Alone Once More [BOOK 3 NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!]

Stories

### Chapter 1: Cycle 1 2 Encountering An Issue

The dining hall itself was easy to find. It was a large, modern-looking white building curved in a kind of thick horseshoe shape near the center of campus. In the center of the bend were nestled over a dozen round metal tables sheltered by red metal umbrellas. A large sign hung above the entrance at one end of the building, identifying the place as Cappy's Cafe .

According to Kaitlyn's research, the school's mascot was a capybara appropriately named Cappy. That explained the cartoon rodent sporting a tiny baseball cap on the sign. Cute.

Entering the building, a wave of sensations rolled over her. The salty, greasy scent of fast food combined with the all-too-familiar scents of bleach and cleaning solutions. Speakers embedded in the ceiling pumped out a low, steady din of pop music. A collection of buffet-style serving counters spread out before her, each sporting standard college fare—pizzas, burgers, pasta, salads, and other odds and ends she'd have to explore. She was here an hour or so before noon, so it was fairly empty for now. Perfect. That'll give me some time to myself.

Picking out a few items from the various counters, Kaitlyn turned toward the cashiers ahead and froze. Wait. How am I supposed to pay for this?

She didn't have a wallet. She hadn't noticed one in her dorm either. Which meant she didn't have any money. Worse, she didn't even know how money worked in this world. She patted her pockets, confirming that nothing had magically appeared when she wasn't looking. No luck.

She bit her lip. Maybe she was missing something? She didn't want to ask for handouts from anyone on her first day—unless that someone was a particular prince charming who wanted to help out a damsel in distress, of course. Deciding to play it safe, she lingered by the salad counter and observed for a while. When a group of students checked out, she noticed that they didn't pull out wallets either. Instead, they flashed their phones at a scanner before heading on their way.

Huh. If money's linked to my phone, then that's super useful. She thumbed through a few pages of apps to find likely suspects. Sure enough, a small red and gold capybara icon stood out among them. Tapping on it revealed a whole slew of useful things—a class list, school calendars, event listings, and—most importantly—a "Dining Funds" tab. She resolved to check out the rest later as she purchased her food.

With one crisis averted, Kaitlyn found a booth near a wall of the building and took a bite of the cheesy pasta dish she had picked up. It was time to really plan.

Between her web searches this morning and the school app on her phone, she managed to put together a lot of key information. She knew some basic details about the school, where to find a map, and the schedule of when classes started and ended. More importantly though, she had information on herself.

Her name seemed to have carried over with her, thankfully. Most other things had not. A list of her new classes had been helpfully hung on the corkboard by her dorm window, so she'd already known those. Still, the app confirmed her new major—Biology, apparently. Now she also knew the funds at her disposal. Well, the school-related funds, at least. She would have to look through her phone more to see if she could find some sort of general bank account.

Ok. So my immediate stuff is taken care of. I have money to survive, I know where I need to go for class and when, and I have a basic framework of what to do on a daily basis. Since everyone's new here, I shouldn't have to worry about fitting in any more than usual, either. The world seems like a pretty standard Western college setting, too, so that's easy. She rested her chin in one hand. Then the next question is, what do I do about the guys?

I only know what they look like and that there are five of them. I didn't get further than the intro to the game, so I don't even know their personalities, names, interests, archetypes… nothing for certain. I don't even know what kind of encounters to expect or when. She frowned. That means that my first priority should probably be tracking them down. At least then I can have something to go off of, maybe see which ones I want to be friends with. Then I can decide what route to try for.

Kaitlyn sighed, setting aside her empty plate. The cheesy pasta had been surprisingly good, though it could have used a dash of spice for contrast. Aren't I supposed to have some sort of knowledge advantage here? Isn't that what usually happens in isekai stories? Couldn't I have gotten one playthrough at least before this?

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

After about an hour and a half of sitting, it was time to move on. The tables became positively packed, and Kaitlyn wanted to start exploring more of campus while she still had time. She slipped her phone into her pocket, grabbed her tray, and got ready to stand.

The door to the dining hall opened, and Kaitlyn caught a flash of curly chestnut hair. A shy-looking student in a mint hoodie stepped through, hands sliding into his pockets. His posture was closed, but not hunched. Rather, it was only his head and gaze that tilted downward, rather than the perpetual rounded-shoulder look that Kaitlyn herself sported. As she watched, his blue-eyed gaze flicked around the cafeteria with idle curiosity, presumably looking for something to eat.

She immediately sat back down. That's him! The shy-looking guy from the game! I'm sure of it! Oh my gosh, this is an encounter!

With a conscious effort, she slowed her breathing. An encounter this soon? She wasn't ready. She hadn't planned enough. What would she say? What would he say?

Her thoughts raced as the brown-haired guy collected his food and checked out. He was walking right toward her. Her mind went blank with panic and excitement. Oh gosh, oh gosh, what do I DO? Act natural, ACT NATURAL!

Hands shaking, Kaitlyn picked up her fork and used it to move around some leftover noodles and crumbs. She avoided eye contact but kept the boy in the corner of her vision.

Ok, I've seen enough anime to know how this is supposed to go. He's going to walk up and ask to sit down, and I'll obviously accept. We'll start talking, maybe a bit awkwardly at first, but then we'll really hit it off. Then, in the middle of the conversation, one of us will get pulled away—maybe by a call or other plans or something—but oh no! We'll have forgotten to exchange contact info! That'll make it all the better when we coincidentally see each other again later. Ok. Good. I got this.

Her heart raced as the boy grew nearer, his gaze roving around the room. She took a few deep, steadying breaths. He was right there. Any second now, and her dating sim adventure would begin. Her first encounter, the first step to—

Their eyes met. For a short moment, Kaitlyn was locked in place by those deep blue irises, clear and bright. Then, he quickly averted his gaze and kept walking. He didn't even take a second glance Kaitlyn's way as he passed the table, carrying his tray toward the back of the dining hall.

Her mouth dropped open. What. That's… that's it??? Where's he going?

Sure enough, he kept walking until he reached a table of his own. The brown-haired guy sat down alone and started eating.

Kaitlyn felt lightheaded. This wasn't how this was supposed to go. He was supposed to talk to her. At the very least, he should have said hi or something. It was all wrong!

Maybe I can rescue this? She grimaced. I can walk over there—no, I finished eating already. I have no excuse to be there. Maybe I can wait till he leaves and try to catch him then? I mean, not to follow him, that would be creepy, just to get his name at least?

"Excuse me," a girl standing near her chair interrupted Kaitlyn's thoughts. "Can I join you? I'm sorry, there's no other seats."

Looking around, the dining hall had filled up entirely. There wasn't a single table open anymore, and Kaitlyn was obviously done eating. "Um. Y-yeah, sorry, I'm done, go ahead."

The girl thanked her as she woodenly stood and trod over to the dish dropoff. Even her backup plan was no good now. The only thing she could do was leave the building.

Ok, so. That didn't go well. Still, that was just one encounter with one guy. Maybe he's one of the harder ones to talk to or something. Consoling herself, she shifted her thoughts toward the future. She probably wouldn't make any progress here without looking like a total creep. Still, there were other things that needed doing. Exploring more of the campus, for example.

***

The campus was large, but not too labyrinthine. It only took her an hour of relaxed walking to explore the perimeter fully and another couple to get a good grasp of the different buildings and areas. The place had an old-style, traditional architecture complete with red bricks and elaborate trims on every building. It wasn't exactly her aesthetic, but she could appreciate the attention to detail. Especially for a game world.

Still, after all that walking, no hint of another encounter or capture target had made itself known. She hadn't expected it to, of course—it was her first day, and classes hadn't even started. She made sure to scout out the areas where athletes and more sporty people might hang out, though. She didn't know the hobbies or personalities of the potential guys to date, but she was certain that one of them was an athlete. It was the best lead she had.

Still, she couldn't get over the missed interaction from earlier. It ran through her head on repeat as she combed through it to figure out what had gone wrong. I guess I should have talked to him first? Like, asked him to sit down? Still, I could have sworn that being in the right place at the right time would be enough…

Eventually, after making sure she knew where all her classes were, Kaitlyn decided to head back to the dorm. Heather would probably be done moving in by now, and with any luck she'd be out socializing herself. If she wasn't… Well, maybe she could learn a thing or two about conversation from listening to her.

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