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image standing next to me.

"Hello;' she said, swaying a little bit, pretending her plaid skirt
was being blown by the wind. "How comes your studying?"

My mind gets pulled back momentarily, the door closes again.
One minute now. Right now, my skin is probably swelling up because of
the vaporized water now in my body, almost bursting apart at the seams.

"Hi;' Imumbled, forgetting exactly what she asked.

She waited a few seconds, leaning forward, as if expecting something
more before saying, "Are you OK?"

"Oh yes;' I said, remembering. "I'm sorry. I'm doing OK. I'm
just a little tired as you can see."

"I'm sorry to hear that;' she said with a lofty, ethereal voice.
"My name is Daiyu,"

"I'm Kaneda." Ireached out my hand, clumsily thinking that
shaking hands was the appropriate greeting for a girl. She took and
gripped my hand with only the tips of her fingers and shook it only
slightly, a little confused.

"I'm getting a little lonely over there and was wondering if you
wanted to come over and keep me company;' said Daiyu. She motioned
towards her desk, piled high with textbooks.

"Sure, that's fine;' I said. "I just have a lot of studying, so don't
hate me if! can't talk that much."

A little scared, but not enough to Stop me from going for it,
Igot up out of my seat and switched off the desk light. Piling the stuff
into my book bag, Ifollowed her over and grabbed the desk next to
hers. Switching on that desk light, Istarted to unpack my books again,
prepared to awkwardly study in silence next to a girl Icould not stop
thinking about.

The bronze knob turns back again. Two minutes now. My
mouth and airways are drying right now and gas and water vapor is.
drifting out of my eyes like last gasps of air.

Without warning, Daiyu spoke up again. "So, do you want to
know what I'm studying?"

Ilaughed a little bit. She was throwing me a bone. Although in

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