A/N: For those of you fretting as to why you've got chapter 2 again, I've updated the first and second chapters after some helpful guidance from RedeemingEndeavour, so if you could go back and re-read the first chapter that would be great! This chapter is not altered a great deal, so you don't need to re-read this one.
For new readers, I hope you enjoy the second chapter!
Thank you to all those who've given reviews so far! It makes me so happy to know people are interested in the story! I'm still a fanfiction newbie, but I'm having a lot of fun. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter; we've got new characters and a certain boy you've all been waiting for!
"So how are you kids enjoying the hard life?"
We each looked up at where the teasing voice had come from, and our eyes fell on a cheeky smirk and bright blue eyes, slightly hidden with silver hair.
Riku sat down with us at the university café, our new 'usual spot'. It was only our second week of uni and we were still trying to find our bearings, but Kairi and I had managed to round up most of our friends from high school and get them to come here during their breaks. They all agreed it was the perfect spot.
I moved my textbooks and sketchbook to make room for Riku, who had his laptop in tow. He was a third year, and was already a veteran in the ways of university life. He'd gone to high school with us and even tutored us for our final year.
"You mean the good life." Sora hung his arms behind his head and sunk in his chair, ruffling his spiky brown hair. "Uni is so much easier than high school!"
"You won't be saying that at exam time," Riku teased, punching his old friend in the stomach and causing him to recoil. The rest of us laughed.
"He's only saying that because lectures are so easy to skip," Kairi added with a smirk.
"Hey, I don't skip that many! Besides, then I get to spend more time with you, right?" He played his cards, but Kairi wasn't buying it.
"You'd think I wouldn't complain about a boyfriend whose top priority is me, but I'm not letting you get away with that one." I smiled at their little exchanges. Those two were definitely made for each other. They were coming up to their first anniversary, come to think of it. Kairi had actually liked him since we started high school, but Sora only recently got the guts to ask her out. That and Riku threatened him into it.
"He can afford to skip lectures, he's only taking sport ed." Riku rolled his eyes, waiting for his laptop as it hummed to life. "You can't exactly skip out on law subjects and wish for any more than a pass." Although Sora and Riku were best friends and goofed off a lot, Riku was actually a hard worker and I knew he'd make a good lawyer one day.
"Hey, P's make degrees," Sora shrugged, "And it's not gonna be easy teaching sport to kids, you know! I'm choosing a pretty hard career path!"
"Whatever, you and Ven can take care of the little ones," he teased, referring to our other friend Ven who was also studying education. "So how about you, Terra? Keeping up your neat notes with the fast-paced lectures?"
He poked our friend Terra on the shoulder, who was half paying attention and half working on his laptop. He was always a super neat writer in high school and we always used to tease him about it. In tutoring he had to rub his working out on the white board because it wasn't 'neat' enough (trust me, it was neat enough).
"Yeah, it's alright," he shrugged. "The lectures are pretty boring. The electives for engineering are pretty stale."
"You'll live," Riku chuckled, turning to the rest of us. "What about you girls?"
He was referring to the three of us huddled on one side of the table, Kairi, Olette and I. Olette being her usual self waited for someone else to talk, and so Kairi had to speak up first.
"I really like the uni lifestyle! There's more time for shopping in-between. Oh and studying I suppose," She joked. She'd already dragged Olette and I to the shops once this week.
"What are you guys studying again?"
"I'm doing business and arts." Kairi started us off. She wanted to open her own business one day, and of course it would be a fashion store. She turned to Olette to prompt a response from her.
"I'm doing arts," She said with a quiet smile, running a hand through one of her wavy pieces of brown hair that hung over her shoulder. She was taking literature and wanted to write for a living. She was scared she might not be able to make a living out of it, but us girls convinced her to follow her dream.
"What about you, Naminé?"
Riku turned to me. I twirled a piece of my blonde hair with my fingers, a bad habit of mine, and I replied, "Oh, multimedia and digital arts."
"You always did like to draw," Riku smiled, standing up, "Well, kids, I'm gonna go grab me some lunch. You'll quickly learn to eat as much as you can in your breaks, especially if you have labs," He winked as he headed for the kebab kiosk.
"Or in my case four hour studios," I sighed. I have never been so hungry in my life as I have been at university. I packed a lot more food this week.
I was beginning to enjoy uni more and more, and these meet-ups in the café provided the bulk of that. But I'd fallen in love with the studio room, and I was even starting to meet people in my classes!
A lot of people from our old high school applied to get in here, but it was actually quite difficult to get into Radiant Academy. It was ranked as one of the highest universities and had some of the highest entry scores, but most of our group of friends had managed to get in. I was so nervous at my interview I almost fainted, but I managed to get in with my portfolio. Of course for the rest of my clever friends it wasn't too difficult, except maybe Sora, who survived his English exam on an all-night study session the night before.
I was truly lucky to be surrounded by close friends at a scary time like this. I've always hated change, but being with the same group of friends made it feel similar to high school.
Light chat began between us (well mostly the girls, Terra was busy typing away and Sora was stuffing his face with food) when the cleaning lady came up to us.
"Could you push your bag under the table, please," she said quickly, pointing to Sora's bag. With a mouthful of sandwich he muttered 'sorry' before moving it with his leg, a look of horror as the old woman migrated to another table.
"Ah, so you've met Cackles the cleaning lady," Riku said as he sat down, a giant kebab in his hands.
"Excuse me?" Kairi asked, and we all looked in confusion and amusement at him.
"We've dubbed her Cackles. She'll tell you off if you leave you bag outside the radius of the table, or if your seat isn't pushed in enough. Also if you sit at that table," He pointed to the table in the very centre of the room, where a pillar with a corkboard attached to it stood, "She'll sit down with you. Avoid that table at all costs."
"She'll possess your soul," Terra added, clearly already educated in the story of Cackles the cleaning lady. We all just laughed while Sora had a horrified look on his face.
"You guys are awful," I shook my head, looking up at the clock. It was quarter to and I had a lecture in twenty minutes, but I wanted to do a little searching first. "I'm gonna head off, enjoy the rest of your break! Er… good luck with that kebab, Riku."
Riku was dropping lettuce all over the table and he just barely caught a piece of meat. He just chuckled and said "A man's ultimate challenge is to eat a kebab without dropping anything. I'll master it by graduation!"
Shaking my head, I waved bye to everyone and headed off outside. The weather was still nice out, but I knew winter would be approaching soon, my most hated season. It was just too cold, and it wasn't like I had anyone to cuddle. I didn't mind, of course – I'd always been single. Yes, I even missed out on the whole 'high school romance' experience, but I really didn't mind, and I got enough of that when Sora finally asked Kairi out. Not to mention the years of those two clearly liking each other without admitting it.
I headed past the engineering halls, along the path that led to the campus centre, and headed in. I enjoyed playing the piano, but in the first week I couldn't find any piano rooms in the music building, so I had just about given up, but on my way to the library café I spotted a landmark on the campus centre map – "Rehearsal rooms". I hadn't had time to check where it was since I knew Kairi would scold me for being late.
I went up to the giant map and scanned the locations again. There it was – basement floor? The campus centre has a basement floor? I looked around, searching for a sign or a door or a flight of stairs that went down, but couldn't find it anywhere. I scoured the map for a good five minutes before finally figuring out I had to go outside to get in there. Uni maps were exhausting.
I found the room and went downstairs, and I could instantly hear the faint sound of piano playing. I smiled as I followed the sound around the corridor, and found three rooms, two of which were occupied. I raced for the last one, and there was a giant mirror, a few plush seats, and an ebony piano.
I set my bag down and shut the door without hesitation, lifted the fall and sat. I could hear the others playing; if only these walls were soundproof. I wasn't exactly a maestro. I remembered I only had about ten minutes however and got over my nervousness.
I pressed my fingers on the keys and a beautiful sound resonated throughout the room. This was wonderful compared to my keyboard back home. I played the first song I ever learnt. I was a little rusty, but I was having fun.
I decided this was a new retreat of mine I'd discovered at uni, other than the café with the others and the studio room. We didn't have all our breaks together and the uni was swelling with students, so a quiet place like this was just what I needed. Uni was getting better and better. I still missed high school dearly though.
I stopped short of playing, leaving an unpleasant sound coming from the piano. I'd gotten so lost in my thoughts and the music I was running late! I burst out of the room and headed for my class, knowing I'd be that kid who came in late and interrupted the lecture.
The future had seemed really scary this summer, but actually being here wasn't so bad. And it looked like I'd now found two silver linings.
…
"That's it, girls – I need some retail therapy."
Kairi sprawled out across the table. We were actually in the library above the café for once, working on newly given assignments in our third week of uni.
"Kairi, we've been here for 20 minutes." I scolded, shooing her hand away so I could fit my sketchbook on the table. While they were busy writing essays and doing quizzes, I was busy drawing concepts for my projects. I would say I had the easy life, but I hadn't realised how hard it would actually be. Taking two art subjects in high school was a world of difference to taking 14 hours of art a week, not including the extra 18 hours they expected me to work at home.
"Business law is hard! I did not sign up for this!" Kairi argued, but we both knew what was coming next.
"Actually, you kind of did when you enrolled yourself in it," Olette said with a cheeky smile.
"Olette, now is not the time to remind me of poorly-chosen electives. Come on, it's only a bus ride away!" She stood up with a burst of energy.
"Sit," I said, pointing to her chair, "If you've got energy to shop you've got energy to study."
"Oh, you're worse than my mother," She sat down with a tight scowl, opening her giant textbook. The one thing I loved about my course was that I didn't have chunky textbooks filled with words – any books I needed were filled with inspiring artwork. "By the way, Selphie said she could meet up with us once a week for shopping!"
"Another excuse not to study?" I sighed, but I still smiled. Selphie was doing an events management course, which was at a different institute. It was one of those moments I wished everyone from our year level was in the one uni, but Radiant Academy didn't even offer a course like that here.
"We should try and organise Aqua to come along too," Kairi pulled a thoughtful face. "We could make this an annual thing!"
"Less planning, more studying."
"Naminé, why don't you just enrol in an education course?" Kairi teased. A lot of people had told me I should be a teacher, not just in the teasing manner Kairi had just now, but I didn't have my heart set on that. Plus I'd be way too nervous in front of all those people, even if they were kids.
We got back to studying, but it was short-lived as Kairi quickly lost focus again.
"It's only our third week, we can slack off-"
"Alright," I caved, "But don't expect this every week."
"I knew you'd see things my way!" Kairi immediately threw her books into her designer back, dragging Olette's novel away from her. "Let's do some shopping!"
The bus loop at our campus connected to almost every district around the city. People from all over the place came to this university, and so we had a lot of bus stops. There was a shuttle bus to the train station, three inter-campus buses, and countless buses that travelled from every direction. And of course, Kairi's favourite bus direct to the shops. Some people travelled over an hour to get to uni every day. Luckily for everyone from our little school at Destiny High, it was only a half hour trip.
"The bus driver's going to know our names soon, we get on this bus so often," Olette giggled as we hopped on the bus to the shops, and Kairi smiled as if proud of the fact.
"Girls, if we're gonna survive winter at uni, we're gonna need some nice jackets and coats. I hope you're ready for a long shopping trip!"
If Kairi studied as much as she shopped, well let's just say she could have easily graduated by now.
…
Six sore feet and nine shopping bags later (seven of them Kairi's), we found our way outside the store and waiting for the bus back to campus.
"I sure could go for a drink and some cake right now," I sighed, finding myself holding some of Kairi's bags. She had to give me the bag with the heavy boots. "We must've gone past a million cafés."
"Um," Olette's eyes lit up a little, "I know a place where they have really good hot chocolate. A friend from lit showed me. It's not far from here."
"A hot chocolate sounds good right now," I smiled, noting the chilly wind that was starting to blow.
"You guys are weak, a latte's the only answer after a shopping spree! But cake sounds good too, show us the way, Olette!"
We followed the brunette around the outside of the store and a little ways down the street. It was a secluded little café with white painted wood and a cute cottage vibe, covered by large trees.
"I never would have found this place on my own," Kairi shook her head.
"I wouldn't have either, but my friend told me they make the best hot chocolate here, and she's right!" Olette beamed, dragging us inside.
It was warm and cosy inside and there weren't many patrons, so we could place our order immediately. A soft-spoken young woman attended to us at the counter, her long brown hair pulled back in a plait. We ordered our hot chocolates, coffee and cake and sat down, and while we were waiting we heard a bit of muffled chatter from behind the counter.
"… C'mon, just ask! … like your newspaper ad even worked!"
Exchanging confused glances, we got back to our idle chat before a waitress suddenly burst out from behind the counter.
"Hey! Does anyone here want a job?" She shouted, her short raven hair bouncing as exuberantly as she did. "No interview required!"
"Yuffie, you'll scare the customers away!" The brunette woman hushed her co-worker, but the girl called Yuffie kept trying to grab our attention.
"Wow, they must be desperate," I muttered, looking back at the girls. Olette looked at me in agreement, but Kairi had a slightly more thoughtful expression.
"You two don't have jobs, right? You should volunteer!"
"I-what?"
"Yeah! Hey, over here!"
"Kairi!" I hissed, but Yuffie was already making her way to our table.
"These two are interested," The redhead smirked. Olette sank in her chair out of embarrassment, and I just stared at her incredulously.
"Al-right!" Yuffie said excitedly, turning back towards the counter where the woman was. "Told ya it would work, Aerith! We were hoping for just one person, but two is even better! I'll grab the papers!"
She was gone before I could say anything. "I… what just happened?"
We just came in for a hot chocolate, but Olette and I ended up signing papers ready for a job. This year was already turning out to be a strange one, that was for sure. A year for new experiences.
Once the paperwork was finished, the woman named Aerith came up as well and introduced herself. She was the patisserie here who made the delicious cakes and pastries. She also brought over our order.
"Sorry for the wait, and welcome aboard!" She smiled. "Would you two be able to come in on Saturday for training?"
"Definitely!" I smiled, and Olette nodded happily along. I never thought she would, but she actually seemed keen to start working.
"You'll love it here! We make the best food and drinks, but the location makes it hard for us to be seen," Yuffie pouted.
When we actually got around to our drinks, I had to agree, they really did make the best hot chocolate ever. I smiled at the thought that I'd know the secret and be able to make this for other people. The cakes were even more delicious, but I wouldn't be quite discovering the secret to them unless I followed Aerith around.
We thanked Aerith and Yuffie before we left, full and happy and employed. What a strange day today turned out to be. The advantages to starting uni were growing by the minute.
…
I stepped into the uni café with a heavy sketchbook by my side. I'd just finished four hours of studio and, dutiful to my timetable, decided to stay for the last lecture of the day. I still hadn't memorised when everyone else's breaks were yet, so I just stood at the entrance searching for anyone I knew.
I managed to find Terra and trudged over to his table. He was typing at his laptop as usual. He was quite sporty in high school, but I suppose he wanted to focus more on his future now.
"Hey Terra," I smiled as I sat down, though he could tell I was exhausted because he proceeded to ask "Rough day?"
"Just a long day," I sighed. "I'm still getting used to uni. Our homework-free summer made me kind of lazy," I smirked. We were all eternally happy that the summer after school ended would contain no homework for the first time in six years.
"It was a good summer," He agreed, briefly checking the university's online website before going back to… whatever that nasty math-related program was. "So I heard you and Olette nabbed some jobs the other day?"
"Oh yeah! We just went in for hot chocolate and we left with a job. I haven't started yet but I'm pretty excited," I explained, pulling a cupcake from my bag. Riku's advice hadn't gone unheard, and I'd packed enough food to feed my entire art class.
"So have you seen Aqua much?" I asked out of interest.
"Not really, I haven't seen her in a while." He shook his head. Aqua and Terra were without a doubt the most adorable couple at our high school, and they even got a mock award on the last day of school for it. It was always Terra and Aqua – you rarely said one name without the other. "We've got our three year anniversary coming up, but we've both got a lot on our plate with uni."
"That sucks. I'm sure you guys will find a way around it though." I smiled. I wished Aqua had been able to come here too. Not only would it make our old school clan bigger, it would mean Terra and Aqua could see each other more often. They lived in opposite directions of our school and now with uni, it made it even harder for them to see each other.
"Hopefully," He gave a small smile. He seemed a bit uncaring with his response, but he was probably worked up with uni stuff. I'm glad I wasn't good at math and chose engineering.
I remembered all the adorable moments they shared in high school and wishing I could have had that too, but seeing other people happy made me just as happy, and it wasn't like I was unhappy being single. Plus the guys at my school weren't exactly the type I'd like to date, and if they were they were taken.
It's just a silly fable, right? The whole high school romance thing. It works for some people, but for a lot it only lasts the high school stage, and then a break-up is due shortly afterwards. I think high school romances are cute, especially those like Terra and Aqua or Kairi and Sora, but a lot of high schoolers are not mature enough for relationships. Besides, I'd much rather wait for the right person.
Giving a dramatic sigh, Terra closed his laptop and grumbled a "I'm done," as he packed it away. As he did, he found a coin on the floor, and began spinning it on the table. Simple things pleased simple minds, or in my experience boys anyway.
But soon I became caught up in the fun of this coin, and as we were sitting opposite each other, we started passing the coin between us, trying to push it right up to the edge without letting it fall off the table. Soon we had a competition going.
"Another point for me!" Terra did a little fist-pump, waiting for me to push the coin.
We did this for a while and we made plenty of ruckus from the coin dropping on the floor, earning stares from Cackles, but I won three to two.
"I'll collect my prize money at the end of the week," I smirked, earning a scoff from the brunette. He took the coin from me. "Hey, I should at least get to keep that!"
"Too slow," He teased, pocketing the 10 cents. Well if he's that desperate.
We realised time had gone by quickly and we had to leave already. I tried to steal the coin from him on the way out to no avail.
…
The fourth week of uni had already begun, and I was at the station waiting for Olette. We both had 9ams on Wednesday mornings, the smallest of the train groups throughout the week. We often had the others with us, but today they either had 8ams or days off. Or in Sora's case he just skipped his 9am. I hoped Kairi's timeliness would rub off on his tardiness one day.
I yawned, rubbing sleep from my eye. I was getting later and later to the station these days, but with uni assignments piling up and a full day of training on Saturday (Which went well, although I didn't break any cups… okay one), I was finding it hard to stay awake in lectures.
I waited for a while, but soon received a text. "Sorry, I'm going to have to catch a later train, I'm running late! Don't wait around for me, I'd hate for you to be late too! Sorry Nam!"
I shook my head with a smile. Poor Olette. I put my phone back in my bag and stepped onto the train.
The good thing about being on the end of the line was that there was always a seat waiting for you. By the time I actually arrived at my stop people were standing by the doors.
I looked around for a good seat, and found one a little further up. I sat on the aisle side, since I hated trying to get past people once I'd reached my stop. Across from me, at the window side, was a boy who was probably about my age. He had dirty blonde hair that was an absolute mess and he looked extremely tired. Another poor uni student? Or maybe a high school dropout, who knows. I settled back to myself.
I'd forgotten to bring a book or something along on this trip, so I was stuck with looking out the windows. I also had a bad habit of looking at other people on things like public transport. I wasn't the only one, right?
I was glancing around, not really looking anywhere in particular… and then that was when I spotted it. It was amazing I did, because his jacket concealed most of the logo. The blonde haired kid was wearing a shirt with one of my favourite video game logos on it.
I didn't like to mention it much because I got embarrassed, but I liked playing video games a fair bit. I played less these days with uni and the last year of high school, but I still loved them. I kept the hobby to myself though, as not many of my friends played games. Or rather, not many of my girl friends.
My heart started racing. Should I say something? No, of course you shouldn't say anything, Naminé, he's a complete stranger, and lots of people wear shirts like that! Oh, but he likes that game… I should say something. No, I can't… but I mean what's the worst that could happen? Just say I like the shirt… no, I can't. Just… try to make eye contact. Okay he's not looking. Just say something!
The mental debate went on in my head for about five station stops, and people were taking the seats fast. If I didn't say something soon people would sit down and I wouldn't be able to see him at all. Okay. Time to say something…
And he puts headphones in his ears. Peachy. Maybe this is a sign I shouldn't. Oh, but I really want to say something… it's not silly, right? Just… wave your hand and say something!
For once my body listened to my brain, and I waved my hand very slightly, gaining his attention. He noticed, pulled his headphones out of his ears, and looked up at me attentively. Oh goodness what had I done.
"Um…" I stammered quickly, pointing to his chest, "I like your shirt."
"Oh, thank you!"
And that was the moment my inner self screamed. His voice was absolutely heavenly. I wasn't expecting that kind of voice out of him, but wow… Okay well let's keep him talking!
"Where did you get it?" I asked, and I could feel heat rising to my cheeks.
"Um, I can't remember actually." He said with a thoughtful expression. I wished he would keep talking because I could listen to that voice on repeat all day.
I settled back to myself once the short-lived conversation ended, and looked away with a smile. I didn't want to seem weird and tried to suppress the goofy grin across my face, but I couldn't believe I'd just done that. I never spoke up to anyone, especially strangers! It left me feeling good, especially since I'd just complimented a cute guy's shirt. I laughed to myself at the first impression I'd had of him. His messy hair hadn't helped, but now that I had a good look at him he was quite cute, especially the adorable smile.
I stole a few glances his way as the train kept going, and after a few moments he pulled out his phone and started up what looked like a game or app. I quickly realised it was an app that had to do with the game on his shirt. I had gotten him thinking about it, it seemed. I tilted my head and he noticed, and held his phone up as a silent explanation, since a lot of people were filling the train now.
We got to the university's usual stop, but I was at a different campus today for one of my subjects. I sat looking around some more when I realised the blonde haired kid was standing to leave. He was getting off at this stop! Did he go to Radiant academy too?
Only students ever got off at this stop and I was certain we went to the same uni. My heart skipped a beat with excitement, but at the same time it sank a little, because he'd have no idea where I was going. I could be going right into the city for all he knew! Come back blonde haired kid, I go there too!
He'd already left, muttering a quick "See ya," as he did. I waved bye, excitement filling me up. Maybe I'd see him around? That would be really great.
Lost in my giddy thoughts, I almost missed my own stop, and I spent the rest of the day humming a song from our video game.
…
Preview
"Love often turns up when you least expect it."
"He said he thought you were cute!"
"I'm so glad you could make it!"
"Hey you two, how's the happy reunion?"
"Honestly, I doubt I'll ever see him again."
…
A/N: I think first impressions are everlasting, even if your final opinion of someone is different than how you first saw them. I also love unexpected first meetings like this! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one is coming up soon! Don't forget to review on your way out!
Also don't forget to check out Fiction Café on my profile! I have ongoing character and chapter analyses going up there with lots of extra information! I've also got a Fan-made Soundtrack in the works, so look out for that!
Apologies to those who've already read this chapter and had to read it again. It's slightly altered, and the story will flow as originally intended from now on! It's always good to go back and improve on your work; I just hope the improvements make it more enjoyable for you guys!
