When Time Doesn’t Exist

Chapter 22

As the bell rang for their lunch, Enjo quickly grabbed his belongings and ran. Benji saw him but he didn’t follow me since Enjo will probably notice him. He wants to know where Enjo is going without him knowing. Even though Benji already knows that he will not attend the next classes after lunch to meet Lyn, he will still come and follow him. Everyone was heading in the right direction of the hallway while some of the students were heading in the left direction.

The people who are heading in the right direction are going to the canteen while some of them who are going to the left direction of the hallway are going to the entrance of their school to claim their delivered food from someone or from a specific fast food chain. When Benji tries to blend in with his classmates that are going in the right direction, he notices that the girl who cheated and copied Enjo’s answers is also going in the right direction.

“Hey!” shouted Benji to catch the girl’s attention when he noticed that she looks like she is also following someone.

“Uh- hi,” said the girl when she heard Benji.

She looked nervous and Benji noticed it. Her eyes can’t stay in place and it looks like her eyes were trying to find someone. When she was still looking somewhere, Benji took the advantage to look at her ID. He found out that her name is Sharley. As soon as Sharley looked back at Benji with her confused face, waiting for him to know the reason why he called her, he immediately looked up at her nervous face.

“Are you okay?” asked Benji, trying his best not to stutter in front of her.

“Yes, of course,” she answered with her eyebrows furrowed. “What made you think that I am not okay?” asked Sharley.

Benji didn’t answer her questions, instead he shook his head and smiled at her. Sharley was confused because it was odd that Benji asked if she was alright. They are not close and they haven’t talked yet. She shrugged it off when Benji awkwardly stepped back while smiling and she quickly followed Enjo. It was too late for her. She couldn’t find Enjo but she thinks that he is heading in the entrance.

When Benji saw her run, he just noticed how awkward he was as soon as he talked to her because it was not in his plan to talk to her in the first place. He didn’t know what he would ask since he couldn’t just ask why she was acting suspicious and nervous. Benji followed her when Sharley was a little bit far away from him now. He tried not to get caught because it would be awkward if she saw him spying on her.

“What are you doing here?” asked someone from a little far away from Benji.

As soon as Benji heard someone, he flinched and he quickly looked to see who saw him spying on someone. The voice was familiar for him. He was shocked when he saw Lyn behind him. He doesn’t know where she came from and when she entered. Benji was confused but he knew that Lyn would probably meet Enjo. He just doesn’t know where he went.He was also terrified because someone might see her and Enjo might see her with him.

“I was just wandering around,” he answered Lyn while scratching the back of his head.

Lyn didn’t ask further questions anymore, instead she faced in the other direction and walked away from him like nothing happened. She is trying to find Enjo but she ends up meeting his younger brother instead. As she walks away from him, she hears his footsteps getting closer so she knows that Benji is following her. It was getting closer. Enjo said to her that she should be careful when going out and no one should find her but Lyn met Benji and now he is following her. She thought that Benji would not care about her and Benji would just leave her alone.

“How did you get here?” asked Benji as he walked faster. “Where are you heading?”

“Ugh, I shouldn’t have talked to him,” whispered Lyn to herself as quietly as possible.

They were walking in the quiet hallway while Benji’s footsteps echoing around the empty rooms. Lyn tried to find the other exit but she couldn’t find it. She tried her best to turn to the direction in the hallway where no one was around. With the help of the Ruoculous, she could sense if someone is on the hallway. It helped her to know which direction she would choose to get out of this maze.

It was hard for her to find the exit and Benji is still following her so she felt terrified because Enjo might be waiting at their meeting place for a long time now. Lyn doesn’t want to ask Benji more questions because she doesn’t want to communicate with him. She might spill out the reason why she was here.

“”Are you ignoring me too?” asked Benji again as he held her wrist.

“Can we pretend like we didn’t meet?” she asked back while she held his hand that was holding her wrist to pull it away.

Even though Benji doesn’t know the reason why she was ignoring him, he let go of her and looked at her as she walked away from him. He doesn’t know what to do but he hopes that Lyn will find a way to Enjo. Benji started to turn and go in the other direction to their canteen. He thinks that he shouldn’t have asked a lot of questions to Lyn because he felt like he crossed the boundary. He felt like she pissed her off.

“I really messed up,” said Lyn to herself as she was still trying to find the exit.

“Are you new here?” someone asked Lyn.

The voice was feminine. It was coming from beside her where the comfort room for the girls is located. There are no other people except for them. Her eyes widened as soon as she heard someone. Lyn quickly noticed that this is their comfort room because there are stalls and sinks inside. She was terrified because she didn’t know the person and she met another person again. Her mind told her to run as quickly as possible but she would look suspicious for the girl.

“You are probably a transfer student,” she said to Lyn as she looked at her from her feet to her head. “My name is Sharley, by the way.