Lost In The Dream

2 | Upon Your Existence

Zimmy's POV

The world did not end in a bang, or a whisper. But rather, one scream at a time. The university we're about to experience just have a whole building of screaming kindergartens. We are to complete an academic year here, and it would be lovely if they could just minimize those voices a little. Matthew, of all people, wanted to get along with the kids. He's been starring onto that building for a creepy five minutes. "Stop doing that Matty," I said, trying hardly not to spill my iced coffee on my uniform.

His eyes widened, "I wish I could play with those kids."

Everyone gave him a shrug, this side of him is so new but I think this kind of duality is amusing. A student approached us and gestured us to follow her, then lead us to the Admissions Office. My heart pounded in my chest. I can feel my knees tremble, and my breath is raspy, too raspy that I'm having a hard time. I only need a few minutes to pretend I'm okay, I can do this.

"You're all on honors class, aren't you?" The in charged person let our her warmest smile. Her outer physique was dissembling and I almost made a huge deal out of it.

I thought that they don't want us here, which was clearly wrong when she welcomed us warmly, her smile never leaving his beautiful face. "I'm Mrs. Shim, I'm the in charge for transfer students." Her hand landed in the wrong place, making her cup of tea fall down. She nervously put tissues on the spilled tea and on the wet documents, but she still gestured us to speak. My nervous self didn't know what to do, but gladly found my composure.

"W-we're from Southside University in the Philippines, and we're here to do a research about kpop idols' coping mechanism to mental illness but you don't need to know that. Im sorry," I reported in a very fast pace while fidgeting my necklace.

Everyone in the room were frozen, with their eyes on me. Mrs Shim seem to find her composure as well. She cleared her throat and gave me her smile again, I wish those smiles could make my nerves calm down. "Your timing is very precise, Miss, I have a brother who loves studying people's minds. Do you want his contact?" She asked, sitting comfortably in her chair, "but you need to work for him if you want that research to be successful," she added.

Unless we don't see this helpful enough, of course we took the opportunity.

We all went straight to our homeroom and found the professor already discussing something, so we bowed and took our seats. We were informed that this ongoing class is literature. We all find this class fascinating, even though most of our classmates in the Philippines talk about Lang Leav's poems. I did hope they talk about the classics, you know? "So we have new students here," the professor said with his orotund voice. I always like educators who are so generous to speak with this kind of voice, so I'm all ears for him. 

"Would you mind sharing one of your favorite stories?" He ordered flashing his eyes to Gabby who's obviously prepared. 

Gabby answered The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, then it's my turn. "My name is Zim and one of my favorite stories is To Kill A Mockingbird," I said. 

"The story is so naïve," an unknown voice murmured. All eyes are on me again and I hope people would stop giving me their eyes, for the nth time, my knees are trembling that I can't even feel it anymore. "That's rude," Dara uttered, making her stand from her seat. 

"It won the Pulitzer, anyway." A dead voice butted in. 

With voice too dead, I can see the back of the owners'. His shoulders are so wide and calming, "Okay, Vernon, you're not allowed to butt in," the professor calmly disrupted. The class is almost ending but my focus has been snatched by that guy with the dead voice. Who is he and why is he not allowed to talk?

The bell rung so loud and I'm glad that the class was over for the first time. I just wanted to go home already. My team started getting trays for their food in the cafeteria but I don't feel like eating a heavy meal so I've decided to just try vending machine snacks. I straightened my bill so it would not get jammed and picked a cute-looking bread. I realized I also need a drink so I inserted another bill and pressed a button to get a boxed strawberry milk. I crouched down to pick my milk from the dropped items hole, but I can see no milk in there. I checked the hole for nothing, when I stood, I saw that a boxed milk has been stuck inside. What an actual tragedy.

"You have to buy something again to make it drop," a familiar voice advised. I turned to him and saw how his eyes flashed. His right earplug hanging on his shoulder, he is wearing a beanie now, which made him look ten thousand times attractive. There's a lump on my throat. He inserted a bill and got himself the same drink I wanted, it made my stuck drink fall down. He crouched down to get his drink so I crouched down to get mine as well, but I realized it's a bad idea when we head banged each other. We both took steps backward while holding our own heads, trying to lessen the pain we caused each other. "I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to," I said.

"It's fine," he flashed his widest grin and picked up my drink that I dropped when we bumped into each other. "You're not from here, right? I'm Vernon by the way." He extended his hand and offered a handshake. I gladly took it, before I lose my composure again, I got terrified by his voice's sudden change. He sounds lively now.

"I'm from the Philippines, as well as the other four I was sitting with earlier." I fidget with my necklace. "I can tell." His phone rings and he immediately excused himself so he can answer it. The last words from him was hyung, I'm on my way back.

When I found my way back to our table, Matty is enjoying his cafeteria meal while Dara and Zephyr gave up with their food. Gabby is tapping his fingers loudly again. "Where have you been?"

When we were 11th graders, I have no friends at all. But ever since I had them as my research team, I felt the need to explain and tell them everything. We're all basically the holy team because of the friendship we have now. "My drink got stuck on the vendo," I informed them.

Zephyr's been browsing her phone for a while now, and she lets out a startled look. "Do you guys remember the guy who butted in from our lit class earlier?" She asked. Of course I remember, he just saved me twice.

"He's an idol!"