Chapter 1: Eight stray dogs and a peculiar wax figure at the station.

Spooktober has ended and here comes the first day and holiday of November greeting us with an earlier than usual, cold winter season.

I took a day off from school—my parents excused me—and it was because it we had a mandatory family tradition to visit the cemetery to respect our dead ancestors. Even if I’m not too enthusiastic about the activities myself, I still participate regardless because it IS still a day off from school after all. And by the time my parents excused me, I didn’t really have a choice. If I declined to go to the cemetery, they’d let me stay at home, but I wouldn’t have anything to do at home. And if I still attended school even after my parents excused me, I’d just feel awkward about it.

Anyways, I won’t really discuss any further details about the cemetery visit—because we were there just to respect the dead and all. Though, a few details that I feel like describing at the time—without my conscience of the dead in the way—was that the scent of burning incenses were intoxicating and the atmosphere felt a little heavy after acknowledging that before us is a dead old man inside of a large box covered in porcelain tiles.

After my family finished their prayers, we walked to the train station. There was smoke in the air coming from the people loitering in the streets and their burning cigarettes. There were people wearing heavy clothing due to the extremely cold weather. Their coats looked so warm. It reminded me that the environment around us were reaching the lowest temperatures possible at the time. It made me tug my scarf just a little bit higher to cover my nose.

We walked past through a few diners. The savory scent that passed through my scarf for me to smell, made me a feel a little hungry. I could smell the scent of cooking soy sauce.

And finally, when we arrived to the station, I greeted a few stray dogs that looked fluffy and friendly. Well, it was either that or they were just dogs waiting for their owners to return from the station.

Well anyways, something caught my eye when we were waiting for a train by the station. Well, actually, the more accurate term would be someone, but at the time, I didn’t think that what I found was an actual person at the time.

I was bored waiting for the train, and my phone didn’t have any battery. So, in pursuit of finding something to pass the time, I roamed around the lonesome station. The stray dogs that were getting some shelter under the roof of the train station were passed asleep and I didn’t want to disturb them. And the station was pretty empty at the time… though, I guess it’d make sense that not a lot of people would be travelling by train nowadays considering the weather and the unpopular route and area of the station.

At the time, I was wearing a thick jacket, some pants, a scarf that I previously mentioned, a beret, a pair of mittens worn on the both of my hands and a camera tied around my neck.

All of the sudden a strong, fearful breeze blew by. And it made me instinctively hold on to my beret and onto my camera. The strong wind also produced some sort of white mist. I turned my gaze to the unroofed side of the station and found a few white particles floating down from the sky. I walked towards that side and held my hand out. I let the white particles land on my mittens for me to examine them. The particles were purely white, it wasn’t in anyway light gray, let alone gray. Plus, I don’t think any active volcanoes would be erupting any time now, judging by how the news on the tv hasn’t mentioned any threats about the active volcanoes. So, I could rule out the possibility that we’re having an ashfall. I guess it’s much more obvious to assume that this is snow, considering the cold weather. It indeed was snow, and I could confirm it for myself.

After inspecting the particles, the fell from the sky and landed on my mitten, I raised my head and gazed around. That was when I saw this peculiar figure in the midst of all the cold white mist.

The figure looked to be a tall and handsome young man wearing a lot of warm clothing. His hair had an unusual color of white and gray, and his eyes were as blue as ice. His skin looked so smooth. It was as if he was made out of wax. But looking at him up closely, and observing how it hasn’t moved a single muscle, nor hasn’t blinked a single time—I assumed it to be a very realistic, life-sized wax statue, clothed by real clothes.

“Eehh?? Why would there be such statue in the middle of the station?” I thought out loud.

I poked it a few times and it seems to be wearing real clothing.

Heh, it’d be really embarrassing if this was a real person. Though, I’ve been talking to myself while poking around at the wax figure for a moment now, and it doesn’t seem to be responding back. I actually started thinking to myself that I’d be foolish enough to be anxious about contemplating about some wax statue for God knows why it’s placed here of all places.

Maybe the artist forgot to bring it up to the train…?

I brought my camera with me in case my family wanted to take photos or videos at the cemetary, though I didn’t actually think I’d find something that’s worth capturing here.

“I’ve never really seen such realistic wax statue… maybe I should take a picture of it.” I muttered to myself.

I removed my muttons just for a moment and picked up the camera that was leaning on the front of my torso. I then plucked out the cover from its lens and booted it up.

“Say cheese!!”

Click…! Flash!

“Oh wait, the flash was on.”

I didn’t know it was on, and I didn’t want to take the picture with it on. But I decided to keep the photo anyway. It was dark, and the flash sort of helped lighten things up a bit. And I was able to see the face of the statue clearer than I can with my own eyes.

The face of the statue definitely looked handsome. It’s a shame that it’s just wax statue, otherwise he’d definitely be my type. And the expression on his face… well… has he always looked this scary? He has this piercing glare that sends shivers up my spine just looking at his eyes.

Oh wait, I wonder if the statue flinched because of the flash of my camera. With that in mind, I booted down my camera, put the cover of its lens back on and wore my mittens. I looked up to the wax statue’s face and observed it for a while… and found not a single flinch or reaction more.

“Well, of course it didn’t. It IS just a statue after all. Who am I kidding?” I thought to myself out loud, shrugging and watching my warm breath escape my mouth as I breathed.

Just then I noticed a sound of metal thumping that can be heard from a distance.

“Mayoi, our train is here…!” my mother called out.

Well, I guess that’s my cue.

I boarded the train and looked out the windows once the door closed and the train started moving. There, I found the station to be completely empty other than eight sleeping stray dogs taking shelter.

 

 

Chapter 2: Introducing my Friends and Ice King of Highschool,

It wasn’t long since that one excused day off from school ended. And before I knew it, I woke up getting ready to attend my classes again, as I should as my right of being a sixteen-year-old high-school student.

Oh yeah, and I think I’ve forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Natsumi Mayoi. And as I already explained recently, I’m a Highschool student attending Attakai Tenki Academy, also known as the ATA school. It’s well known for its warm welcome to students and area of its institute for having a usual warm weather. However, since the school isn’t placed in a tropical country or anything, it’s still pretty vulnerable to the winter season, which is sort of ironic to me.

I wore my shoes and checked them a few times—making sure they’re not worn out or anything—then I proceeded to pack my lunch, wear my thick jacket, put on a hat with ear-flaps, and picked up my school bag.

“I’ll be out for school mom…!” I greeted.”

“Okay, take care…!” my mother greeted back.

I walked towards the doorway, excited to go to school again. Though, just then—

Knock! Knock! Knock! Three fast knocks came from the front door I was already approaching. I opened to see who it was and found two pretty girls standing outside of the door way. One of them was a rather pale girl with black, straight and shining, armpit-length hair, matching the color of her eyes. And the other was significantly shorter than that girl with green hair and a pair of glasses. They are my two best friends I made in school. Yuuta Haruhi and Shin Megami. And the both of them were wearing heavy and warm clothing while still showing that they’re wearing our school uniforms. I wasn’t really surprised by their visit for we actually walk to school together pretty regularly in the past.

❄❄❄

The weather was cold, but wasn’t snowing this time. The wind wasn’t as strong as yesterday, and there aren’t any randomly placed wax statues in sight. Well, it’s not like we needed to use the train station as a means to transport to school. Really, it only took a short walk. The homes of Shin and Yuuta’s are lotted in the same street, though a different street from mine. But because I only live a couple of blocks from them—despite being in a different street—it makes it easier for us to walk to school and walk home together.

When we arrived to school, the white and gray clouds covered it, producing this sort of winter-ish lighting on it. The houses we passed by to get here were adorned with Christmas decorations, and it’s not even December yet. Though, if it weren’t for those Christmas décors, I suppose it would make the atmosphere around the area a little heavier than it should be. It’s nice seeing how festive people can still be even in such cold weather. And if that doesn’t make me feel any lighter, then just imagining that some of those houses have families—who are under their heaters, eating small oranges or dining a hotpot—should.

Well, on the contrary, we spent our time walking to school silently. And it was only when we arrived to our destination that Yuuta started breaking the ice to start a conversation. She was talking about some sort of “I LOVE YOU” virus, which honestly sounded like a virus only desperate lonely people would want to have.

We were walking through the school hallway, on our way to our first class for the day.

“Viruses are the worst. Physically and digitally. There are ransomware viruses, and there are viruses you get from this damned cold weather. Have your pick.” Yuuta said, holding out the both of her arms.

“Wait, how did we even get to this conversation topic in the first place? Weren’t we just talking about that one time an internet event happened in real life where people all over the world gathered in one place to fight because they had the same first name?” Shin said, thinking out loud while looking smart. Maybe it’s just the glasses, but while she explained what she thought out loud, she pushed up her pair of glasses up to her face enough for it to glint in my angle, then she crossed her arms—probably because she was feeling cold and wanted to warm her arms in between her armpits.

“No, I’m pretty sure we were talking about glass infused with wood. For some reason it really freaked Yuuta out. And hey, she started the conversation in the first place.” I said.

We were just a normal group of friends like how any other would talk. We really were.

“Like seriously? What the fuck!?” Yuuta exclaimed.

“Well, if that freaked you out much, then just wait till you hear about the name of the phobia for long words.” I daresay.

“I’ve already heard about that. the second time I’ve heard of it, it came up in a conversation a few months ago with some masochist who said they could read that word all day.” She explained.

“Masochist…? Who? That’s the first I’ve heard of them.” Shin deducted.

“HmM…? Oh, just forget about it.” She brushed the topic off. “…on the other hand, what’s going on over there?”

Yuuta pointed her arm over to the crowd that’s blocking the path of the hallway. Well, I couldn’t really tell if she was pointing her finger because it seems that her sleeves were too long for her arm, but for some reason, there really is a crowd blocking the path of the hallway. Most of them being female students who had lovestruck in their eyes, and male students who seemed to have found something ‘cool’ in the middle midst of the crowd. It seems as though they were gathering around something interesting.

“Ugh, I don’t really want to deal with that, let alone having to try and squeeze through that crowd.” Yuuta complained. “People need boundaries and personal space after all. Why’re they hoarding around as if it’s black Friday in America?”

“What should we do? Find a teacher…?” I suggested. “Come to think of it, where are they at this time?”

“Probably checking papers and preparing for the next term down in the faculty.” Shin explained. “The exams are coming up after all.”

“Aren’t the exams next month though?” Yuuta thought. “Maybe we should go around and find another way to the classroom.”

“Next month is sooner than you think. You should actually consider to start studying four weeks before the exam if you want to get it perfect.” Shin instructed.

Well, I suppose Shin doesn’t just look the part of being intelligent. She is quite diligent and dedicated in her studies after all. She’s also the top of our class, might I forgot to add.

“What about the student council?” I suggested again. “There’s bound to be some hall monitor making their rounds.”

“That hall monitor you speak of is already taking action.” Shin explained. “If you take a closer observation.”

She then pointed to a shorter girl, running around the group trying to make her way in. She was holding a clipboard, and she’s also got a handful of hall passes.

“She’s struggling…!!” I thought out loud. To be honest, I did not quite expect that.

“Well, not to fret. Be patient my friends, for the crowd will soon disperse and scatter.” Shin observed and reassured. She sounded like some evil scientist showing off their destruction of an experiment.

“Oh, yeah…? How come?” Yuuta asked, dumbfounded by what’s about to happen in the next five minutes.

All of the sudden a loud bang was heard, coming from the other end of the hallway. It came from the other side of what the crowd was interested in.

The then crowd scattered and dispersed immediately. Unveiling a tall young man alone at the end of the hallway… well, at least that’s what I assumed it to be. The light was coming from the other end of the hallway, so all I could really see is a silhouette or a shadowy figure of the tall young man.

“Get out of the fucking way.” A deep voice was heard coming from that man.

He had his fist smacking against the metal locker nearest to him. And his words sounded like a mutter but it echoed out throughout the hallway. For some reason, when he spoke, it sounded so powerful that it felt like his voice came from inside of my head. And it’s difficult to get it out.

When the crowd dispersed, the other male students stepped back a bit before they walked away. Their enthusiastic smiles—as if they’re about to make another friend—slowly drained. Some ran from fear and guilt, and some female students screamed as if they can’t just contain their excitement from meeting the man of their dreams.

Their screams were annoying, but eventually they were silenced. They were set straight by that previously mentioned man of their dreams.

Another bang was heard immediately. The young man at the end of the hallway slammed his fist against the metal locker again! This time, cornering the girl screaming in the hallway.

“Shut up.” I heard from him, coming from their direction.

And immediately, the girl was silenced. Her trap was shut, and the excitement drained from her eyes. When he let her go, the impression left the girl walking off with a serious look on her face.

 I was so fixated on what was happening in the distance in front of us—that I didn’t notice that Shin had already went ahead of us on her way to our classroom.

I, at the time was sort of afraid to enter the scene, and it looked like Yuuta was too. She looked like she wanted to go elsewhere and wait for the tension in the hallway to cool off—or that she wanted to find another way around the classroom.

Shin stopped walking and turned around to our attention

“As long as you don’t bother him, you’re good to go.” She explained. “It’s just as you stated earlier, Yuuta. People need boundaries and personal space, right?”

She turned around in front of her and continued explaining.

“We’ve been studying here for a while now, but I suppose the both of you haven’t really been paying attention to meeting those schoolmates and students around you. So let me introduce you to Aozameru Kuroji, also known as—”

 

The Ice King of Attakai Tenki Academy.

Chapter 3: The Ice King Encounters.

That figure… Have I seen him before?

The so called ‘Ice King of Highschool’ walks our way. His footsteps sounded menacing in the almost empty hallway as it seems to be striking fear in the hearts of those around him. I thought he was familiar but looking him up close—I found out that perhaps I haven’t seen him before after all… well, I’m at least sure that I didn’t notice him before, around school grounds. Revealing himself from the silhouetting light behind and him, he has black hair and familiar blue eyes. Though, I suppose his eyes weren’t strikingly familiar. His eyes weren’t purely blue, but looked a little green as well. Perhaps Turquoise.

I was too distracted, diving deep into the details of his eyes that I found myself not noticing this cold glare he’s giving. We met eyes for a second before he averted them from me, and even then, I started feeling a shiver up my spine.

“Hi Kuroji.” Shin greeted.

Eh…?

“…”

He didn’t reply.

Shin just told us that we don’t have to worry about him if we don’t pay him any attention or do anything that might disturb his personal space. But why did she greet him all of the sudden? And to call him by his first name of all methods.

You are reading story The Ice King of Highschool Four Season Anthology at novel35.com

Are they close? Did Shin just want to show off about how close he is with someone entitled the Ice King of Highschool? Did she just want to reassure with us that there’s nothing to be worried about in the first place? Whatever it was. I’m pretty sure she greeted him purely out of habit and/or kindness. I looked to Yuuta and she didn’t seem to mind nor wrap her mind around it as much as I just did.

Thinking back on it, I suppose it wasn’t really a big of a deal back then. In a way, I suppose that’s the first time I’ve at least acknowledged that such Ice King exists in our Highschool. Though, even if I haven’t acknowledged his existence for the past years or months, or however long since he enrolled to our school—I suppose it was only natural that I’d be seeing him at least more than once in a week.

The first time I met him, I saw him, I started acknowledging his existence, I learned his name and found out that Shin knows about him. Though, I knew and did nothing more. We just walked past each other. Shin greeted him and he noticed but didn’t mind. We entered the classroom and waited for the teacher to attend, and well, I suppose the last detail I remember at that time was that Yuuta was on her phone scrolling through a social media page. I spent the rest of the time just gazing out of the window where I found that it started snowing again.

❄❄❄

During our break after class. I was on my way to the cafeteria to buy lunch, and I was accompanied by Yuuta. When I can’t help but notice the Ice King of Highschool himself gazing out of the window. All he could see outside was a storm of ash-like snow raining down on the other side of the window. White particles just about glazing and grazing the window, lowering the temperature and freezing the tiniest moisture from the outer side.

Earlier, Shin was able to call him by his first name, Kuroji, assuming that they’re somewhat closer than just being acquaintanceship and possibly from being friends. It’s sort of the same reason why I’m able to call Shin and Yuuta by their first names. We’re close friends who hang out at school and walk home and school together. Close enough to have sleepovers and all that. But because Kuroji Aozameru is just a mere acquaintance to me, then I suppose it’s only appropriate to call him by his assumed inherited name.

Aozameru—entitled the Ice King of Highschool—stared out of the window with this glare. Now, observing from his title and how he seemed to be acting earlier—maybe this is just how he’s normally supposed to look like. Though, because of such serious look on his face, he actually looks like he’s in deep thought about something, or rather, he looked to be brooding about some sort of concerning matter. But well, that’s all I could really assume about him for now. The idea of him brooding is just something that came out of my imagination. Of course, it’s much more difficult for me to accurately picture what he could possibly be thinking about. Though, because I had been thinking about it too much, I didn’t realize that I was taking my sweet time as I didn’t notice that I had stopped walking myself

“I’ll go ahead.” Yuuta said, as she left me in the hallway.

“W-wait…”

In my attempt to reach out for her to wait for me—I find myself in a situation where I unintentionally attracted the attention of the Ice King of Highschool.

“Hm…?”

“O-oh, I didn’t mean you.” I assured. Though, at the time I didn’t quite notice who I was talking to.

He stared at me with his cold blue eyes. The hallway, at the time felt empty—or rather, I just didn’t mind if anyone else were around. All of the sudden, I crossed my arms together, feeling the need to warm myself up despite the extra clothing I wore to especially warm myself up in the first place.

Just then… time felt like it’s frozen all of the sudden.

“It’s… so cold.” I quietly muttered. “Um… may I ask a question?”

“Hm…?”

I got his attention by asking him a question… though, what should I ask him now?

“You look bored.” I bluntly said.

Ah, curses! That’s not even a question…!!

“Huh? How does one tell if another is bored? That’s some talent you’ve got there.” He replied.

“Why… thank you”

“Not all talents are praise worthy.”

“Oh.”

Well, that was sort of rude. But I can’t really blame him though. I wanted to ask him if he was bored, but instead, I went and straight up told him to his face that he looked bored which can be seen as an insult.

“Um… was I right though?” I asked

“Right about what?”

“Were you really bored or was my accusation false?”

“No, well, I actually have friends.”

“Ah,”

“But to be honest, they just sorta bounced right about now.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.”

I suppose that made sense. I was just wondering why he’s spending his time staring outside of the window alone, when he claims to have friends.

He just stood there and stared me down for a while. He turned his gaze down and up my appearance before commenting. I kind of felt some sort of embarrassment swelling up inside me, as I instinctively covered my body with my arms and looked away to avoid him noticing my bashfulness.

To look at me with that glare in his eyes… It’s sort of something that’s difficult to endure to me.

“Is that what you’re really wearing on a winter day like this?” He ranted before turning around and walking away. “Honestly… don’t blame anyone if you freeze to death.”

“I—”

“Under your extra clothing, and underneath your winter uniform is a frail and weak body that could get frostbitten from the weather at any moment—on second thought, forget about it. I hope you freeze to death. It’s unsightly to see you the next day losing a couple of limbs from the temperature.”

He disappeared into the hallway before I could say anything else. Though, I did wonder… What was that all about?! That was uncalled for.

 

Chapter 4: Black Ink, Turn Pale.

I was in a really bad mood for a while, but I’ve eventually forgotten about the whole encounter with the Ice King of Highschool. I met back with Yuuta in the canteen to get some lunch and ate it together with Shin back in the classroom. We spent our lunch breaks on the internet. Though, there wasn’t anything really worth mentioning, nor did anything really interesting happen in the first place.

I gazed up from my phone for a little bit and found that Shin was gazing out the window with this similar look on her face that’s familiar to the sight I sought not too long ago when I found Aozameru also staring out the window as well.

I turned to Yuuta to see what she’s doing, and she seemed to be on her phone as well. At first, she was holding her phone with one hand, swiping up with her thumb, then she held her phone with the both of her hands, tapping away with the both of her thumbs. Then, shortly after she just placed her phone flat on her desk with her screen facing up, she plugged her earphones and wore it, then she began tapping away using the rest of her fingers, typing on her phone as if it was a computer keyboard. Except, she doesn’t seem to be typing anything, let alone sending any messages to anyone—rather, it looked like she was playing some sort of game.

Well, it wasn’t like I wanted to bother to ask her what they were doing or thinking about anyways. Observing was enough. This was the usual sight for me practically every school day… or well, it was the usual sight for me, any day the three of us hung out, really.

❄❄❄

Unfortunately, we had to go our separate ways after today’s class. It was only for today though. I sort of felt the need to head home early today. Thinking back on what Aozameru told me about freezing to death sort of made me conscious about the weather.  Shin had club activities and said that she wanted to stay and help out with the student council on top of that, and Yuuta was fetched and driven home, riding a vehicle by a family member.

“……..”

I was on my way home, when for some reason I felt the need to make a decision. I DID sort of declare that I felt the need to head home early, but something made me want to change plans. I started think that there wasn’t much to do at home anyways, and that despite the fact I could die at any moment from hypothermia—I actually felt like wanting to have fun with the snow like a child while the winter lasts.

I was contemplating in the middle of a narrow road that’s split into two paths.

One path led to the left, which was where my home was, while the other path led to the right, averting from the direction of my home. The path on the right led to many things, like a shopping district, a park, and a train station.

I went to the path to the right.

Of course, I wouldn’t really be doing this without letting my parents back at home know that I’ll be back a little later than usual. So, I pulled out my phone and messaged them on a messaging app to notify them. Shortly after, they approved of my notification and permission to wander around for a bit, however under one condition that I’d tell them where I was going. My parents aren’t overprotective, but at the very least, they’re protective enough to care about where I’m going and how long I will take before I’m back safely in the surveillance of our home. However, I didn’t exactly plan where I was going when I just recently decided that I was going to do something out here. So, I told them that I was just going to notify them about the places I’m at and if ever I have a clear plan and path of what I want to do, or where I’ll be going. They replied seemingly concerned and with a confused expression on their faces, even though I can’t see their faces through the screen. They replied to my message with three dots followed by an exclamation mark and a question mark besides each other like this “…!?” I had the feeling that the next thing that they’d do would be to phone me a call and give me a long lecture, almost yelling about going home right this instant. So, I sort of acted a little rebellious and turned off my phone before it could happen.

I headed to the convenience store first to buy a few things and to buy a few essential provisions. A few art supplies and a few things that can be used as art supplies—but are safe for the environment—like paper cups and the such, and as for those essential provisions, I ordered a warm green tea beverage and a preheated sandwich. I then made my way to the park which fairly had any snow scattered around practically everywhere. I wanted to make a snow man and design it with the art supplies I bought, though, unfortunately, it for some reason seemed to be much more difficult than I expected building a snowman to be. I never really built a snowman before despite my many chances to, but I did think about wanting to make one during one winter season time to the next. I could think of a few reasons why it didn’t work out though. First of all, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of snow, even if there are snow scattered around everywhere. People must’ve cleaned it out very recently until it started snowing again—which sort of made their efforts a little counter-productive, but nevertheless, I’ve observed that it probably snowed after, to the point ‘til I was able to see the snow around me now. The next would be an unusual reason, but some of the snow I’ve collected turned out to be unusually dry. Some snow balls I’ve packed in the palm of my mittens actually formed into snowballs which indicates that it’s wet and it’s moist and good enough to be used and made into snowballs and potential snow men, however, the snowballs after that started falling apart easily into this more powdery and dry snow than the icy and wet one’s I could form easily earlier.

I’ve heard that dry snow only occurs when the temperature is below freezing. Now, it is snowing and it’s cold enough to the point where we have to wear thick clothing, but I didn’t think nor felt that it was cold enough to the point where the environment is starting to produce dry ice… But then again, I suppose I’m not an expert in weather, temperature, nor ice in general, so maybe I should contemplate less on that.

The summary of my visit to the park ended with me making a small snow man with all the snow I could gather that was wet and wasn’t filthy, picked off from the road or gutters or something. It was a snowman the size of two snowballs, and I gave it button eyes and a paper cup hat, drawn with a black marker. It kind of looked off, so I stabbed the black marker in the middle of its face for a nose, which sort of made it look a little bit more tolerable to be a snowman.

 I then had an idea in mind to visit the train station. I thought I’d find a few friendly stray dogs to pet or play with.

After I left the park, I began to walk to the train station. There was smoke in the air coming from the people loitering in the streets and their burning cigarettes. There were people wearing heavy clothing due to the extremely cold weather. Their coats looked so warm. I was reminded that the environment around me started reaching the lowest temperatures possible. It made me raise my hands just a little bit closer to my face so that I could breathe into it, as a warm mist escaped my mouth and ran into the palms of my mittens

I walked past a few diners and the savory scent that passed through my mittens for me to smell, smelled nice while we passed them. I could smell the scent of cooking soy sauce.

And finally, when I arrived at the station, I greeted the friendly stray dogs I was looking forward to. Well, it was either that or they were just dogs waiting patiently for their owners to return by the station.

Huh, this sort of feels familiar… Is this what they call déjà vu? Well, whatever it was, it felt so familiar. It felt as if I just experienced the same thing from yesterday or the other day… or maybe I did experience the same thing from yesterday or the other day.

Well anyways, something caught my eye while I was by the station. Well, that day was in fact the same day I realized that the wax figure I found the other day—back in the train station nearest to the cemetery—was an actual person. But this time, I was at a different train station.

“Ah, I almost forgot that I was supposed to notify my parents…!!”

I went under the roof of the train station and sat on a bench. I booted up my phone again, only to find a barrage of missed calls.

“Ah… I’m so getting grounded when I get home. Heh, heh.”

I then proceeded to write a message back to my parents about my safety, my journey and my current destination. I also told them that I’ll be home soon. I even added a few irrelevant but fun details. Like that snow man I built… well as a matter of fact I took a picture of that snowman before I left. I also told them about the stray dogs I’m playing with by the station, which apparently started to make them worry. They told me not to be afraid around the dogs or to not run around their line of sight because they might chase after me and bite me like the rabies-filled creatures they are… or something along those lines. In short, they’re sort of afraid of dogs or rather, they’re just afraid of me being around em, because I might get hurt.

After giving them my report of what I experienced today, I turned off my phone again.

 I looked around my surroundings before I decided to head home to get an earful lecture from my parents. I claimed to look around my surroundings, though, I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. Maybe I was expecting to find one of those realistic wax figures standing around in the train station like the other day from the train station nearest to the cemetery. However, unlike the other day, I ended up finding no……

“Huh? Is that…?”

All of the sudden a strong, fearful breeze blew by. It made me wrap myself in my own arms, shivering a little bit and finding warmth in my own body. The strong wind also produced some sort of white mist. I turned my gaze to the unroofed side of the station and found a few white particles floating down from the sky.

That was when I saw this peculiar figure in the midst of all the cold white mist.

The figure looked to be a tall and handsome young man wearing a lot of familiar warm clothing. His hair… I could easily imagine him with darker black hair, and I could’ve sworn that he looked familiar, however, he had an unusual color of white and gray and his eyes were as blue as ice. His skin looked so smooth. It was as if it was made out of wax. But looking at him up closely, and observing how he hasn’t moved a single muscle, nor hasn’t blinked a single time—I assumed it to be a very realistic, life-sized wax statue, clothed by real clothes.

For some reason I recalled some sort of fun fact at an odd timing. The polar bear, the largest species of bear and so I’ve heard that it’s the largest land predator in the arctic. As a matter of fact, it might as well be considered as the king of the arctic. The Ice king of the arctic. The skin of a polar bear is black, and its fur isn’t white, rather it’s transparent. The fur gets its color not because of its pigment—the polar bear’s coat has no white pigment in the first place—rather, it displays a white color because of its reflection of its surroundings, camouflaging to its environment.

It was practically the same wax figure I’ve seen on a different day and train station. Except, what’s different now is that I recognize and familiarize him to be someone else rather some object statue that’s just standing there for display.

I sort of recognize him to be Aozameru.

I poked him around for a bit as if he was just any other statue. And just like any other statue, he doesn’t respond a single bit. Heh, it’d be really embarrassing if this wasn’t a real person.

I then tugged his sleeve and called out for his name… or what I thought is his name if he really were who I think he is.

“Aozameru-sa—Eh?!”

I was shocked, I was surprised, I yelped a little bit, I didn’t have a clue what was going on, it happened so quickly and all of the sudden I felt something like an arm wrap around me, before another did. I panicked a little bit. I didn’t expect anything to happen, I didn’t brace myself. I didn’t quite… I don’t really know what’s happening even in the moment.

I began to get a hold of both myself, grasping onto the little reality I felt left, only to find myself embraced in the wax statue’s arms.

“You… you’re that annoying girl who bothered me in the hallways of school.” He breathed into my ear, almost sounding exasperated. He became a big softy all of the sudden, but I’m not sure what’s the change of heart. “Y-you’re the one who I wished to freeze to death.”

“Uh… mhm. I’m the one.” I replied.

He seems to be shivering, and… stuttering. He seemed to be cold when he embraced me all of the sudden. And well, a cold breeze did just blow by not long ago.

Huh, look who’s freezing to death now.

“Your body is s-so… warm…” he muttered.

“And yours is so cold all of the sudden.” I replied.

Could it be…? Could it be that—

 

 

 The Ice King of Highschool is weak against the Winter Season ?

“Come to think of it… I… I don’t even know your name.” He muttered.

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