The fun times are finally over, and as expected of the students, they return to their awful, original routine of classes and work on their upcoming assignments and quizzes.
It would've been more tolerable if Eugene had 100% individual projects throughout the year. But unluckily for the woman, one of her biggest projects is a group work—something that she wants to avoid but knows that she can't.
And because she couldn't choose her group members, she was paired up with people that she didn't know, but also people well-known for their poor work ethics based on the individual presentations they did in the past.
The assignment hasn't started yet the girl is already extremely stressed.
She, with very little to no motivation, watches her screen and her teammates talking about the project over a Zoom meeting. She thought it would've been something productive, but they're still having an ice-breaking session to get to know each other.
It's obviously not a bad thing in general, but because these are the same people labeled as "freeloaders", Eugene hoped that they could start the assignment as quickly as possible instead of wasting 1 hour's worth of discussion like this.
Then again, she doesn't have the willpower to voice her opinions as she knows she will soon earn the title of being a 'try-hard' and, probably, someone stoic. Then she'll ruin the group's mood, and make the process of the assignment even more difficult.
Bear with it. Just, bear with it. She puts on a poker face while she silently listens to her teammates exchanging information about their interests. Her introduction was merely 5 minutes, and she has been a literal statue for an hour.
If things turn for the worse, I'll do this assignment on my own. Eugene sighs, ready for whatever workload and burden if her teammates turn out to be what she expected; less ambitious.
Knock knock!
Eugene blinks in surprise to hear someone in front of her door, so she moves her cursor over the mute icon and turns off her camera, letting her teammates know in the chat that she needs to deal with something quickly.
She walks to the door and opens it, finding the pixelated man in his comfortable clothes.
"Hey."
"Um. Hi...?" She responds in surprise, wondering why he's here, to begin with. The last time she saw him was the day he 'performed' in front of her.
"Are you busy?"
Eugene decides to go out of her room and closes the door behind her. "I'm in a group meeting right now with my teammates, but they're still taking their sweet time for their so-called ice-breaking session."
Felix chuckles, somehow sensing the strong sarcasm hinted under her sentence.
"Cool. Tell me if you're up for dinner later."
"Huh?" Eugene tilts her head in confusion. "Are you legit asking me out for dinner?"
"Uh. Yeah? What, is it a bad thing?"
"Not really. Just... random."
Eugene receives another chuckle from Felix, but she can't tell if it's a fake or real one.
"Right... I guess. Forget about it then." He waves his hand to dismiss his request.
At this rate, the girl doesn't know what this person wants, looking at how indecisive he is. She crosses her arms, however, finding this situation amusing so she keeps her head facing towards his direction. "Oh, tell me, Felix. What's up, really?"
"?" He doesn't reply but lifts his head in a quick motion to ask Eugene what she meant.
"There must be a reason why you're asking me out for dinner..." She says, "Not trying to say that you have an ulterior motive, but at the same time, I feel like you wouldn't ask me out just because, ya know?"
"Haha. You saw me through." He laughs softly, "True. I wanted to know if you're up for another performance evaluation."
"Hm." Eugene ponders, her body leaning against her closed door. "Why me though? I'm not even a person who's well-versed in performing. Why not Chris?"
"Ugh. You're asking the same question again." Felix sighs, "Everybody in this building knows that he's the busiest person ever. He doesn't usually have time for himself, imagine having it for others?"
"Right right right." Eugene ruffles her hair in embarrassment, forgetting the kind of person her residential advisor is. "Okay cool, I can do that. I have a question though—where are your teammates? This is a group performance, isn't it?"
She notices how his shoulders slump when she brings up about her teammates again, "That... One of them is still staying at our university's hospital. The other one..."
"Conflict?"
Felix nods. And for some reason, Eugene can already predict the kind of expression he has behind that pixelated face. She reaches for his shoulders and then gives him a pat.
"Alright. Treat me for dinner tonight and I'll call it a deal."
"Deal."
Eugene smiles, and a sense of relief and happiness somehow flows through her body. At the moment, she couldn't care less about her teammates and assignment—her mission is now to support Felix. She doesn't know what motivates her to do it, but she believes that it's the right thing to do.
But what really happened? She can't help but wonder why Felix sometimes behaves in weird ways—where he feels sad, pressured, repressed—all the negative emotions that she can name.
"I'll see you at 7 P.M. then." Felix gives her a small wave and returns to his room. Eugene also waves goodbye, not sure when she needs to bring up the topic. Or, if she's actually in the position to do that at all.
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Author's Note: HEY GUYS I JUST GOT BACK FROM MY TRIP (but I'm not exactly home yet... but at least I HAVE MY LAPTOP NOW). So my apologies for the late update! I've been writing through my phone but I'm not used to updating through the said gadget yet so uh... ye--
ANYWAYS MERRY CHRISTMAS! :3 Since it is a special, festive day today, I shall do another update ASAP!
- Howley.
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PIXELATED | Lee Felix
FanfictionA story of two university students who started off being terrified of each other due to their pixelated faces, but came to develop a bond that could never be replaced. "I think the universe wanted to teach us the true meaning of seeing beyond appea...
