"Good morning~" Yoriko greets Touka as she enters the lecture hall, her face looks tired and her eye bags appear awful.

"Morning, Yoriko." She sits beside her and takes out the book for today's lectures.

"Have you finished your summary assignment? The due date's tomorrow."

"Ugh, don't even mention it."

"Oops, sorry." Yoriko knows how much Touka hates literature, and the fact that they have to submit a three pages summary of The Princess Bride novel irritates her friend to no end.

"Inconceivable. I don't think I can ever finish it. Rest in peace college life." She says while banging her head slowly onto the desk.

"If you can quote the word from the book, I think you're doing a good job, Touka-chan." Yoriko remarks.

"Whatever."

"But I don't get it, Touka-chan. If you hate literature so much, why are you taking literature as your degree course?"

"Because it wasn't even my first choice. It was my last choice. I selected it when I apply this university because other courses sound so much worse than literature. I never expect I got the last choice… Guess I'm too dumb to take biology."

"It's okay, it's our first year. We can study hard and survive this together!" She pats Touka's shoulder, but Touka sighs heavily.

"I hope so. Hey, after the class is over I'll head to the library to finish the summary."

"Oh. Do you want me to accompany you?"

"Nah it's okay. Your today's shift is at 2pm right?"

"Yeah. Good luck for later Touka-chan!"

Yoriko works at a bakery shop as her part-time job to survive the university life. Touka can never understand why her friend is having literature as her degree course when she wants to open a bakery shop after she graduates.

Touka, on the other hand, has her part-time job at a coffee shop but her manager is very kind in giving a flexible working hours for her. Sometimes she feels like maybe she will work there forever if she gets kicked out of the university for being so dumb.

Touka spends two hours inside the library, trying to extract the contents of the novel, but there are too many difficult words. She scratches her head in frustration.

"Arghhhh I can never finish this assignment on time! What the hell is 'chicanery' anyway?!"

"It means using cleverness to trick people." Someone suddenly speaks. Touka stops scratching her head and turns to look at the source of the voice. A guy, sitting across her table, smiles at her softly. He has a book in his hand, and the author is Neil Gaiman. 'Ugh. Difficult book.' She thinks.

"Um, thanks. And what does 'vulpine' means?"

"Well if it relates to chicanery then it means cunning. Like a fox."

Touka's jaw drops. 'How is he able to answer them without checking the damn dictionary?! And was he there witnessing her dumbness the whole time?'

"Hold on. Let me jot them down." She starts to write down the meaning inside her notepad. The guy snickers at seeing her eyebrows furrow in concentration.

"What are you snickering about?" She retorts. Yes she is an idiot but that doesn't mean he can simply snicker at someone for being stupid.

"I'm sorry. You look so serious, that's why. Do you need any help? Seems like you are running out of time." He smiles again, his eyes look a little too excited over offering a help to someone.

Touka hates asking for a help from a stranger, but she really needs to complete this assignment on time else her carry mark will be low when it is already very low from the start of the semester.

"Are you sure? This might take long. I'm only halfway the book right now. And I need to submit this tomorrow."

"That's okay. I don't have class tomorrow. So I have nothing to rush about."

"What do you want in return?"

"I don't want anything. I really love literature. So I don't mind." His eyes are sparkling as he says that.

Touka takes some time to think it through, but eventually decides to accept his offer. It seems too good to be true, but she is kind of desperate to save her grade.

"Fine then. I'm accepting your offer only because I'm running out of time."

"My pleasure." He stands and starts to walk around the table, then proceeds to sit beside her.

"Thank you for your kind offer. Please be nice to me. I'm Kirishima Touka, literature course, first year."

"Oh. You're my junior. I'm Kaneki Ken. Third year literature."

Touka sighs. 'This is gonna be a long day.'