B2363 - Locker

???: [YO, WATAFAK, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING INTRUDING INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S LIVING SPACE?!]

I took two steps into the room only to be shouted at by a blue silhouette. It belongs to an obnoxiously familiar face dressed in a rather childishly-designed pyjamas (The theme was sports, specifically ball games ranging from basketball, football and baseball to tchoukball, kin-ball and Sepak Takraw)

Previously, I was having trouble sleeping and decided to take a walk. Then I met Somni the Insomniac and was stopped from said walk. I was about to make my way back to my room but this is where we ended up.

???: [Stare, yes, continue to stare, it isn't weird at all for a guy to stare at a girl when he intrudes into her room…]

Unable to control the floodgates of her sarcasm was Yang, one of the students of Class EI7.

More specifically, it was the holographic projection of a pyjamas-wearing Yang, crossing her arms and blocking my way from entering any further into her room.

Not that a hologram could physically stop me.

Yang: [HEY, HEY, HOLD IT, STOP RIGHT THERE, I SAY!]

Walking through Hologram Yang, I invited myself into her humble abode.

I was about to leave but her "inviting" attitude prompted me to stay for that much longer just to get on her nerves.

The room was about half the size of mine but being packed with a double-deck bunk bed made out of a metallic frame and a table, not to mention a bookshelf and a closet too, there was near little to no space for one to even stand.

???: [Hmm? Yang…? What is it…?]

Another holographic figure materialised, this time, she was seated upright in the bottom deck, eyes narrowed to almost a straight horizontal line after being awoken by the ruckus.

Yang: [Yin, you see this guy? He has the gall to waltz right into our room as if it was his! The audacity!]

Slowly rubbing her eyes and squinting, Yang's twin got out of her cosy blanket and turned on the night light that was hooked onto the bed frame.

Yin: [Ah, Ko, is that you? Sorry about the mess here, we don't usually have people coming over…]

She sat herself by the bedside to face me the moment she identified who I was.

Unlike her counterpart, Yin was not wearing pyjamas. Instead, what was projected in her hologram was the rough outline of a trench coat. Most probably a jet black trench coat, the same jet black trench coat that she is seen wearing every second she was in school.

Ko: [Oh, no. Sorry about waking you up so suddenly, Yin. I will make my leave now.]

I have no qualms about making Yang frustrated but if it causes a ripple effect to Yin, a much better and well-respected person, then I have to re-evaluate my actions.

That and the fact that I do not wish to entertain the fraction of a doubt as to why a well-respected person would wear her trench coat to sleep.

Yin: [Not to worry, you needed something, right? Take a seat.]

Pushing aside parts of her uniform and undergarments haphazardly thrown onto the bed, she gently patted at a space cleared beside her, gesturing for me to sit.

Ko: [Oh, no, it is quite alright. Don't want to trouble you…]

Yin: [Take a seat.]

She repeated her instructions despite my attempt to leave.

Overbearing was her command that left me no choice but to take a seat, not cross-legged or legs dangling by the bed, but in seiza position, even though I'm pretty sure I was not the one at fault here.

Pretty sure.

Yin: [So? What are you here for?]

Being asked that question point-blank, I began to doubt my circumstance as well.

I was in the midst of returning to my room after being chased by Somni, but the door on the row of red metal lockers that I initially thought would lead to my room connected me to Yang and Yin's room instead.

At a certain point in time, Yang took her seat on the chair that is situated in front of the table, a chair that occupied even more of the precious little space the room is already steadily running out of.

The twins' intense stares at such proximity did not help ease my thought process.

Ko: [This is going to sound very dumb, but I was having trouble sleeping and took a stroll but some school personnel stopped me and guided me back. I tried going back to my room but I ended up here instead.]

Yang: [Maybe try counting, from one to a quintillion, that should do the trick.]

Ko: [I would have more problems than insomnia if I were to go through with that…]

It wasn't my intent to make light of my situation but our exchange prompted a smile on Yin's face.

Yin: [I see…We got some tea that might help with that, want some?]

Phrased as a question but that wasn't a question, Yang finished what I would assume brewing of said tea even before Yin completed her sentence and shoved the cup of tea to my face.

She seemed oddly excited in the process, almost more so than all the misadventures she dragged the whole class into out of her own interest. Nah, that can't be right, must have been my imagination.

Staring back at me from the cup were petals of purple floating around in the water.

Ko: [Say, aren't these morning glories?]

I remembered reading somewhere that morning glories served to energize more so than to promote sleep, unlike lavender.

Yin: [Wrong flowers?]

Yang: [Wrong flowers, force of habit, my bad…]

She moved the cup of tea out of my face and scratched the back of her head.

Before she was about to pour away the contents of the cup into the bin, I took the cup out of her hands and emptied its contents into myself instead.

Ko: [Thanks for the tea, I guess I won't be sleeping tonight after all!]

I returned the empty cup to Yang with a faint smile. She received it with a rather dumbfounded expression and a soft mutter of "You're welcome, I guess" that could be easily heard within such a small room at such close proximity.

Yin: [Our apologies, seems like we are of not much help…]

Yin made a dejected face uncharacteristic of that countenance that knows not but carefree glee in sweeping everyone along in her wake.

Ko: [No, no, it is quite alright. At least we now know it isn't caused by something physical like fatigue.]

I hate the me that has to play the role of the comforter but that was the right thing to do.

Yin: [You might be right. Perhaps it might be an issue of the mental or psychological kind… Do you feel like you have yet to finish what you wanted to complete?]

Not really

I shrugged my shoulders in response to her expression deep in thought. Anything is better than the dejection she was showing a moment ago.

Yang: [There really ain't much we can do for you then. Sorry for the waste of time. We won't hold you any longer, hope you can… what is with that stupid face?]

Yang stopped herself mid-sentence to comment on what I would presume to be sheer shock donned on my face.

Did Yang,

The Yang,

Just apologised?

Yang: [YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING RUDE, AREN'T YOU?! Well whatever, hurry up and leave and get to sleep or something!]

She turned her head away with her arms crossed but I couldn't miss the massive pout she was making.

Yin beside me only silently waved her hands goodbye before the blue hue of the twins' hologram dimmed to non-existence, leaving my lonesome still in Seiza position on the bottom deck of a bunk bed in the small, small room that was the twins' room.

~~~

You sure you do not need any support?

Ko: [NOPE, I AM A OKAY!]

Greeting me as I left the room with wobbly legs was Somni, a figure wearing clothes of white with skin pale enough to fit the part.

I couldn't exactly pin a specific word to the expression he(?) was making with the already-unfamiliar face of his(?).

I thought you returned to your room, why did you come out again?

Ko: [The locker linked me to Yang's room out of each and every one of my 22 other classmates…]

Oh, intruding on two ladies' room in the dead of the night, what a…

Ko: [DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT THOUGHT, plus, they were not physically there, only their holograms responded. Those two would always commute to and fro their home and school, so seeing them after school hours, let alone together, isn't something that would happen normally…]

Woah, woah, chill. Energetic much?

Ko: [It's the morning glories… The tea they gave me is giving me a high, I'm further and further away from sleeping!!]

High indeed, how could holograms serve you tea?

Ko: [That's a…]

The sudden question Somni gave me woke me up from my high, even though I thought I couldn't be any more awake than I actually am.

Delving deeper, if holograms are made out of waves i.e. light, how is it physically possible for them to, say, get out of a blanket, switch on a night light, push away laundry, pull out a chair and brew tea?

Ko: [...?...]

Then again, if it is Yang, she would probably respond with "Turning light into matter is but a mere child's play to me" and laugh maniacally…

Ko: [That is not… wait, I can totally see that happening…]

FUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ko: [It's like I could almost hear her… There is no need to imitate her, I could imagine it myself…]

Ending that exchange there, I gave the door on the rows of the red metal locker another try.

???: [Yo, Ko.]

It was a simple greeting, spanning two words in total, coming from a laptop charging from a socket plucked into the locker.

On the other side of the door was the interior of a locker, plain and simple, several empty compartments less one containing the charging laptop and phone but that was it.

The other side was nowhere near the size of personal rooms that Yang and I and the other students would normally face.

Ko: [Isn't this the actual norm instead of whatever bizarre rules that this school operates under?]

???: [?]

Ko: [Sorry, Five, that was a weird thing to say. Have you not slept yet?]

I posed the question to the laptop as it flickers on, revealing the panda eyes of a familiar classmate.

Five: [Nope~ Still editing, how I wish there were some kind soul out there who would offer to help me, sniffer sniffer…]

Five expertly sprinkled droplets of water near his eyes to pretend to tear.

Ko: [Welp, I will leave you to it then, see you tomorrow!]

I closed the door slowly behind me.

Five: [Wait, Ko, that was a joke…No I wasn't joking about needing help… wait, don't leave me, isn't it the case that "us guys got to…]

His sentence was cut off without him being able to finish his quote.

At least that little exchange confirmed one thing:

The lockers have been reconfigured.

Ko: [Hey, I can finish my thoughts myself, thank you very much.]

Somni merely chuckled.

Having done Five duty before, or in common terms, making-sure-to-take-care-of-the-appliances-Five-is-on-and-bringing-him-along-around-school, I would know for a fact which locker is Five's locker that we need to use to charge his laptop and phone.

The one I opened just now is nowhere near where it should actually be.

That and I swear the rooms I tried to open to for the past two tries were supposed to lead to my own room…

Next one?

Ko: [Next one!]

~~~

And what's behind door number three?

I opened the third door hoping that the third time was the charm, but the room that the locker is leading me to this time is once again dissimilar to my humble room.

However, it was a room decorated with the minimalist approach not too different from mine, with few items, necessities specifically, placed outside for easy reach.

Everything else that doesn't need to be there was completely absent, that includes whatever small knick-knacks or identification markers that would serve to personalise this single room with a single bed to its single owner.

Ko: [Yeah, there's no way for me to deduce which of my classmates does this room belong to… Most I can do is to rule out mine, Yang/Yin's and Five's.]

My words rang hollow amidst the still air of the room, air so still that I doubt it is even moving or has seen movement in the past decade.

Although the room is a small room, it came with all things one would need with extra space that would prevent one from feeling cramped at all.

It was a room much like mine and unlike Yang/Yin's.

Just as I was making mental room comparisons, the door behind me rattled and opened.

There he was, the owner of the room, standing by the entrance to his room against the backdrop of the dim hallway lights, shedding nothing of the feelings and thoughts going on within his head.

Ko: [Yo.]

???: [Yo.]

He was responsive though, with the basic capability to return my greeting as if we were friends who have yet to see each other for years after graduation.

???: [Pfft, ha, HAHAHAHAHAHA, what are you doing here, Ko?]

Ko: [Hahahahahaha, I don't even have the slightest hint of what is happening!]

There, in the room, the owner and his intruder stood, laughing almost to the extent of having stomach cramps.

???: [...hahaha, ha! That was quite the laugh, I think I had enough aerobic exercise for the week! How about you, Ko?]

Ko: [Quite the same, Hiro, enough to even consider skipping PE!]

Hiroshi, full name Hiroshi Sagasu, or "Hiro" as he forced us to call him, is one of the guys in EI7.

Rowdy but not intrusive, he was the lubricant that influenced all seven of us guys to be so bonded with one another.

Hiroshi: [So? What brings me the pleasure of having you here? Each student's locker is biometrically tagged to each individual, so you must be really stumped if you had to find a way in to find me.]

Ko: [Wait, is that true?]

Not only was he charismatic and approachable to all, but he was also knowledgeable in even the most niche that is to know and is often correct with what he does know as well, so much so that he is one of the very few students in EI7 capable of keeping up with Ms. September's lessons.

Hiroshi: [Sure is, but don't ask me how the locker works though… Whatever that is happening in this room is the work of something beyond physics!]

The locker must have been quite the spectacle if even Hiroshi threw in the towel in trying to understand it.

With that in mind, I began explaining my circumstances to him.

…

Hiroshi: [Pfft, ha, I mean sorry to hear that, your inability to sleep isn't something to laugh at.]

Holding his laugh in, Hiroshi tried his best to empathise with my dumb problem. It is truly frustrating how small of a problem it is but yet how annoying it would be to leave it unresolved.

Ko: [I'm all ears to any suggestions. Tried drinking tea so far but to no avail, in fact, to the opposite effect. At the very least, we were able to narrow it down to a problem with the psyche but that was about it…]

Hiroshi: [Psyche? You sure a cup of warm milk wouldn't fix it?]

With a flick of a wrist, a jug of milk came flying from across the room, miraculously failing to spill any of its contents along the way as Hiroshi caught it in the hand he held out.

After which, he took out an empty glass from the drawer underneath his table and poured me a three-quarter glass of milk, steam still going off from its surface.

Ko: [Thanks but it's really ok, I think I have enough to drink for the night…]

Hiroshi: [Well, your loss, it is fresh from the cafeteria so its taste is more or less guaranteed~]

Putting aside the glass of milk onto the table, Hiroshi continued the discussion.

Hiroshi: [Well, if you can't sleep even after going through all that, instead of concluding with a problem of the mind, perhaps you might want to be prescribed some medicine…]

Ko: [Wait wait wait, what in the blue marble is that?]

Or so he tried to continue before I so rudely interrupted him just when he was a clause away from finishing his sentence. I could have interjected earlier but my brain needed the extra time to process what my eyes just saw.

Hiroshi: [What? This?]

He flicked his wrist again, this time his pillow from his bed on the other side of the room was the one that came flying as if attracted to his hand. He easily caught the pillow and threw it over to me.

Hiroshi: [Don't worry about it, think of it as my power of sorts, which pales in comparison to the rest of the class.]

Ko: [You telling me your "power of sorts" is that you are a F*rce User and that is considered bad in comparison!? Next thing I know, you are going to bust out your L*ghtsaber to silence me for Breaking and Entering!]

Hiroshi: [Of course not…]

Ko: [You would do a better job denying me if you looked me straight in the eyes.]

Refusing to look into my eyes, Hiroshi wormed his way out of my line of questioning by abruptly changing the topic.

Hiroshi: [In terms of possible problems of the psyche, you might be looking at loose ends of the past that plagues the mind and forces you awake at night. Do you have any unfinished business to attend to?]

Ko: [Not that I can think of…]

Hiroshi: [I will pose myself as an example: Every waking moment, I am on a mission to find my sister through any and all means available to me.]

Ko: [Eh…?]

The mood of the conversation took a sudden serious turn as he brought up a small pocket-sized notebook out of his drawer.

Hiroshi: [Through my investigations so far, she received a specific letter of enrollment into a not-so-well-known school a good six years, three months, and four days ago. She studied there for three years on a weekly commute basis, coming back home only during the weekends and returning to school on weekdays.]

He flipped a few pages of the book before resuming his report.

Hiroshi: [However, after her graduation, she did not come home. Having combed almost every nook and cranny of the city, I can say at the very least that she isn't in the part of the city available to the public domain.]

Hiroshi paused his report for a moment to look at the page he had stopped.

The room was barely illuminated apart from the desk lamp that he had switched on when he entered but amidst the poor lighting, the determination, the devotion and feelings that words fail to encompass shone through like the lights of a lighthouse in the dark of the night.

Ko: [Sis-con much?]

Hiroshi: [Damn straight I am! So if you ever heard of a "Nozomi Sagasu", "Sagasu Nozomi", "Ms. Sagasu", "Nozomi-chan", "S.N." or any combination or derivation of the above, you know who to find.]

His stares bore deeply into my soul though only for a second, before returning to his usual cheery self at my attempt to lighten the mood.

Hiroshi: [All that is to say, sometimes your subconscious mind and body have a way of keeping you awake, nudging you to "go and complete that thing already, you big oaf!" or something along that line. Maybe that is why you always have that signature half-closed eyelids of yours, tagging along in a state between sleepy and absent.]

Ko: [I am none of that and I feel energetic enough to go about my day-to-day as is…]

The conversation carried on with some friendly chit-chat here and there that doesn't amount to anything substantial.

It wasn't long before we bid our farewells and to meet once again the next morning, or more precisely, later the morning.

~~~

Still nothing?

Ko: [Nope, this time it is Hiroshi's, I grew tired of trying, maybe I will have better luck catching forty winks if I just sleep on the floor here…]

Please have some dignity…

Once again, Somni was the one waiting for me in the empty hallways of Edward Institute.

Ko: [Guess I will have to continue trying then…]

I opened the door of the locker for the fourth time, this time round forcing myself to suppress whatever expectations I may have.

Just as I opened the door ajar, I remembered a small detail.

Ko: [Oh right, you stopped me from going to the cafeteria but you let Hiroshi roam scot-free, talk about double standards.]

Hmm…? There are no night owls other than yourself tonight, nobody was seen in the hallways as far as I'm concerned, what are you…

Ko: [I don't know why you are playing dumb but fortunately for you, I like a challenge. Mark my words, today is the first and only time you will catch me, Fuahahahaha!]

Leaving those last words behind, I entered the new room without waiting to see what Somni had to say in response.

The new room was dimly lit with the sole source of light being the desk light on the table.

Slumped before the table with her head on the table was a girl with messy hair.

A part of me had the knee-jerk reaction to check whether she was conscious seeing that she seemed completely motionless but that worry was nullified after seeing the faint rise and fall of her slumped shoulders, signifying breathing.

Which means the gentlemanly thing to do would be to leave immediately without overstaying my non-existent welcome.

But before that:

Ko: [You know, sleeping like this is why your hair is perpetually messy…]

With her hand still holding the pen, she was clearly in the process of writing something, albeit ineligible in more ways than one, before she lost to the Z monster.

The drool rolling down her cheeks is beginning to form a puddle on the book of regal blue she brought along everywhere she went. No doubt it would be a major nuisance later on.

Navigating the sea of scattered papers each filled to the brim with writings and notes and annotations that serve to inform no one else but herself, I managed to find what I was looking for unfolded and thrown to one side of her bed that seemed barely used:

Her blanket.

Gently, I lay the blanket over her shoulders after folding it into an appropriate size.

Ko: [See you later at 13:00, Setsuna.]

With that, I tiptoed my way out of the room while avoiding the myriad of obstacles that was her disorganised room.

No comments shall be made about the series of cork boards plastered around the four walls, tacked with layers upon layers of post-its, type-written reports, hand-written notes, polaroid photos and the such, linked together via strings of varying colour.

No, I would just comment that the whole room even seems conspiratorial but coming from a fellow student of EI7, Setsuna Tai, a known offender of committing herself to doing seemingly unrelated actions all the time, it became something that can be passed off as "idiosyncratic".

For the past few weeks, she has been dragging me off at a specific time around lunch to stand before the staircase entrance, barely even doing anything.

At a certain point in time, I completely followed along with the whole shtick, even helping her to streamline the process by placing myself strategically around the place before the stipulated time, even if she is always be able to tell wherever I am.

So, whose is it this time?

I gently closed the door behind me before turning to face Somni yet again.

Ko: [Not telling.]

Denying him(?) the satisfaction of knowing was my retaliation to the injustice of just now.

Keep your secrets, then. Regarding the thing you were saying just now, I have thought about it and concluded that you might have seen a ghost instead

Ko: [Who are you calling a ghost!? The last person I want to hear that from is the pale ghost that is you!]

I am not a ghost, I am C0504 - The Insomniac. Although, I have a feeling that the next door would be the right one.

Ko: [Strangely, I feel that way too. Bye, I guess?]

I would say "see you around" but that might jinx it so you get nothing.

Shooting a thumbs-up, Somni left behind those words of encouragement before seeing me off to my next attempt.

Final attempt, in fact for behind the fifth door is finally my room,

My humble room packed only with what I need in positions where I most needed them to be.

Sitting myself down by the table, I packed away my belongings in preparation for the next day's lessons.

Ko: [You know what, since we are less than an hour away from school, I might as well do some more previews, making full use of my time and all…]

Reaching into my bag underneath the table, I felt for the reference materials that would be gone through later, only to strike something hard and foreign.

I looked below the table, only to be greeted by the smooth white texture of a small mini-fridge.

Ko: [Since when did we… you know what? I'm not even going to question it anymore.]

Opening the mini-fridge in hopes of finding refuge in some cold drinks of any kind, I was instead greeted with cold air.

Ko: [I should have known better than to expect anything...]

Guess it was reading without any cold beverage for me.

Dancing around the walls of text, a miraculous change began to befall me.

Ko: [You've got to be kidding me. Barely two pages in? School is about to start, I can't…]

However, the more I say or think, the heavier my eyelids become, to the point that looking around properly is no longer a viable option.

Ko: [At least… let me…]

I tried to reach for my phone to make sure my alarm clock was switched on but the Z monster got to me before I could.

Ko: [...31…]

I think I was the only one late that day despite being just 20-ish meters away from the classroom.

[End of Chapter]

***_****: [I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, 2 WEEKS LEFT AND I STILL HAVE 15k TO GO (at the time of writing)! WHAT DO I DO?!]

Ko: [I was just about to fall asleep…]

***_****: [WHAT DO I DO!?!]

Ko: [I don't know, maybe start writing for once?]

***_****: [If you have to choose between dying from being smashed by a 25-ton rock or dying from drowning by a 25-ton mass of fine sand, each grain being dropped onto you at regular one-minute intervals, what would you choose?]

Ko: [Maybe also try not to be distracted so easily as well, how about that?]

***_****: [What if I don't sleep, and focus solely on writing…]

Ko: [There you go again, asking for the impossible… *Sigh* Next chapter, a student-specific chapter, we are finally kicking into plot, with barely two weeks left.]

***_****: [...I can probably finish this in seven days, yeah, there is probably still time for…]

Ko: [YOU KNOW THAT IS NOT HAPPENING!]

[End of End Card]