kept trying to come closer. This person's well-known for his habit of playing around with women. I don't want to associate myself with this kind of person.

"Well, I won't beat around your bush. You're friends with that senior, right? The one who dyed her hair red? Why don't you gimme her number, huh? Help us get to know each other a little bit?"

With that, the terrible feeling inside of me grew. He was aiming for (Y/n), after all....

"Uhh, I don't know about that...Shouldn't you ask them for their number?"

"C'mon! Do your buddy a favor, man!"
My refusal angered him, it's obvious from from the sour face he wore. Also, 'buddy'? You've never even greeted me in the morning, acting as if I just didn't exist...

But somehow, my classmates are now looking at me with weird, suspicious eyes. Do they seriously believe that I hang around a person like this...?

"Sorry, I really don't want to just give out my friend's contact info, sorry..."

"Tsk bitch.."
He whispered under his breath. I thought that had ended there but little did I know....

"Good morning, Kei!"
The annoying boy said.

I was a bit confused but I greeted back in the end.

"Here, Kei. I made some extra lunch for you!"

It's much more sparse than yours. You just bought this somewhere and dumped it into a bento box, didn't you? It's not even warm....

"You wanna copy my notes?"
It's all over the place... Also, the hell is this handwriting?

"I hear you're really smart in science, wanna team up for the group project?"

Why don't you ask one of your girlfriends? There's gotta be one who's much smarter in that subject than me, right?

As he hung around me, my reputation started worsening. People thought that I was one of his girls, or I'm playing hard to get. But I'm really not. I don't want to be around him. I've already asserted that so many times, why won't anybody believe me when I say that?

I told my friends that he was only trying to get closer to me because he wants my bestfriend's phone number and that I've already rejected his advances but no one believed me. Not one person.

Before I knew it, I was already alone.

One day, (Y/N) told me to go to the back of the school. I thought that they were trying to maybe reconciliate with me. Maybe, I would have my old friendship with them back! But....

"You should just leave already. You don't belong here"

Such words were said to me by the person who I thought would be my bestfriend forever.

"Huh....?"
I felt my world falling apart... almost literally.

(Y/N) showed me some mercy, and gave me a chance to see their kind smile for the last time.

"You're just hurting yourself by seeing us, right? Move on, Kei. You don't belong here anymore. I hope you find happiness somewhere else."

=======

I wake up to a new day. For real, this time. Today marks my first year of highschool in another world. Looking at the time, if I don't get up now I'll probably end up being late. I probably should've figured out that it was a dream as soon as I realized that I "woke up" early.

Walking down the paved pathway of Akademi, the familiar cherry blossom trees look even more beautiful in real life. The students were chatting and laughing with each other. Off to the side, a girl with orange hair was scolding a senior.

"Are you even listening to me?!"
The orange-haired girl, Osana Najimi, yelled.

"Sorry..."
The timid senior who couldn't even look directly into his childhood friend's eyes, that's Taro Yamada-senpai.

The senior happened to turn to me while I was looking at them. He smiled a little awkwardly, probably embarrassed of being berated in public.
I waved a small goodbye and continued on my way.

I walked into the building and started looking for my class...

Right, I was put into the class that "she"'s supposed to go to.

==================================
And that's the first chapter of Letter 2.0!
We get a lil peak of how Kei's school life was before... reincarnating? Transmigrating? Only author knows.
We can see that things took a bad turn for her before waking up in another world. Poor Kei.

It now also starts with Kei already knowing that she's in another world instead of starting with the process of her being transferred to another world.

Word count is still around 1,000 and I think I'll keep it that way.

Chihiro Kei is a girl with medium-length black hair and brown eyes prior to waking up in Yansim. In Yansim, she has pitch black eyes to better fit my original image of her. Why? Cuz author says so.
There's no specifications regarding her height but I imagine her to be the same height as, if not slightly taller than, Aishi.
Her weight.... is something she would rather not share.

Please interact with the story by leaving a like or commenting, it makes me know that people appreciate what I'm doing!