"Ugh," Yuudie groaned, struggling to sleep. For a long time he kept turning from left to right on the bed.
Minutes crawled by. The ceiling above him looked like a blank screen where his thoughts kept replaying the same restless scenes. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping sleep would finally take him, but it refused to come.
With a tired sigh, Yuudie finally gave up.
He sat up slowly, rubbing his face. His room was dark and silent, the faint blue glow of the night slipping through the curtains. Yet his mind was running like a machine, loud and relentless.
Throwing his legs off the bed, he stood and began walking toward the kitchen.
Thunk.
He accidentally kicked the small foot chair beside his bed.
"Ah—!" he muttered under his breath, grabbing his foot for a second before continuing toward the doorway, the quiet house stretching around him like a long, sleepless night.
"I already saw it, stupid idiot," he cursed himself.
After the pain faded, he went to the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboard in a rush. Several empty pill bottles fell onto the floor.
"Not this one… not this… not this…"
Almost every bottle in the cupboard was empty.
"Wow," he muttered. "Do I have to stay up the whole night?"
He felt irritated.
"Even eight pills don't work, huh? Unless it's ten or eleven."
Frustrated, he walked back to his room.
The entire night he couldn't fall asleep. He just lay there, staring at the ceiling, laughing like an idiot for no reason.
"I should have asked that four-eyes for his contact number and annoyed him," he thought.
Still staring upward, he muttered, "Hmm… 2:49 a.m."
He didn't even glance at the clock.
"Perfect time to annoy that four eyes."
After thinking for a while, another thought crossed his mind.
"Did he really not remember me or what? He acted like he never knew me at all."
As the sun slowly began to rise, Yuudie was still lying on his bed, laughing without reason. He started imitating the sounds of animals he heard before the sky brightened—sometimes the rooster, sometimes the chirping of birds, sometimes even the ticking of the clock.
"Tick tock… tick tock… tick tock…"
Not even a second off.
Even before the rooster crowed, he imitated the exact same sound at the exact moment. The same with the birds.
Hours passed.
Still staring at the ceiling, he listened as the clock struck nine. Suddenly he jumped up.
"Yes! I'm going to be late today," he grinned.
"Right on schedule".
He dressed quickly, bought a sandwich on the way, and headed toward his classroom.
Classes had already been going on for twenty minutes, yet Yuudie walked slowly through the hall as if he still had plenty of time. His whistling echoed through the corridor as he approached.
Students inside the nearby classrooms stared with wide eyes as he passed.
A teacher from Class 8 stepped outside, irritated.
"Hey, you trash! Can't you see classes are going on?"
Yuudie glanced at him and replied, "Yes, Father."
Then he whispered under his breath, "Father of this trash," grinning as he continued walking.
His whistling echoed louder and louder down the hallway. Students inside the classrooms started looking around in confusion, wondering where the sound was coming from.
Finally—
THUD!
He pushed open his classroom door. Everyone stared at him.
"If it isn't this fool, then who else?" one of the bullies whispered.
"May I come in?"
Before the teacher could even begin scolding him, Yuudie covered his ears tightly and walked straight to his seat. Damaz watched with his eyes wide open, his mouth slightly agape.
"He's completely out of his mind," he thought.
The moment the teacher left the classroom, everyone turned toward the back corner where Yuudie sat.
Yuudie noticed.
"What? Do you want to hear my whistle again?" he laughed hoarsely.
The students quickly shook their heads and returned to their work. Damaz also glanced at him and shook his head.
"Why are you copying them?" Yuudie asked. "Hmm?"
He shook his head again.
Damaz said nothing. Deep down, he hadn't meant to shake his head at all. He was still in shock, but when he saw everyone else doing it, he copied them.
"Did he read my thoughts?" Damaz wondered.
During the lecture, Damaz kept watching Yuudie. Something seemed off about him today. He looked extremely tired, yet strangely energetic in his own world.
Then suddenly, Yuudie's face stretched into a wide smile.
Damaz froze.
"He didn't even look at me… that's embarassing". He quickly covered part of his face with his hand, blocking his view of Yuudie.
When lunch break came, Yuudie didn't eat anything. He simply lay on his desk, awake, watching the students in front of him.
Damaz lifted his sleeve to check the time on his wristwatch.
"It's 12:41. Nineteen minutes left," Yuudie said.
Damaz flinched and turned toward him.
Yuudie hadn't moved. He was still staring at the students ahead.
Damaz checked his watch.
12:41 p.m.
He looked around the classroom. There was no clock on the wall in front. When he turned around, he saw the clock behind him. But Yuudie hadn't looked back even once.
"You don't trust me?" Yuudie asked as he turned his head slightly. "Interesting." He said
'I really can't understand this fool at all,'
"What do you want?" Damaz asked.
"Come with me to the pharmacy after class," Yuudie said.
"Huh?," Damaz frowned
When school ended, students waited for the bell to ring. The moment it rang, Damaz sprinted toward the door. Everyone stared in shock. Such behavior had never come from him before. He was usually calm and serious.
Damaz ran as fast as he could until he got lost in the crowd, panting, his heart pounding.
"I escaped that psycho,"
Just as a smile began to form on his face—
Someone wrapped an arm tightly around his neck.
"I knew it! I knew it!" Yuudie laughed loudly as he dragged Damaz in the opposite direction of his house.
"I'm not dragging you into trouble, fool," Yuudie said while struggling to pull him.
"Let me go," Damaz struggled, his glasses slipping down his nose.
Finally, Damaz realized he couldn't resist the fool's strength. He gave up.
"Fine… I'll just go," he thought. "Otherwise he might actually kill me."
They walked silently. Damaz kept glaring at Yuudie.
"He really is a psychopath"
Damaz didn't know that when he ran out the front door, Yuudie had dashed out through the back door.
Frustrated, Damaz kicked a stone down the road.
I didn't want to get involved with this guy, he thought.
Beside him, Yuudie chuckled mischievously, covering his mouth with one hand as if he found Damaz's frustration amusing.
When they reached the pharmacy, Damaz waited outside. After a while, Yuudie came out, carrying a plastic bag full of medicine. The shapes poking through the bag made it obvious they were all the same type.
"Are you sick?" Damaz asked.
"No. I'm normal like you," Yuudie replied.
"That's not my question."
They continued walking. Suddenly Yuudie stopped.
"No! No! No!" he said abruptly and dragged Damaz into a corner filled with trash.
"Not again…"
Damaz caught a brief glimpse of a man in black walking in the distance.
"What happened?" Damaz asked.
Yuudie didn't reply. He crouched down, covering his ears tightly.
After a moment, blood began to drip from his nose.
Damaz panicked. He quickly took out his handkerchief and pressed it against Yuudie's nose.
"What happened?" he asked again.
"A glitch… a glitch," Yuudie whispered shakily.
"What!?"
For nearly ten minutes they stayed like that. Finally Yuudie slowly lowered his hands.
"Eleven minutes… forty-nine seconds," he muttered.
Damaz sat there like a statue. What am I even dealing with? he thought.
Yuudie stood up and took the handkerchief.
"Let's go before he comes closer," he said, pulling Damaz up.
They walked away without looking back. Before they separated, Damaz asked again,
"What happened?"
"I didn't sleep last night," Yuudie laughed.
"But—"
"But, but," Yuudie interrupted. "Go home. We'll meet tomorrow."
He turned Damaz toward his direction.
"Go."
Then he kicked him forward.
Damaz glared at him.
"Damn you," he muttered.
Yuudie only laughed harder as he walked away.
"I'll go crazy if I stay with him," Damaz muttered under his breath. "That idiot didn't even answer my question."
He clenched his fist.
That night, Damaz couldn't sleep. He lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling just like Yuudie had done the night before, though he didn't know that. His mind kept replaying everything that had happened during the day.
"What is wrong with that guy…?" he muttered quietly.
He turned to his side, then to the other side, pulling the blanket over his face.
Still no sleep.
His thoughts kept returning to Yuudie.
"What is going on with him?"
Damaz sighed deeply and rubbed his eyes.
"Why did he take me to the pharmacy? He's a grown man. If he needs medicine, he can buy it himself. So why pick me?"
The more he thought about it, the stranger everything felt. He sat up slowly on his bed.
Then another thought struck him.
"What he did these past few days…"
The car incident.
The strange way he knew the time.
The way he suddenly dragged him into the trash corner earlier.
Damaz's eyes widened.
"Wait…"
"Did he know he was going to bleed?"
The thought made his stomach twist.
"Did he bring me there because he knew it would happen?"
Damaz ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "But how…?"
"And why was he so scared?"
He remembered Yuudie's face clearly—his trembling voice, the way he covered his ears, the blood coming from his nose.
"That guy is always laughing like an idiot…"
"But earlier…"
"He looked terrified."
Damaz fell back onto his pillow.
"This is insane."
He stared into the darkness of his room.
"I can't believe I ran into an asshole like this in my life."
After a long silence, he groaned and pulled the blanket over his head.
"Tomorrow… I swear I'll smack that idiot."