“Crap, crap, crap! I’m gonna be late!” he shouted in panic, his voice sounding almost drowned out amidst the bustle of the metropolitan city that had just entered the morning rush hour.
A teenage boy ran with all his strength along the wide sidewalk crowded with people. His breathing came in uneven gasps.
His white-gray school uniform was already soaked with sweat even though the sun had not truly reached the peak of the sky yet while the backpack on his back kept slamming against his shoulders every time his steps struck the asphalt.
On his right wrist, a simple digital watch blinked, showing 06:57.
Three more minutes.
The school gate would close exactly at seven o’clock.
“My house actually isn’t that far away ...,” he grumbled between broken breaths. “just past a few hologram center blocks, the commercial district, and the magnetic train line. But I still end up late all the time! What the heck is wrong with me?!”
The problem was, in a modern city like this, distance was no longer a matter of meters or kilometers. Because what made everything feel far away was the sea of people.
The sidewalks were filled with office workers in formal clothing with transparent earphones attached to their ears. Delivery drones flew low overhead while emitting mechanical buzzing sounds.
Meanwhile, automated vehicles glided almost silently across the elevated highways, occasionally flashing light from the digital navigation panels on their sides.
Fiant hologram screens covered the sides of skyscrapers, displaying advertisements for synthetic food, the latest technology, and viral ARMOR matches.
Everything moved fast.
And amidst the city that kept moving forward, the only person who truly seemed to be struggling against time was him.
“Dang it ...! Why did I stay up all night watching the ARMOR Grand Battle?!” he grumbled while overtaking an office worker who almost crashed into him.
Although when he thought about it again, that feeling of regret was not entirely sincere.
Last night’s episode had truly been incredible. The final battle was still vividly etched in his mind even now.
“If I get punished again ... my life is over!” he shouted, quickening his pace, forcing his legs to keep moving even though his lungs felt like they were burning.
If only he already had a driver’s license, everything would definitely be easier.
Motorcycles, cars.
Or even hoverboards!
Those futuristic vehicles popular among rich people occasionally passed beside the sidewalk.
The slim glowing boards floating a few centimeters above the ground sped silently forward, leaving behind faint gusts of wind every time they passed.
They were cool indeed, but extremely expensive.
That teenager glanced briefly up at the sky.
The heat felt like it was melting his body.
Two suns hung up there.
Both shone brightly as if competing to burn the world. Their golden light reflected off the surfaces of the glass buildings, making the entire city seem to glitter.
For outsiders, perhaps such a sight would sound impossible.
But for humans in this world, two suns were something ordinary.
The phenomenon was known as the Twin Suns.
No one truly knew why the world possessed two giant sources of light at once. Scientists had researched it for decades, gathering theory after theory, only to end up giving up without a definite answer.
The internet was full of speculation. Scientific theories, conspiracies, ancient prophecies.
There were even groups who believed one of the suns was not actually a real sun.
What made everything even stranger was that several ancient artifacts instead depicted the sky with only one sun.
Sometimes the teenager thought, Why does there have to be two? Would the world feel different if there were only one? Maybe cooler?
However, his thoughts immediately scattered because now was not the time to think about cosmic theories.
He was struggling to save his fate as a high school student.
Two minutes left.
In the distance, the school gate finally began to come into view.
His eyes instantly sparkled with hope.
He accelerated his run, pushing through the crowd of other students leisurely walking toward school.
However, that hope collapsed instantly.
A teacher stood right in front of the gate.
The teenager’s body reflexively slowed down. “Gosh ... I’m dead.”
The clock on his wrist changed to 07:01.
The school bell must have already rung.
And if the duty teacher was already standing there, that meant everything was already too late.
He swallowed hard. Should I go through the back? Climb the fence? Pretend to faint? Or act possessed?
Just as he was about to turn around, suddenly a hand grabbed his arm. “Come here,” she said, her voice flat.
A brown-haired girl appeared from who knew where before immediately dragging him toward the school gate with a quick and unwavering pull until the boy almost tripped over a sidewalk stone.
“Wait! If this happens, I’ll get caught instead!” the boy whispered in panic.
However, the girl completely ignored him. Her expression remained calm. Her face was almost emotionless.
She kept pulling him closer to the teacher guarding the gate.
The boy’s heart immediately pounded uncontrollably.
Was this girl trying to report him? If so, his life was finished.
Once they reached the gate, the girl immediately gave a small bow. “Sorry, Sir,” she said politely though her tone remained flat. “We were late. I ran into some trouble on the way earlier, and he helped me.”
That boy eflexively swallowed hard.
The teacher in front of them slowly glanced toward him, his gaze sharp, like the scanner of an automatic security machine at a shopping center.
Once caught in its gaze, it felt as though every sin in your life could instantly be read.
Cold sweat streamed down his back.
Within seconds, his body felt as though it had lost as much liquid as a medium-sized bottle of mineral water.
And somehow, in a situation like that, his brain instead thought about a strange and unimportant fact.
Mineral water did not actually expire. The date printed on the bottle was more directed toward the quality of the plastic packaging.
Most bottles were made from PET or Polyethylene Terephthalate which could degrade if exposed to heat for too long.
That was why—
“Wait, why the heck am I even thinking about that?!” he suddenly snapped, almost wanting to slam his own head.
This was not the time to show off random knowledge from reading internet articles at two in the morning.
The teacher narrowed his eyes. His gaze shifted from the girl to him. “Are you sure you were helped by him?” he asked suspiciously.
The boy instantly froze. Hey! Why does that question sound so insulting?! he thought.
The brown-haired girl nodded without the slightest hesitation. “Yes, Sir. He’s a very kind kid.”
The teacher became even more suspicious before the boy could feel touched. “You ...,” he pointed slowly toward the teenager. “you’re the one who’s always late, right? And also the one who skips class?”
The boy laughed awkwardly with a stiff face. “If it’s the being late part, then yes, Sir. But the skipping class part is totally slander.”
“Slander?” The teacher glared sharply.
“I’m too lazy to skip class, Sir,” the boy answered quickly. “I mean, skipping class requires planning. And making plans that complicated isn’t my ... expertise.”
The girl beside him slowly turned her head. Her gaze looked as though she was trying to understand whether that statement counted as a joke or not.
The teacher massaged his temple. “Then why are you late almost every week?”
The boy fell silent for a moment as though thinking hard. “Because my passion for studying is too great, Sir!”
“Hah?” One of the teacher’s eyebrows spontaneously rose.
“I often study until late at night.”
The teacher gave a small nod. “That’s good.”
“But what I study isn’t school material.”
The atmosphere suddenly fell silent.
The teacher stared blankly for several seconds, which somehow felt far more terrifying than anger. “ARMOR again?” he asked flatly.
The teenager reflexively stepped back once. “How do you know? Are you Dilan’s father or something? Can you predict the future?”
“Last month you fell asleep in class while hugging the latest edition of an ARMOR magazine!” the teacher snapped.
Ah, right. That really did happen.
The boy laughed dryly while cold sweat kept flowing down his back.
Beside him, the brown-haired girl seemed to be slightly holding back a faint smile even though her expression remained cold.
The teacher finally let out a long sigh. “Alright, just get inside already! Talking to you gives me a headache!”
The teenager’s face immediately brightened, reflexively bowing over and over. “Thank you very much, Sir! May both suns always shine upon your life!”
“Get out of here before I change my mind.” The teacher waved his left hand tiredly.
Without wasting time, the girl immediately pulled him through the school gate.
Only after they were far enough away could the boy finally breathe in relief. “Thank you,” he said while catching his breath. “You really saved me. What’s your name?”
The girl glanced at him briefly. “Ayu.”
Before he could say anything else, the girl had already walked away just like that, making her long brown hair sway gently in the morning breeze as she waved a small hand without turning around.
The boy stood frozen for several seconds.
Judging from her uniform, the girl was clearly a student at this school. Yet strangely enough, he had never seen her before.
Although ... well. Maybe that was because he himself was not the type of person who liked socializing.
During breaks, he usually sat alone in class while eating the lunch his mother made.
After school, he immediately shut himself inside his room just to read or watch anything related to ARMOR.
In short, a hardcore antisocial!
And strangely enough, he was quite proud of it.
“Ah!” He flinched. “This isn’t the time to relax yet!” He quickly ran toward the classroom building.
Escaping the gate would be pointless if he still ended up punished for being late to first period.
Fortunately, he managed to make it into the classroom only a few seconds before the teacher arrived.
He immediately dropped into his seat while trying to steady his ragged breathing.
The first lesson today was Mathematics.
The teacher was Mr. Heru, the school’s living legend known as the strictest, most disciplined, and most terrifying teacher of them all.
Rumor had it that ever since he first started teaching, Mr. Heru had never taken a single day off. Even last year, when a massive storm struck the city and many students failed to show up, he still arrived exactly on time as always.
He had been late to Mr. Heru’s class several times before.
And every one of those experiences felt like it had shaved years off his lifespan because just imagining what would have happened if he really had been late earlier was already enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
“Good morning, everyone,” Mr. Heru said as he opened the class.
After that, the teacher, whose face always looked far too serious and rigid, began explaining the lesson at the front of the classroom with a heavy, firm voice that filled the room.
Meanwhile, the teenage boy could only slump weakly against his chair. “Good grief ...,” he muttered softly while staring at the classroom ceiling. “what an exhausting morning.”