It had been more than a month since the school term started, but it didn't feel like Gloxinia would get used to the school any time soon.

First of all, she didn't know how to talk to people, so she had no friends. Her looks--luscious black hair and purple eyes with long eyelashes--invited some admirers but the fact was that no one had approached her personally yet.

She wondered what she did wrong as she watched everyone else in the class mingling with their own circles.

At this rate, she wouldn't be able to fulfill the promise she made to her.

Go to school, will you? that girl's voice echoed in her mind. Live for my part too.

The school bell rang and snapped Gloxinia out of her daydream. She tidied up her desk and straightened her position as her other classmates hurried back to their seats to begin class.

A moment later, the homeroom teacher entered the class. Gloxinia wasn't paying attention because she was busy staring at her pencil case that was somehow missing an eraser.

"Good morning, class," the teacher greeted, with the class responding back with the same greeting.

Gloxinia started to take out the stuff in her pencil case one by one to check the eraser's whereabouts. But even when she finally emptied the case, she still couldn't find it.

She tilted her head in confusion. How could an eraser just evaporate like that?

Right then, someone passed by her seat.

Gloxinia's eyes widened when she noticed a familiar scent. A scent that she first encountered on the worst day of her life.

The scent of death.

She turned her head to look at the person who just passed by. She never saw him before. A transfer student? He had dark brown hair, tall body, and a wide back. He was walking towards an empty desk behind hers, and when he reached it and took a seat Gloxinia finally saw his face for the first time.

He was quite good looking, even to Gloxinia. His pupils were like the color of the moon, his eyes were round and a bit drooped. His modest bangs were brushed to the side.

Gloxinia kept on staring at him even when he already sat down. She felt like they already met before, but he looked different from the person she remembered.

The new student noticed her glance and looked at her. His gaze gave her chills all of a sudden, as if he was putting her under observation. She quickly turned around to look forward and ignore him.

He didn't seem like a good candidate for a friend. A friend should be nice and caring, and he didn't look like he was. It was better for her to not get involved with him, she thought.

The scent disappeared when he sat down, even though he was right behind her. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

The classes went by in a blink for Gloxinia. She listened to the classes well even though she actually didn't need to, and now it was already time for lunch.

Gloxinia sighed while leaning back. Nothing interesting happened to her today so far, again. When she left, Gloxinia thought she would feel the same excitement like when she was with her if she went to school. Reality was not as kind.

She looked around the class. She wanted to eat lunch with someone else, but nobody seemed to be approaching her since they were all surrounding the transfer student behind her. It was a bit noisy, but Gloxinia didn't mind a little noise.

She glanced at the crowd surrounding the transfer student and felt that it was a bit unfair. Even though she was around since the beginning, the transfer student got a different treatment.

But it would be fine. She knew high school has three years in total, so she had plenty of time to make friends.

Supposedly.

Gloxinia opened the lunchbox she brought to school and ate it by herself on her table. She had never gotten the chance to go to the cafeteria with friends, even though she wanted so badly to.

When the class started again, the Biology teacher dropped a bomb on the class.

"We'll be doing a little surprise quiz," the teacher said, earning grunts of protests from the students. The teacher just laughed at the students' reaction.

"Calm down, you won't be doing it by yourself! Work in a pair of two. The students in row 1 will work with the students in row 2, while the students in row 3 will work with the students in row 4, and so on," the teacher explained.

That meant, Gloxinia needed to turn around her seat. She was ecstatic of this chance. Even though she said the transfer student might not be a good candidate for a friend, she was still excited to be able to connect with another person through this quiz.

Gloxinia turned her chair around and sat right across the transfer student. He didn't look at Gloxinia at all and was just staring at the papers the teacher handed out.

Gloxinia thought maybe he was just a quiet person in the first place. She didn't mind that.

"I need to look at it too," Gloxinia said while shifting the paper's position a bit so she could take a look at it. She scanned the paper's contents.

It was a quiz on the characteristics of blood. She could answer all these by herself if she wanted to, but this was a team work. She glanced at the transfer student, attempting to communicate with him, but he still didn't spare her a glance.

Gloxinia sighed. She didn't know what she should do with him or this quiz. She decided to get her stationeries from her desk first and turned her body to reach to them.

"It's been a while, Spirit," the transfer student said all of a sudden.

Gloxinia froze in her place. There was only one person who knew her and called her that. She turned her head to look at him and this time, he was looking back at her with his greyish eyes. Cold and unfeeling.

"I suppose it has been, Death," Gloxinia replied after a while. She fixed her position and faced him again.

"But I go by Gloxinia now, if you would," she said.

"Gloxinia. I see," Death said. He cast his eyes downwards to the desk. "You can call me Vincent too."

Gloxinia nodded. That was the first time she heard his name. Even back when they met for the first time, she only knew him as Death. She could've found out his name much earlier if she was paying attention when the teacher introduced him to the class, but she didn't.

Gloxinia clicked her pen and started writing their names on the paper.

She tucked a stray hair behind her ear while focusing on the quiz in front of her.

"The answer for number 2 is B," Vincent said. Gloxinia looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. He leaned forward a bit and pointed at the question number two on the papers. It was a question with a case sample.

"Bloodtype A can't be transfused into any other type but fellow A's. So the answer is B," he said, his expression as unchanging as ever. Gloxinia stared at the question. She did understand theories but truth be told, her reading comprehension was pretty low. If she read too quickly, she would misunderstand the meaning.

After reading the question over carefully, she nodded to accept his help.

"Thank you," Gloxinia said.

She wasn't offended when he pointed out her mistake at all. In fact, she actually found it quite fascinating and friend-like.

"So why are you here and not working?" Gloxinia asked when she finished writing all the answers with Vincent's help. Her question wasn't with ill intent at all. She was just making small talk and partly curious. After all, an angel of death being at school is quite unthinkable.

Vincent didn't answer immediately that Gloxinia wondered if she was being rude. But then he opened his mouth to talk.

"What about you? What's a Spirit of the Lake doing in school?" Vincent asked back. His tone was flat, as if showing he was as uninterested in her answer as much as he was uninterested in answering her question.

"I'm fulfilling a promise made to a friend," Gloxinia answered. From the corner of her eyes, it seemed like she saw Vincent freezing but when she looked at him again, he looked normal.

"Your turn to answer," Gloxinia said. She wasn't going to press for answer if he didn't want to tell her, but it felt like he was challenging her when he turned the question back at her. She didn't like it. Now she had to get answers.

"I'm being punished," Vincent said.

Punished? Gloxinia tilted her head.

"What punish--"

Ring~ ring~

"Time's up! Submit your work now!" the teacher announced at the same time the school bell rang. Vincent stood up almost immediately and snatched the paper from Gloxinia, then carried his bag over to the teacher.

He went out of the class as soon as he submitted their quiz.

Gloxinia watched him walk out with a confused look on her face. That was such impeccable timing. When did he even pack up his bags? Granted, Gloxinia was kinda bad at noticing the surroundings.

She quickly packed her bags to go home. She speedwalked out of the class and the school, but Vincent was already nowhere to be found.

That kind of disappointed Gloxinia. She wanted to ask him to be her friend today, if possible.

Gloxinia sighed and decided to just go home.

Her place was within walking distance from the school. She walked past the bustling neighborhood stores and reached the house just on the edge of the town, right before the forest.

The house was small. The design looked old, as if it were built so many years ago. Even though the design was outdated, the house was still standing strong without any sign of breaking down.

Gloxinia unlocked the gate and entered her house's premise. There was a garden, but it was very small.

She inserted her key into the door lock and got into her house. After making sure she locked it again, she walked into the living room.

She stopped by a cupboard in the living room, where a number of framed photos were set up.

She smiled at one of the photos, a photo of an elderly woman smiling straight at the camera.

"Today was a mess too, Lilly," Gloxinia muttered to the photo. She gave the frame a gentle touch before walking towards her bedroom.

This was a story about the Spirit of the Lake who wanted to make some human friends in high school, and the Angel of Death who had to serve his punishment in the same school.