World After Worlds

In the early summer, the roads were searing under the scorching heat of the sun. Kids of young ages were running outside and flying with their kites or would be playing some fun games as a group in the open space. Most of the adults were interacting and exchanging gossip as they watched the children huddled and rolling on the dirt and grass. In the academy, it was actually a busy time for the seniors and the juniors who had no time to play around like when they were little kids.

"Have you seen her?" Joey shook his head to answer the question of his friend, Rammne. They were walking towards the gate of the academy. "Have you asked her yet?" Rammne added with a visible nervousness written on his facial expression.

"No. No." Joey replied with a hint of annoyance in his tone as he recalled the events happening over the past few days, "I told you and Justine to be right beside me while I talk to her. But what did you do? You both ran away!"

"Hey! You ran away with us!" Rammne refuted and frowned.

The submission of their project in their graduation requirement was on deadline for the second month from today. It had been two weeks since the task was given to them. They already finished constructing the prototype of their project but there was one more thing missing. Yanarym's approval and participation to donate her strand of hair, a tiny piece of nail, or anything that belonged to her body. That fragment could impel the DNA mana replication.

"Hey! Hey!" Justine who was pacing back and forth on the gate saw the two bickerings. He frantically strode his feet in their direction with a bright smile on his face. "I have a plan, why don't we give her a letter? Invite her to meet us at the Quifa!" Rammne and Joey looked at Justine with disapproval on their faces.

Quifa was the name of the coffee shop where Yanarym and Kraig would mostly spend their time together if they were not in classes.

"What? You want to ask her on a date?" Rammne was antagonized, hearing his question, Justine's face turned red. That was not his intention, he was not thinking of asking Yanarym on a date. He would die of heart failure before it could happen.

"Are you stupid? Do you think I can go with her on a date?!" He blurted with flushed cheeks, "What I mean, we should invite her and talk to her like an actual student who wanted her participation in our project!"

"That was what we kept on doing for the last four days, dumbass!"

"No! What we kept on doing was stalking her like a creep and ran away once she noticed either of us!"

The three of them met in the seventh grade of secondary level. They were not friends at the beginning. However, one accident brought them together; they caught each other stalking one girl at the primary level. Realizing that the three of them like the same person, they become each other's nemesis. They've been on another bad side since then. They were competing at becoming the top one in the entire batch since the three of them were actually the geeks of their year.

Just like that, the girl they liked became a secondary level as well. Although they were a year older than her, they were cowards when approaching her. None of them were able to face her or talk to her in person. But for sure they know every single fact about her. It was around that time when the academy required them to check if a student would be able to do magic. Of course, the girl of their affection was not one of those who can. She was broken-hearted and they witnessed her become more depressed after that examination.

The three of them were not in the mood to quarrel for the entire month. Justine approached the two with papers of research in his hands. "This?" Rammne skimmed the paper while slowly gaining his vitality and a wide smile formed his face. "It's a mana replication. How'd you come up with this?" He was excited. Joey was the one who was reading the content of the paper intently.

It was theoretical research of a non-existing invention that they could bring to existence. With the help of the generator and the current technology they had, it could be possible that the people who did not possess any mana on their bodies could finally utilize magic. Of course, it was not a perfect research paper at the moment because there were many loopholes in the notions and some of the parts were unnecessary to the gadget but once they polished the idea... it could be brought to existence.

Justine had developed the general idea, Joey was the one who revised the entire paper to make it plausible and realistically possible to implement and it was Rammne who constructed and created the gadget from the paper into an actual thing. For the past six years, they had been modifying, developing, and upgrading the gadget to perfection. Although the current project was called prototype, they knew it was very ready to use. They could finally help the girl they liked for a long time do magic. Their hard work could finally have its owner however, none of them cultivated any bravery to step up and talk to her.

That was why they entered this project to become their graduation requirement project hoping that they could gather their courage to approach her and ask her to 'assist' them in their project but… but like always. They could not get near her!

"Honestly, why are you so scared to talk to her?" Rammne said with a taunting smirk. He was trying to fool the two but they only scoffed at him because he was always the one who would be running out before anyone else. "It's not that hard to talk to a girl who is younger than us." He bluffed and put his hands on his hips as if he was so proud of what he said.

"Isn't that Rym?" Justine pointed his finger on Rammne's shoulder and Rammne immediately turned pale before running to the academy leaving him and Joey behind.

"Doofus!" Justine shouted at him and laughed out loud seeing how scared Rammne was. He turned to Joey who was not laughing and hit his shoulder. "Hey, why are you frozen there?"

"It's Rym," Joey answered without a voice but Justine read what he said. He scowled thinking that Joey was trying the same joke he did to Rammne to him.

"You're so original, Joey. Think of something else if you want to scare me—"

"Excuse me."

"She…is behind me?" Justine's eyes widened in terror as he felt his body become as col as ice. It was her voice! It was her! Behind him. Before his mind could function as to what to do his body was already running after Rammne and all that was left was Joey. He practically froze on his spot. There was no expression on his face and his complexion was as pale as blank white paper. As if he had seen a ghost.

People always say that either they were a flight person or a fighting person when there was a crisis. They forgot the third possibility, people always don't mention the third possibility. It was either fleeing to escape or confronting the danger. Joey was neither because he was the kind of person who would become stupefied and unable to comprehend when he was in the situation.

"I saw you yesterday at the alley, you dropped this." It was a piece of paper from their research. They meant to show that to her to give proof that they needed someone for their study and they were not random creeps, lingering around her. Joey looked at her hand that was extended to him and felt dizzy by the fast beating of his heart. This was so unbelievable. She came to him… "I also noticed… I don't want to assume but are you following me for this reason?"

"Ah-a…" Joey could not utter a word. He could hear her, but for some reason, he could not understand her words. He subconsciously took what she was handing to him, the movements were slow and dubious.

He dreamt of this moment a thousand times. He had countless scenarios prepared on how he could build his first impression on her. But reality always sucks! He could not even speak properly!

"Rym," she veered her eyes to the person on her behind and there was Marcus who was staring blankly at him and when Yanarym turned to him he smiled warmly. "You'll be late."

"Yes, Kraig might already be inside." She replied to Marcus and took the books that he was carrying. Joey followed her movements without breathing, when she returned her gaze to him, he coughed as if something blocked his throat.