It all began a year ago.
That afternoon, the air was unbearably hot, the kind of heat that seeps beneath the skin and into the bones, dulling every thought. For Nara, it was the sort of day that felt too wasted for classrooms and lectures, too heavy for logic.
He was never the kind of student teachers bragged about. In fact, Nara held an unofficial record for the most absences in the university’s history. When he did show up, he often spent the lecture half-asleep, his head resting on folded arms while the professor’s voice turned into white noise.
But if laziness was a sin, genius was his redemption. His mind worked differently. He learned things once and remembered them forever, so the system never quite managed to catch him. College was merciful that way: no one chased you for skippi
