01: Surprise
"Good morning Mai you're looking beautiful as always." Yasuhara laughed and took a sip from Mai's coffee as he placed his belongings on the table and sat down.
Mai rolled her eyes, "Very funny Yasu. Try to be more discreet with the sarcasm next time."
They both knew she looked terrible, her dark circles were almost blending in with Yasu's black hoodie.
After almost a year at university, Mai didn't care to look after her appearance, nor did she have the time.
She had been juggling four classes, the work that came with it, and a part-time job. And then you add nightmares to the mix, making it so she couldn't sleep properly either. Mai's life was just great.
"I barely finished the paper because I was busy skyping Hana all night." Yasu sighed and rested his chin on his hand, "She's just too beautiful and needy!"
"That's great Yasu your single friend over here really wants to hear about your love life. Tell me more." Mai glared at the dark haired boy as she drank her coffee.
At first, she had been happy for her best friend and his now one year girlfriend, but hearing about his romantic rendezvous every time they met had slowly begun to irritate her.
"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of their bed today." Yasu began to take out his laptop as he continued,
"Did you hear? We're having a guest speaker come today. I'm so glad I won't have to see that old man's bald head today. 'Yathuhara be quiet' 'Yathuhara stay after class'. No matter how many times I tell him it's Yasuhara he never listens but he always seems to hear me snack all the way in the back of the class so he can tell me to shut up, what a coincidence that is!"
Does he ever breathe when he talks? Mai smiled at her friend as she watched him rant.
Throughout the course of three years, he didn't change much except for gaining some muscles and interests in girls.
When she first met Yasu she didn't really think they would be best friends. But here they are three years later, spending almost every day together. They knew everything about each other and at this point they were practically the same person.
Mai hadn't changed much herself. Appearance-wise, her hair being shoulder length was the only noticeable change. She had grown in figure too, not that she showed it off much.
Nowadays Mai was quieter, she enjoyed time to herself when she could.
Her nightmares were the only reason she didn't like being alone, they happened so frequently that she stopped wondering about the contents.
But what she saw last night was different. Experiencing Gene's painful death had shaken her up. But most of all, she wanted to cry for Gene, for having to die in such a way.
She didn't quite understand why she had seen his death. Perhaps he wanted her to know about what had happened.
After all, there had been many questions left unanswered after her former boss left for England.
Mai snapped away from her thoughts as she felt Yasu shaking her.
"Mai! Look." The boy exclaimed.
"What now Yas-"
Her eyes widened when she realized what he was pointing at.
Oliver Davis was not pleased, to say the least.
His mother had decided to approve of him guest speaking at a university without his consent. She had also insisted that he do it no matter what.
Which is what brought him to Japan one month ahead of schedule, and he hated it when things didn't go as planned.
Walking down the hall with Lin, Naru failed to notice the eyes that had been staring, and the people that had begun to move out of the way.
"I suggest you not glare like that when you're doing the lecture." Lin smirked at Naru as they walked in.
Naru relaxed his eyes, not realizing that he was glaring.
He placed his bag on the desk and scanned the room.
There was a very large group of students sitting in front of him.
Majority of them hinted they did not want to be here. Some girls had begun to eye him in a way that seemed almost inappropriate.
His eyes landed on the familiar faces situated in the back of the room.
There he saw his former researcher and assistant staring at him in shock. He didn't blame them, he was equally surprised to see them as they were him.
His eyes stopped to look at Mai - her hair that was tied in a high messy bun, her sweater that seemed like it would fall off her shoulder any second and her seemingly skinnier form.
After observing her for what seemed to be a second, Naru realized that his former assistant had grown in many ways.
She didn't seem like the bubbly teenager that had worked under him. Her eyes were calmer and didn't suggest the furor they did before.
However, he was almost...relieved to see that she had looked at him the same way she did before.
The blue-eyed man tore his eyes from hers and snapped back to the reality that he was standing in front of 300 people.
He introduced himself to the class, "My name is Kazuya Shibuya and I will be speaking about symptoms of extrasensory perception."
Author's note - Mai and Naru are about to meet again! It's a little hard for me to write in Naru's perspective but I'm trying my best to display his personality. Yasu's kind of like the comic relief in this story but he's also an important character. You'll be meeting the rest of SPR soon! Feedback is always welcome! Thank you for reading.