Haruka approached Yume, who was waiting beside his bicycle. He smiled and started to unlock the bicycle's lock. While he was at it, he saw this weird thing again. His bicycle's lock vanished, but he could feel it while he was rotating his keys. Everything paused: the handle was present while the paddle wasn't, the body was present while the seat wasn't, and a few particles of the tire were visible but broken.
His breathing stopped.
He couldn't move.
Suddenly, he was hearing Yume scream "Haaaaruuuuuukaaaaaaaaa!!!"
He was feeling as if his body was being shaken, but he wasn't moving. He felt as if it was Deja vu. This feeling, it is familiar.
He blinked.
Only to find himself standing in front of Yume, who was shaking him in the classroom. When he opened his eyes, he looked as if he had seen a ghost out of his nightmare.
Yume asked with annoyance: "Are you zoning out?!"
Before Haruka could start speaking, she was about to ask, "What? thinking about other g-"
Haruka was confused. Before he could understand anything, after the next blink, he saw that he was opening the bicycle's lock.
Yume was standing beside him.
Yume: "Hey? Haruka, are you okay? You are not moving..."
Suddenly, Haruka's eyes were wide. What just happened didn't even feel like a hallucination; it was as if everything was real, and he could feel it.
He didn't want to crash out right now... He smiles and gets up... while his head was filled with thoughts.
Yume sat behind, and Haruka started to drive it. It was disturbing for him for some reason. He was thinking... He was thinking so much that in his mind, all that existed to think about was thoughts.
Yume: "Haruka? You are acting weird, you know... why aren't you talking?"
Haruka, who just stopped thinking and paid his attention to her.
Haruka: "N-no, it's not that. It is just that... I felt Deja vu, you know... nothing huge of course."
Haruka surely didn't explain much, but he just said what he wanted to, because he felt it that way, and he doesn't want to make Yume worried either.
Yume, whose grip on Haruka's waist got tighter.
Yume: "Are you lying? Cause you are acting weird..."
Haruka: "Y-Yume.... No... I just got less sleep last night."
Yume asked with a concerned tone.
Yume: "Why? Nightmares?"
Haruka: "Well... you can say that... kind of... yes."
Yume thought she should cheer him up... So, she started to tickle him. Haruka, just like the last time, was about to lose control, but he managed to stay safe, and he was laughing.
Haruka: "C'mon, Yume... stop that!... We are gonna hit!"
Yume: "Did it happen last time? No... What doesn't happen for the first time doesn't happen ever, and what happens for the 1st time will surely happen for the 3rd time. Well, not that it matters if it hits or not, one hit and we are dead anyway, we don't have to experience it again hahaha!"
Haruka: "You are crazy, you know that?"
Yume, with a slight pink shade of blush, "Pfft, shut up, you are crazier, always zoning out."
For some reason, even while Haruka was chuckling and driving the bicycle with her, he was disturbed by the word "zone"... it bothers him because of the incident. Why is it happening and HOW is it happening... it just bugs him. He couldn't finish thinking whenever he started to think about it.
He was driving it quickly... Yume grabbed Haruka's waist tighter than before and started to laugh against his back.
Haruka: "That tickles too! C-calm down!"
Hearing that, Yume started to laugh more. It was a refreshing moment for Haruka. No more weird stuff was going through his head. He wasn't stressing again.
Haruka went to the place where Yume lives. Dropping Yume there, Haruka waves his hand. Yume smiles and waves back. She enters the house.
Haruka was staring at her smile as much as he could. Her smile was his treasure. He loves how that smile curves all the time. Her face literally radiates. He could stare at this for the rest of his life if he wants. That was the most refreshing and relaxing thing he could be doing, according to him.
After that, he drives quickly back to his house.
"Uncle Jack!... I am home!"--He quickly opens his shoes and gets in.
Jack sips on the tea and welcomes him back.
Jack: "The lunch is on the table... get refreshed and eat it, boy!"
Haruka: "Got it!"
He quickly rushed towards his bedroom, he took a shower, as his usual routine, after he got refreshed, he took lunch.
Jack was chilling in the main room as usual, watching some movies or something. Haruka was in his room doing homework. And right then, when he was studying, he got reminded of the things that happened last night and at school while being with Yume.
He was thinking and stressing about it. "How... why and what happened?" This is what went through his head at that moment.
He just couldn't understand what was happening.
Haruka was thinking in his mind, "Am... I'm going insane?... Perhaps maybe... The more conscious one gets, the more he takes a step back from sanity...Am I too conscious of what I am and what I do?... Why always me...getting wound up in these situations...I want peace...a normal human life...The dogs live a better life than I do...They have their parents...they have their siblings...even though their life is hard, they live and stick together... they are not conscious like other humans or me...wait...what if...I am the only conscious human, and others are just... literally a bunch of NPCs built by God for me... What if… I'm the only one aware... It could be...."
At one point, he just hits his head...thinking he was losing it for real this time.