Chapter 03 - Chengyu's Three Phases of Extreme Pain (Part 1)

The date is 29th May 2007, 5:55 pm.

Chengyu had finished his lessons for the day and is waiting for the bus, but is feeling uncomfortable in his chest. He feels a small and sharp pain in his chest, pinpointing to the frozen thorn stuck inside his heart. The thing is that, before he was enrolled in New Hope Polytechnic, he had tried several times to pull the thorn out of his heart unilaterally, but ended up with pain so severe that he fainted in some of those attempts. After which he did not try to pull it out again to prevent a repeat of that horrifying time he had experienced. But at the same time, there has been episodes of pain right at the spot where the thorn is. But this time to note is that the pain, he feels, is going to be the most severe yet to come.

“I don't know what's happening there, but I need to get back home as soon as possible to try and rest and let the pain subside all by itself. Because I don't have any other method of stopping this pain that has been coming up intermittently over these past few months...... If I don't make it what will happen to the work I have been putting for the past 17 months......?”

So he decided to try and point his chest with his thumb to try and numb the pain temporarily so that he can at least push himself onto the bus when it comes and try and recuperate. However, this was not meant to be as the pain there just forces its way out of its own.

“!? No... don't come out!!!” Chengyu tries to contain that pain with his heart using his willpower, but the more he tries to do it, the worse the pain shoot itself out of his chest. But Chengyu knew that if this was not contained promptly, it can be too severe for him to even regain consciousness and may be in difficulty, so he won't give up even if it means his life would be lost.

“There's no way I can lose to this pain! Never!!” Chengyu kept on suppressing the pain as hard as he can using his thumb, but it is as though the pain itself have been testing the limits of his supplanting power towards it, the pain starts to go into hyper-drive, causing so much pain all over that he totally lost control of his ability to suppress the pain and lets out a deafening scream before he finally fainted on the spot.

The people around him saw and heard this event happening, but of them were seemingly too afraid to even go near him, need to say help him. Around 5 minutes after he has fainted onto the ground, a girl walked towards the bus stop to take the bus home and found a unconscious Chengyu lying on the floor while still carrying his bag.

“Oh no! What happened over there??”

The girl immediately rushed to his side and was surprised to see the face of the person who collapsed on that spot.

“Isn't that the 'Chengyu-san' Reika told me about at the clubroom three days before??”

She immediately tried to drag him to a corner so that he doesn't obstruct the human traffic that are about to accumulate there, but his weight may have impeded her in doing so. So she had to remove the bag from his body and move them separately.

“This bag's pretty heavy for a guy like him...... did he actually put a entire week of studying materials inside that bag??”

She places his bag and notebook case next to him and tries to wake him up.

“Chengyu! Chengyu! Please wake up! Are you all right?”

The girl shook him a few times, and Chengyu slowly regained consciousness. But the first image that hit his vision had him by surprise!

“Ugh!! Where...... am...... I......??” Chengyu thought in his head as he is still unable to speak as and when he wanted to. But the one that saved him this time is a completely different person now. The one that saved him this time round is a golden-haired girl with bright blue eyes and fair skin, although it is a little darker compared to Reika's that he saw during Flag Day a week ago.

“What the......! A blonde girl this time......??? Which world am I really in right now???”

He tries to look around the place he is in now and realizes that he is at a corner seat at the bus stop that he fainted just now.

“Chengyu! Chengyu! Are you all right?”

Chengyu tries to open his mouth, but nothing came out as expected, so he closed and opened it immediately to stare at her.

“What's wrong, Chengyu? Oops! I forgot that you can't talk as and when you want to, but you can listen to what I say, right?”

Chengyu nodded his head, trying to catch up with what happened.

“You fainted just a little over 5 minutes ago, and I helped you here so that you won't obstruct the human traffic that has formed over there. I was shocked that the so-called 'kind person' that Reika talked to me happily about actually fainted right there. I hope you're okay now......”

“Did she just say that Reika talked to her about me??? How did she know Reika in the first place???”

Chengyu used all his strength to push himself into a sitting position, trying to get a grasp of the situation at hand.

“This girl must've just saved me from the crowd that has just formed over there by dragging me to a corner at the bus stop...... I remember when I fainted, I don't feel any response from anyone for about a few minutes, then when I started regaining my senses again, I was here and this blonde girl is looking at me, asking me if I'm alright, and now this......!”

Chengyu then realised that he was not wearing his bag anymore, and tried to look for it only to find them sitting nicely next to his right side. He reached the bag for a paper notebook and started scribbling without thinking while the blonde girl looked on.

“Amazing...! That's how Chengyu communicates with people......”

Chengyu immediately showed the writing to her, which reads: “Thank you for your help just now. Why do you know Reika in the first place??”

“Oh? Reika? She's from the same club as me. I've heard quite a lot from Reika about how you're so kind as to help her out during the Flag Day though, but I wondered how she is able to communicate with you if you can't even talk, and I finally realized the reason behind it now. By the way, don't mention it.”

Chengyu immediately wrote his next dialogue that read: “Same club? What exactly is that??”

“Oh, all foreign students are encouraged to join the Overseas Students Club, a club set up by New Hope Polytechnic's Student Services Office to help foreign students like Reika and myself to learn the culture here and accommodate better to the school life here. I'm also running for the club's Student Committee as a representative for the American Countries zone.”

“American Countries? That sounds like those who are from the American Continents... So that means that blonde girl might possibly be from that club she just mentioned as well......”

“So... are you all right? Do I need to take you to the doctors' for a check?”

Chengyu nodded his head and stood up slowly.

“I'm glad you're all right.” The girl smiled at Chengyu, which he didn't notice. Then she saw her bus coming into the bus stop.

“I have to go now. My bus's here for me. See you, Chengyu!”

She runs towards the bus, but turns back all of a sudden and runs back to him.

“Oh, I almost forgot! Please ask your foreign friends to vote for me for the membership at the Club Committee, okay?”

She hands him a leaflet that she took from her own bag before running off to board the bus.

As she left this place on the bus that she boarded, Chengyu starts to look at the leaflet that she gave to him before she left.

“Hmm... this looks like a leaflet to promote herself as a candidate for the Overseas Students Club's Student Committee membership that will take charge in running the club with the aid of a staff to help in coordinating events for the club.”

There is a photo of her in her normal clothes and posing for the camera that was printed on the leaflet. But this reminded Chengyu of something...

“Isn't the clothes that she wears in that photo...... the exact same one that she is wearing when she was waking me up when I fainted just now......??”

The photo showed her with her beautiful smile, wearing a maple-coloured sleeveless blouse coupled with a golden wavy skirt so short that more than half of her thighs were exposed in that photo, even though the image in that leaflet crops itself at where her knees are.

“What the heck are she selling to her would-be supporters to get her elected for that Student Council seat anyway......?”

The leaflet also shows the Canadian Flag flying next to the image.

“I guess she must be from Canada, huh...... That means what she said about being a representative for the American Continents is correct because Canada is indeed one of the countries belonging to the North American Continent. But whether she gets her wish is anyone's guess...... Furthermore, only the overseas students who are members are allowed to vote for her if she wants to get elected so this doesn't get me related to that extent either......”

Thinking that since he doesn't know any friends that are overseas students, he feels not compelled to do anything about it, but he almost missed the candidate's name when he browsed through it one more time before he discards the leaflet.

“So that blonde girl's name is Nicolette Sorens, huh...... She really is a true-blue blonde girl after all judging from her face. I don't seem to sense any unpleasant energy from that Nicolette girl but I know that she knows that Japanese girl somehow...... could it be???”

On the bus, Nicolette thought about the reaction Chengyu made when he heard about Reika's name when she talked about him from her, and giggled.

“That Chengyu guy's a pretty cute one, looking at the reaction he makes when I said I heard from Reika about him. Especially when he had to resort to writing to communicate with me... Looks like it's going to be an exciting year for me right now......”

The date is 29th May 2007, 7:50 pm.

Nicolette has already been home in her student campus in Bishan for an hour now, she had finished her dinner and has just stepped out of her bathroom after a nice shower, fully clothed in her home clothes.

She went to her desk and switches on her own notebook computer, and immediately opens her Campus Chat-room program that allows chatting between New Hope Polytechnic students over the internet.

The New Hope Polytechnic Student Chat-room is an extension to the existing campus e-mail system used in the Polytechnic for a few years now. All students need to use this extended program are to obtain the campus e-mail address of the people that he or she wants to chat with, and a special password to request connection to the e-mail account of the student. Once the other party receives the notification of the chat request and allows the connection to be made, they can chat on the program immediately just like the commonly used Chat-room programs made available by major internet companies here. Each student has been issued with his or her own campus e-mail address together with their own password used specifically for the Chat-room Extension and is different from the passwords they use for their main campus e-mail account. The password to this Chat-room Extension is made entirely of numbers and can only be reset via the Administration Office for security purposes.

All textual conversations in the Chat-room Extension may be subject to monitoring if needed to prevent trouble and the students using it are required to agree to a 20-point Guidelines of Engagement before being allowed to use the program for the first time. Currently staff teaching in this Polytechnic are not allowed access to this Extension so they are still required to communicate to their students using the standard e-mail system itself.

After Nicolette has logged into her e-mail account, she clicks on the 'Chat-room' under the Extensions tab, which opens up a small window that allows her to enter in the account details of the student she wants to chat with over this program.

“Maybe I can talk to her again......”

Nicolette decided to enter Reika's e-mail address followed by the numerical password used to send a request to her e-mail account to make a connection to enable chatting. Once this was sent, a message box will pop-up to notify Nicolette if Reika agrees with making the connection and enables the chat. Otherwise, if the person doesn't respond to the request sent within 5 minutes or has refused access, an automated reply in the same message box stating that the person is currently unavailable or has rejected the request respectively will be sent back to her.

“Hope she's using her computer right now and sees this......”

Fortunately, a message box pops up within 2 minutes of the request sent to her e-mail account, saying that the request to connect has been accepted and the connection is made almost immediately. The login window automatically changes to the chat window similar to the interfaces found in major chat programs used worldwide. And Reika starts the chat going with her first message of the conversation.

	Reika:	“Hello there, Nicolette-san! How are you today?”
	Nicolette:	“Hi there! I'm fine here at the hostel.”
	Reika:	“So you've reached back home already?”
	Nicolette:	“Yes. I've just finished my shower and had my dinner before logging on to chat with you.”
	Reika:	“That was fast. It is good that you live a shorter distance from campus than mine.”
	Nicolette:	“By the way, that so-called 'kind person' named Chengyu you mentioned earlier to me, I just met him on the way back home less than 2 hours ago at the bus stop where we take our buses home.”
	Reika:	“Really? You met him there??”
	Nicolette:	“But he was in a not-so good shape there, you know. Why didn't you come and help him since you like him so much...”
	Reika:	“W...wait! (blushes) I didn't say I like Chengyu-san!! Nicolette-san, please don't spread rumours that are untrue, you may hurt someone without knowing, you know.”
	Nicolette:	“Okay okay, I won't do that. I don't want my own reputation to be smeared for no good reason.”
	Reika:	“Well... what happened to him there?”
	Nicolette:	“Actually he somehow fainted at that place for no apparent reason. I helped him out by dragging him to a corner where he doesn't impede on the human traffic that was forming there, and waited until he woke up.”
	Reika:	“Is that so? I hope he's all right after that......”
	Nicolette:	“Enough talk about him. How's the things going for the elections?”
	Reika:	“You mean the club's Student Council elections? It's been going quite okay so far for the leaflet distribution. By the way, I have sent the design of your poster to your campus e-mail address just now. Please take a look at it and see if there are any alterations to be made. If there are, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can amend it in time for submission next week.”
	Nicolette:	“Wow...! You're pretty fast in doing those things, Reika! I knew I can count on you on this! I'll be sure to take a look at the designs you've made for the poster.”
	Reika:	“Thank you.”
	Nicolette:	“Once the poster's been approved by the staff at the club, the campaign will kick off for about 4 weeks before all of the club members will cast their votes on 10 July. If there are no problems, the results of the election will be announced on 13 July and then we can celebrate!”
	Reika:	“Please don't count your chickens before the eggs hatch, Nicolette-san. Although you have a high chance of getting that seat you wanted, but I hope you're prepared in case you couldn't make it to that seat.”
	Nicolette:	“You may be right......”
	Reika:	“But I will still try my best to help galvanize support for you whatever the result. Isn't why we work so hard for for the past two weeks?”
	Nicolette:	“Thanks, Reika. You're a real friend.”
	Reika:	“Oh, my mum's calling me now. I have to log out of the chat program. Have a good night and see you in school tomorrow!”
	Nicolette:	“Oh, okay. See you tomorrow.”

Reika logs out of the Chat-room Extension and Nicolette does the same. Nicolette then opens up the email sent by Reika before she accepted the connection for the extension earlier, and looks at the promotion poster for Nicolette's election campaign for the Foreign Students Club's Student Committee seat representing the American Countries.

“Wow...! I thought her designs were good, but not this good! I really need to discuss this design with the election team and see if they accept this. If they do, I can ask her to submit this one as the official poster for my bid next week. Like she said before, this is no easy contest as I have to bid against another 2 competitors for that seat in the Student Council.”

The date is 29th May 2007, 11:00 pm.

At Reika's two-storey landed house in Hougang, Reika is studying for the lessons tomorrow in her own room, but she has been a little lost in focus lately, probably because of what Nicolette said about Chengyu fainting at the bus stop outside the campus.

“I don't know he actually fainted again. This is the second time he has fainted in public. I don't know what is wrong with him that I can help with, but I really hope that I can be around in case he faints again. But then I was too busy giving out leaflets to even notice. Fortunately, Nicolette was there to help him out this time. I really should repay her by helping her win that Student Council seat with my best effort possible.”

Having thought that, Reika decides to focus on studying for the lessons tomorrow before heading to her bed to sleep.