"I want something genuine..."
It was at that moment I felt a sharp pain in my head, forcing me to violently jerk up from my blissful sleep.
Damn, it's this dream again. Well, at the frequency this happens along with the horrible after-effects it brings, it's more correct to call it a recurring nightmare.
At first, I was curious as to why this keeps happening, but I eventually lost interest. It's still annoying as hell to have it happen to me every so often especially with the headache it brings.
Luckily for me, I have my beloved MAXX Coffee to comfort me. If it weren't for this heavenly beverage, I doubt I would've been able to survive up to now. Seriously though, the amount of work they give you in university is not even comparable to high school. Project after project, essay after essay, numerous lectures where I actually have to pay attention to or else I'm screwed. I just want to enjoy life damn it, not suffer under the demands of university. It's not even like I'm in Toudai or anything, I just settled for Chiba university, the most practical choice at the time.
Alas, it's a trial I must overcome. Even though I firmly believe in the saying 'to work is to lose', I have to put up with all this schoolwork if I want to actually enjoy my future. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to end up having a boring white-collar job, that's practically throwing my life away. I just don't want to end up as a NEET or a gold digger. I'm only preparing myself for my self-earned successful future by attaining all the necessary skills needed to do so via attending university. I'll be rewarded for my troubles soon enough.
Oh wait, I still actually have to walk to the kitchen to get my early morning refreshment. After a bit of struggling against the laziness, I managed to limp my way towards the fridge. Once I opened it, I was met with a cool breeze along with a sight of a dozen cans of MAXX Coffee appearing in front of me, bringing a smile to my face.
"Ah, that hits the spot." I say to myself in this empty apartment of mine. Fortunately enough, I managed to convince my parents to get me an apartment all for myself rather than living in a dorm. I don't think I'll be able to survive four years of university while living with someone. Just imagining that gives me the shivers.
I have to say though, I'm pretty impressed with this apartment despite living in it for already two years. There's a decently sized living room along with a reasonable amount of space allotted for the kitchen. A somewhat large single bedroom with its own bathroom. I didn't bother picking a unit with two rooms since I have no need for it. No way in hell I would invite anyone to my apartment anyway. For it's low price and short distance from university, I was lucky to get my hands on this. I heard there were also other people who wanted this apartment, but I managed to get it first. Ha, in your faces strangers, I get to live a comfortable life and not you.
I then heard the sound of an alarm ringing coming from my room. I take a glance at the wall clock to see I have a class in ten minutes. If I were any other university student, I would be in a complete panic right now. After two years however, I've grown accustomed to situations such as these. I can handle this situation flawlessly. I have to say though, it's a shame I can't play with Vita-chan right now, maybe later tonight.
I finish up my drink and dispose of the can before I quickly make my way to the bathroom. I immediately take off my clothes as I enter and perform one of my 108 special techniques, instantaneous shower. After countless attempts and many weeks of training, it doesn't even take me two minutes to finish a complete wash.
Once I exit the shower, I grab the first set of decent clothes I could find in my closet and make my way out of my apartment. As always, I make sure I thoroughly lock up everything before I leave. This apartment of mine is my lifeline, it contains everything I hold dear in my life. I can't afford for any of it to get stolen.
Looking at the time now, I've got six minutes left. If I have a fast pace, the walk to university is only four minutes while the lecture hall itself is only one and a half minutes from the entrance. I even have thirty seconds to spare, that's just good I am at this thing.
Before I even realized, I find myself standing in front of Chiba university, the institution of education I currently attend. As usual as I was walking, I witnessed the different kinds of people you see at university. Contrary to popular belief, not every person is more social and whatnot compared to high school. In fact, it's even more difficult to social compared to high school. Without having a definite set of people having the same classes, you're more than likely not to interact with others all that often, not unless you're a riajuu of course. In that case, you can just blow up.
With thirty seconds left to spare as predicted, I arrived to the lecture hall of my first class. Even though I'm still drowsy and recovering from my headache, I just had to be greeted by one of the most annoying lectures in my schedule along with that horrible professor. Looks like I'm already starting my day with something so troublesome.
After a couple of grueling hours, I was finally blessed with my lunch break. I'm aware that I brag about a lot of things, but I'll never really get used to the notion of sitting down, listening and writing pages and pages of notes without end. I'll just never get used to it.
I quickly make it to the cafeteria and ordered one of my standard lunches, two pieces of yakisoba bread and some milk. This may not seem the most appetizing and appropriate meal to a university student but to me, it's good enough and more importantly, it's cheap.
To clarify though, I'm not one of those stereotypical broke university students struggling to deal with basic necessities. I get more than enough allowance from my parents, and I'm perfectly capable of affording decent meals. I'm just not in the mood for any of it.
With my simple meal in hand, I immediately leave the cafeteria to find my special spot for lunch. No, I'm not some sentimental high school teen trying to avoid their classmates due to cynical reasons. I have days where I eat in the cafeteria and days I don't. It's as simple as that. This spot I'm referring to isn't even that much of a secret since there are always more than a handful of people present when I go there. It just has a nice rustic feel to it with it's simple stone benches and abundance of trees.
As I took my seat on one of the benches, I was approached by a group of people wanting to converse with me. While it's true I'm not fully confident and trusting of other people, I have the necessary dispositions and social skills needed to interact with others. Talking to others for purely social reasons isn't poisonous to me or anything like that, so it doesn't hurt to engage in it every now and then. I sometimes also manage to derive entertainment from it. The only requirement however is that I have to vastly change how I usual act, something I don't mind that much.
After thirty minutes of repetitive and tiresome talk, I finally managed to escape that conversation and escape to my next lecture hall. It's still amazes me how people can still be so narcissistic and so full of themselves with their way of speech as well as their mannerisms. Don't even get me started on how brainless the content of their conversations is. Nonetheless, it still provides experience necessary to survive in the real world. It feels a lot like an optional series of quests in any RPG. You're perfectly fine if you don't do it, but benefits are sure to reveal themselves if you do actually take them and put the effort into it.
Once the lecture started, the professor immediately called for a group project that would be submitted in two days. Even though it's not required by the regular standards of classes here at Chiba university, this certain professor is particularly fond of group projects. If I remember correctly, during the first day, she went on and on about how one grows and develops more as an individual when they work with others to achieve a goal. It also apparently promotes synergy, communication and teamwork, something vital in society today. A rather positive and optimistic view of how human relationships work. I guess being a former preschool teacher had a factor in that mindset. Honestly though, how does a person jump from preschool teacher to university professor? Eh whatever, I could care less about that now as various people started to approach me.
This always happens whenever group projects are assigned. Just because I did excellently during one group project I opted to do by myself, people tend to swarm to me at the slight mention of group projects. I would be completely enraged if they did this just to leech off my superior skills but luckily for me, they don't. Other than a couple of rare cases, most of my group mates are actually competent and are able to fulfill the tasks I give them. This takes a load off my shoulders which is the main reason why I don't despise group projects all that much. Still, all this interaction starts to get annoying in tedious if done in excess.
With the sun slowly setting in the distance, the day has finally ended. After that horrible lecture in the morning and way over my limit of endurable conversation for a day, I just want to immediately head home, drink MAXX Coffee and spend the night with my oh so lovable Vita-chan.
As I was exiting campus grounds, I witnessed the various organizations and clubs that are hosted here. Some athletic, some cultural and others handiwork and welfare related. Thinking back, I've been approached multiple times by various organizations to be a member. Not because they're desperate for people, they just really want me particularly to join. It's a given though obviously since I'm such an amazing person gifted with various talents if I do say so myself. I was even asked personally by the head of the student government here to be a member. Sadly for them though, I could care less about any of those. Those all consume my precious free time, something I'm not willing to ever give up. Good enough that they're sensible people and stop hounding me after I politely declined.
"Yui-senpai!" I heard a young woman calling out to me from behind as she was running towards me. Oh who the hell is it this time? Another one of the many clingy kouhai I have? With how many times this happens to me, normally I would be rejecting these kinds of people. However, I just can't find it in myself to reject them as it is one of my very few weaknesses.
To hell with it, after this abnormally bad day, maybe she will be able to cheer me up.