Shin sat at the desk in his room, finishing up his studies, as he had repeatedly done since the first day of summer vacation. Deciding to take a break, he stretched and noticed it was raining out, moving to the window and peering out of it. The street below was virtually empty, save for one or two passerbys hurrying to get out of the rain. His eyes moved to the house across the street from him, [color=lightblue][i]How long ago was it?[/i][/color] he thought, recalling a memory. Sighing, he closed the blinds, he didn't want to think about any of that. He returned to his desk and spotted his Neuro Linker, he had taken it off when he started studying, so he wouldn't get distracted. Picking it up, he put it back on, going through the routine reconnection like usual. He saw a message from his parents, and after reading it, he deleted it. [color=lightblue][i]Late again tonight. Figures.[/i][/color] he thought. He began to go through his files from the previous school year, deleting several picture files and a couple of other random files he had kept. He finally came across the Brain Burst program, tempted to delete it as well, though decided against it. Letting out another sigh, he decided he needed to find a way to take his mind off things. After connecting back to the internet, he went to the forum he frequented, reading up on a few posts. Once he was finished there, he moved to a different site, his avatar now connecting.

Once he was in, he began to search around, looking at the different hangouts. None of them seemed particularly interesting, then again, they never did. He continued until he found the one he usually hung out at, connecting to it and being greeted by the usual crowd. The hangout appeared to resemble that of a mix between a weapon shop found in most RPG's and a cafe with an open plateau 'outside' the store. The programming was set up so it was usually sunny, this way people could sit out on the plateau and chat. This was one of his favorite places to go, aside from one other place, but that was in the school network. School. Only a few days until it started back up again, of course, he knew what that meant; the girls would be fawning all over him again. Sighing, he took a seat, [color=lightblue][i]Why is life so cruel to me?[/i][/color] he thought. A message appeared in his inbox, [color=lightblue][i]"Hey Shin! It's me! I'm having a great time studying in America! Everything's so different here, the people, the food, even the speech! It's all so much to take in! Anyways, had some time to send a message before bed, hope all is well back home! Hope to hear from you soon! -Yuki"[/i][/color] he read. He chuckled a bit, Yuki always had such a positive outlook on life, that's what made her such a great friend. His mind wandered to the previous school year, Yuki had told him that she would be moving with her family to America. Shin had been sad at first, but he got past it and was glad she was having fun overseas.

After sitting around for another hour, he decided to disconnect when nobody was going to show, returning back to the real world. He sighed, the real world. It hurt to be in it, but it hurt even more to be in the accelerated world. At least here he could avoid the cause of his pain, but there? No, he would come across that pain, it was inevitable. He stood, moving to the window and peering out it again, the street now completely deserted. He moved away from it and left his room, heading downstairs to make something to eat. After making himself a sandwich, he received another message, it was from one of his fans. He opened the message and read it, apparently there was a small group holding out hope that he'd return, and the fan had just been accepted as a member of the club. Shin smiled a bit, it was nice to hear he was missed and still popular among some people, but it wasn't enough to get him to go back. He doubted anything would get him to return.