People of the Same Kind

It was the weekend, with five days left until April ended.

He stuffed the workbooks one by one into a plastic bag. There were still things to praise about this school.

For example, if there was something you wanted to buy, all you had to do was tell the shopkeeper, and they could stock it by the next day. He had no idea where they got their supplies.

As long as you were willing to spend points, you could buy rare resources like Huanggang exam papers, three years of mock exams, and five years of college entrance exam questions.

Studying in this country was a little difficult. Self-discipline went without saying; more importantly, you needed to hire a tutor on the side.

Otherwise, you had little chance of catching up. Behind the cruelty of a carefree education was the prospect of people going up to the rooftop to try out free flight.

After all, the harshness of reality and the pressure at school were wildly out of proportion, leaving people unable to bear the contrast. And Beihai's cheap excuse for a father in this world was a total scumbag, with no resources to spare.

This school, on the other hand, gave Beihai a lot of convenience. He didn't need to shoulder any extra burdens or work after school, and had more time to study. Most importantly, they even gave him pocket money.

Beihai's right hand was wrapped in a few bandages and adhesive strips from writing for so long, but he was still full of enthusiasm. He couldn't wait to use these three fingers to thoroughly screw his homework.

"Oh, that's surprisingly rare."

After collecting the points, the shop assistant couldn't help commenting. Students like this were truly rare—he might never have seen one before.

Everyone who came here bought food, drinks, or daily necessities. Who came in and immediately bought Huanggang exam papers?

Wasn't that strange? Good thing this school was willing to provide anything people asked for. Who would've thought of buying exam papers at the shop?

Beihai ignored the shop assistant's grumbling and simply felt the paper. This texture—nine times out of ten, it was a rare treasure!

Beihai could hardly wait. He especially wanted to see what sort of content lay beneath that aloof exterior.

After killing time there for more than ten minutes, he finally left the shop.

Beihai was walking back to the dormitory. One step, two steps, and at the third, he quickly turned around.

He saw a blank-faced person behind him. Beihai had some recollection of his name: Kiyotaka Kiyotaka, he thought.

That wasn't the point, of course. The point was that Beihai didn't seem to be in his circle—or, more accurately, they hadn't even had the most basic interaction.

Aside from being classmates who occasionally nodded and said hello, they weren't close at all.

Could it have been a coincidence?

Well, definitely not. If it had been, the other guy wouldn't have deliberately waited there while Beihai was buying exam papers at the shop.

Thinking of that, Beihai was the first to speak.

"Uh, hello."

He greeted him, and the other guy nodded. Then they stared at each other, and an oddly quiet stillness settled between them.

"Is there something you need, classmate?"

"Let's be friends."

Beihai waited for the other guy to say something. That was it? He'd come all this way just for that?

Beihai didn't think the guy was crazy. He'd met too many strange people online in his previous life. Some people didn't even know how to install Steam.

He'd thought all those people selling Steam accounts online were just scammers, but after looking into it, he realized he'd underestimated the situation. A few yuan wasn't even enough to cover the mental distress.

"Friends? Then we're friends now. Or you can take out your Terminal, and we can add each other. You can talk things over with me if anything comes up."

Beihai didn't feel awkward or refuse. It was a perfectly ordinary thing.

Kiyotaka Kiyotaka watched Beihai quietly. He could sense that Beihai was the same kind of person as him. They both wore a mask, but their true natures were different.

They arrived at the dormitory and opened the door.

"If I remember correctly, some people are out shopping for clothes, some are watching movies, and others are probably singing karaoke at a bar.

"I'm curious. How come you didn't join them? Why come over to my place instead?"

Beihai had only asked casually. More than anything, he wondered why the other guy wasn't staying in his own dormitory and had come to his place instead.

The girl Kiyotaka Kiyotaka had chosen basically had no friends either. The blank-faced boy was at her beck and call.

And if he didn't obey, she would stab him in the arm with a compass. If he refused her, she would say it outright: "No, you want to help me."

During breaks, she wouldn't spend time with him or walk around with him. She would just hide in her dormitory and read. How to put it? She used him and then tossed him aside.

Beihai didn't understand, but he respected it.

After all, one was willing to strike and the other was willing to take it.

That was also the main reason Kiyotaka Kiyotaka had come to see Beihai. They were both putting on an act and were the same sort of person, so why was he the one getting stabbed with a compass?

"Mm, I was just curious."

As Kiyotaka Kiyotaka spoke, he looked around the room. Its layout was no different from his own dormitory. The only issue was that it was a little messy.

The bedside table wasn't holding anything. Instead, stacks of study materials sat there. He was clearly a very hardworking person.

Since he'd come in after Beihai, he could see a black mechanical pencil lead on the floor as soon as the door closed.

Curious, he picked it up and examined the broken piece. It seemed to have snapped when the door was pushed open.

Was Beihai afraid someone might sneak in without him noticing? He was pretty cautious. And the door handle seemed to be lowered by about five centimeters.

Kiyotaka Kiyotaka continued wildly brainstorming and labeling Beihai, but in the end, some of it didn't seem quite right. If this was caution, the measures were too complicated. To put it bluntly, science would call it paranoia.

"Hahaha, what are you looking at? I just put that stuff there because I was bored. Right, you don't know the meme, or Death Note.

"Anyway, I'm going to study now. You can head out first."

You couldn't define an abstract person. You never knew what they might pull next, so it was best not to try to guess what went on in their minds.

Kiyotaka Kiyotaka had just knelt on the floor and picked up a few study guides when he heard the dismissal. It came a little suddenly.

He still hadn't caught up with Beihai's train of thought, and it made him overturn all his assumptions about Beihai once again.

This person was hard to figure out. He still couldn't tell what his personality was like.

He had only just sat down cross-legged, but now he got up and opened the door again.

"Wait a moment."

When called, he really did stop. Then he turned around.

"Take out the trash for me, thanks."

"Mm."