Chapter One: Merry Scents.

It really just doesn't end, does it?

Things catch up on us without them even trying, and without even us asking for it. This is the perfect time to follow the craziest exit strategy that we never knew existed until now, until all else faded in the wild ringing of our own noisy thoughts.

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It all started when I shot my wide, curious eyes to the only vision in blue that would be the sole reason why I'd be too lost to recognize myself in the next five years.

And there he was, smiling gloriously despite himself and despite these insignificant students who never noticed his approaching.

Grace, who comically dragged her hesitant guest to the crammed table of six, muttered an excited blur of introduction. It didn't matter if everybody before her looked just as unsure.

The man waved his large hand at this, surprisingly unperturbed by the attention. The slight movement caused a sweet smell to float between us. I was not sure which surprised me more: the sudden, smooth movement or the overwhelming scent.

"Dan," said Grace in her signature genial smile. The man didn't quite make that strong impression to me though, not when he was standing there, looking slightly sheepish despite the obvious authority that he was still emanating. I would have thought he was quite normal if he didn't allow this girl in bob-do say his name that way. It was too informal and familiar for my taste.

These round eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses transformed to slits. I wondered if he'd ever remember our own names.

Too boyish to be that famed professor, I mused to myself fleetingly, unmoving from my position on the vinyl tabletop. My face was almost hidden by my crimson backpack, but he must have known I was scrutinizing his body language in the brighter rays of the afternoon sun that seeped through the glass blinds in my far right. The man named Dan was almost rocking in the balls of his feet, self-conscious and restless.

Everybody was either too impassive or too polite to look the other way where Yagi's rather youthful cousin wasn't standing. Dianne, Cyrus, Levon, Sheryl, Joseph and I already knew who he was, of course, thanks to summer gossip and whatnot.

The others had said hi.

"Dan will be our professor next semester. Isn't that great?" Grace went on, not even noticing the awkward air that hung about. She really shouldn't sound so happy about the impending doom, if rumors about this man were true.

No. It wouldn't be great at all. My future self, five years older but not any wiser, would have vehemently disagreed.

Dan, the smiling sadist of a professor, would have walked away with his impaling scent, and I, in spite of things, would remain unscathed and unchanged for the world.

"What subject?" Someone opened their mouth too soon. It was so like Levon to make the small talk.

"Automata theory," the professor eagerly replied in that same almost-embarrassed grin. His oriental eyes crinkled in a rather disturbing manner. I was sure he knew something that everybody in that group wasn't aware of.

Thankfully, the little party ended too quickly, and I was left to lazily reflect about my only class in the dwindling buzz of the cafeteria in this warm afternoon, easily forgetting the only man who would painfully change me in the next few years.

I would not have realized it but it would be the very day that my world made its inevitable shift.