CH 101

I felt a bit awkward. I thought that Cory would be just as awkward as he watched on, but Cory had on a calm expression as he worked on something.

When I looked closer, I saw that Cory was drawing a circle for a focused flame attack towards Yves.

When Yves turned around, he immediately met eyes with Cory, who was drawing the circle. Cory looked surprised.

“Huh, wait, why was I….”

Cory came back to his senses and immediately dissolved the spell.

Yves watched Cory as he did so and mockingly smiled at him. Cory pouted as he drew a new magic circle. He drew the spell on thin air as he produced a new spell.

Cory’s spell made it rain. Specifically, it only rained on Yves’ head.

“I hate you.”

Cory glared as he whined.

Cory said something about starting to understand Swan, something I didn’t really understand, as he glared at Yves and wiped my forehead with his sleeves. He used a cleaning spell to wipe my forehead clean.

I handed the drenched Yves the leftover candy wrapper in my hand and headed into my dorm room.

“Oh, Shushu, are you going to sleep right away?”

Usually, as soon as I headed back to the room I did some beauty-related exercises with Hazel with a face mask on, and we chatted until we fell asleep.

But for some reason, I felt more exhausted than ever today. I was bursting with energy in the morning, but now I was feeling more and more tired and lazy as time passed. It felt like all of the magic in my body was rushing towards my head.

“Unniiiiiii…….”

I opened my arms wide and gave Hazel a hug. I was sleepy and exhausted, so I was leaning on her more than hugging her. When I spoke to her with a whiny voice, Hazel seemed a bit surprised as her expression looked surprised.

“Huh? Why?”

One of Hazel’s hands were slowly inching towards the camera on her desk. The corners of her lips were wobbling.

“I’m sorry but I’m going to sleep early today. I’m too sleepy…….”

As I said that, I shifted away from her and almost crawled over to my bed.

I had two blankets on my bed. One of them was Swan’s–I hadn’t been able to return his blanket after the boys’ dorm incident. I told him that I would return it, but Swanhaden told me that he already bought a new one and told me to keep it.

So I put one of my blankets on my bed and covered myself with the other one. Thanks to Swan, my bed became even softer.

As soon as I fell on my bed, I buried myself in one blanket and put the other one on my body. The moment I put my head on the pillow, I fell asleep.

I felt my body relaxing as I soon lost consciousness. The last thing I saw was Hazel holding up a camera with a wicked smile.

When I opened my eyes again, it was completely dark.

My head was so clear that it was weird. I thought I was in a dream, but my mind was too clear. I was more confused when I couldn’t feel the ground beneath me. I felt like I was floating. This place felt unfamiliar.

In the middle of this complete darkness, I could see a faint light from far away. When I tried to head over to the light, the magic circle on the back of my hand suddenly shone as black light emanated from it. The light of the circle stretched towards the light. It was as if it was telling me to head to the light.

I didn’t have anything I could do, so I decided it to head to the light. I tried to move my feet as hard as I could, but I couldn’t feel the ground under me. I couldn’t help but frown.

I sighed and looked around to see who else was around me.

After checking multiple times that I was alone, I froggy-paddled and swam my way back towards the light.

But I was still going nowhere. It was very strange.

I moved my body a bit harder. I tried swimming freestyle, doing backstrokes, and did any kind of swimming motion I could even if I was pretty bad at swimming.

Then suddenly, I heard quiet laughter. I turned around to check, but I still couldn’t see anyone.

I gave up and ended up doggy paddling. Then, I felt myself moving forward.

The faraway light started getting bigger as the darkness began to grow smaller. It was so dark that I couldn’t see anything before, but I could suddenly see a lot more.

I moved my arms and legs faster.

I was sure that I was alone, but I was still embarrassed. I could imagine my shameful appearance right now. If someone saw, they would just see me flapping my arms wildly midair.

Then, after a long time of moving, my breaths started becoming pants. I was finally able to escape the dark.

When my vision cleared, I couldn’t help but be shocked.

The light had been the green class classroom.

After doggy paddling through the dark, I couldn’t help but be flabbergasted by all of this.

“Uh…….. Hi?”

Cory was staring at me with a bored gaze.

What kind of situation was this?

As soon as I finished doggy paddling into the light, Cory entered my sight. Well, it was more that I had popped out instead of Cory popping out, to be more accurate.

A bushy-haired blond boy with fierce green eyes was sitting at his desk, chin resting on one propped arm. Cory wasn’t wearing the grape blanket that he always had around him during class. Even though Cory’s blankets were kind of symbolic for him.

“Uh, this is. Cory, I don’t know what this is either…”

I tried my best to explain why I had suddenly doggy paddled into his sight, but I was too shocked to explain clearly. I flailed my arms as I tried to give an excuse.

I explained as well as I could, but Cory didn’t look interested.

I pulled my face back and then pushed back towards him. Even when I switched spots away from his face, his eyes were facing the same place. It seemed like he wasn’t looking at me. I wave my arms in front of him but he didn’t even blink once.

“Can he not see me?”

He briefly glanced at the blackboard in front of him before resting his chin on his arm and staring out the window. It seemed like he didn’t even notice that I was in front of him.

“Cory DuBois. Cory. Cory Cory.”

I whispered into his ear. I got no reply.

“You’re not even wearing the piercing I gave you. Even though you always have it on.”

“…..”

It seemed like he couldn’t hear me either.

So he couldn’t hear me or see me. Thank goodness. He couldn’t see my shameful appearance.

Wait, did that mean this was a dream after all? It was weird that I was floating around even without magic, and it was unrealistic for locations to suddenly change like this. I readily accepted this as fact and decided not to think too hard about it.

I walked towards Cory and stared at him here and there. In the dream, Cory had a different aura than the one he usually had. Usually, he tried to control his expressions to look as gentle as possible, but now he just left his face as its natural fierce self.

Cory sat at the very back of the classroom as he stared out the window, looking bored.

“S…..sir Cory. Have you finished with that the club required us to look at…….”

I was also blanking out next to Cory until a student walked up to Cory to talk to him. I was wondering who it was, but he was the vice president of the magic club.

When I looked around to check, it seemed that other class students were all in the green classroom to research magic. It must’ve been club time.

Magic club was specifically for magic majors who didn’t have a particular club, so it was full of students. Because of that, they were assigned an entire classroom to use instead of a separate club room.

I was looking around the classroom to check. Before the vice president even finished speaking, Cory shoved a bundle of papers towards him. The vice president took the papers and bowed again and again as a thank you.

“If you don’t have anything else for me to do, I’ll be leaving now.”

Cory yawned wide and scratched his head as he spoke.

When Cory tried to leave the classroom right then, the vice president grabbed Cory’s arm. When he stared down at his own arm, the vice president immediately let go.

The vice president looked scared as he apologized again and began speaking.

“Y-you’re not allowed to leave before club time is over….”

Cory scowled at his words before speaking.

“Why?”

“The teacher managing the club said that under no circumstances were we supposed to let you go before the bell….”

His voice was basically crawling into his throat as he checked Cory’s expression. He immediately looked away.

“Aaaah, whhhhyyyy……”

Cory whined quietly as he listened to the vice president’s words. He pat the vice president’s scared shoulder as he returned to the back of the classroom. He rested his arms and head back on the desk and tried to fall back asleep.

The vice president kept peeking back at Cory and looked frantic. Cory buried his head into one arm and waved the vice president away with the other.

I found something strange about their conversation. Cory was definitely a part of my club. But he was suddenly in the magic club? That was strange. The magic club was where Cory would’ve been if I hadn’t asked him to join my club during our first year in junior school.

Anyway, I was sure that Cory didn’t join the magic club. Why was he there?

I thought for a moment before I remembered that I was in a dream. It was so realistic that I almost forgot. It was so realistic that I even felt the breeze coming in through the window.

I pinched my cheek slightly, and I was surprised because it kind of hurt. I just told myself that I had made up my pain and moved on.

“It’s similar to the original story……wait, is this the original story?”

I had dreamed of the original story again and again. Cory didn’t have a piercing, and he was in the magic club. It was the same setting as the original story. I wasn’t sure where we were in terms of the original novel so I couldn’t be sure, but I was mostly sure.

I went closer to Cory’s sleeping form and sat in the chair in front of him. Next to his sleeping face was a ton of think magic books that he had brought. I felt like doodling in the books, so I took out a pen from his pencil case and drew a snail in each of the books.

I drew a speech bubble next to the snail and wrote, ‘Good luck.’ in it. I even drew a strawberry next to it.

“………”

Then, Cory suddenly put his head up as he woke up. Thanks to that, I could see his handsome features.

This dream was so realistic that I could even feel his breath. If I shifted even a bit, I could almost touch his lips. He couldn’t see me, so I was the only one shocked by all this. I curled my hands into a fist as I carefully, carefully shifted backwards.

Cory, who had just suddenly woken up, stared blearily at nothing before he stared at the open magic book in front of him and tilted his head in confusion. I don’t remember opening it, he muttered as he stared at the snail I had doodled on the page.

“…..what is this.”

Cory traced the snail drawing with his hand before he shut the book closed.

T/N: dReaMScAPE??