B2 Ch 85 - An Unexpected Reunion

Toma had not expected himself to get a little obsessive about it, but what else was he supposed to do? This was the first time in his life he had ever had this much money sitting in his account, so somehow, checking his balance several times a day had turned into a habit.

He stood in the kitchen with a piece of toast hanging from his mouth, his thumb scrolling across the numbers on his phone. The amount sitting there still did not feel real, even after weeks of watching it stay put instead of disappearing almost as soon as it came in.

He was not rich. Not in the way people usually meant when they used the word. But he could cover the household bills without flinching, keep the refrigerator full without calculating every purchase in his head, and, as of two weeks ago, finally register for college and pay an entire semester of tuition without asking Lina for a single credit.

That last part still felt like the biggest miracle of all. He finished his toast, grabbed his bag, and walked over to Zetia.

“I won't be long. I should be back before noon,” Toma said as he slipped his bag over his shoulder. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”

“I will.” Zetia gave him a small smile. “Good luck at the academy. I hope everything goes well.” She fell silent for a moment before continuing, “You know I've stayed home alone before, right?”

“Yes, I know. It's just that I'll actually be out of the house this time. I won't be lying in the capsule where you can wake me up whenever you want.”

“I'll be fine,” she said again. “You don't have to worry so much.”

She would be fine. Toma reminded himself of that as he stepped outside, leaving the house behind and walking into the cool morning air, where the faint smell of last night's rain still lingered.

He walked for a while before glancing up at the sky. The morning had mostly cleared after last night's rain, though patches of dark clouds still lingered here and there. Maybe it would rain again sometime this afternoon.

The world would stay normal like this forever, wouldn't it?

Because the world people knew today was nothing like the one that had existed barely forty years ago.

What had people called it back then? The apocalypse?

As dramatic as the word sounded, it was probably the closest description they had. The catastrophe had taken nearly a third of the world's population with it. Countries, cities, and entire stretches of land that had once appeared on every map were swallowed by the ocean, while other lands rose from beneath the water and formed entirely new regions. Coastlines shifted, continents changed, and the shape of the world itself was rewritten.

The countries people once learned about in school, with their familiar borders, names, and flags, had disappeared with the old world. In their place came the Unions, groups of surviving territories that had joined together out of necessity after the old governments could no longer protect what remained of their people. Nations close enough to one another combined their remaining land, resources, and military strength simply because surviving alone was no longer an option.

The place where Toma lived was now part of Eurasia United, a federation formed from what remained of Russia, Eastern and Northern Europe, and several countries across Central Asia.

Recovery had been long and difficult. People rebuilt technology from whatever knowledge and resources had survived, found ways to grow food in damaged soil, and slowly restored enough infrastructure for ordinary life to return. It had taken decades, but eventually, humanity had managed to build something that almost felt normal.

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Along the way, certain fields had become more important than ever, and Biomedical Engineering was near the top. Union governments had poured money into it for years, advancing prosthetics, lab-grown organs, and treatments for the physical and mental damage left by the collapse.

With good pay, strong prospects, and a need that was unlikely to ever disappear, it had become one of the most sought-after majors among students his age.

And somehow, Toma had gotten in. First-year Biomedical Engineering. His orientation started today.

He parked his bicycle in the crowded rack outside the academy gates, locked it, then looked around. The entrance was already packed with students, most of them wearing the same slightly lost expressions that marked them as first-years. A few glanced his way, and two of them seemed to laugh after noticing him.

Toma frowned and looked back at the rack. Despite how crowded the entrance was, there were barely any bicycles among all the sleek electric scooters and other vehicles parked there.

Riding a bicycle was healthy, not a sign that he was broke, dumbasses!

He pushed the thought aside and headed through the gates. Once inside, however, he found himself surrounded by far more people than expected. Students filled the paths between buildings, moving in every direction as they searched for their own halls.

Toma made his way through the crowd, checking the signs as he went, until something suddenly made him stop. Someone immediately crashed into his back.

“Hey, dumbass! Don't just stop in the middle of the walkway!”

Toma barely paid attention. His attention was on someone else, someone he was almost certain he knew.

A girl was walking a short distance ahead, close enough for him to make out her face between the passing students. Her black hair was cut into a neat bob, and she wore a pair of thin wire-framed glasses.

Then she turned her head, and their eyes met. Toma simply looked away and kept walking, acting as if nothing had happened.

Even though they definitely knew each other.

Wasn't she supposed to have left the city already? Toma wondered as he kept walking.

Because yes, he knew that girl. She was Laura. They had been together once, back in their second year of school, before her mother died and her father decided they needed to move away.

Laura had even asked Toma to come with them.

“Come with us,” she had said. “Just say yes. That's all you have to do. My father will give you a place to stay. You can transfer schools, find a job there, and start over with us. You don't have to keep struggling here by yourself.”

Did she really think Toma could just say yes to something like that?

He had spent most of his life trying not to be a burden to Lina, even though he knew he already was. And now Laura was asking him to leave everything behind, follow her to another city, and depend on her father for a place to live?

He couldn't do that. Being a burden to one person was already more than enough.

“Say something. Anything. Toma, please. I don't want us to be apart. I love you.”

Her words from that rainy night suddenly came back to him, clear enough that for a second, he could almost hear the rain falling around them again.

“Do you even love me? Because it doesn't feel like you do. You'd rather stand there and say nothing than just tell me the truth. If you don't want this, then say it. If you don't want me, say that too. Just say something, Toma. Anything. Don't stand there like I'm not even here!”

Toma quickly pushed the memory away.

“You're such a coward! I'm asking you to come with me and you can't even look at me. What, is she more important than I am? Is that it? Are you in love with her or something?”

Shut up!

Toma shook his head hard, as if that alone could knock the memory out of it, when a familiar voice came from somewhere behind him.

“Well, look who actually made it to college.”

He knew that voice. Toma turned around and found Bob standing nearby, with the same two guys who had been following him around for years at his side.

“Are you guys obsessed with me or what? How do you keep finding me?”

“How about a little morning welcome, Toma?” the idiot said.

The four of them standing there had already started drawing attention from the students passing by, and it only got worse when Bob and his two friends spread out around Toma, closing him in from three sides.

“You really don't want to start trouble here.”

“Oh, you're telling me that?” Bob laughed. “Did you forget everything you've done? You took something important from me, stole one of my valuable potions, and even got all three of us killed.”

Bob suddenly reached for Toma's collar, right there in the middle of the crowd, but Toma caught him by the wrist before his fingers could even touch his shirt.

For a second, Bob just stared at him.