Chapter 1: Campus Life?
The first day of college would always be full of expectations. For most, this signified the beginning of a new journey in life, one that would mold and prepare them to face the hardships of adulthood. It was meant to be a day to meet brand new friends, experience the life in a university, and to simply broaden horizons.
For Arch, however, it was the beginning of all the events that would change his life forever.
—
It was around 6:30 in the morning when he arrived at his university. Since his home was around an hour and a half away from school, he especially traveled before 5 a.m. just so he wouldn't be late. He wanted to tour around the campus and perhaps meet his would-be classmates before the classes begin at 7:30 a.m.
During high school, he had very few friends, and those he could consider as real friends... That was one of his regrets in life. Perhaps he could have become so much happier as he grew older if he had real friends. As such, his goal in college was to get real friends before graduating.
A fresh scene entered his vision as soon as he stepped inside the campus. It was, of course, quite a lively scene to behold. Groups of students welcomed him as he entered the campus. And the next thing he knew, he was dragged along by the waves as he got introduced and invited to different clubs in the school.
This experience was quite a shock. Arch wasn't comfortable with a lot of people around him. Although there were other new students who got pulled alongside him and he really wasn't the center of attention, the pressure he felt was no less than being asked to perform a speech in front of an audience—which he did in the past.
This was a different experience, though, and he really didn't know what to do. All in all, he had to nod and answer an unknown number of questions about his hobbies and such before he was able to escape.
It was 30 minutes later when he found himself in the toilet, all red with perspiration on his forehead. He wiped the sweat off with his handkerchief and proceeded to breathe in and out to calm his beating heart. It was his first day of college, in fact, it was even his first hour officially as a college student, and yet he was already subjected to the hustle and bustle of the campus life.
He let out a sigh and stared at his face in the mirror. He wanted to make sure that he looked alright; after all, his very first class in college was about to start in another 30 minutes.
His hair was a bit messy, and there was still a bit of perspiration on his face. He decided to simply just wash his face. He removed his glasses and let the water run through his face. After a few seconds, he dried his face, put on his glasses, and touched the scar on his right eyebrow. This scar did give him a lot of memories—a sign that he had survived a horrific accident in the past.
He muttered, "Welp, nothing we can do about that."
"You can surely do something about it. Hehe."
All of a sudden, a voice echoed from inside one of the cubicles. This caused a chill to run down his spine. The voice came from the cubicle just behind him. He thought back if his voice was loud, but he realized he was only muttering. Surely, the person inside the cubicle shouldn't have heard him.
A creeping fear overwhelmed him. Only a single thought was inside his mind: 'If I stayed here, something bad will happen.' As such, he hurriedly ran away and said, "Hello! Bye!"
He had rushed out of the toilet when a chuckle echoed out from within the cubicle. "Interesting. He could have been tasty. Hehe."
...
Arch escaped so fast that he had suddenly found himself just outside his classroom in the blink of an eye. He still had to go up a flight of stairs from the toilet, yet not even 30 seconds had passed when he arrived.
The burst of adrenaline suddenly drained him of energy as he made soft gasps outside the room. "What the hell was that..."
"Is this the room for English 1?"
It was at this moment that Arch realized someone else was in the hallway and was even attempting to talk to him. He took a deep breath and straightened himself up as he looked at the side. There, he saw a seemingly meek student that was well over one head shorter than him. Arch wasn't that tall, standing only at 170 cm. The guy before him, however, was only about 150 cm. His voice was also so soft that he had to confirm whether he heard him right.
"Ehrm, English 1 class?"
The other guy nodded, so he said, "Oh, let me check. But I think this is the place."
Arch hurriedly took his registration form from his pocket. The crumpled paper looked so miserable as he unfolded it. He looked at the schedule written on it as well as the room number and then checked the sign plastered on the wall.
Room 204, Arts Building.
After confirming that it was the correct room, he looked back to the boy and said, "This should be it. I guess we're classmates then. Name's Arch, you?"
The boy sheepishly reached out his right hand and held Arch's hand. He then said, "A... Angelo. My friends call me Gelo, though."
"Nice meeting you, bro. Let's go in together."
'This small guy should be my first friend then,' Arch thought to himself. He gestured for Gelo to go in with him. Obviously, the boy before him was a little too shy.
Arch opened the door and simply chose an empty desk in the middle row near the wall. This was his most favorite spot as he could lean on the wall if he ever felt like sleeping. Gelo followed him and sat on the desk just next to him.
Gelo sighed in relief. This sigh seemed so full of emotion, as if he had suddenly passed a great hurdle in life.
"You alright? Don't be too nervous." Arch patted Gelo on the back and gave him a thumbs up. If he wasn't so keen on putting 'making friends and be more open to people' on his goals, then perhaps he would probably act like Gelo.
"Ehrm... Thanks. It's kind of my first time in this..." Gelo stuttered a bit and found it hard to find the word he wanted to say.
"Oh, you're not used to the environment here?" Arch asked as he realized what Gelo meant. After all, he had gone through all the trouble of getting tossed into the recruitment of clubs just as he entered the campus. Poor Gelo probably had a worse experience...
Gelo nodded. A light seemed to shine in his eyes as someone quickly understood his woes. "Yeah, it's quite bustling. I've only seen things like this on the television."
Arch was intrigued. After all, even he had experienced something similar to the recruitment of clubs during high school, albeit on a much smaller scale. He was also familiar with crowds since he had performed quite a lot on stage. "Not even in high school?"
"Not really..."
Arch immediately understood that this was a sensitive topic. He also had a shy personality, and there were many things in the past that he also didn't wish to talk about. If he were in Gelo's shoes, he would probably have the same reaction. He immediately shifted the topic by asking, "By the way, why did you take up psychology?"
Gelo was uplifted. He was worried that the guy before him would be like those people who would try to pry as much information as they could from him. Luckily, his expectations were wrong. Hearing him ask about why he chose to take up psychology finally lit a fire in his eyes. "It's just very interesting for me. I want to understand how the mind works. I want to understand myself further, and I want to become someone capable of helping people become happier in life."
It was at this time that he realized he had spoken too much, not to mention he spoke all those words in a single breath. His face went visibly red as he softly said, "H-How about you, why did you take up psychology?"
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