13th november 8:27

the day of the double-class field trip which was sponsored by the government - it was finally time for it to take place. 

there were two buses parked near your location but you weren't going on them just yet. currently, your teacher, jean, is checking if everyone is here. the other class' teacher, keqing, was also doing the same. after checking if everyone was there - including the vice president who had to serve as a special member who came in the government's stead - both of the teachers took a step back and discussed something by themselves.

"alright, now that everyone is here we can climb onto the bus. remember to leave your suitcases on the shelves atop the seats! that applies to both of the classes," keqing reminded and everyone started walking to their respective buses.

while making your way to your bus you noticed scaramouche in the crowd.

so he is in class b huh?

you got onto your bus and sat somewhere in the middle after placing your suitcase in its intended place. you had a small bag on you which held your phone, wallet, charger, and some other small stuff you would need on your person.

jean called everyone again to make sure that they were in and then told the bus driver you all could set out. in a short while, you were driving to your first destination, sumeru, in which you would technically spend five days but it would be four and a half since the second half of the fifth day would be spent driving to liyue.

only now sitting in the bus did you realize that you barely knew anyone from your class. all of your friends were from the other two classes so you didn't have anyone to speak to, and ganyu also went with the other class.

the person sitting next to you - a boy with shoulder-length blond hair and blue eyes - was literally screaming 'do not speak with me' as he had his earphones in and was drawing something on a piece of paper.

sighing you pulled out your phone and texted xiao hoping he would answer.

i mean the first class ended a few minutes ago so theoretically he should be free.

xiao

you

whatcha doing

xiao

preparing for biology

you

wait

aren't the biology exams in like three weeks??

xiao

in a sense

our teacher assigned us a semester-long project in biology which will be 60% of our exam grade

you

are you done with it yet?

xiao

almost

would have finished a long time ago if my schedule wasn't so busy

how is your trip going?

you

we set out only like 5 mins ago

xiao

there is still a long road until sumeru

you should sleep off the time

you

i mean the teacher told us we will be there in around 4h

so around 12/13 we will be there

xiao

you have a walk through the city planned right?

you

yeah

"familiarizing ourselves with the surroundings for tomorrow's orientation"

xiao

rest before you have to actually do something

you

yeah sure mom🙄

xiao

my class started

text me later if anything

you

ok yeah sure bye

you closed your phone and put it back into your bag, deciding it's not a bad idea to take a nap as per xiao's suggestion. you closed your eyes and slept through the whole ride, unsurprisingly looking at how you slept last wednesday.

you woke up by your seatmate shaking you, telling you that you need to get off the bus, "we arrived at the hotel, wake up"

you opened your eyes and noticed how everyone is getting up and leaving. after understanding what your seatmate told you, you also got up, grabbed your suitcase, and left.

after getting off you had to wait for the other class to get off, unconsciously searching for scaramouche amongst the crowd. and when you did finally notice him, he was also looking back. you were caught off guard and unwillingly leaned back as if you were just jumpscared.

scaramouche huffed in amusement while still menacingly looking at you. taken aback by his intense staring, you looked away and walked in your teacher's direction.

"gather up! everyone come here" jean was shouting for everyone to assemble in one spot, doing it successfully.

"alright, listen up guys, you see that big building over there?" keqing pointed to your right, "that's the hotel we all will be staying in. now, the roommates have been arranged by the hotel staff, so we do not know who is with who. if by any chance - a boy gets paired with a girl - or otherwise, remember no funny business! that actually goes out for everyone there no matter your roommate's gender," she strictly continued.

"let's go in now. around an hour later we will all, and by all i mean both classes meet here again to go explore the city with our tour guide!" the other class's teacher announced.

everyone began walking in. after some struggling you also got in. there was a woman yelling, "students of the high school celestia capital, please gather in front of the receptionist and state your name to get your room's keys!"

after hearing the message you walked into the line in front of the receptionist. there you saw scaramouche taking his keys and going to the elevator.

the line in front of me is still pretty long...

you internally sighed and waited for your turn.

the person in front of you left thus it was your turn.

"y/n l/n"

the receptionist pressed some things on her keyboard, "room 609, fifth floor, paired with a boy, here are your keys" she handed you the keys and you took them, looking for where the elevator is.

paired with a boy? i wonder with who exactly.

you pressed the buttons inside the elevator and went up to the fifth floor. quickly finding your room you unlocked the door and went inside, locking it back closed.

"is anyone here already?" you asked while observing your surroundings. there was a small corridor that led to a kitchen. then there was an open archway to the living room in which there were three doors.

how much does this hotel even cost for a single night? it honestly looks pretty fancy with all the white palettes and spacious rooms.

you stepped into the living room and went up to one of the doors. you knocked checking whether anyone was in there. when you received no response you opened the door and were met with a white bedroom that was simple yet elegant.

is this a five-star hotel or something?

you closed the door and went up to another one. you heard the water running from it and guessed it was the bathroom that your roommate was probably using.

so he is here...

finally, you went to the third door, opening it with no hesitation. it was a copy of the other bedroom. but unlike the previous one, this one had luggage in it - so you guessed your roommate claimed it.

both of the rooms are the same.

you walked back to the other one and entered it. putting down your luggage and arranging some of your things while you still had time. after finishing that, you left the room.

upon leaving it, you saw who was your roommate. it was scaramouche. he was sitting on the couch reading some book with an eye-burning cover.

once he heard the door creak open, his head turned in your direction. his eyebrow rose for a second before his neutral expression returned."hello," he simply greeted and turned back to his book.

"uh, hi?" you felt awkward.

i mean at least you were paired with someone you knew instead of a complete stranger.

you stood there for a few more seconds before going to the kitchen, internally cringing at your interaction and regretting all your life decisions.

after you went back to your room you realized that it was time to go back outside. grabbing your bag you headed out, with your roommate nowhere in sight.

he probably left earlier than me.

everyone had already gathered in front of the hotel but you were still waiting for your guide. apparently, it was a researcher from sumeru's main governing body, the akademiya.

the teachers were talking with each other when one of them noticed the tour guide approaching.

"seems like everyone is finally here then. hello, my name is jean. i assume you must be alhaitham? the one who is supposed to give us a tour of this city?" your teacher handed her hand out to the man.

"that is correct. let's go now then. " alhaitham led you through the main street at first stopping by some establishments that were worthy to mention.

"this is puspa cafe. it has a very deep history and was established a couple of thousands of years ago. it offers great coffee and a couple of snacks too. if anyone wants we can take a break and some of you can try it out." your guide offered.

"we have a lot of time on our hands" your teacher added, "and besides, i'm curious as how this coffee would taste"

"me too, let's meet up here in front of the entrance around forty minutes later?" keqing looked at your teacher checking if she agrees. jean nodded.

some students began lining up while others walked in some other directions, deciding that they aren't interested in buying coffee. you were a part of the students that decided to try it out.

while waiting you noticed ganyu was a couple of people in front of you, talking to one of the teachers.

didn't ganyu say that she is only in junior? a little funny considering this is a trip for seniors but she is the vice president so it's not that surprising that she was chosen as the special member.

there were now only 5 people in front of you, ganyu being the one talking to the barista.

isn't the president in senior year? what was his name again...ayato? well whoever it was, seems like he is in senior year class c. ironically like all of my friends too...

it's funny considering how there are three classes and all the people you know happened to be in the class that isn't a part of this field trip.

you looked at the menu since there was only one person in front of you now, to decide what you'll take beforehand.

that's a lot of options there..

"hello, what would you like?"

"i suppose a long black will do." you answered

"alright, your number is seventeen, you can pick up your coffee in the right corner once it's ready"

well, this was sure an interesting way of getting your order. but there were quite a lot of people here so maybe this was a special way to serve when there were too many people.

looking around you spotted ganyu and went up to her.

"oh hey y/n, come sit down. i and xiangling were discussing how the local snacks would taste"

you sat down next to ganyu. "the delivering fashion here is pretty unique," you remarked.

"i also thought like that! but it's not like it's anything bad, well, except for lazy people who don't wanna do anything themselves" the girl, xiangling, who ganyu previously talked with added.

"oh wait, that's my number, i'll be back" ganyu stood up and left.

"here she goes. i suppose we should also keep our eyes open to see when our numbers pop up," xiangling turned her attention to the numbers, noticing her own she got up and left to grab her order.

as both of the girls were returning - your number came on screen so you left to grab your order.

"from which class were you again?" xiangling asked you as you three were sipping on your drinks.

"the a one, you?"

"i'm from it too! no wonder you felt familiar when you first came up. turns out we are from the same class"

"that's nice, i honestly don't think any of your friends were from your class, now at least you know one person from your class," ganyu said.

"yeah, it's funny how everyone i know comes from class c which is oh so ironically not included in this trip."

"i have heard that class c is gonna have their own week-long but i don't know to what country" ganyu remembered some things she heard while doing her work as the vice president.

"at least it's somewhat fair i guess" you replied.

soon after you three finished drinking your coffee.

"there are still ten minutes until the time teacher keqing instructed us to meet up" xiangling looked at her phone. "so who are your roommates?" she asked putting her phone down, "i ended up having teacher keqing as my roommate"

"oh that's funny, my roommate happened to be teacher jean!" ganyu laughed, "who is yours y/n?"

you looked outside the window avoiding eye contact with every living being, "it's scaramouche."

"him? isn't he also your project partner in history?" ganyu asked, remembering how yoimiya ranted about your project last weekend.

"yeah, he is."

a few minutes later you all walked out and continued your tour through the city, stopping at a few more objects while the akademiya's researcher explained the said object in great detail.

and so a few hours passed. it was around 6 pm and a lot of people returned to their hotel rooms. the rest of the day was free so some people decided to go out and explore some more, your roommate was one of them.

you, however, choose to stay inside and finish your part of the history project so that yoimiya can finish putting it all together by wednesday. scaramouche finished his part a week ago, yoimiya would finish her research on the day you sent in your last findings, and then it would be done before the deadline.

two hours later your roommate came back and immediately started reading the book you saw previously, this time in the kitchen.

is he also participating in that one competition or something?

you thought while drinking some water as you leaned against the kitchen counter, half looking at scaramouche and half staring into the void.

your roommate didn't seem to be bothered by your presence or your staring. he only kept calmly reading his book.

even after you finished drinking your water, you kept looking at scaramouche as if you were in some kind of trance. maybe it was out of boredom, maybe it was out of curiosity, but whatever the reason - you kept looking until he finally returned your stare.

maybe you two had a thing for staring at each other. cause now you were directly staring into his eyes for a couple of minutes before you remembered you had to go finish your project. you blankly stopped staring and went to your room, looking almost confused.

once you left, scaramouche kept reading his book.

the next day at 9 am everyone gathered in front of the hotel again. your next activity would be orientation through the city.

"attention! as you probably know, today we will devote a few hours to orientation through the city. all the objectives can be found within the parts alhaitham showed us yesterday. today this is an individual task," the other class' teacher began explaining, "tomorrow we will have part two of orientation which will take place in the local rainforest which will be group work. please come to me and teacher jean to take the guides for today's orientation! at roughly two pm everyone must be back no matter what." keqing instructed and began handing out the guides.

the rules on your paper followed as:

1. you must take a picture of every object

2. if any special instructions are found within or at the object, they must be followed. (unless you do not meet the criteria)

3. be careful of your surroundings

your objects

- the akademiya

- the grand bazaar

- the port

p.s remember to have fun! there is no rankings or prizes for first to submit so don't rush :)

the grand bazaar? that was one place you didn't go to, nor was the akademiya. but at least you were theoretically told the way to the akademiya so that wasn't a problem. and as for the port, you weren't even that far away from it. thus you decided to go there first.

you slowly walked to the port, on your way encountering ganyu. you gave each other quick greetings and continued your own ways.

once you arrived at the port you took out your phone and took a picture from a platform above it. since there was no need to rush, you decided to go down and take a closer look at the lake that connected to the sea further on.

despite sumeru's capital city having a port already, the second biggest city in sumeru was port ormos, which was sumeru's main port that offered a lot of trading routes.

after looking at the water for long enough, you pulled out your GPS to see whether the grand bazaar or the akademiya was closer. the answer was the grand bazaar, so after roughly memorizing the directions you started walking to it, seeing a couple of your schoolmates along the way.

despite the grand bazaar being the closer object, it was still quite a long walk to it.

so it's underground huh?

you entered the market and saw your tour guide talking to some blond man who seemed to be scolding him. even though it seemed more like they both were bickering.

while your attention was focused on the two men, a cart accidentally bumped into you. unaware and unsuspecting, you fell onto the ground, the driver panicked, and unintentionally ran over your ankle.

you were speechless and too shocked to even register the pain. the driver however was way too freaked out.

"bitch what the fuck just happened." you tried standing up in a rather calm state for someone who had just been run over. as you tried to stand up, you suddenly felt a sharp pain emerge from your leg and you would have fallen back onto the stone floor if it weren't for someone holding you up.

you looked back and saw scaramouche who had a puzzled expression.

girl, what is he doing here now?

"i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry," the driver started chaotically apologizing, "i didn't mean to run into you!"

"can you walk?" however your attention was stolen by the person who was holding your back, asking in an undisturbed voice as if nothing bad just happened.

could i walk if i can't even stand on my own?

"no. i honestly feel as if my bone is broken" you stated while trying to ignore the pain.

the driver freaked out even more when he heard your response "oh my dear god! i just broke someone's bone" he loudly cried out.

the man was freaking out so much it made a commotion around him, he was saying things like 'oh my god i injured a person' and mumbled many sorries and apologies.

scaramouche found it too dramatic for just a broken ankle, "if all you are gonna do is be this dramatic, then you might as well leave. there is no use of you here."

the driver was taken aback, he even came back to his senses - only a little bit though, as he was still acting unfittingly.

scaramouche glared at the man for one last time before he finally bought his attention back to you, "let's go sit down. i'll examine your injury"

"alright" you agreed, not being sure how you are going to 'walk' to the nearest bench.

the man realized that it was better for him just to leave, thus he picked up his cart and proceeded on his way feeling ashamed.

"wait, let me give you a chair so that the lady doesn't have to go anywhere," some man that ran a stall nearby offered.

the