Soul Spark

2 - Altered Perception

“...excuse me?”

“Right, I remember!” The girl continued. “I bumped into you and got you to drop your phone...ahh, I’m sorry about that, hehe...”

“Oh...right.” Kaito said, confused. “That was around a month ago.”

“Yeah, and it kept bothering me that I never said sorry...I hope I didn’t damage it too much.” The girl continued.

“No, it’s fine.” Kaito said.

“That’s good to hear...” The girl smiled. She looked at the quick notes that Kaito was making in his notebook, and the speed of it fascinated her a little. He didn’t even have to open and view the materials either.

“Woah...you...know this already?” She asked.

“I’ve been through this course once already, as shameful as it is to admit. I’m repeating my semester.” Kaito said. “It’s okay, I’ll get this finished and you’ll read it so the lecturer thinks you contributed too.”

“You’re repeating a year? How come?” The girl asked. Kaito’s expression was still uncaring and a little empty, he was focused and writing what he knew to be the optimal solution to the task.

“Final grades didn’t pull through.” Kaito said. “Happens, I guess.”

“Ah, I see. It’s my first time in this course.” She said, watching the notebook just as intently. “I barely passed last time, so I might need to focus quite a bit. ”

“As long as you keep up with the reading materials, you should be fine.” Kaito explained.

“Ugh, but all of that reading makes my head foggy.” The girl said.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Kaito said. “This stuff is really easy.”

“Really? You believe in me? Hah...thanks.” The girl cracked a small smile. “Hey, what’s your name?”

“Kaito.” Kaito replied, a little surprised by the question. He leaned his head on his elbow, having just finished writing down the notes.

“Nice to meet you.” The girl said. “I’m Yume!”

While Kaito found the interaction as pointless as any other, the girl seemed to have been interested in him. Obviously, if she could get close to the guy that’s already aware of the curriculum, she’d have no issues going through it.

Yume herself was only a year younger than Kaito. She was shorter than him, she had pale skin and light brown shoulder length hair with thin bangs coming down and a longer bang on each side of her face, with two small pins attached to the right one - a flower, and a ring with eight sharpened edges around it. She wore a pair of round glasses that she adjusted quite a bit. But what was noticeable most about her was her pair of light blue eyes.

“Say, do you think you have the homework saved from last year?” Yume asked.

“I think they change it every year, so it’s not the best idea to copy it directly.” Kaito replied.

“Ugh!” Yume complained. “Well, uhh...do you have anything that you can share with me? You’re basically going through this with all the prior knowledge, like some type of regressing protagonist!”

“The best I can do is give you advice.” Kaito said. “Which I kind of already did.”

“Whatever...” Yume sighed, getting her phone out. She was constantly refreshing a website, and the results didn’t seem too fulfilling.

Kaito was asked first to give the answer to the task, and the one he gave was so textbook and well-revised that it impressed no one, but it was good enough to pass as a completed assignment. A little progress towards that damned final grade.

And as the class came to a conclusion, the lecturer gave out the homework. And it surprised Kaito...

“Huh...this one’s the same as last year.” Kaito said. Yume was just preparing to leave, but hearing that captured her attention back.

“Really?!” She exclaimed. “And...you’re telling me this because you have the answers, right?”

“I hope so.” Kaito said. “I usually delete things towards the end of the semester, but maybe I left these.”

“You realize what kind of gold mine you’re standing on, right?” Yume said, acting more pushy. “There’s no way I’m letting you keep that stuff to yourself! I need all of it!”

“Okay, okay. I get it.” Kaito said. “I’ll send you the stuff.”

“Really? Thanks!” Yume cheered. She tore off a small piece of paper from one of the pages of her own notebook and scribbled her email address on it. “There you go!”

“Ah...alright. Well, I’ll send it today...if I have it.” Kaito said, slowly starting to walk away.

But a moment later, he was captured by the conversation once again.

“Hey...there’s no way you’re repeating the grade because of bad grades, right?” Yume asked, her eyes now enchanted with curiosity.

“Huh?” Kaito turned around, a little surprised. The classroom was starting to empty as the next group of students entered, and Yume walked towards and past him, and Kaito followed her outside.

“Well, if you did the homework the first time so well that you’re ready to send it to me without double-checking, it means you shouldn’t have any problems with academics, right?” Yume asked.

“I’m decent at academics. My grades were low because I missed some assignments, did poorly in group projects, and uhh...maybe because I didn’t participate in any workshops.”

“I’m kinda similar, but here I am.” Yume said. “Come on, what’s the real reason?”

Kaito stopped for a second and chuckled.

“It’s because I told the dean to go fuck himself.” He said, feeling as much as pride in what he did.

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“Huuuh?!” Yume was genuinely surprised. “But...why? He’s moody, but-”

“It was over an essay I wrote. I put quite a bit of effort into it, but he discarded everything and told me I failed the class because apparently it wasn’t up to academic standards.”

“Huh? What does that even mean?” Yume asked.

“No sources, no references...some stuff like that.” Kaito replied. “But still, I’d rather fail by submitting something like that than turn it into some kind of academic pig food...”

“Pffft, academic pig food...I’ll start using that phrase from now on.” Yume laughed. The two didn’t notice that they were outside the main building already, just strolling through the campus. “What was it even about?”

“It was inspired by a few things Professor Fedor told me. I’m somewhat close to him, we tend to talk about philosophical theories sometimes.” Kaito said.

“Sounds...interesting.” Yume said. “Hmm...can you send me that essay too alongside the homework?”

“I...what?” Kaito seemed genuinely surprised.

“Well, I kind of need some inspiration right now.” Yume said. “Especially when it comes to philosophical stuff.”

“Inspiration...?”

“Yeah. Just...inspiration. Don’t worry about it.” Yume said. “Besides, I need to know what warranted insulting the dean...please tell me you called him a bald dickface too.”

“If I did, I really wouldn’t be here right now.” Kaito said.

“True.” Yume said, turning around and waving. “Anyways, I gotta head to class. See ya, I’m waiting for my deliveries!”

“Right, see you too.” Kaito awkwardly waved back. He slowly turned around and kept walking, chasing his initial destination which was in a completely different part of the campus.

He didn’t think much about the interaction, but something was on his mind now. He was excited to have his essay read by someone who presumably shares the idea of ‘academic pig food’ being a thing.

The day passed by, the classes ended, the homework was...not done, but copied from an existing folder pasted into the submissions hub, albeit slightly modified. Kaito’s apartment was as blank as could be, with minimal decorations around, the only purpose of the place being functionality. It was cloudy outside, but the slowly emerging night gave the skies a dark blue shade, which, dancing with the clouds, formed a rarely appreciated blanket.

He stared at his laptop, submitting the files before preparing to either binge read yet another book or to just go to sleep altogether. He also didn’t forget about the email, he took out the wrinkled piece of paper and slowly typed in the email address. He sent her the revised version of the homework. And he didn’t forget her other request too.

“I wonder what even got her interested in the first place...” He said to himself before attaching the essay to the email. A few moments of thought and hesitation later, he sent it. He closed his laptop afterwards, he could hear the sound of rain slowly gaining voltage outside.

He looked at the empty ceiling.

“Why am I even going to that place anyways?”

“I can...quit at any time, right?”

“Surely someone with my capabilities can find work somewhere else, even if it’s just monkey work...”

“...”

“It’s not even about work anymore.”

“What if I just want to leave this university and never come back to it? And instead, maybe I can travel around, maybe I can explore the world, and maybe I’ll find something that I can set as my goal...something that I can call my purpose.”

“The rain’s getting pretty heavy, huh...” He said to himself, approaching his window. “Means it won’t end in too long.”

“That’s what it is, right?”

“That’s what I couldn’t find for pretty much my whole life. That’s why I see people so much younger than me, or even my age, filled with life force and hunger for more.”

“I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even care if I died right now.”

“I mean, who even needs me?”

He lightly tapped at the windowpane.

“Eh, I guess I shouldn’t be thinking about all of these grim things.”

“Who needs me? There’s at least one person who is probably bumming around right now because she thinks I’ll do all of her homework...what even was her deal?”

“Come to think of it, if I were to focus hard enough on my academics, I can get a credible enough record to maybe work alongside Fedor on his theory.”

“It’s not just something I’m invested in, it’s something I can feel.”

He grabbed a book from his desk and laid down on his bed, but he couldn’t bring himself to read it. He just blankly stared at the ceiling, with the book resting by his side.

“I wonder, is she really reading my essay?”

...

Yume didn’t come to class this week. The class they shared was only twice a week, so Kaito had to hold out in anticipation even more, especially considering that she didn’t send him an email back.

He powered through the rest of the classes, and finally saw her a week later. Almost instinctively, he came up and sat down next to her. She was busy on her phone before he joined in, once again, checking up on something and being disappointed. In fact, she looked more than disappointed, she looked like she was upset beforehand.

“Yume?” Kaito said, clearly catching her off guard. She quickly turned her phone off and looked at him.

“Ah! S-sorry...didn’t notice you.” Yume said, hastily putting her phone away. “I got your email and managed to do the other homework by myself, hehe, thanks...”

“Right.” Kaito nodded. “The homework was good, right?”

“I’d rather hear what you think about the writing.”

“Yeah, it was.” Yume answered. “I changed a few things so that it wouldn’t be too obvious.”

“Right. Good call.” Kaito nodded again. “I attached the other document too if you looked through it.”

“Oh...? The essay? Yeah, I did read it. I think it’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah. Is there...anything wrong with it?” Kaito asked. “You don’t sound too excited about it.”

“Hah, sorry, I’m just a bit tired.” Yume said, tidying up her hair. “It was...honestly, it was the opposite of ‘academic pig food’. It felt like something with genuine interest behind it.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that.” Kaito said, cracking a small and subtle smile.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised that it was nitpicked for the academic standards and whatnot. To be fair, it violated all the norms. But the content itself was nice.”

“I guess it’s a good thing that only the academic aspect of it was insulted.” Kaito sighed. Follow current novᴇls on novel·fire·net

“Really? Would you have said something more to the old fart?” Yume asked.

“Yeah, I probably would’ve strangled him.” Kaito commented.

“Geez, scary...” Yume said, a little surprised that something like that was said so casually.

A pause later, she, after a bit of hesitation, continued.

“And uhh...” Yume said. “About the inspiration thing that I told you about. I think I got what I needed.”

“Right, but...” Kaito continued. “You still haven’t told me what you needed the inspiration for.”

“You...really wanna know?” Yume asked, before promptly answering her own question. “Hah, I guess someone like you would understand it best.”

“Huh?”

“Why don’t I tell you after class?” Yume asked. “We can sit down somewhere, I’ll show you what I’m working on.”

“Sit...down?” Kaito asked. “I mean, sure, we can sit down somewhere. There’s uhh...probably a few good spots we can find on the way.”

“She’s working on something? And she liked what I wrote about too.”

“What does she want to tell me? What is she working on? Where will we go?”

“Hey, you alright? You zoned out for a bit...” Yume said.

“Yeah, I was just thinking about where we could sit down.” Kaito replied. Yume just smiled in response. There was a hint of sadness that went away in the smile.