Monday morning in a college hostel usually feels like a personal insult from the universe, especially when you are nineteen and your entire social life depends on staying up until 2:00 AM discussing things that definitely will not matter in five years. For most of the guys in our building, the sound of an early alarm was basically a declaration of war, and Ben was currently losing that war quite spectacularly.
His alarm was a particularly aggressive heavy metal track that sounded like a blender full of gravel, and it had been screaming from his bedside table for three minutes without him so much as twitching a finger. I sat at my desk, already dressed and halfway through a lukewarm cup of instant coffee, watching him with a mixture of pity and genuine curiosity about how someone could sleep through a sonic assault.
"Ben, if you do not kill that noise in the next ten seconds, I am going to let the guys from room 302 come in here and do it for me," I said, raising my voice to compete with the guitar solo. Ben finally groaned, a sound that started deep in his chest and ended with him burying his face deeper into a pillow that had seen better days.
He flailed one arm out blindly, knocking over a stack of empty soda cans before finally slamming his hand down on his phone with the force of a frustrated judge's gavel. Silence finally flooded the room, heavy and sudden, and I could hear the distant sound of someone in the hallway yelling about "peace and quiet" at the top of their lungs.
"Why does Monday have to happen every single week? It feels repetitive and honestly, it is just bad writing on the universe's part," Ben mumbled into the fabric of his bedsheets, his voice thick with the kind of despair only a student can understand. He slowly rotated his head to look at me, one eye squinting against the bright sunlight.
"Wait, why are you already awake and why are you wearing a shirt with a collar? Ryan, are you going to a funeral?" Ben asked, finally sitting up and running a hand through his hair, which was currently defying several laws of physics. "Is it my funeral? Because I'd like to attend that if it means I can skip our morning lecture."
"It is just a polo shirt, Ben, and I am awake because I actually want to find a computer in the library that does not take ten minutes to open a single browser tab," I replied, finishing the last of my coffee. I did not want to explain that my internal clock was still set to forty-year-old manager mode, making me feel behind.
"The library? On a Monday morning? You really are having some kind of weird crisis," Ben said, finally standing up and convincing his legs that they still worked. "Fine, give me five minutes to get ready, and I will join you for breakfast, but if you try to make me study, I am telling everyone you've joined a cult."
We made our way across campus twenty minutes later, with Ben stumbling along like a baby giraffe and me enjoying the crisp morning air that everyone else was ignoring. The campus was coming alive in that frantic, uncoordinated way it always does on a Monday, with people running toward buildings they should have been in ten minutes ago.
I felt like I was watching a movie on a slower speed than everyone else, noticing the way the sunlight hit the old brick walls and the shadows moved across the grass. It was a weirdly peaceful perspective to have, knowing exactly how much of this urgency was actually just noise that did not lead to anything productive.
Once we hit the library, I steered Ben toward a corner table with his breakfast burrito and managed to snag one of the few decent workstations near the back. I had a very specific goal today, one that had been brewing in my mind since the System had handed me that Clarity of Mind reward after the weekend.
My memory of tech trends from the future was not just a list of names; it was a map of how the world was going to change over the next few years. I knew that if I wanted to build a future where Elena and I never had to worry about bills, I had to start moving right now.
I opened a browser and started looking at domain registration sites and small freelance platforms, my fingers moving across the keyboard with a confidence that felt slightly alien in this young body. I was not looking to build a social media giant yet; I needed something smaller that would generate some simple income while I was still a student.
I remembered a very specific niche in mobile app development—a simple utility for organizing freelance records that had absolutely exploded because everyone had forgotten how to do math. I started mapping out the logic for the code, my Clarity of Mind making the complex architecture feel as simple as building a basic Lego set.
"What are you even looking at? That looks like a whole lot of boring numbers and not enough cat videos for this time of day," Ben said, leaning over my shoulder with a mouthful of egg and cheese. He looked genuinely confused by the lines of text on the screen that looked like gibberish to most people.
"I am just looking at some coding frameworks, Ben. I have an idea for a small project that might help me pay for something better than instant coffee next semester," I told him, not taking my eyes off the screen. I did not want to give away too much just yet, mostly because it sounded crazy.
"Coding? Man, we are freshmen. We are supposed to be failing at basic Java, not planning for the future. You are making me feel incredibly lazy, which is a feeling I usually try to avoid until at least Wednesday," Ben complained, but he actually pulled out a notebook, which was a minor miracle.
I spent the next hour or so mapping out the logic for the app, and I could practically see the bugs before I even wrote the lines of code. I knew exactly which features would be a waste of time and which ones users would actually pay for, almost like having a cheat code for reality itself.
I registered a few key domain names using the last of my birthday money—names that I knew companies would be desperate to buy in about eighteen months. It felt like planting seeds in a garden that I knew for a fact would grow, and a quiet sense of satisfaction settled in my chest as I clicked confirm.
As the clock ticked toward 10:00 AM, the library started to fill up with the mid-morning crowd, and that was when I saw her walk through the doors. Elena looked just as quiet and unassuming as always, her bag slung over one shoulder and her eyes fixed on the floor as she navigated the maze of tables.
She was heading toward her usual spot in the far corner, a place where the light was a bit dimmer and the foot traffic was almost zero. I watched her for a moment, noticing how she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear before sitting down and opening a thick history textbook.
"I will be back in a second," I told Ben, who was currently trying to see how many pens he could balance on his nose while staring at the ceiling in boredom. He did not even look at me, just gave a vague thumbs up while concentrating on the three pens already wobbling on his face.
I walked over to Elena's table, my heart doing that annoying thumping thing again despite the fact that I had decades of life experience tucked away in my head. She was already setting up her books, her movements tiny and deliberate, as if she was trying to take up as little space as humanly possible.
When I got close, she looked up, and for a split second, I saw that familiar flicker of panic before she recognized me and relaxed just a tiny bit. "Hey," I said, keeping my voice low so the librarian would not have an excuse to glare at us. "I see you managed to secure the spot again."
"Hey, Ryan," she said softly, her voice barely a whisper in the quiet library atmosphere. "I think people just do not like sitting near the archives. They say it smells like old paper and broken dreams, which is probably why it is always empty over here." She gave a tiny, shy smile.
"Well, I happen to like the smell of old paper, and my dreams are currently in the repair shop, so it sounds perfect to me," I joked, pulling out the chair opposite her. "Mind if I sit here for a while? Ben is currently having a mental breakdown over his pens, and I need a break."
"You can sit," she said, her voice sounding a bit more steady as she adjusted her glasses. "But I am actually studying for the history quiz, so I might not be a very good conversationalist today. I have to get through about fifty pages of notes before our lunch break starts."
"That is fine. I am actually working on something too," I said, opening my laptop. "I find that I work better when there is someone nearby who actually knows what a textbook looks like. It keeps me from getting distracted by the internet and all the weird things people post on social media."
We sat there for nearly two hours, and it was probably the most productive time I had since I woke up in this timeline. There was something about her presence that made the System rewards feel secondary; she was a natural anchor for all my frantic thoughts and future plans.
Every now and then, I would look up and see her frowning at a difficult passage in her book, her lips moving slightly as she read. We did not talk much, but the silence between us was not heavy or awkward. It felt easy and comfortable, like we had done this a hundred times before.
At one point, she pushed a small bag of almond crackers toward the center of the table without saying a word, her eyes never leaving her book. It was such a small, Elena thing to do—a quiet act of care that did not demand a conversation or a big thank you in return.
I took one, nodded to her as a silent thanks, and went back to my coding logic, feeling like I had just been given a massive power-up. We stayed like that until the lunch rush started and the library grew too noisy to focus on anything serious anymore.
As we walked out of the library together, the bright sunlight felt like a validation of every choice I had made since that moment on the floor. "Thanks for the crackers, Elena. They were a life-saver for my brain," I said as we reached the steps outside the main building.
"You're welcome, Ryan," she replied, her voice sounding a bit more confident than it had that morning. "Good luck with your project. It looked very complicated with all those brackets and symbols. I hope you figure out whatever it is you are trying to build with all that code."
"I think I'm getting there," I said with a grin. "I will see you in class tomorrow, right? I heard the professor is planning something special for the lecture." She nodded, waved a small hand, and turned to walk toward the cafeteria while I stood there feeling incredibly grounded.
I watched her go for a second longer than was strictly necessary, then turned around to find Ben standing right behind me with a look of mock-suspicion. He had clearly been waiting there for at least three minutes just to mess with me about the library session.
"So," Ben said, drawing the word out until it had about five syllables. "The library, huh? Very educational. Very productive. I especially liked the part where you shared crackers like a couple of kids who just realized they like the same color of crayon." He smirked and nudged my arm.
"Shut up, Ben. Let's go get some actual food before you start eating the furniture," I said, shoving him toward the path. I could feel my face getting a bit warm, but I did not really mind his teasing because I knew he was just being himself.
I laughed as we walked, but I knew he was right about one thing—I was definitely changing into someone I actually liked. I had a clear path ahead, a smart move in the works, and a girl who was slowly becoming the center of my new world.
A familiar golden panel flickered briefly in my vision, and I felt a sudden, sharp clarity about a specific domain name I had missed earlier. I smiled to myself, knowing that the System was just reflecting the effort I was putting into my life and my future happiness.
[FATED LOVER SYSTEM – STATUS UPDATE] Progress Noted: Sincerity is the foundation of a lasting future. Your presence has provided her with a 5% increase in 'Sense of Security'. Reward: Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Hunch (Active).
Everything was finally coming together, and for the first time in two lifetimes, I was not worried about the next step. I knew that as long as I kept moving forward with sincerity, the rest of the world would eventually find a way to fall into place around us.