Lee blinked at the sight before him.

He then turned away and lightly massaged the tiredness from his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

When he looked back the floating message box was still there. 

[WEEK ONE]

[NEW EVENT: ASSIGNMENT FINISHED ON TIME!]

(Turn in your assignment to the Class President during homeroom.)

[DO YOU ACCEPT?]

[Success: +5 Affection & Heart Gauge Unlocked]

[Failure: -5 Affection]

So… clearly Lee must’ve been a little too excited to play the new game he was downloading if he was now having hallucinations like this.

No matter how often he blinked the words would not disappear. He attempted to wave the text away, but his hand just harmlessly passed through the message without disrupting it at all.

Lee moved to get out of bed and the floating box followed, always staying directly in front of him at chest height.

‘Maybe I’m just overtired,’ Lee considered. It was the most plausible explanation. He walked across his room to the attached bathroom, thinking that washing up would help to energize him.

However, by the time Lee was dressed, backpack in hand, and ready for school the situation hadn’t changed. No matter how often he’d splashed water on his face or pinched himself, the words refused to go away. 

Should he just play along then?

All the ‘event’ wanted him to do was turn in his homework, right? Lee had been planning to do that anyway, seeing as he’d actually finished it for once. 

There were no buttons to select ‘accept’ though. He couldn’t touch the box at all. 

Lee pondered aloud, “If I just say ‘I accept’ will that-?”

The world abruptly blurred around Lee as if his surroundings were rapidly passing him by. He felt like he was on a high speed escalator with no handrails. 

He threw his arms out to keep balance, wobbling precariously, until everything came to a sharp stand still. It was so sudden Lee stumbled forward a few steps. 

Looking up, he found that he had been teleported to stand directly in front of the open door to his classroom. 

“Okay, that, uh… yeah,” Lee sputtered, discombobulated. 

Out of pure habit, Lee started forward over the threshold of the classroom just as the school bell rang sharply throughout the halls. 

Thomas stood a few feet away, back facing Lee. 

As the Class President began to turn around, time seemed to slow. The outside edges of Lee’s vision blurred, and only Thomas was in sharp focus.

The early morning light from the window across the room glinted off Thomas' glasses, giving his cheeks a warm glow. The President’s shoulder-length strawberry hair fluttered delicately like window curtains caught in a light breeze as he fully faced Lee. 

The world was zeroing in on Thomas like the intro cutscene of a videogame. Soon, even the backdrop of the room disappeared entirely, replaced by sparkling particle effects. The muted sound of the bell ringing in the distance was the only noise to be heard.

Lee struggled to process all that he was seeing, but eventually his gaze was drawn to the slow movement of Thomas' mouth. 

The Class President was clearly trying to speak, but Lee was more focused on the glossy sheen of the boy's lips. 

For a reason Lee himself could not explain, they captured his undivided attention. Had they always looked so soft?

Lee might’ve stayed trapped in that almost hypnotized state of being, had Thomas not decided just then to bop him on the head with a clipboard.

It didn’t hurt, but the small hit was enough to pull Lee back into reality. As a result, all of the sparkles and fanfare that had surrounded Thomas faded away. The two boys were back to simply standing in their normal classroom setting. 

Feeling as if a fog had just lifted, Lee brought a hand to his head. All of that had simultaneously felt too real and too fantastical. He didn’t know what to think anymore.

Thomas deliberately cleared his throat, causing Lee to look up at him. The redhead raised his eyebrows expectantly, tapping a pencil on the edge of the clipboard in his arms. 

Lee had no idea what he wanted, so he asked, “Sorry, um, what did you say?”

Thomas huffed, focusing on marking something down on the paper in front of him. He then repeated his unheard question, purposefully enunciating the words slowly. “Did you finish your essay?”

Before Lee could even think of replying, a new text window suddenly popped into existence in front of him.

[ No, I forgot.]

[Yes, I didn’t want to disappoint you.] 

Okay, so that was still happening. 

Lee tried to ask Thomas if he could see the floating dialogue options, but no sound could escape his throat. 

Not a word; not a gasp. 

Lee had been rendered completely mute.

Incredulous, Lee clutched at his throat and locked eyes frantically with Thomas, who seemed to have no reaction to Lee’s extended silence or the text hovering between them.

In fact, there was something unnatural about the way Thomas was standing there watching Lee. The redhead occasionally blinked, and the subtle rise and fall of his chest indicated he was breathing, but otherwise he wasn’t moving. 

To any savvy observer, Thomas looked like an idling game character waiting for some kind of player input.

That meant it wasn’t just Lee being affected.

Letting his eyes drift around the room, Lee could tell that all of his classmates were in a similar state to Thomas. There were some minute movements in their bodies that indicated they were all still breathing, but otherwise nobody seemed to have any agency.

Lee let his gaze warily drift back to the dialogue options. He had an inkling of what he had to do. 

He still couldn’t touch the text, and now he couldn’t speak, so he decided on one mentally.

The second he made his choice, a response was forced from his throat against his will.

“Yes, I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

Following those words, Thomas seemed to surge back to life. He straightened up, clutched his clipboard to his chest, and his eyebrows creased in confusion.

“I didn’t know my opinion mattered that much to you,” Thomas remarked, tilting his head inquiringly. 

In a hurry to reply just to make sure he had his voice back, Lee admitted, “Well, when I don’t turn in my work on time you glare at me. It’s a little scary.”

Thomas frowned heavily, averse to being thought of as ‘scary’ of all things. 

“I’m not trying to intimidate you. It just frustrates me when people give up on their work without even trying,” he admitted. “I’ll tone it down.”

Lee quickly shook his head, protesting, “No, it’s okay! You’re my motivation! I wouldn’t get even half my homework done otherwise.”

Thomas looked at Lee with bemusement, shaking his head at the backwards logic. “Whatever works then, I suppose,” he concluded. 

Thomas then held out his hand expectantly, informing Lee, “You can go ahead and hand the homework in to me now.”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Lee complied, quickly unzipping his bag and pulling his essay out of his folder. He handed it over and Thomas slipped it beneath the top sheet of paper on his clipboard where he’d been marking attendance. 

[EVENT (ASSIGNMENT FINISHED ON TIME) COMPLETE!]

[+5 Affection & Heart Gauge Unlocked!]

Lee barely kept from flinching as soon as the new text window appeared in front of him. It stayed just long enough for him to read, then vanished. 

Following that though, Lee’s gaze was drawn to the top of Thomas' head where two new stats floated. 

[Affection: 5%]  

[Heart: 🖤🖤🖤🖤] (0/4)

Lee had received the promised event rewards.