As I got back to the real world world, I realised that quarter to an hour had passed and I was indeed late. I quickly picked up any and all books that I may need(I didn't take that many since Pauli would also have her own) then went my way onwards to her home. I had already told mother that I would be going to a friend's house to study.

On the way, I bought some snacks to take with me. I guess you can call it a courtesy? I wonder if its a tradition to take something along when going to someone's home? Well, I didn't have anything the last time I visited. Actually, I was Pauli's sister's deliveryman, should that count? Never took anything to Yuko's house either, did I? Well, he took me to his home himself so there was never a time to.

It took me 20 minutes to reach Pauli's home. I was effectively more than half an hour late than what we had planned. As I got closer to her house, I slowed my pace that I had earlier picked up due to being late. Finally, when I reached the place, I rang the doorbell.

And Pauli came out to greet.

"You're late." (Pauli)

"I.." (Me)

Before I could give any excuse, she had already walked back in leaving the door open for me to enter.

"Haah.." (Me)

I sighed and walked in, closing the door behind me. When I turned back, she was gone.

...

I stood there blank for a second.

(Where is she!? I don't know the way to her room!)

I had only been to her house once and even then, I exited through the window. How the hell does she expect me to know which room was to go in to!? I only remember that it was on the ground floor.

Like a great detective once said, 'You see, but you don't observe.' Let's try deducing my way out.

Lets see. To my front is what looks to be the drawing room with the sofa and tables. To the left of this room, are two openings. One is the stairways to the first floor, while the other, I'm guessing to be the kitchen according to what little I can see from this angle. Weirdly enough, the lights were on in there. Then, to the right of this room, is a single passage. Should I try going there? Only place left.

I moved onward to that small corridor and faced another predicament. There was a room on either side. Now which one is Pauli's?

(She didn't even keep her door open for me. Did she want to mess with me?)

One of the rooms was definitely Pauli's and the other most probably her sister's. Knowing my luck, I'll probably get the one with her sister and that too while she was changing her clothes.

*breathe in*

(It going to be alright! Its nothing to worry about!)

I took a heavy breath in and opened the door to my left.

(Right, I forgot the universe hates me.)

It was indeed the sister's room and indeed she was in the middle of changing her clothes. Now the good thing was that she already had her underwear on. She was in the process of putting on her bra. Thus she was a little bend forward and had both her hands at her back to close the hook. She was bent towards me and head was up, facing me. Even with the angle, I couldn't see anything down there since she'd almost put the bra on...except I could, a little bit.

As our eyes met each other's, we stood there like that for about 5 seconds before I finally opened ny mouth.

"I'm guessing.. Pauli's room is the other one?" (Me)

I said in a slow tone. She also nodded slowly, very slowly.

"You need any help with that?" (Me)

I again said slowly. And this time she shook her head, albeit slowly again.

"It was nice to meet you!" (Me)

This time I said it quickly and closed the door.

*breathe out*

I was leaning against the door that I just closed and breathed out heavily. Then I noticed Pauli beside me, in her hand a tray with some food and drinks.

(So she was in the kitchen.)

She stood there for a second before finally opening her mouth to speak.

"My room's that one." (Pauli)

(I already know that!)

She had said her words in a slow tone too. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she was making fun of me.

.

.

.

The rest of the day went normally enough with nothing major happening. Please believe me this time! I won't give you any crazy flashbacks later on!

Pauli and I studied for about 4 hours before we decided to wrap it up. I didn't even see her sister again the whole day, so that was something. It really would have been awkward after that since we barely knew each other. I only knew her as the girl I saved from the delinquents or just as Pauli's sister. Pauli did alteast tell me that she also played IO and was in a very distant place with some of her school friends.

Anyways, the main reason to come here was to study and I should say that it was a great success. Pauli is a good as well as a strict teacher. She explained everything calmly and readily without minding how 'obvious' it should be. Also, there wasn't a single break in between the study so it was like a 4 hour marathon. I usually studied for 1 or 2 hours at a time so at first I felt uncomfortable but as Pauli wasn't minding it, who was I say? In the end I sat still and it turned out well. I should probably attribute that to Pauli's great teaching skills too. Her explainations were really easy to understand and made things easy to remember. I was confident in scoring good enough marks in the Chemistry test now(we were studying Chemistry). After we finished, I thanked her and made my way home.

I don't know something she'd want but I'll definitely do something to return the favor.

When I got home, I had dinner and answered some of mom's questions on how the study session went. She was glad to know it went well.

After dinner, I went to my room and did some light stretching and entered IO.

I was in the first floor safe room. Shirley was probably out fighting some skeletons or collecting food as she wasn't here. Pauli wasn't here either as she was probably in the real world, then I realised something.

(FUCK!! I LEFT PAULI ON THE ELEVENTH FLOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

{Author's note: For those of you who don't get it, Rota came to the first floor with Shirley only. Whenever Pauli dives in, she'll be where she last logged out, i.e. the 11th floor.}