2. Distraction
"When are we supposed to turn this again…?"
Without hesitation, the pink-haired girl answers his question—voice full and firm, yet still soft in its own way. "This afternoon, Jersey."
Jersey throws a surprisingly non-fake surprised look. "What?! I haven't done any of this!"
She clicks her tongue in annoyance. "I have reminded all of you yesterday. If you currently have nothing on your hand, then it's your own fault. Your own problem. Therefore you mind it on your own." And with that, the soft clicking of shoes became audible. The cold class representative has left him with his own problem.
He throws his gaze away to the soccer field that he could see through the window, before starting to pull his blond locks in frustration. "And how am I supposed to solve this in three hours?!"
"Well. Too bad your friend over here won't be able to help you as much," Parka carefreely answers from his seat while holding up his half-eaten lollipop, waving it in a circular motion.
"And you're calling yourself my friend?!" Jersey hysterically shouts at him.
"Hey, calm down. I've tried. I did the homework with the help of that school girl. Well, I wouldn't be able to do this by myself, anyways. Ah, moving on, I've asked you to come along at that time but you were attending that Melody concert," Parka answers.
"That was two weeks ago."
"… Yeah, you've said it. That was two weeks ago."
And when he thinks about it again, he did have this kind of thought at that time: 'It's due in two weeks, there's still plenty of time to do it! Now let's go for the concert!'
Back to the present, it's due in three hours.
"How the heck two weeks went so fast?! Not that—now how am I supposed to solve this in three hours?!"
"I'd try to finish it as much and as fast as I can, if I were you," Parka answers him. "Well, half-mark—or even quarter mark—is better than nothing at all, right?"
"Argh, you're not really helping," he huffs, glancing back to the notebook on his desk. "But yeah, I won't get anywhere if I do nothing…"
"That's the spirit. Good luck!" With a last harsh tap on the shoulder, Parka walks away, getting out from the class and greets his friends out there.
"That's still not really helping," he says for one last time before actually turning back to his desk. "I might have to start this now, then."
In five minutes, he has done about half of the question with the aid of text books and calculator. The questions are complicated so it really needs hard work, especially for someone like him who's not a studying person.
But it's getting… harder, isn't it? That paper (though actually it's what's written on it) is enough to fry his brain and he feels like he can't go on anymore. It's seriously killing him, not exaggerating, and maybe what he can do to prevent his death and keep his grade (like he had one in the first place…) is—
With the headphone he has been putting on from the time the teacher got out from the class, all he needs to do is press the play button and Chia's cute voice will flow into his ears. Haa. That's really enough to cool down his mind. Maybe more than that. He can imagine Chia singing it clearly. With a warm smile and happy face… Ah, so cute.
He wonders what she's doing right now. He might be stuck in place called school, but she could be somewhere doing something really different from what he's doing (of course, an idol's life is not an ordinary person's). Practicing singing? Or learning dance moves? Maybe having a lunch?
With no second thought, he grabs his phone and presses the keys in a fast motion, opening a social app to… stalk Chia. Not exactly stalking, since he only reads what she wants people to know (by reading)—it's called social app for a reason. He scrolls through bunch of text and icons and catches a familiar icon accompanied with a familiar username. Chia's.
"Recording for the new single. Tired, but let's keep going *:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:* "
What new single?! Why hasn't he heard a thing about it?! As a self-proclaimed biggest fan of Chia, he can't let such thing happen! He has to find out! And with that he dismisses the app and opens the browser, going straight to Melody's official website. And there is written—shiiit, they really are going to release a new single.
He frowns. He'll do anything for Chia, of course, but that last concert's Blu-ray really broke him and now he's left with nothing (not literally). The good thing is it's still months away, he still has time to take tons of part-time jobs and work like his life depends on it. What should he take this time? He's pretty confident with his social skill despite his I-have-no-life life so any job wouldn't cause trouble for him. Maybe the restaurant again, but new things aren't so bad. The cashier of an idol shop? Maybe they'll let him take some freebies.
Other than that, what should he do? He has no outstanding talent or whatever to make money (other than doing part-times). What about his future, then? He's already hopeless about school as well. Will he continue depending on part-time jobs? That just seems pathetic… Only if he can marry Chia, his life wouldn't be this pointless since he would have a reason for living and be a better person, for his dear Chia.
And suddenly he thinks it's not the right time to think about such thing…? He has an unfinished homework to do! What was he doing with his phone? Chia?! Why did he end up thinking about his future anyway! The bell is going to—wait, did he just hear the bell ring?
"SHIIIIIIT!"
"Hey, who said that?! No profanities allowed in the class!"