Xiaobai did get her milk tea after that event. Specifically a brown sugar milk tea with shiny black pearls at the bottom. Xingjuan had bought  her that, herself a matcha milk tea, and Tingting a strawberry milk tea. They had all mutually agreed to not go back to their previous table and instead sat inside on one of the hallway benches near the cafeteria.

"Xiaobai, you're going to choke on one of those things if you keep drinking that fast."

Extracting herself from her straw for the first time in the last couple of minutes, Xiaobai made a huff of satisfaction having drained at least half of the creamy concoction that she had discovered. It had quickly become one of her favorite mortal inventions, although the chewy black pearls were a bit unusual that didn't make them bad.

"I'll be careful."

"I somehow don't believe you."

"Eh? Why?"

"Just something deep within my spirit is saying so."

"... You're just bullying me again, jiejie."

Xiaobai pouted and went back to sucking down her milk tea, albeit at a much slower pace after Xingjuan's chiding. Tingting couldn't help but let out an airy laugh. "You two must've known each other a long time to be this close."

"Ah, actually I only met Xiaobai today."

"Really?"

"Really."

"That's kind of hard to believe."

"How so?"

"The both of you give off that kind of aura, I guess. Like knowing someone for a very long time, enough time to kind of become a package deal or something along those lines."

Xingjuan let out a slight hum in understanding and gave Xiaobai a couple pats on her head which made the shorter girl lean towards her unconsciously. She couldn't quite understand her behavior towards Xiaobai either other than through a sense of responsibility of an elder. Or maybe it would be maternal instincts? There was most definitely a word for this sort of feeling, but she just couldn't find the right one.

Being an elder god had the drawback of making it rather difficult to remember what each emotion and feeling felt like and placing a finger on them properly even more arduous.

"I suppose we just happened to click then." Was the only thing that Xingjuan could think of at the moment.

The lunch period ended with the soft crackle of leftover ice in plastic cups and comfortable silence.

The rest of the school day passed in relative normalcy with simple classes and getting to know teachers with the seat in Class A-1 that should of belonged to Xie Muchen staying vacant throughout for obvious reasons. Such as a concussion. Or more depending on just how hard the thermos had hit him. Then again even if it had been more the Lord God and less so the World wouldn't let it be too terrible, he was after all the male lead.

Although Xu Xingjuan still failed to see the appeal he would have. A bad boy with a heart of gold would never almost run someone over and drive off as if it never happened. A troubled rich kid might but that in itself came in various flavors that he didn't seem to fit into either. Wen Shuchun had spent much too long around the Lord God if she was considering these things all of a sudden.

With the final bell ringing out and the dismissal of their last teacher, students began to pack up their things to begin their walks or drives home. "Tingting, would you be interested in walking home together?"

"Sorry, can't. I have some things I have to do tonight." Li Tingting made a particularly apologetic expression towards her newfound friend. "I'll be heading out now so say goodbye to Xiaobai for me."

Xingjuan nodded. "No problem. Safe travels." The two exchanged waves of the hand before Tingting went out the door and off to do whatever. Xingjuan could only assume it was one of the part time jobs that had been mentioned in the World synopsis.

With her gone the relatively quick trip to pick up Xiaobai began as all first year classrooms were on the first floor. Class D-1 was just closer to the school's main entrance in terms of positioning while Class A-1 was further away. Xingjuan peeked into the classroom only to be met with a rather peculiar sight. Xiaobai's desk was surrounded by at least seven of her fellow classmates who were animatedly talking about something while Xiaobai looked at all of them in relative confusion before spotting Xingjuan and lighting up, throwing her pastel pink bag over her shoulder and speeding away with a barely audible "Byebye!"

Xiaobai gave Xingjuan a tight squeeze, burying her head into her shoulder affectionately. "Jiejie! Where's Tingting?"

"She had some things to take care of, so she won't be walking back with us."

"Aw... Can she come tomorrow then?"

"No idea.'

"Eeeeh..."

"No whining."

Xiaobai still made a wronged face at Xingjuan when she detached from her and the duo began their walks home from school under sunlight that had taken a more golden tone.

"What were you and your classmates talking about?"

"Hm? I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Nope. They did say a word I recognized much most of it was kind of gibberish."

"What word?"

"They said I would look cute in 'cosplay'. It's a word I've heard the Lord God use a couple times but I don't exactly know what it means..."

"... Changing the subject, the setting of this World is rather unusual."

Xiaobai blinked in confusion at the statement. "Unusual? How?"

"In the original World, Xu Xingjuan did something to make Xie Muchen believe that her family was deserving of destruction. That in itself is unusual considering the seemingly general lack of social or political undercurrents at the school and at home. At most you would target a singular wrongdoer, not the entire group. Unless you happened to be unhinged."

"Maybe my hit to the head made him unhinged?"

"I'd say you might be onto something, but that would just be concerning."

opporoni

is there plot? yes. do i wanna dive into it fully? maybe. sleep well :DDD