Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Nati - Chapter One

Her cat ears brought my doom.

The pings of my phone drove me mad since I left the apartment. I'm the type that never checks my messages, but with my anxiety this morning, I allowed myself a peek. I quickly lost grasp on my surroundings, but call it luck, fate, or destiny, the one time I looked up ahead, I spotted that girl. And she looked crazy beautiful.

She mesmerized me and set my heart ablaze before I reached the crosswalks. Affected by her spell, the semi-truck slipped under my radar. I froze up from the horns, only to stare death in the face.

"Whoa! Keep your eyes up." Leo yanked me back to the sidewalk, and adrenaline flooded my brain. The scent of the morning rain created an odd mixture with the stench of gasoline. "Don't get yourself run over."

The car missed me by a few inches, but I saw memories flash before my eyes. Unable to keep it cool, my chest wanted to burst while I took shallow breaths. Caused by the near miss or because I saw her, I struggled to tell.

"I'm alive," I confirmed with a shaky voice. My plans for today and the rest of my life quickly fell apart. They lost their meaning, and I only looked for the girl now, but to no avail.

"Play with your phone later, Nathan." Leonard said when I already forgot that those messages existed. "Don't die on your first day, mate. Who will pay your half of the rent?"

We became classmates in high school but remained strangers. We talked twice in total until he learned about my choice of university. I thought he wanted to make friends but looked for a roommate.

"I'm all right." I claimed once I finally glanced at the screen. Someone sent a picture to wish me luck, and I sure needed it. Leo stole a peek over my shoulder.

"Ooh, who's that cutie?" He perked up right after he complained about phones. "She cheers for you, huh? How nice to think you had a pretty girlfriend."

"Wha... No, she's my sister." I tried to hide the screen in protest as I texted her back. I never dared to dream of a girlfriend, and my priorities demanded my attention elsewhere. But now I desperately tried to find this girl again.

"You have a sister?!" His yell drew the attention of the campus, and I wanted to disappear. Introverted, I handled these kinds of situations poorly. "Yeah, that makes more sense, but she's cute. What's her name? You'll have to introduce me sometime."

"Dude, she's fourteen," I claimed, tired of his chatter. I longed for quieter friends in my comfortable life as a programmer. Work from home, maybe I'd become my boss one day, no rush or pressure, or anything to overwhelm me. I tried to find an escape route from his questions and the strange glances but finally spotted the girl instead.

The strange and colorful uniforms grabbed my attention while she walked past a cover band. A surreal picture in the park, only saw her long black hair flow behind them in the autumn breeze. She wore a childish hairband with cat ears, and they perfectly fit her. I needed to give chase.

A vehicle with a crane parked between us running an engine. People avoided that area, but I tried to cut across anyway. If my roommate hadn't caught up to pull me back again, I might have banged my head into the piano that hovered over the park.

"Nathan, seriously." Leo refused to unhand me before I grasped the situation. I watched a pale crane operator lower the huge instrument from a second-floor window as if he saw a ghost. "What the hell, dude?"

With the girl gone, the rest barely registered. The realization that I nearly died again only set in later. What happened to me exactly? I wanted to know too, but my heart beat like crazy as I tried to find her again. Leonard raised an eyebrow and shook his head.