Five: Ruru's Buff

"Hah~"

A sharp sigh escape from my lips. It took me a moment before finally throwing my gaze on my study table, where my laptop was placed above its flat surface. My books and notebooks, as well as my homeworks were scattered in a mess. Clicking my tongue in dismay, I took a step to my desk and pulled the recliner chair away before taking a sit on it. Facing the papers with unfamiliar letters and numbers written in each sheet, I opened my mouth and exclaimed.

"Oh my God. I'm going crazy." I murmured as I lifted each paper and opened the pages of my books, eyes bulging like a fish on the dry land. Just looking at this mess kills me enough. I feel like I'm gonna suffocate any moment.

I wonder how did I manage to graduate in high school as Ayla.

I read my homeworks and began writing. Each sentences felt like a bullet piercing my head, as if it was shooting my mind wherein my memories keeps flowing like a free water in the stream. My hands that was holding a pen kept moving non-stop until I am done with the essays and reflection papers, included in my assignments and homeworks. In a moment, I stopped and felt like something was weird. My eyes swept through the papers with questions and answers already, unlike earlier when it was still blank.

Then the weird realization finally hit me.

My memories seemed to have sharpened and cleared. The knowledge that was kept inside my head felt like a time bomb that suddenly burst earlier while answering my homeworks in a non-stop process. Every single answer was already inside my head that actually belonged to my past life. My past memories as a student felt like a red button that was being activated, clear and fresh inside my head.

It was some kind of a buff. A transmigrator's buff.

"Is this some sort of ability or something?" I whispered to myself, bewildered by the fact that I have became a genius all of the sudden. I shouldn't have known the answers to these questions even if I attended the class today.

My memories that were a part of my past life as Ayla Navarez, was that of a memory belonging to an ordinary woman whose life only revolved within running her own shop in weekdays and sometimes hanging out with her boyfriend and friends in weekends. That's why it's impossible for me to had answered everything without much difficulty. Aside from that, although I'm acting like I couldn't remembered anything as Rumi Penelope Lee, her memories inside my head was far from a knowledge of being a genius. Therefore, it's more impossible for it be Penelope's.

So, one thing was I am certain with was, my knowledge from being a student in the past were mixed with my present memories and knowledge, causing me to remember everything without much difficulty. As I had mentioned, it's some sort of a time bomb that suddenly burst while doing my homeworks.

Well, it's a good thing though.

It won't matter even if I study hard in the future or not.

"Well, I've become a self-proclaimed genius. Let's just finish everything then." I said while grinning to myself.

Humming happilty, I did the assignments and homeworks just like an ordinary students, and within an hour, after cleaning the mess on my study table, I heard a knock from the door coming from the outside. It's the butler.

"It's time for dinner, young miss." He said from the outside of my room.

"I'll be down in a moment." I answered as I do the work in cleaning my table, and putting everything in my backpack.

I turned my head to see the butler right at the doorstep. Beside him was the halfway opened oak door that has delicate carvings on it, deeply in contrast with the modern styled walls of my room and of the mansion, but completely combined its elegance together. I remembered choosing this room that was as big as my past life's coffee shop, because of its simplicity. The modern minimalist interior design really attract my attention.  The color palettes that has a resemblance with my coffee shop in the past, makes it difficult for me to look at the other rooms. 

Aside from that, completely forgetting the past would be difficult for me. Everytime I think about my life as Ayla, I would suddenly felt a pang of pain inside my chest. Sometimes I would suddenly found myself spacing out and then crying. It's almost as if thinking that, if it's possible to take a ride in a bus just to go back to my old life, then I would have done it already.

But Ayla Navarez is already dead and I am Rumi Penelope Lee now, the moment I realized everything. Wandering my eyes secretly on my room's ambiance, I swallowed a smile, choking and feeling a sudden sorrow.

The place was warm and welcoming to my eyes.

Shaking my thoughts off my head, I returned to my usual self before finally moving my body.

I stood up and paces across the chocolate carpeted floor. Standing in front of the butler, I asked him. "Did I leave the door open?" Curiosity reflected in my eyes, the old butler  raised his wrinkled hands to his cheeks and slowly scratch it. He weakly showed his smile as if his words would expose a secret that I shouldn't know because I could see hesitation in his body language.

Clicking my tongue, I beamed a smile then waved my hands in front of his face.

"Nah~forget it. I know that it was mom and dad who opened it secretly." Laughing slowly, I turned my head to see two heads popping at the end of the hallway. 

Meeting my eyes with my newly found family, my laughter filled the whole corridor as I found them cute and funny.

I'm living my new life very well, right?

 ***

'Well, my buff seems to work even in real-time classes.' I thought while checking my answer on the board. Standing with my back facing the class, I turned around to face my classmates who on the other hand, was watching me. That's why it felt like dozens of arrows were stinging at my back earlier.

I felt embarassed looking back at them, so, I tried looking away and immediately return to my seat.

I heard Mrs. Hopkins hummed as she nodded her head, as if agreeing to my answers on the board. It's some sort of a mathematical problem that I remembered learning in the past and also, was inside my head. All I did was to analyzed the problem while knowing what to do especially when using the formula. 

Well, my memory is amazing indeed.

"The answer is correct." Mrs. Hopkins said.

Sitting on my chair, I saw some of my classmates throwing gazes at me before looking in front of the class. I feel the burden from their attention so, I tried to ignore them as I looked at the clear sky outside the window. I'm still listening with Mrs. Hopkins discussion but my eyes are stuck at the scene outside the window.

Placing my elbow near the window and my left cheek above the back of my hand, I went silent.

The sky is clear and blue, as if the rain yesterday was a complete lie. It looks like the same sky in my previous life, as well as the scattered white clouds, pasted on the blue canvas called the sky. Tilting my head for a better view, I pouted my lips and thought that this world was the same with the world I lived before as Ayla. The only difference is my life in the present.

"Penelope." Someone called me making me swift my head back to take a look at the person whose calling my name.

"Yes?" I asked my classmate, who sits in front of me and whose name I didn't know. He gave me a smile, showing off his white marble-like teeth, revealing his cute dimple on one side of his cheek. 

See, even a nameless extra loke him in this world inside a novel, has a pretty good-looking face.

"Mrs. Hopkins is asking for our homework. You did yours, right?" He told me before looking at my desk and back to my face. He seems to wonder if my homework was placed above my desk but what's placed above it was only the book we were using in the class. "I'll passed it along with mine, if you don't mind." He added, scratching his nape, like a shy little boy.

'Cute.'

"Ah, wait." I answered before opening my bag that was hanged under the desk and rummage inside to inside to look for my homework. I took it out of the bag before finally facing him again. I hand him my homework and secretly look at his name tag pinned on his polo.

Jake Vanderbilt

So, his name is Jake.

"Thank you, Jake." I said, beaming with a smile after giving him my homework. I noticed his eyes wavered and widened while looking at me, making me wonder what was wrong with him. I tilted my head on one side before asking again. 

"Uhm~Are you okay?" I wondered with a hummed as I asked.

"That, it's nothing." He responded reluctantly before facing the front of the class, his back in front of my face as he handed the papers to one of our classmates, currently sitting in front of him. He went silent once again and returned to his own thing, so I didn't talk any further nor ask him again.

But, what's wrong with him?

Why does the color of the tip of his ears turned into a ripe tomato-like color? I hummed inside of my head and thought that, 'I hope he's fine.'