The clouds floating through the sky are like fading memories drifting across a sea of time. Ryuta ponders silently as he stares out the window. The quiet overhead classical music playing as others casually type on their phones or talk to one another. A steady stream of traffic inside the cafe made the atmosphere seem lively yet calm.
"Why is it the things we desire are so hard to grasp?" Ryuta thinks out loud.
"What?"
"Ah, nothing..."
Ryuta shakes his head and takes a sip of the coffee he has in front of him. The girl sitting next to him gives him a raised eyebrow. Her curiosity passes and she goes back to drinking her latte. She fixes the side of her hair that was sliding past her cheek. She has long lavender hair tied into a single ponytail that rests softly down her back. Her squinting pink eyes were directed towards Ryuta's coffee as if she was inspecting it.
"Uh, Yume what are you doing?"
Her face was drawing closer and closer to the coffee. This sudden eccentric behavior caught Ryuta off guard. This girl, Yume, is not one to act in such a way unless she seemingly wants something. It wasn't until Yume's lips had already touched the cup when Ryuta finally realized this. She takes a long sip of the coffee and pulls away with a soft grin.
"It's good," she exclaims.
"Is it?" Ryuta replies with a sigh. "If you wanted to try it you could have just asked."
Yume responds with a smile and continues drinking her own beverage. Ryuta smirks softly and drinks his coffee without noticing Yume blushing slightly as she watches him. Ryuta puts his drink down and looks at Yume with stern eyes.
"Yume." Ryuta's voice was quiet but strong.
"W-what is it all of a sudden?"
"You didn't finish your summer homework, have you?"
"O-of course I did! Who do you think I am?" Yume responds while avoiding eye contact.
"Oh, really? Then why did you ask me earlier if you could see my homework?"
"I just wanted to, uh, you know-"
"Surely it wasn't so you could copy my work under the pretense of comparing our answers, hmm?"
Yume pouts as she returns to drinking her latte.
"So you were going to copy my homework again!"
Yume ignores Ryuta as he scratches his head from several mixed emotions.
"Why am I not surprised?"
"Maybe because it has been like this since we were in junior high."
"That's no excuse! You should be doing your own work already. To top it all off, we go back to school tomorrow!"
Ryuta continues having an episode while Yume remains relaxed. "It'll be fine, probably."
"Ah," Ryuta gives up. "Why are we still here? Let's go back to your place and get this done and over with."
"Okay~"
The two of them get up and leave the cafe they were lounging at. Ryuta accidentally bumps into a girl with short black hair as he reaches the exit.
"Oh, sorry about that."
"It's okay, it's my fault too."
The girl is wearing gray attire and has a sliver of a scar appearing next to her left eye. Ryuta looks at her eventually his eyes meeting hers. Her red irises staring at Ryuta gives him a brief unpleasant feeling. The girl moves past Ryuta after noticing Yume glaring behind him. Ryuta looks at Yume and she grins awkwardly. Yume turns away and walks out the door. She covers her eyes from the sun as they step outside. She reaches out to Ryuta blindly in search of his arm. He grabs her hand and pulls her closer. She immediately closes the gap between them and hugs his arm. The softness of her chest seemed to gently envelop his arm. Yume's eyes are half-closed as she looks up at Ryuta.
"If I do this, I can see you perfectly." Yume says with a wide grin. "Then you won't think about that girl you bumped into."
"Oh, stop it." Ryuta replies.
"She was cute though!"
"Maybe but that doesn't matter."
"Hmm."
"What?"
"So you aren't interested in her?"
"No, i'm not!" Ryuta sighs. This is why girls can be such a pain.
"Alright, I believe you."
"Thank you," Ryuta replies. "Anyway, why aren't you wearing your contacts today? "
"I don't like contacts," Yume sighs. "I rather wear glasses."
"So why aren't you wearing your glasses then?"
Yume pauses. "I forgot them at home."
"You aren't wearing glasses or contacts. What am I going to do with you?"
"Take care of me forever?" Yume grins.
"I'm not your caretaker. I suppose it's a good thing we're heading back to your place though. At least you'll be able to get your homework done properly after you get your glasses."
"I knew I should have accidentally broken my glasses..." Yume mumbles to herself.
"You can't just prepare to accidentally break something!"
"Ah...he heard me." Yume replies. "Don't worry about it, I'll get my homework done."
"Yeah, you better. I don't want you to have extra homework."
"Why? It means we could spend more time together."
"That's not the goal here!"
"Homework is such a waste of time though," Yume groans. "I don't want to go over things I already know."
Ryuta's lips tremble in frustration. This damn natural born genius.
"Just because you're smart, doesn't mean you shouldn't study, Yume."
"I know. I just much rather spend my time on other things though."
"Other things?"
"Yeah." Yume lets go of Ryuta's arm and walks forward ahead of him.
"But what other things? Never mind..." Ryuta whispers to himself.
The two of them continue walking down the street. Ryuta finds himself looking at the people around him. Everybody is unique. Yet filling the streets like a flood, every single person becomes another drop in the sea of people. Ryuta overhears a television broadcast playing in a store next to him and Yume. Yume not paying attention to the TV, Ryuta slows down his pace to hear the broadcast.
"With the higher amount of lucid activity, there has been an increase of unexplained deaths by sleep. Experts have not been able to identify the reasoning behind these sudden deaths that keep occurring. Please be advised to not partake of any activity related to lucid dreaming."
"This town is changing..." Ryuta says to himself. "Or maybe it's the world that's changing."
"Ever since the lucid eruption from a decade ago, the increase in lucid dreamers has grown exponentially." Yume states.
"She was listening?" Ryuta asks himself under his breath.
"We never got into that stuff," Yume continues. "I suppose that's a good thing."
"I guess." Ryuta replies. I hope you will forgive me for never telling you about what happened when we were kids, Yume.
"It's pretty scary," Yume adds. "The fact that you can die from a dream. I thought that was just a myth inspired by movies."
"Well, the increase in deaths show otherwise."
"Yeah, I don't even want to try to lucid dream. It's like sleep paralysis, right? I read about that too. Gives me the chills."
"It's all in your mind in the end. You just have to overcome it."
"It's all in your mind, Ryuta."
Ryuta stops in his tracks, mouth and eyes wide in shock. "W-what was that?"
"What is it, Ryuta?" Yume asks while stopping to wait for him.
Yume's pupils have a polarized tone to them as she stares at Ryuta unaware of the changing atmosphere around her. The rest of her body glows in an array of vibrant colors as the rest of the world follows suit. The world around Ryuta and Yume stands still as the tone of everything shifts into a vivid spectrum of breathing colors. Ryuta quickly observes his surroundings, shocked by the sudden change in the world. Everyone, including Yume, remains still as if stuck in the echoes of time. Ryuta being the only one to move, he quickly runs past Yume as he soon gets a grasp of the situation.
"Why is this happening right now? What's the cause?"
Ryuta runs past a corner store and takes a turn to see a creeping darkness consuming the light of the world around him. The world around him is being corrupted by the void steadily reaching him. Ryuta runs the opposite direction to avoid the corruption as fast as he can. Trying not to run into the living statues of people around him, he sees a single girl standing high on top of a building ahead.
"Is she the one?" Ryuta stops and observes her. "How is this possible? I wasn't initiating the dream."
Ryuta clenches his fist, determined to escape this situation.
"I'm able to move, which means that I can end this."
Ryuta's eyes gleam as he musters his courage. Within an instant Ryuta appears behind the girl on the building. She steps back bewildered from his sudden appearance. Her hip length white hair flutters in the air, revealing a rainbow of colors flowing half way down to the tips. Her golden eyes widen. They glitter under the white mini cloak she wore over her colorful Victorian inspired outfit.
"Who are you?"
"..." The girl looks at Ryuta cautiously. She hesitates before answering, "One who asks a name should speak theirs first."
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