𝐅𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬

1. the beginning of everything

The first memory you had was the fresh blood soaking your dominant hand, rolling down to the tip of the knife, eventually dripping down to your parents whose lying in their own pools of blood, lifeless in their own house. The second one was when your fingers planting deep inside a classmate's eye sockets; what was left inside those empty holes after you pulled them out poured out like red, veiny egg yolk. You remembered kissing one of the eyes in adorationーand that was the first time that time went back after he died.

However, despite this world's effort in trying to keep him alive, nothing seemed to have change. You would always be that sociopath that obsessed over him, and that classmate of yours would always end up dying under your hands. The only thing that change whenever time repeated itself was his way of dying; from severe blood loss to suffocation. You wondered what kind of sins he had committed to have you falling for him.

Eventually, after several lifetimes, you were finally able to think rationally for oncr and learned the lies of this world. It turned out that classmate of yours that you killed, was the protagonist of this word, and you, were the villain destined to kill the protagonist. What worse was that this world, was a game.

It makes sense. You have always wondering what those brackets with A, B, C options floating above that classmate's head. The only reason why he was never able to escape you laid in that brackets; you were always able to see what choices he would make and outsmart him.

Fortunately, now that you have awaken your consciousness, there was no reason for you to follow the will of this world and kill the protagonist, though at one point, as you watched his body falling into his own death after jumping down the building, you have a horrible realization that this man, even if your existence were to be erased, would always die no matter what.

Therefore as time naturally went back again, you swore that you will protect him this time. After all, each time he died, time would go back to the beginning of the year, and god knows how many years you had wasted your life studying the same thing repeatedly, so if he didn't die, then didn't that mean time can move forward without any problem? You can save a person from dying and you can also graduateーhitting two birds with one stone.

"Chen Miao, didn't I tell you not to stray too far away from me?" You called out to the boy who went still in the hallway.

He turned around and looked at you in grievance. You knew that you were going too far by following him everywhere he went after literally coercing him into a friendship, but did that mean you would care and give him the personal space that he crave? No. You had enough of seeing him dying honestlyーeven if most of his deaths were partially your faultーso no matter what, you needed to be by his side at all time to protect him.

You glanced at the brackets above his head as you strolled towards him.

「A dangerous classmate has appeared! She seems eager to be your friend, but is that the truth? Should you give in to her or should you avoid her?」

•「Apologize; "I'm sorry. I should have listen to you."」

•「Lie; "I was just going to the toilet."」

•「Scold; "I have never agree to be your friend so stop pestering me."」

You saw the second option lighted up and instantly knew that he would choose that one.

"I was just going to the toilet," he looked away in fear of you discovering his lie. "You can't even enter the men's restroom anyway so informing you would be useless."

"I can still wait outside though," you pointed out nonchalantly.

He turned at you in disbelief, cheeks flushing red. "Youー pervert! Beast! Scum!"

"What's so pervert about that? I have zero interest in peeking," you immediately pulled his hand. "Let's go, or else you might leak in the hallway."

He glared at you, embarrassed by your words. "I won't!"

The students around you watch the scene with interest; it was certainly amusing to see the former school's wallflower suddenly changing her personality to befriend the school's honor student, but of course, no one would think whatever you feel for him was just platonic. In their eyes, you were definitely pursuing Chen Miao, and you were doing it in such a bold way too, it makes them want to support you.

ーunfortunately, not everyone would have the same type of mindset.

Especially not the girls who had their eyes on Chen Miao. You ignored their resentful gaze and leaned against the wall, waiting for the protagonist to come out from the restroom.

Eventually, the day ended uneventfully and after packing up your things, you went to his desk which was at the second row beside the windowーa place befitting for a protagonist like him. Not like yours, which was at the last row where rubbish was thrown at.

"Let's go home." 

Chen Miao looked at you incredulously. If people didn't know, they would have thought the two of you were childhood friends or something.

「The dangerous classmate is inviting you to go home together. What should you do?」

•「Refuse; "No."」

•「Accept; "Okay."」

•「Lie; "I need to go somewhere first so it's inconvenient."」

•「Excuse; "I'm going to study at the library so you can go home first."」

"I'm going to stuー"

"I will keep you company then," you nodded. "Let's go."

Ignoring his discomfort, you pulled his hand and dragged him to the library.

Once there, you watch as he meticulously did his homework. Affected by him, you did yours in a span of eight minutes. To Chen Miao, you must have written random answers to solve them that quickly. He snorted and chose to focus on his homework while you rested your chin against the back of your palm, shamelessly staring at the protagonist without reserved. You had to admit that Chen Miao, although not as handsome as the school's grassーa nickname for the hottest guy at schoolーhe is still good-looking.

Just a little, you can somewhat understand your previous self's obsession towards dyeing his skin in red; that smooth, flawless skin of his, like a pure white canvas, really gave you the urge to taint it.

"You're distracting me..."

You snapped out of your thought when you heard him whispering to you with flushed cheeks, yet his eyes were still staring at his pile of books, pretending that it wasn't him who was talking to you.

Staring at his red cheeks, you smiled, liking this type of red better.