In a small bedroom with anime posters covering the wall cracks, Edward had just gotten up with his usual morning frustration.
"Why the hell do I wake up like this every day? In this shitty body, only one thing works properly, I guess," he muttered with a dry laugh.
Edward quickly freshened up and left his single-bedroom apartment.
"Ha, I'm really hungry, but my savings are all used up. The best I can get is a pancake — but better than nothing, right?"
He bought a pancake from a roadside stall and got on the bus heading to his part-time job at Aplf University, where he had recently graduated.
The bus ride wasn't so bad. He got to watch the usual morning crowd — students, office workers, and people lost in their own worlds. Observation was the only real talent Edward claimed to have. He noticed everything: how people behaved, what they wanted, what they tried to hide.
"With my average looks and cheap clothes, no one even spares me a glance," he thought, smirking faintly.
Edward had grown up in an orphanage after being abandoned by his parents. Raised by kind sisters, he'd always had a weak body — a magnet for every illness. Thin, pale, and tired-looking, he never fit in anywhere.
When he turned eighteen, the orphanage wished him luck and sent him out to survive on his own. Through endless part-time jobs and a scholarship, he managed to graduate from Aplf University — a place where rich kids bought their way in with donations.
Now, even after graduation, he still worked there part-time just to make ends meet. In the big picture, he was invisible — a ghost among the crowd.
But if life were that easy…
The bus that Edward was on suddenly lurched — then everything went black.
"This crappy life finally ends," he thought faintly, a bitter smile crossing his lips. "Well… at least I finished my P collection."