First encounter.

With a twist of my wrist, I welcome myself to my new asylum. A small studio apartment courtesy of NUR, it was one of the grants to all international students.

With a quick look, I could find that I was the first to arrive, after all as the bunk bed would suggest, I was to share the room with another student. Closing the door behind him, I enter with the tips of my feet. Laying my luggage at a side of the room, I immediately jumped onto the bed.

"I will get used to it eventually..."

I wasn't expecting much, so I didn't have any complaints to voice.

I then headed towards the small room in the corner of the room. Gently pushing the door open, my eyes get flashbanged.

"Ah." I immediately cover my eyes with my arm. 

As my eyes get used to the radiating sunlight reflecting off the clear white room, I slip my arm away.

"At least this place is above my expectations." I get relieved by the staff's care towards my bathroom.

I head toward the inbuilt cupboards installed within the walls of the small studio apartment. Opening them up, they are empty.

Well, it's not like I expected to be gifted anything.

This time I turn towards the small apartment's terrace.

I slide the window-framed gate open and immerse myself in the blue ocean.

The song of the crashing waves turns my mind numb.

"Now this is something I won't get bored of..."

I throw myself onto the bed once again, Cover myself, and decide to sleep.

I haven't changed, and the door is unlocked, but I simply cannot be bothered.

"♪~~...♪~~~..."

A distant voice could be heard, I force my body up, my brain still hazy.

"...♪~~~..."

A calming voice coming from the end of the room. Humming that rythmed alongside the ocean's waves.

I was left awestruck. A scene that was simply novel.

Long strands of hair strayed away freely alongside the sea breeze. A voice that the waves danced to. And a figure ever so fragile you couldn't help but feel protective of.

Having just woken up, such a scene was simply overwhelming.

The figure spins around its eyes shut, moving into the room without a care in the world, its rhythmic humming doesn't stop.

A calming melody that could've put me right back into sleep for not my overwhelmed state.

As its eyelids slide open, exposing the emerald behind them, the carefree expression is turned apologetic.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you up?" An awkward laugh followed, "The view was simply out of this world, I couldn't help but be absorbed by it." A beaming smile overwhelms her apology as the frail figure points toward the blue ocean with her thumb backward over her left shoulder.

Her smile disappears as she tilts her head confused.

"Umm... Hello?"  she places her index finger on top of her left cheek.

It was then that I realized my situation.

My eyes were wide open, my mouth was practically drooling due to my sleep, and I had probably been covered with bed hair, and yet I was intently staring at a stranger, nonetheless a young girl who looked of my age.

"I-it's nothing, I wasn't sleepy in the first place." I quickly avoid the force of her presence forcing my face to the other side.

'I'm probably red as a tomato right now.' My situation was pathetic as they came.

"Is that so? you were snoring pretty loudly just a bit ago." She giggled.

I could only imagine the expression I had held. My contact with the opposite gender has been extremely limited up until now, to find one in front of me, and under such circumstances, was something way beyond what I had signed up for.

I lower myself back onto my pillow and hide under the blanket.

"A-anyway... I will just head out for a bit... please lock the door from now on." The young girl voiced as her footsteps echoed throughout the mostly empty room.

Soon after, the door could be heard as she closed it behind her.

I slowly push the blanket off of me and look around the empty room, I confirm her departure.

With an audible sigh, I regret my own patheticness.

"That... That was something to wake up to." The scene of her blending with the ocean replays in my mind.

"But then again... Who is she?"

I bring myself back to reality trying to understand.

Looking around the room, the only stuff around was the bag I had laid when I first got here. I did leave the door open, but did she really just walk in like that? When a person was sleeping, apparently snoring as well, and headed towards their terrace?

Actually, what type of luck was that? To hit the only room in the complex with an unlocked door that is. Was this all just one big stroke of luck? Or could she be none other than the occupant of the empty bed above me?

But, a mixed dorm room? was that even possible? I've never heard of such a thing before. Not like I knew every dorm system out there, but I would've surely heard about it from the university beforehand... right?

...

I had found myself pondering again.

I couldn't head back to sleep after that whole ordeal, so instead I decided to get up and walk around the town which was a 10-minute walk away from the campus. Maybe part of me was hoping to run into her again, but I had convinced myself that it was to kill time and nothing else.

Slightly disappointed, I left the campus ground without running into anyone familiar.

'Maybe she was just a figment leftover from whatever I was dreaming about?' I tried to rationalize the situation but then stopped my pathetic thought process.

Reaching the "town" all I could think was just.

"This is a complete ghost town."

The streets were empty, the shops were closed, and the windows were shut. Aimlessly, I continued to wander into the ghost town.

"Oh, there are people." 

In the distance I could see a couple of kids running through the streets, eventually passing me. 

I wondered if I had enjoyed my childhood as much as they were enjoying theirs.

The deeper I got into the town, the more people came to sight. Though it was questionable if the people here were living in the same world as the people outside, they all smiled and laughed openly.

The whole town screamed old-school, from the laundry lines running overhead the roads to the shopkeepers sitting and playing board games outside their stores. It left me with a sense of nostalgia for something I never knew I could be nostalgic for.

Eventually, the town had ended, and I had reached the start of the forest path. I quickly contemplated turning back but decided to head deeper with the hope of an encounter.

I had yet to recover from my waking shock.

The smell of greenery invades the air. With every step, the leaves beneath my feet crunch. The cicadas sound the heat of the summer, and the shrubs dance to the sea's breeze. A scene, all so foreign to a kid raised in the city.

Walking the path, people pass me here and there, all smiling and greeting me in their local language. As I walk the path aimlessly, I find an opening within the shrubs that had been acting as guardrails to not set foot into the forest.

I had been surrounded by nothing but greenery then, not a hint of life as far as my eye could see, so with my interest piqued, I fell victim to my curiosity and followed the secondary path. Immediately I could tell this path wasn't meant for people to step into, as the ground was uneven and rough, it would ever so often get blocked by a tree which I would have to maneuver around.

Eventually, pushing through the last wall of shrubbery, I find myself stepping into a clearing.

As if the forest avoids this forsaken circle, a single boulder sits in the middle surrounded by nothing but grass as if the forest's consciously making the effort. The boulder speaks of its age, with its rough edges, algae-covered surface,  and the engravings covering it from all sides, from initials to signatures, you would think it was a tourist landmark.

As I step towards it, absorbed by its existence, a voice suddenly calls out to me.

"So you're the lucky one." A carefree voice sounds from atop.

I step back in surprise and immediately turn facing the voice.

"Yo." With an easy-going smile, the man raises his arm to greet me.

Being on guard of his sudden appearance, I find myself not replying.

"Come on now, can't you be any more respectable to your senior?" The man visually displays his annoyance.

'Senior?' "Senior?" I unintentionally voice my thoughts.

"Yeah, senior." The man smugs.

"How did you--" I stopped my pointless question.

"Ohhh, aren't you a smart one, you answered your own question while asking it." the man mocks my behavior.

My question was pointless, after all, it was obvious both of us were students of NUR. We couldn't be mistaken for natives that's for sure, and this country was in no way a tourist attraction. So, especially with campus grounds being so close, it could be easily concluded that I am a student at NUR.

The man pushes himself from atop the boulder and then lands squatting down on the ground. The boulder was about 3 to 4 meters in height I would say, but he had landed without even the hint of a hesitation. Though he had squatted for a belonged period of time, probably hiding his pained expression.

Eventually, he raised himself and approached me, his face showing no understanding of personal space.

"Hm... you don't look lost." The man speaks his lips puckered, and his eyebrow raised,  in thought.

He had quite an expressive face, understanding his thought process was as if reading a protagonist's monologue in a novel.

"I just curiously stepped into this place, nothing much." I stepped away from the man.

I brought back his torso and put his arms to his sides, his expression unchanged.

"That so?"

"Yeah, That so."

"Well, if you say so." he spins around exaggeratedly.

I hated him, or his kind of people at least. Acting so out of the norm, yet expressing everything. it was as if there was another layer to their existence. Understanding them was a mystery in reality.

"Well, I will be on my way." I turned around, only to be stopped by a stronghold.

"Hey hey, where are you going lil' fellow?" he had taken hold of my shoulder.

His hold was strong, I had tried to free myself, but it was to no avail. "Back to the dorms, the sun's about to set anyway," I spoke the first excuse that came to mind.

"Woah, woah. Are you even hearing yourself? I just told you I'm a senior didn't I?" The senior spun me around forcing me to face him.

"Yeah, I heard you."

"Woah, woah. I really don't get you, I'm a senior you know?"

"...And?"

"Woah, woah. Do you even hear yourself, I'm a senior you know?"

"..." I was getting bored.

"Come on, has the thought not even crossed your mind once?! Asking a senior with experience about the hellhole you just entered, that is."

To say it hasn't would be a lie, as it is to be expected of every freshman. But... the guy in front of me definitely didn't look like the guy whose word I could trust.

After all, what even was up with that getup? The senior was wearing beach sandals, pineapple shorts, and a shirt that said: "Live, die, and enjoy". And, to top all of that, his hat's top was cut out, what even was the point of it then????

"I guess." I shot him a vague answer hoping he would let me go understanding my annoyance.

"I don't get you at all. You are a weird, you know that?" 

Well, that's hysterical coming from you.

"I already promised myself, and I don't really wanna break my own promise another time. So, you know?"

I didn't know.

"Why are you the one who looks so out of it?! I'm the senior here!" The senior felt that he should confirm his standing once more.

"You are the senior indeed..." I just couldn't get invested.

The senior heaves a sigh and lets go of me. I try to escape but he quickly holds me in place once again.

"Don't run, I have a promise to fulfill to myself."

Despite having nothing to do with his promise, I decided that just playing along would eventually allow me to escape.

"Well then how about I ask the questions."

"Sure, go ahead."

I wasn't really prepared for an interview in the middle of the forest, but how bad could it have been?

"Firstly, what are you majoring in?" The senior spoke.

"I'm majoring in AI."

"AI, you say... So you really weren't one of the psychology students."

His surprise was understandable, as it could be highly expected that a student of NUR to study psychology, after all, it was the head of the field.

"But, then why are you here?" The senior asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You do not look like a native. And, well, I doubt that there isn't a single field of AI in your home country, yet you ran all the way to NUR. So... why? Why come all the way here? To a country where using anything after the creation of the smartphone might send the natives, on a culture shock."

While his question was reasonable, I refused to answer due to personal reasons. After all, I hadn't even answered my own parents on the topic.

"Was it due to free tuition?"

The senior, his hand caressing his chin, shot a glance at me.

"No... you don't look like the stingy type."

The senior glanced at me once again.

"Was it because you've heard of the chick on the campus?"

The senior smirked as he spoke, but quickly turned into deep thought once more.

"No, it doesn't look like so... oh. Don't tell me."

His eyes beamed as if he had solved a jigsaw puzzle.

"Is it due to the case of Naojimi Kashimo?"

"..."

"Ha! Got it!"

I completely detested this senior's attitude. Landing a perfect bullseye on his third guess, it was as if he was joking around as if he understood me from the very beginning.

The case of Naojimi Kashimo. A foreign exchange psychology student who was supposed to attend NUR for no more than a semester. But... Right around when his semester was coming to a close, he posted to the internet a manifesto, alongside it a mp4 that supported his manifesto. He had allegedly spoken about the truth behind NUR, about what happens behind its closed doors, about the reason it's supported by such global powers, and why it offers all of its facilities completely free.

But, in no less than a minute, his post was taken down, not a hint of it left online, and the existence of Naojimi Kashimo was completely erased from history. As I'm speaking, there isn't a single human alive documented under the name of Naojimi Kashimo. This story could be summed up to be nothing more than an internet creepypasta, but... I have my reasons for believing it.

"You are threading very thin lines, to talk about Kashimo on these grounds, is to speak of the square in China." The senior lit up, he was clearly interested.

"I never said anything about a Kashimo."

"Oh lord, aren't you a careful little one?" The senior circled me as he spoke.

"Naojimi Kashimo. A human turned ghost. Just what had he posted to the internet? Just what was it that that made a human with a past and possible future, just simply, cease to exist?" The senior circled with exaggerated steps.

"I wonder, just what is it that made you ever so interested in such a case? With how doubtful the whole story is, it's hard to believe you staked your entire future on such an obvious creepypasta."

The senior came to a stop right in front of me, he then turned to his left facing me. His eyes seeing all, he spoke with a smirk.

"Or... is that simply the excuse you use? Is that how you lie to yourself? Avoiding the truth that might bring you to your end?" 

The senior spoke with confidence, destroying my wall bit by bit.

"What are you trying to say?" I spoke, hoping that I could defend myself in any way.

"You saw something, didn't you? Or rather, you found it." 

"..."

"Bullseye once again!" the senior pumps his fist.

"What are you talking about? Finding something would contradict the entire story, after all, the mysteriousness of Naojimi Kashimo's case exists due to the lack of evidence. The fact that the video that was supposed to exist doesn't actually exist, is one of the main reasons for its popularity among internet dwellers." I understood that it was nothing but a sorry attempt. After all, ever since our encounter, the senior has not even shown a hint of hesitation, he was in complete control of the situation and was not planning to let go of it.

"That is true, but we are talking about the internet here. Archiving, data mining, and even simply botting downloads. Nothing ever disappears once it has come into contact with the World Wide Web, and I believe you, of all people, came to understand that very well. That's why you are here after all, right?" The senior said, his head slightly lowered exposing his head's top from within his eccentric hat.

"..."

I was completely surrounded, and despite his words being nothing but vague, I felt that I had no choice but to surrender. And, if anything, the fact that he had avoided bringing up anything specific on the Naojimi Kashimo case, had led me to understand the true extent of what I had been tackling.

"Let's leave it at that, any more and we both might become John and Jane Doe," he said exaggeratedly pulling away.

"What do you want? Is this how hierarchy is placed within seniors and juniors here?"

"Hmm? No, No, don't worry about it. I was just having fun." he said shaking his hand.

"Only so much you could do in this boring excuse for a country." The senior sighed as he looked at the top of the boulder he had been on not too long ago.

"And, as I said, I had a self-promise to fulfill, so here, give me your phone." he suddenly demanded stretching his right hand towards me.

"What?"

"Your phone handed it over. I will add in my contact."

"And why am I supposed to do that?"

The senior comically dropped his jaw.

"I'm telling you I want to add my contact, me, a senior!"

"I don't get why you keep emphasizing that piece of information..."

"Dude, what do you even know about university life?"

"...Nothing?"

"I could guess..." Genuine disappointment could be heard.

"Anyway, just handed it over. You will come to regret it later if you don't." 

It was true that I had utterly detested the existence of the person in front of me. The way he acted, the way he carried himself, and the way he expressed his feelings. It was as if he was mocking my self, mocking the inner narrator that was trying to make sense of him.

But yet...

I understood very well, that if I were to pursue the case of Naojimi Kashimo, then his help is going to be my first requirement. From our little encounter, I could tell that his eccentric nature came off of confidence, when he spoke, he spoke with the world backing him, making him impossible to fall on his back.

I do not know how he had found the evidence to support all of his "guesses" and "whims", but he, at the very least, had trusted them to the utmost sincerity.

"Sure, here you go." I placed my unlocked phone on his open, outstretched, palm.

Not wasting a second, he put in his details and turned around.

"I will be leaving now, as my promise has been fulfilled. Though I would have liked it to be with a cuter chick, you piqued my curiosity, so please do not end up texting me about mundane stuff such as courses."

He said as he slowly disappeared into the forest's greenery, waving all the while.

Just who had I run into...

As I gazed upon the new piece of contact on my device, I found the mystery to only grow bigger.

"Did he just write himself down as 'The senior.'..."

I couldn't help but run my palm into my face.

After that whole random event, I decided to just head back to my room.

I hadn't slept well the day before, and my nap was interrupted this morning by another mystery.

"I wonder who that was?"

The raven-haired young girl had once again occupied my thoughts.

On my way back, the town had been even more desolate than it was in the morning.

Reaching the campus the golden dusk had passed, and the campus had been lit with modernity, setting itself apart from the rest of the world.

Ending my stroll, I walk into my dorm room and come to a halt. A foreign luggage bag sat next to my door's entrance. Had it been to the occupant of the top bed whom I have yet to meet?

With a hint of excitement, I pass the entrance's little hallway and look over the wall. Both beds were empty. Heading towards the terrace, it too was empty.

"Huh, maybe they too went on a stroll?" I rationalized the situation to myself.

But then, suddenly... All too well... I could hear it... The calming melody that had awakened me this morning.

"♪~~...♪~~~..."

The humming came from outside, slowly closing in.

"♪~~...♪~~~♪~~...♪~~~..."

The melody has long since captured me, and as its slave, I couldn't do anything but stand still in awe.

"♪~~♪~~~♪~~♪~~"

Finally, its owner steps into my asylum, their expression carefree as ever. A smile that extended from ear to ear, hair that swayed with every step, a fragile figure that seemed like it was on the edge of collapse, and a melody that swallowed the world around it.

That was apparently who I will be spending my next 4-years with.

With a plastic bag in her hand, she notices me and waves adorably. "Good evening, roommate."