2 Umpteenth Defea (1/2)

I sensed footsteps approaching the outside of my room. It sounded of sandals on hardwood. They weren't very loud, but they were very determined. And because they were determined, it was simple enough to tell that whatever the case was, it hinted at animosity towards me. I braced myself for the worst. As they approached, the quiet footsteps gradually got louder, and louder and...

”Wake up, Jon!”

On the other side of a closed door, an irritated knock followed an irritated shout.

*...of course. Nearly overslept again, didn't I?*

”It's already six-thirty, and your school begins at eight o'clock! It takes you thirty minutes to get there. You're going to be late!”

*...not*

”And that's not even counting the morning rush hour, so hurry it up!”

The angry footsteps quickly receded from the door, melding in the distance with the hubbub of the Xu household's early morning kitchen.

With a sigh of reluctance, I win the mental battle against myself and force myself out of the comfort of the heavy covers. As I sat up, a frigid wind seemed to blow across the confines of my room and across my skin, which made me s.h.i.+ver slightly. But I knew it was just the temperature difference between my covers and my room. For some reason, my room always boasted poor climate control. This, along with a very light pajama (actually, even calling it a pajama was an overstatement) made it all the more difficult to leave the safe haven of the bed.

*How many hours of sleep did I even get? 3? 4? 12? Not like it matters too much, anyway.*

No matter how many hours of sleep I got, all I had to do was down a gla.s.s of water immediately after waking up to feel better. Your body gets quite dehydrated during sleep, after all. But going a few days in a row with a mere three hours of sleep does leave me feeling tired. I'm not a superhuman, after all.

*Oh, I did go to bed pretty early yesterday. How lucky.*

Today was a Monday, and I had actually made a smart decision to go to bed early so I could get enough rest.

*Now then...*

I struggled to get out of bed, still slightly drowsy. After standing somewhat comatose for a few seconds, I stretched and reached for the stainless steel bottle on the nightstand and poured the contents into my mouth. And with the few gulps of water, I was finally awake.

Invigorated with new life, I immediately strolled over to the computer in my room and booted it up.

I stared at the thing for a few seconds before releasing another small sigh.

*What am I even doing with this uselessly expensive computer...*

As if on cue, the uselessly expensive computer silently blinked its uselessly flashy lights as it started up. The keyboard went from red, to green, to blue, and then everything in between.

*Maybe my friends were right to make fun of me for spending so much on a computer...*

Because even though I owned this uselessly expensive computer, I hardly used it for its intended purposes. As of late, anyway. What was supposed to be a monster of a computer perfect for handling many processes at once was now being used to watch videos or read stupid jokes.

But now, I was about to give it the stress test of a lifetime. This application would no doubt prove that the computer I bought wasn't just in my room to look pretty. As my desktop's minimalistic wallpaper appeared, I apprehensively moused over to said application and double clicked...

Chrome.

And then loaded up the chess game against my sister from the night before.

*Ah, right. That's why I went to bed so early yesterday.*

I guess you could say I had a unique talent for leaving tomorrow's problems for tomorrow's me. Whenever I didn't want to deal with a problem, I would just forget about it immediately and go to sleep.

*And sleep for nearly too long... Anyway, it's yesterday's tomorrow now.*

Obviously, tomorrow will never come. But leaving tomorrow's problems to tomorrow won't make them go away, and today's tomorrow will always eventually become today.

*What a mouthful... Let's get this thing started.*

With that, I finally hit the play b.u.t.ton to commence yesterday's chess match.

I didn't even have to watch all the way through it once before I realized...

*Even though it didn't feel like a crus.h.i.+ng defeat, I still lost pretty bad, huh?*