Chapter Text
ー➳ー
Nanashi Mumei marveled at the entrance of one of the most prestigious schools on the continent. Holo University, wherein the most famous personalities went and planted their stepping stones to greatness. Now, it’s her turn to follow through and make her legacy; brimming with nervous excitement, she walked beyond the gates of the university whilst clutching on to her luggage.
Today is the second day of move-in day, Mumei would’ve arrived during the first day but her survival instincts in an unfamiliar, new place that is obviously going to be populated with a lot of people thus coming to an idea of entering the campus on the third day!
However, that too was also turned down, considering there would be a lot more people as it is the last day of moving in. Thus, setting foot on the second day.
She was expecting fewer people, a just-right amount of them even. But this is a prestigious school so Mumei can’t believe she even thought this day would have the same amount of people their high school orientation had.
It was way worse.
Walking through the schoolyard was already anxiety-inducing, the number of booths, the number of people walking around giving up fliers, welcoming and advertising to the newcomers, and Mumei were one of those targets.
“Hey there! Welcome to Holo University. I hope you enjoy your stay!”
Mumei gulped, this university was a fresh start, after all, a clean slate. Her heart was pounding, “T-Thank yoー”
“Good Holo Morning! You must be a freshman, do you want to join our Boreas Cupid Association?”
“Oh! I uh wellー”
“Ever heard of shark coffee? No? Come on down to the HoloBeans, we’re offering a free taste of this new drink for freshmen only this weekー”
“Bae I was here first,”
“You’re inviting her in this sorority, I’m inviting her to coffee Sana,”
“For the last time, it’s not a sorority Bae, it’s forー”
One of the few things Mumei is scared of other than printers is social interaction, and this social interaction unfolding right now in front of her was a brawl between two girls who are holding their own stack of fliers.
Conflict is also something Mumei is not fond of therefore, she carefully strides away from the growing chaos. Strutting away with her luggage and fast-paced walking, she wonders how big the yard is. Before getting herself lost in this maze of a university, a familiar voice called out to her.
She looks around to find the voice amidst the chaos, and there she sees a familiar pastel lime-haired girl calling out to her, waving as she approaches her quickly to give a big hug, the clutches on her luggage loosened, “Fauna!” she yelled out in delight
“How was the ride here? You didn’t get lost much?” Fauna says, releasing the small girl from the hug.
“ I don’t get lost that much,” Mumei pouted, noticing the fashion sense brimming from the girl. The modern cottagecore look was certainly a nostalgia to her, especially the pastel palette. “It’s nice to see you again, Fauna! It’s too lonely back there without you,”
Fauna smiles, “It’s nice to see you too Meimei, I missed you,” she reaches out to one of the luggage Mumei was carrying earlier, “Now, let’s move on with the itinerary and get you settled in the dorm shall we?”
The brown-haired girl hopped in excitement, “Oh yes please! I am dying to see the buildings,” she exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear which Fauna reacted to by dropping the luggage and giving her a bear hug while squealing about how adorable she looks.
≈≈ 8 months later ≈≈
Mumei walks nervously, fear echoes in her heart with every step towards her department’s office, she knows why this scene is playing out. It's going to be the usual talk between the teacher and failing student, she didn't mean for things to turn out this way but here she is receiving it. She clutches on her technical drawing instrument for comfort and reassurance before stepping inside the office.
Trying her best to not break into tears she listened as her professor talked about how she needs to improve her grades if she ever wanted to continue.
Unbeknownst to Mumei a pair of wanderlust ears reached this conversation and pitied the small girl and stepped out of the office to wait for her.
This person didn't need help but she has seen friends get broken and fall down into a deep hole. So she had a brilliant plan and she's gonna execute it as a petite girl walks out of the room.
"Hey, uh I didn't mean to listen back there and I can help you out." She called out to Mumei smiling softly which melted some of Mumei's troubles. "I'm Kiara by the way, Takanashi Kiara. I'm in my 3rd year of Business Science. What's your name?"
"Umm, I am Nanashi Mumei, 2nd-year Architecture." Mumei timidly replied. "Uh, what do you mean by help?"
"About that,” She said, rummaging through her bag to fish out her contact book. "I have a really smart friend who I think could help you out!"
Kiara eagerly flips the pages through her small contact book, “She’s also a Sophomore! I’m sure she can tutor you,"
Mumei watches her with uncertainty in her eyes and a questioning look on her face. "H-hey."
She mumbled but enough for Kiara to look up from what she's doing. "I um appreciate the offer but this is just too sudden and Uh I would think about it but for now I'll try to manage. I'm sorry."
Kiara sees Mumei's hesitance and smiles. "It's fine there's no need for you to apologize." She pulls a card from the back of the book, "Here's my card, contact me whenever you have an answer ok?."
And with that, the two exchanged goodbyes and parted ways with each other. Mumei watches the bright-haired girl disappear among the crowd. It was after all the afternoon already and people were funneling to their classes left and right.
Mumei looks down at the card, "Takanashi Kiara KFP C.O.O???" reading it aloud in confusion.
She is well aware of what a CEO is, but a COO? For Mumei, it sounded like animal noise if you were to ignore it by abbreviating letters, perhaps a bird? An owl maybe?
Coo...Coo...
She muttered under her breath for any idea that comes to mind what animal it sounds like..or what she sounds like.
Mumei shakes her head for the childish act she had a millisecond to be embarrassed on, letting out a sigh, she notices the almost empty hallways that were previously filled with students.
looking around the almost empty hallway as students started funneling into classrooms.
Perhaps it was the emptiness of the hallway that she had thought of an idea but for her grades to boost, or it was the realization she sounded like a grandfather clock with a bird that coo’s on its alarm. Whatever had brought her to this lightbulb, she was determined to ask help from her roommate.
The brunette makes her way out of the building, she internally pats herself on the back for not getting lost along the way. The Holo University had a lot of buildings and by a lot, Mumei really means it. A lot.
With the school being a private institution, urban modern setting, and campus size on roughly 5,000 acres of its size. Walking, being in a car, or even having a bike is a big deal when residing in, especially having to live in one of the dorms.
Unfortunately for Mumei, she has none of those. Just her legs and luck that her department was near one of the dorms she was residing in, and everything else was close to her. She doesn’t need to go to the other side of the campus as the University provided branches of certain establishments.
She shortly arrives at her dormitory, The Council Dormitory P. Mumei has heard of each dormitory having two branches, thus explaining the letters. She’s not all too sure if this is the 17th building or the 16th, but regardless of what it is, beyond those doors were her living quarters.
Upon entering her dorm on the 2nd floor. Mumei was greeted with the sweet fragrance of nectar from various flowers and bouquets fauna brought home from her job as an assistant in a flower shop. She always had a way with plant life and they seem to grow healthier when she tends them.
"I'm home!" Mumei calls out to Fauna who greets her back from the living room.
"How did it go?" Fauna asked softly as she cradled the smaller girl. "They did give you a chance right?"
"Yes they did, sir said that I have to raise my grades in my failing subjects if I want to continue."
"That's good to hear! So, what is the game plan?"
"Oh! Yes! I nearly forgot. There was this girl who offered me to be tutored by her friend but she uh,” she rubs her neck nervously, “I, I don't know her, but it gave me the idea to ask if you know someone who can help me with these subjects!" Mumei says as each intonation with her words is in sync with her small hops in place.
Fauna would love to cry on the spot over the sight of her roommate, "Awwww aren't YOU JUST ADORABLE!" She tries to pull Mumei into another hug but the architecture student ducks out of it just in time, dodging it with ease.
"Fauna as much as I love you and your hugs this isn't the tiーgahdsdfgk."
"Gotcha this time!"
Mumei sighs into the hug, "I really can't escape your hugs huh?"
"Nope! You're mine. And don't worry I'll find you a tutor that you can trust."
"Thanks, Fauna."
"Anytime my little owl." The floral designer says, tightening her hug to the brunette one last time before letting go.
Mumei scrunched her nose, "Why do you always call me that?"
"I kinda forgot why,” Fauna ponders, returning to her work in arranging the flowers. “It just suits you, oh and you’re cute." she chuckles lightly, bringing a shade of red up to the architecture student’s face.
She lets out an embarrassed giggle, “Ahaha, th-thank you..er, you too,”
Fauna chuckles and gives a gentle smile to Mumei, who fiddles her t-square in response, “I uh,” she points to her room, “I’m gonna try to see if I can study,”
Her roommate tends to her flowers and nods “Alright, I’ll try to think of someone who can help you out!”
“I appreciate it, Fauna, I really do,” Mumei smiles, receiving a hum from the latter.
Mumei enters her room, closing the door gently as she leans on it. Letting out a sigh of relief, she dropped her bag to the floor and hoisted her T-Square to the wall, alongside her other rulers such as the triangles and storage tubes.
She looks around her room, her window having a view of the University yard, as well as trees blooming in spring. Mumei wonders if there are any birds nesting, the idea had just occurred to her. She’ll check it out if she has the time.
Her bed was just as normal as ever...well, aside from the mess of not fixing it when she wakes up, as well as her storage, that holds the wondrous, procrastinated clothes she throws at. Mumei removes her sweater and tosses it to the chair™.
Mumei’s eyes locked onto the desk. It was beside her drafting table, and both of them were a pain in the ass. She walks towards the desk, all the while removing her shoes, leaving them scattered in the middle of the room.
“Calculus,” she breathed, reading aloud the word on the textbook atop the scattered papers that had crossed out numbers, letters, question marks, and doodles...way too many doodles.
She takes a seat and puts the Calculus book aside, that subject has scarred her. Gathering her papers, Mumei looked into them and separated the algebraic, traumatizing measurements from her doodled masterpieces.
After organizing them aside, she looks down on three textbooks. Calculus, Statistics, and Physics. Oh, how they wound Mumei so.
She opens the Calculus textbook and looks through her notes. Mumei hopes that studying on her own will be enough to have her grades be saved.
She certainly did not expect the horrendous amount of math in the course.
Mumei is in pain.
In pain, might be an understatement. She is in unbearable pain, in fact, she doesn’t even know if it’s already been an hour or 10 minutes. But her notes and textbooks are making her frustrated, it should be easy but she couldn’t grasp the concepts properly.
“After a little practice, the answer can be writing at once, ” Mumei emphasized, reading the text out loud in frustration. “This is a lie!” she exclaimed.
How could Mumei understand the fundamental integration formulas, when the book just confuses her in a circle of thought? She is in full doubt if it’s a trick question or not.
Since this new integral is no simpler than the original, let us return to the given integral and take
Mumei observes the given formula and moves to the next line below it, which says; Here again, we have failed temporarily-
She lets out a groan.
Nanashi Mumei is frustrated.
This is her worst nightmare yet.
Her pained brain cells and frustrated thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door, startling her.
“Hey Meimei, I found..oh, am I disturbing you?” Fauna says, head peeking through the doorway. The brunette shook her head, “No I just finished,” she’s done dealing with it actually.
Fauna perks up, “Oh! Okay, I talked to Sana and she says she can help.”
Mumei blinks, “Really?! Ow-” she stood up way too fast that her knee hit the table.
“Careful,” her roommate says, “Yeah, Sana isn’t all that busy apparently, we can head over to HoloBeans right now.”
“Yes!” Mumei cried out, fist-pumping the air whilst letting herself crumble to the floor in relief.
“Meimei?!”
ー➳ー
Mumei and Fauna walked hand in hand as they traversed the crowded streets nearby the university where there are tons of student-centered commodities and after a 10-minute walk from the university's gates, they reached a pastel-colored shop named HoloBeans and upon entering the 2-floor café with an indoor balcony surrounding a beautiful array of over headlamps.
"Hey there! Nice to have you visit us Mumei, Fauna! Always nice to see you both. My shift's ending in a bit, what can I getcha?" A cheery red-haired girl greets them over the counter.
"Hey, Bae. Still a bundle of energy are you?" Fauna smiled at her. "Is Sana here yet?"
"Oh! Yeah! Oh yeah, She’s just upstairs, you wouldn’t miss her over those maps she brought,” Baelz leaned in, holding up her hand next to her face and whispers, “If you ask me, she’s flexing,”
"Flexing?” Fauna puts on a sly smile, tone filled with curiosity “I see, Thanks, Bae! We'll come to get some drinks in a bit,"
"Enjoy your visit!" The barista says, grinning.
Sure enough, Sana is really easy to spot with her taking up 4 tables with her star maps, textbooks, and a stack of sandwiches.
"Sana!”
The strawberry-blonde student looks up from her opened textbook that was next to the stack of sandwiches, "Faufau! Meimei! Come and take a seat." She frantically closes her textbooks and stacks them on one side whilst grabbing her star maps.
"Having a test coming up?" Fauna wondered, both she and her roommate taking a seat on the opposite seats of the blonde’s table.
"Not really,” Sana nervously laughs, “I just love looking over these maps and reading stuff about the stars and generally space," Sana says in a tangent, leaving only two rolled-out maps on her side on the table.
Sana starts rolling up the last map she grabbed to put in her storage tube ."So Meimei, I heard you need help with a few subjects,"
"Yeah, I really am slow when it comes to certain subjects," Mumei answered shyly.
"Awww don't worry everyone has been through it." Sana suddenly stood up and cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted over the chatter of the café.
"Guys, did any of you have subjects you had trouble with?"
Wherein the majority of the customers responded with murmurs and echoing yes to yeah’s.
"Y-you didn't have to do that," Mumei said, slowly scooting her seat closer to Fauna out of embarrassment,
The florist pats Mumei, "She's having trouble with a few of her subjects. I was hoping you could help her find a tutor, or help her out?" she offered,
"Well...I can’t help, I have my hands full with all that astrophysics bizz,” Sana pondered, “We could ask Bae later after her shift, until then let's catch up.” she says, putting her tubes hung on her seat and swiftly types on her phone.
She sits down and scoots closer to the table with joy, “ I haven't seen you around for quite a while, Meimei," she starts
Mumei fiddles with her fingers, “I’ve been busy, the instructors aren’t really that friendly,” from what she’s been hearing with other’s experiences with their own classes. The instructors are usually nice that gives them breaks, hers, however, was complicated.
“I also had a lot of them,” Fauna sighs
Sana shook her head, “Yikes, I’m lucky I get one pain in the ass. I mean how horrible can you be to give us 2 days to finish a rocket model!” she groans.
“2nd year doesn’t make a difference,” Mumei says, remembering the only proper break she had was 3 days after the winter break, the workload they give didn’t let them off the hook during holidays.
Fauna pats Mumei in the back, “As long as you’re taking care of yourself though, and not resorting to caffeine,”
“Hmm,” Sana rubs her chin, “I’m thinking of the odds of Meimei ordering 5 cups of coffee again, more so even, and I can say it’s 96 because she’s an Architecture student,”
“I swore off on caffeine a year ago,” the brunette defends, “and what does being an Architecture student has to do with it?”
The strawberry-blonde shrugs, “It makes more sense than my horoscopes though right?” she smirks. “I could also give a reading if you want double the knowledge?”
Mumei shakes her head, “No, No, No.”
“I won’t let that happen again, Kronini even almost got drenched in coffee,” Fauna points out, reminiscing the time she opened the door to the student, holding more than the intended amount of coffee as Mumei had accidentally ordered two cakes alongside it.
Sana grins, “Oh yeah!” she snaps her finger, “She was the one who did the delivers at night, I remember Bae showing a photo of her hands full of Meimei’s order,”
“Who’s Kronini?”
The room fell silent, the sound of the clock ticking is heard, Mumei can also hear the weight of the other customer’s fingerpads as they tap on their devices, she lets out a shaky breath, shifting her weight from the chair, hoping the blaring quiet would come to an end.
Two pairs of eyes were staring at her, faces mixed with confusion and shock.
Sana blinks, “You...You haven’t met Kronini?”
“She has!” Fauna hesitates, “ I think…”
“How come Meimei hasn’t met Kronini yet? It’s been a year!” Sana exclaims, “Oh my god, and here I thought she was listening to me,”
Mumei gulps, averting her eyes to the floor for a moment out of embarrassment, “S-Sorry... I was really listening thou-”
“ No no,” Sana cuts her off, “I meant Kronini, she wasn’t listening to me all this time! She could’ve asked me “Who’s Mumei?” she air quotes, “But no! All this time she was focused on her thick, unbelievable law book!”
Fauna raises an eyebrow, “You usually hang out? I thought she was busy?”
“She always is so I bring the conversation to her, now I know she wasn’t listening because she should have asked me who Mumei is!” Sana pouts,
“I see,” Fauna nods, “Don’t worry Meimei, you’ll meet her soon...someday,”
The blonde let out a frustrating groan, “Meimei should meet her, but yes someday. Kronini’s busy right now if I remember correctly,”
“Oh,” The brunette nods, anxiety washed away in her system, “I um, look forward to meeting her then,”
“My Shift’s done!” the cheery red-haired barista shows up to the table, sitting down across Mumei, careful not to lean on Sana’s tubes and the bag settled on the chair, “So, Sana texted me and you needed to ask me something?”
Mumei perks up, "Yeah, I want to ask if you can help me with some of my subjects?"
"Hmmm like tutoring?" Bae pondered a bit. "I'm sorry Mumeishi, I want to help but as of now I have a packed schedule, even this job barely fits in my schedule."
"It's ok I understand that," Mumei said smiling yet feeling defeated.
"Oh, you can ask my Senpai over there if she can help." Bae pointed over the balcony to a short white-haired girl who is attending to some customers with quite a troubled look on her face. "Uh oh, she looks like she's in trouble…"
Bae went over to help her Senpai and while doing so she pointed over to where Mumei and the others were seated and sure enough she appeared next to their table.
"Sorry you have to see that, numbers go past your head so easily it's confusing!" She said gleefully. "My name's Gura, a 3rd-year student in the performing arts! Bae said that you need help with a few subjects, am I right?"
"Ah yeah it would be great if you could offer a hand on them," Mumei replied as hope once again circulates inside her.
"Sure I can! I am fortunately not that busy. So what are the subjects?"
"Ummm we could start with just one of the first. It's Calculus."
"A." Gura chokes,
"Mumei shi! Senpai sucks at numbers that we have to occasionally take over the counter from her!" Bae shouted from across the table,
"Bae! Why do you have to shout it to the whole café!" Gura flushed. "Gorsh... Hehe yeah… As the rat ratted, I am not good with math."
"Oh…" Mumei sighed looking down.
"There there champ! What are the other subjects?" Gura tried to lift her spirits up but it didn't seem to work.
"They're all math-related Senpai. I'm sorry."
"Ahh, I'm really sorry for that."
An awkward silence fell over the table for a minute when Sana perked up.
"Hey Gura, what about that girl you kept talking about? Bae's coworker at CoverTech?" Sana excitedly pokes Gura who fails to dodge each poke, face flushed with embarrassment.
"U-Uh Her? I dunno, she's very busy with her computer stuff…" Gura rubbed her chin and looked over at Mumei to see her beginning to deflate once more.
Gura smiles, "Well, it sure can't hurt to ask her right?” she cracks her knuckles “Alrighty, Bae, you can bring them to the place right? It’s your next shift over there. Me and Sana are taking over the counter so don’t worry!"
"Eh?! Why am I going to stay and help you?"
"Well you don't have anything else to do, you’re not working at the bakery right now and Bae has another part-time job plus a project to do."
Sana sighs, feeling dejected, "Fine, but you're paying for my next drink then."
The group said their farewells to Gura and a grumbling yet cheerful Sana and headed off to where this mysterious person is working and from the descriptions, Bae said she's a 3rd year on computer science and that she's a genius in her course which made Mumei hopeful that she can help her.
Soon after they reached a store with a bright neon blue sign saying "CoverTech", upon entering the store, the bright interior and amount of light almost blinded Mumei, the gadgets, and technology from Holo University were displayed everywhere with their prices. Phones, Laptops, VR, there were even shelves for games.
Mumei is interested in the displayed appliances, most importantly the games on the shelves.
"Welcome!" A blonde-haired girl over the counter said. "How can I help you guys? Pre-ordering isn’t available as of the moment due to exams happening in most courses,”
"Heeeeeyyy Amelia-senpai! These are some of Sana's friends, Mumei and Fauna. This is my co-worker and senpai, Amelia Watson." Bae cheerfully introduced them to each other. "Mumei here has a request so you guys talk while I go and get changed," she said before rushing to the staff room for her shift to start.
"So what can I do for you?" Amelia asked the brown-haired girl.
"Umm I am sorry to bother you but Bae and Sana said that I could ask you this." Mumei hesitates.
Amelia grinned, sheepishly waving her hand "Oh don't worry, I still have to hear your request though,"
"Umm I have some failing subjects that I don't know if I could do on my own and I was wondering if you could help me with them."
Amelia hums, raising an eyebrow in interest, "Tutoring huh? What course are you in and what are the subjects?"
"I'm a 2nd year in Architecture and-"
"Architecture? Those are mostly math and history if I remember correctly." Ame interrupted, sighing "I'm sorry Mumei, I could tutor you if we have the same subjects where I don't have to study the subject before I could help you, plus exams are coming and I still have several projects lined up."
Mumei's expression gets more and more defeated and down with every word and when Amelia finishes Mumei is so broken-hearted that all she could manage was a nod like she had forgotten how to speak.
With each word let go by Amelia, the brunette’s expression gets more dejected with the realization no one could help her, all she could manage as a reaction was a nod, her throat going dry, refusing to utter a word.
"So how did it go?" Bae asked as she came back in the shop's blue-colored uniform. "Oh from your face it looks like Amelia can't huh?"
Another nod.
Amelia rubs her neck, “Yeah, I’ll try to see if I can find someone who can. I can ask my cousin, she’s in Law though, but she’s pretty smart” she reassures the brunette,
"Hey don't worry Meimei, we'll find you a tutor soon." Fauna patted Mumei's shoulder as the younger girl just stood there crestfallen.
“I’ll tell Bae if my cousin agrees to it,” Amelia said, rummaging through her pockets for her phone to relay the message
"Thank you, I can't do much about it anyway." Mumei finally spoke again. "Anyways I should get going. I still have a 5 pm class."
ー➳ー
Mumei hugs the books she had checked out from the Library, she was greeted by a tight hug upon stepping out of the room, “Don’t worry,” Fauna says, “We’re going to find someone who can help, okay?” she reassures the brunette who was lost in her thoughts, she nods in response without comprehending the words properly.
“I’ll see you later Meimei,” The lime-haired girl says, tightening her bear hug one last time before splitting up to walk to her own class, despite being 20 minutes late.
Mumei walks towards her class and went to her usual seat at the back where she had to scoot over to get to her seat since someone was already sleeping beside her spot. She opened her bag to get the laptop out when she noticed a white and orange card underneath it.
"Takanashi Kiara, KFP…" Mumei mumbled under her breath. "Should I or should I not?"
ー➳ー