As they walked back into the building, the lift doors were just beginning to close.
"Wait—!" Nick shouted, lunging forward and slamming the button.
The doors stopped. They stepped in, slightly out of breath, but triumphant.
"Imagine missing it and having to walk up eleven floors," AN said, pressing 9.
Nick hit 11 and leaned against the wall. "I would've just camped on the stairs and made it my new home."
The lift jerked slightly as it started moving. The two of them stared at the floor display as it slowly crawled past 4.
"You ever get the feeling this lift's just pretending to work?" Nick asked.
AN nodded. "Sometimes I feel like it's going to stop halfway and be like, 'Nope, figure it out.'"
Nick smirked. "Like us in exams."
She grinned. "Exactly."
There was a small awkward creak as they hit floor 7.
AN glanced at Nick. "So… did you actually talk to her this week?"
Nick blinked. "Her?"
"Pearl."
He looked straight ahead. "Nope. Classic me."
"You've been trying for weeks now."
"I prefer the long-game. Like snails do."
AN chuckled. "Snails also get crushed a lot."
Nick fake gasped. "Harsh but fair."
The lift dinged at 9. AN stepped forward as the door opened.
"Text me when you finish sulking about your crush."
"I'm not sulking—I'm emotionally pacing."
She rolled her eyes. "Goodnight, Romeo."
"Night, An Apple."
The doors slid shut between them, and Nick leaned back with a sigh.
"Okay," he whispered to himself. "That wasn't too bad."
The lift moved on to 11, creaking like it was carrying a secret
Date: Wednesday | Time: 10:28 AM | Location: Terna International School, Class 11-A
Nick was halfway through telling K and Zaid how he once clutched a 1v4 situation in their favorite multiplayer battleground game when his phone (very illegally in his bag) vibrated with a notification: Server maintenance from 2–5 PM.
"Bro," he gasped, staring at the screen. "The game's down this afternoon."
Zaid choked on his imaginary snack. "WHAT?! Maintenance again? This is sabotage. How do they expect us to survive math class without knowing we'll be rewarded with a chicken dinner afterward?"
K, the sensible one among them, shrugged. "Good. Now you guys can study."
Nick and Zaid looked at him like he'd just joined the enemy side.
"Et tu, K?" Nick whispered.
"You know what, fine," Zaid grumbled. "Let's say—hypothetically—we were stuck in the game world. Who's dying first?"
K grinned. "Nick. No doubt."
Nick scoffed. "Excuse me? I'm the strategist of our squad. The brains."
"You ran into a grenade thinking it was loot," Zaid deadpanned.
"It was shiny, okay?! Anything shiny deserves investigation."
They were still bickering when the classroom door opened. A breeze of curiosity followed.
Pearl walked in.
In a hoodie.
Now, this wouldn't usually be shocking. But for a girl known to always have her hair tied perfectly in a ponytail, neat as her biology notes, something was off.
"Why's she wearing a hoodie inside class?" Zaid whispered.
"She's hiding something," Nick muttered, eyes narrowing like a detective in an anime.
"What? You think she got a secret tattoo?"
Nick imagined Pearl with a dragon tattoo across her forehead and blinked. "No. No way."
"Maybe she shaved her head?" K suggested, joking.
But then—Preeti Ma'am entered.
As usual, she walked in with her register and silent authority. One look at Pearl and she frowned.
"Pearl, hoodie off. You know school rules."
Pearl hesitated. A moment of suspense hung in the air like a reality show elimination.
Then—slowly—she reached up…
…unzipped the hoodie…
…took it off…
And revealed her hair.
It was short. Bob cut.
Perfectly trimmed, framing her face. Light, breezy, bold.
Nick's brain completely froze.
The classroom collectively gasped.
Someone dropped a pencil.
Zaid whispered, "Bro… she looks like a K-drama actress."
K nodded slowly. "That bob cut… that's not just a haircut. That's character development."
But Nick—Nick had stopped breathing.
He stared at her like he'd just seen the moon land in the classroom. She looked unreal. Beautiful. Confident yet a little awkward, touching her new hair.
And that… was the exact moment Nick fell in love.
Not because she had short hair. But because of the way she nervously looked down, unsure of how people would react.
And for the first time in his life, Nick wanted to say something nice.
Like… really say it.
But he didn't.
He just blinked… again and again.
"Nick," Zaid whispered. "You're staring."
"I'm not staring," he whispered back. "I'm just… admiring emotionally."
⸻
11:10 AM | Maths Class | Division Time
Sachin sir clapped twice. "Okay class, non ocfp student leave the class .Non ocfp students left the classroom and went to liabrary to study where Preeti Mam was was heading "
Eight students shuffled to the right. Nick included. Zaid and K too. Pearl was… OCFP.
Nick sulked. "Only eight non-OCFPs? We're the endangered species."
"More like the forgotten ones," Zaid said, sinking into his chair.
Preeti Ma'am assigned problems to both sides of the class. Everyone got busy solving. Except Nick. He kept glancing at Pearl from across the room.
K noticed. "Say it."
Nick blinked. "Say what?"
"You want to say something to her. Say it."
Nick panicked. "I can't just randomly walk up mid-class and say, 'Hey your hair made my soul levitate.'"
Zaid snorted. "Then don't be dramatic. Just say it looks nice. That's it."
Nick took a deep breath.
And waited.
⸻
12:00 PM | After Class
The bell rang. Preeti Ma'am left. The students started packing up.
Pearl walked past Nick's bench, adjusting her bag.
Nick stood up. "Hey… Pearl."
She turned. "Yeah?"
Nick blinked. His brain screamed DON'T SAY ANYTHING STUPID.
"…Your hair looks… nice," he said. Voice cracking slightly.
Pearl paused. Then… smiled.
A gentle, real, soft smile. "Thank you."
And walked away.
Nick sat back down like he had been hit by a truck. A truck full of sparkles and slow-motion music.
Then Zaid and K arrived.
Nick turned to tell them what happened. Instead, he lost balance and fell backward off his bench.
Thud.
K: "There it is."
Zaid: "He's gone. Nick 2006 -2022
After Class | 1:00 PM | Outside the Classroom
As students packed their bags and filtered out, Preeti Ma'am stood near the door, arms crossed, eyes sharp as ever.
She glanced at Nick as he walked by and suddenly squinted like she'd spotted something out of place.
"Now that I think about it," she said slowly, "Nick… your hair is too long."
Nick froze mid-step. "Huh?"
"Cut your hair," she said with the same tone one might use to tell someone to go clean a crime scene. "Make sure it's half an inch. School rule."
Nick blinked. "Wait—what? Half an inch? That's… that's, like, toothbrush bristle level!"
Preeti Ma'am raised an eyebrow. "You can measure it with a ruler if you'd like. But make sure it's done before tomorrow. Or I'll send you home myself."
Nick opened his mouth, then closed it. He had been roasted, steamed, and served.
Zaid leaned in. "Bro. You just got hair-coded."
⸻
After School | 6:00 PM | Local Hair Salon of Doom
Nick sat in the salon chair, staring at himself in the mirror like a man awaiting execution.
His mom was scrolling through her phone. His younger brother was already taking photos for future blackmail.
"Please," Nick whispered to the barber. "Leave me some hair. A little. A strand. Anything."
The barber smiled like a man with no mercy. "Half an inch?"
Nick sighed. "Half an inch."
The clippers buzzed.
And just like that, Nick's era of fluffy rebellion was over.
⸻
The Next Morning | 7:50 AM | Outside Class 11-A
Nick walked into school with a hoodie pulled tightly over his head, face partially hidden like a medieval peasant fleeing judgment.
He avoided eye contact.
K was the first to notice. "Zaid," he whispered. "Who's the guy in the hoodie?"
Zaid squinted. "He kinda looks like Nick. But like… if Nick had committed a crime and was now in hiding."
K: "He's walking like a man who's lost everything."
Nick slinked past them, pretending to check his timetable on his phone.
"Yo, Nick?" Zaid called.
Nick kept walking. "Nope. I am but a shadow."
Zaid raised an eyebrow. "What's with the hoodie, bro? You got a hickey or something?"
Nick sighed. "Just… let it go."
K smirked. "Now I need to know."
Before Nick could escape, Zaid lunged like a cat and yanked the hoodie off.
The reveal was… shocking.
His hair was gone. Not just cut — annihilated. Cropped down to half an inch, exposing every contour of his round, now-vegetable-shaped head.
Zaid stumbled back. "BRO."
K gasped. "You look like… like a boiled potato."
Nick groaned. "I feel like a peeled onion."
Zaid wiped a fake tear. "They took our boy and gave him military-grade humiliation."
Nick slumped into his seat. "No one talk to me today."
K leaned in. "Hey, at least now you and Pearl both got bold haircuts. Twin arcs."
Nick buried his face in his arms. "Except she looks like a queen. I look like a rejected egg."
Zaid patted his back. "Don't worry. Hair grows. But screenshots… last forever."