[2.1] The Dream After School

Salmon, inari, fried chicken, or a teriyaki bento box...

Teru yawned as he mulled over his options for tonight from the selection of clearance food in the 8-Mart convenience store.

He made some decent progress with his studies today, but let too much time pass without noticing. 

Now it was getting late, and he didn't want to go to sleep with a bloated stomach.

Eeny meeny miny moe.

He took the half-off pack of eight inari that his finger landed on into his basket, his eye catching something in the corner of his vision as he took the container.

It was a pink, square piece of pastry with several layers, labelled 'Sakura mille feuille cheesecake'. 

Guess it was flower viewing season, after all. Not that it stopped him from frowning at the reminder that his friends were probably enjoying the cherry blossoms with their new circles.

Still, that fusion cake sounded like a concoction he'd see in the Dream. Keina would probably love it. Yumeppo would take two to go with his precious lemon sours.

Too bad he can't actually bring stuff from real life into the dreams with him. Not that he'd buy the cake at 900 yen for a single slice.

...

Teru pinched himself to make sure he wasn't actually in a dream, nodding as he felt the sharp pain on his skin. 

Granted, things weren't as floaty or whimsical or vibrant compared to Keina's Dream, but one of these days, he was going to mix the two existences up. 

Like those dreams of painstakingly waking up and getting ready for school, only to wake back up in bed. He hated those.

Though with him, that's kind of a moot point since every single dream as of late starts with him already in school.

And there's no mistaking that for real life.

Speaking of said dream, Teru grabbed the last item he came for off the shelf: a packet of Minazuki GABA chocolate, specially designed to aid sleep.

It was a few hundred yen more expensive than the 8-Mart-branded GABA chocolate, but reviews said this brand was the best for sleep effectiveness. Hopefully, it was potent enough that he wouldn't randomly wake up to another stray notification or other sounds mid-date.

After all, if it's a perfect enough date that could wake Keina up for good, then randomly ditching her would be the polar opposite of that.

And it was chocolate too, so that also solves any sugar cravings.

"Thank you very much!" The cashier said as he paid. 

Teru made a slight bow as he replied.

"I—tha—uh—your w—you too."

...

He took his bag and quickly dipped, mentally slapping himself once he was outside.

'Thank you.' 'Thank you.' 

Two. Simple. Words.

And he still tripped over them.

He just sighed as he began walking back home.

If only talking were as easy as in his dreams.

---

He woke up at school again, as he always did. 

This time, it was the science lab, a row of vacant Bunsen burners emitting rainbow-colored flames on his table.

Teru left the room as the chemistry teacher yelled at him, as expected.

"Teru! There you are!" A familiar, endearing voice hopped behind him in the hallway.

"Hey Keina," He turned around to face her. This was his part of the Dream, but she was always quick to meet him inside the school. Almost like they were actually attending this place.

"Yesterday ended up being pretty crazy!" She leaned forward with a grin. Teru raised his eyebrow.

"You mean the cruise?" He asked. His memory was a little fuzzy since he woke up from that dream at some point without realizing. Another reason to GABA up.

"Yeah!" She twirled around as she filled him in. 

"Yumeppo and I stayed on the cruise after you woke up. It went through some really sharp turns before we got out of the ravine. But then it rammed into an iceberg that came out of nowhere, and then it ended."

His eyes widened. "That sounded like it escalated to eleven the moment I was out."

"It sure did! I landed on the iceberg, so I was fine, but Yumeppo fell overboard trying to save his drink." That alcoholic mascot. 

She giggled. "The dream stopped before we had to do any actual evacuation, though, so we were fine."

He tilted his head, wondering if the Dream cut itself short before it actually had to realistically enact the outcome of a ship sinking. 

Either way, it looked like the dream scenarios don't suddenly just stop when he's gone.

Still, with her wearing his school's uniform, she looked like she was recounting a family vacation gone wrong.

Like the school's rich beauty.

She smiled with a faint blush. "Aw, thanks! I really like this red blazer with the gold buttons! My school uniform was just the usual navy blue."

Teru scratched his slightly red cheek, forgetting about the 'no private inner monologue' thing again.

But it was admittedly refreshing that he could just think 'A' and say 'A'.

Wonder why here he doesn't think 'A' and get both brain and tongue-tied with 'B', 'C' and 'D', like real life.

"Oh, Yumeppo mentioned something about that before." Keina put a finger on her chin. 

"Something about how we're basically just mental recreations of ourselves in a dream and not our real selves. So anything we do here is like a simulation, and not us physically doing it for real."

Teru mirrored her action. "So, something like not actually using my vocal cords to talk, even when I'm moving my mouth to speak? And I'm basically doing telepathy every time I think something?"

"Something like that!" She concluded by moving her fingers to her temples, pretending to be a psychic. "Kinda like how what happens in a dream is based on what you think... I think!"

"Huh," he said, hit with a realization, "Now that you mention it, the teachers here do always tend to yell at me whenever I leave the class, right when I think about they're about to do it."

Or when other students look at him for suddenly getting up. Because that would be what he expects to happen in real life.

"Or maybe you're just quite the serial skipper, Teru." She teased with a giggle.

"T-That's because they're not real!" He protested. "I behaved myself in real life!"

Instead of another teasing follow-up, Keina just dialled back her energy with an "Oh. Right."

"So, where to for today's date?" She quickly changed the topic while still maintaining a smile.

Teru frowned. Guess easier communication doesn't necessarily stop him from putting his foot in his mouth. But since she shifted gears, he probably shouldn't drag the subject out further. 

Or keep thinking about it, for that matter.

"Well," He said as he followed her lead, "Do you think if we tried to go back to that Cruise Dream, it'd be sailing someplace new or continue from the iceberg?"

"Oh, good question!" Keina chose a random door in the hallway to enter as she beckoned Teru over.

"Let's see for ourselves! Leave it to me!"

---

"Leave it to you, huh?" Teru poked at a puzzled Keina.

The two did not find themselves back on the deck, travelling the sea.

Instead, they found themselves on a bustling street, adorned with a vibrant medley of cherry blossoms. Cars and motorcycles of various colors drove by as if in a parade, stopping only at a large pedestrian crossing that looked like the one in Shibuya, but shaped like the letter Y.

All very clearly on land.

They were seated near the front of a crowded line-up, comprised mostly of girls, that extended far behind the corner; a length that suggested they had been lining up for hours.

Even though they literally just got here from his school. They didn't even change out of their uniforms.

"Good job on no rain at least?" He joked.

"Maybe we're actually on a boat?" She coped.

"With trains above us?" The ground shook as one passed by with impeccable timing, the railing curving like a low-intensity roller coaster.

"A very big boat." She said, high-strung.

The Host of the Dream's tenuous grasp over her own domain strikes again.

"I-I guess this works too, though!" Stammered Keina, "Something smells really good!"

There was a scent of strawberry and something rich that permeated the air from a fancy and chic building they were in front of, accompanying all the chattering, laughter and picture taking from everyone trying to get in.

"It's like one of those trendy cafes with really nice-looking cakes that everyone always lines up for hours to get in," Teru remarked, before thinking over what he just said with a second look around.

That was exactly what this was.

"Ooh! So this is an after-school cafe date?" Keina's eyes sparkled as she caught on, before catching herself and pretending to cough.

"I mean, all according to plan."

"Sure you did." Teru's eyes playfully rolled as she attempted to preserve some dignity.

Still, an after-school date, at a trendy cafe he never would have lined up for in real life under normal circumstances.

This sounded like potential for a perfect Dream Date.