Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had been three months since Lumine graduated high school. She graduated with a 4.3 GPA, a 35 on her ACT, and regrettably, saluditorian. Normally, any student would be content or even happy about a saluditorian title. This was not the case for Lumine. Much to her dismay, the person who had stolen the title of valedictorian from her was Childe.

Lumine and Childe had been competing for higher grades since freshman year. If she got a 97 on one test, he’d get a 100 on it. If she graduated with a 4.3, he’d graduate with a 4.5. If she got a 35 on her ACT, he just had to get a 36. It infuriated her. No matter how hard she tried or studied, she could never make it to the top.

The only thing that did manage to go right for her and wrong for him, was her admission to Harvard. Not that Childe didn’t get in anywhere good, but Lumine considered Harvard to be a bit better than Yale. Somewhat. Unfortunately for her, her family couldn’t afford the sky high rate of tuition at Harvard, so she had to settle for the local state school- Teyvat University. Luckily for Childe, his family was insanely rich and he could attend Yale. Another win for him, another loss for Lumine.

So here she was, moving into her dorm at Teyvat University. Carrying boxes after boxes up the stairs (there was no elevator in her building, her luck didn’t seem like it could get any worse). She sighed.

How did it manage to end up this way?

Lumine appreciated her parents and all that they did for her and her brother, but she still couldn’t help but wish she was moving into Harvard instead. Sure it wasn’t a bad school, but it wasn’t exactly an Ivy League. For the first time in three months, her thoughts drifted to Childe. She imagined him gloating right now, setting up his new room at the 6th best college in the nation. The one thought that made her happy is she no longer had to worry about competing with some stupid guy. It would be a new era in her life, and a good one.

Finally, Lumine had set everything up. Her bed was made, her posters were hung on the wall, and she had a picture of her family sitting on her desk. Of course her parents and her brother cried while saying goodbye, and of course she cried too. It was gonna be hard being away from them, but she believed she’d make it through. She knew she would. At long last, they shared one last hug goodbye and headed out the door, leaving Lumine all alone.

“Helloooooo new roomie!” a loud voice sang busting through the door. Apparently, her new roommate didn’t know how to knock. The unfamiliar face jumped on her bed and stared, seemingly with affection, at Lumine’s face. “So what’s your name?” She inquired.

“Lumine. What about yourself?” She asked.

“Hu Tao!” she beamed. She seemed nice, a little too enthusiastic to meet a stranger, but nice nonetheless.

“So um, Hu Tao, what’s your major?” Lumine questioned. She was never good at small talk.

“Business!” she replied.

God fucking damnit.

Okay, that did sound a little rude on Lumine’s end, but anyone knows a business major is a red flag. Not that hers was much better in all honesty, she was an English major. Lots of work for little reward, but that didn’t matter to her. She loved writing. In fact, English was the only class she managed to get a higher grade than Childe in. That might have been some of her motivation for her major, but Lumine would never tell anyone that.

“So… what made you decide business?” she implored.

“I wanna own a funeral parlor!” Hu Tao exclaimed.

Okay what the fuck. My roommate is a total fucking weirdo.

The business major was already enough of a red flag, but now this? Her luck literally could not get any worse.

“That’s lovely…. um… What prompted this?” Lumine pried. Surely there was a good answer to this question.

“Oh I’m glad you asked! My family’s been running a funeral parlor for decades now. I wanna follow in their footsteps and make the parlor the best it’s ever been when I take over!” Hu Tao gleefully answered.

Well that’s a relief.

The answer gave her a lot of comfort. It was a bit strange, but it wasn’t like her roommate was a death obsessed necrophiliac. Okay, that was harsh, but who could blame her? She was already an emotional wreck, and the idea of having a creepy roommate just made things worse. Needless to say, her worries had been a bit eased.

“So uh.. where did you go to highschool?” Lumine inquired. She was really, really bad at small talk.

“Liyue High! I really liked it, and I actually met my girlfriend there, which was the reason I decided to come here,” Hu Tao answered. Well looks like one of the two had a decent love life. Lumine just hoped she wouldn’t be sexvicted too often.

“That’s sweet! I kinda just decided to go here because it was cheaper than my top choice,” Lumine sighed. That was pretty much all there was to it; she really did not wanna go to Teyvat University.

“Oh that sucks I’m sorry… If you don't mind me asking, what was your first choice?” Hu Tao questioned. Lumine normally would’ve been proud of her answer, but now that she was sitting in a shitty run down dorm she was just flat out embarrassed.

“It was uh… Harvard,” Lumine meekly admitted.

“Holy fuck you’re smart! Wow, I really lucked out with a smart roommate! To tell you the truth, I didn’t do much of my own work in high school. Yanfei did most of it for me, she’s really smart too, and now I have someone to do my work for me in college too!” Hu Tao rambled.

Perfect. I’m just gonna be mooched off again.

As much as she hated to admit it, Lumine was a people pleaserm and if she was being completely honest, doing other people’s homework for them was how she earned most of her money in high school. It was an easy gig, writing essays and making a good fifty bucks. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do with her free time anyways.

“Well I’ll tell you this, I’ll do it but don’t think I’ll do it for free. You’ve gotta pay up, business major,” Lumine groaned. Hu Tao nodded her head enthusiastically. That was easy enough. “It was nice talking to you, but I’ve gotta go buy my textbooks now. We’ll talk later, Hu Tao. It was nice meeting you.” Lumine remarked. Hu Tao nodded and Lumine grabbed her wallet (which would soon be emptied) before leaving for the ridiculously overpriced bookstore. With tuition and textbooks combined, college really was not for the working class.

As Lumine walked across campus, she made the realization that she really should’ve brought her backpack with her to buy her books. Carrying 5 heavy books on a 10 minute walk really, really was not going to be fun. Deciding it was too late to turn back, she carried on.

She opened the door to the student center, taking in just how shitty it was. It was very obviously old with a few shitty chain restaurants inside. Thank god they at least had a Starbucks. Once again, thoughts on how much better it’d be if she was at the prestigious university she dreamed of filled her head. She pushed the thoughts aside (again) and headed straight to the bookstore. She’d get them, leave, then proceed to contemplate her life choices once more.

First was Biology 102, one class Lumine was absolutely dreading. Of course she had done fine in science in previous school years, but it didn’t mean she hated it any less. Then Introductry Statistics I, math she didn’t mind as much. Then, Shneznayan in Context I, the thought of taking his language made her sick, but it was the only foreign language option left. Sighing to herself as she put the book in her arms, her stomach suddenly sunk to the floor. A tall redheaded man stood right in front of her.

His back was turned, so Lumine couldn’t tell for sure but holy fuck did they look similar.

This is not fucking happening. This is not fucking happening. No it can’t be, he went to Yale anyways. There is absolutely no fucking way Childe is standing right in front of me.

She cowered behind the shelf, trying to get a better look but at the same time too scared to. If Childe truly went to Teyvat University instead of Yale, then God truly was not on her side. All of the sudden, the all too familiar face turned around. It was him. It really was him.

Lumine ducked further behind the bookshelf. He could not fucking see her. If anything could make her already shitty day even worse, it would be having to converse with Childe. She really thought she left this dumb bastard behind in high school. She was dead wrong. As Lumine shuffled to the next aisle to find her English 101 textbook, she made a critical mistake. She tripped.

She rushed to pick up her books and run as far as she fucking could. There was no way he could’ve missed her falling in the middle of the bookstore. Lumine silently cursed herself for being stupid enough to not tie her shoelaces.

“Hey are you oka- holy fuck it’s you, girlie,” the dreaded familiar voice called out. It was over. He saw her. She would never recover from this. Never.

“I’m fine and I certainly don’t need help from you of all people,” she groaned, watching Childe help her pick up the scattered textbooks.

“Oh you wound me, Lumine! After all we’ve been through I can’t even pick up a book or two for you!” Childe laughed. It appeared one of them found the situation amusing.

“I wouldn’t call me consistently being in second place to you ‘all we’ve been through’ but to each their own,” she wryly mumbled.

“You’re still hung up on that aren’t you? Well hey, none of that matters anymore. We ended up at the same college, didn’t we?” Childe exclaimed.

Yeah, how did we end up at the same fucking school. Care to explain that, dipshit?

“Apparently, we did. Which begs the question, why are you even here, Childe?” Lumine bitterly spit.

“Ah long story short, familial issues. All’s well, just had to stay close to home to help out with a few things,” he calmly replied. How he managed to be so relaxed in this situation, Lumine would never know. However if there was one thing she could appreciate about Childe, it’s that he truly did care about his family and friends. It was one trait she could respect him for. “So, Sneznayan in Context, huh?” he said, looking at the textbook he picked up.

“Yeah, it was the only foreign language still open, and I need the credits for my major,” Lumine sighed.

“Well girlie you’re in luck! Your favorite friend from high school just happens to be fluent in Sneznayan and is taking that class as well,” Childe beamed.

Oh great, it gets worse.

“If you’re fluent in it, why are you even taking it, Childe?” she interrogated.

“Well for starters, looks like we’re in the same boat with the whole major requirement. Second, I didn’t wanna pass up the chance for an easy A,” he told her, placing the book back into her hands. This was new, usually Childe adored a challenge.

“What happened to Mr. “I love a challenge and need to be the best at everything I do?” Lumine retorted.

“I think the ‘need to be the best at everything I do’ stands true considering I am fluent in the language, and I assume the vast majority of the class won’t be, and now I’m finding out I get to kick your butt once again,” he laughed. God, she wanted to punch the shit out of him. If the librarian was looking over at them, she would’ve done it. As big of a dickhead as he was, she didn’t want to get expelled before classes even started.

“Don’t get too cocky, I may not be fluent like you but I’ll find a way to kick your ass to the curb,” Lumine scoffed, staring him dead in the eyes.

“Persistent as usual, that’s my beloved Lumine! You can try your best, but I will always be there to tutor you if you need,” Childe snarkily informed her, winked, and handed the last book she had dropped back to her. He ruffled her hair, like the condescending prick he was, and waved before leaving. The fucker didn’t even get any books while he was here, it seemed like he just came to piss her off.

Lumine banged her head against the bookshelf, drawing the attention of those around her. She muttered curses to herself before standing up with a loud huff. If there was one thing she was going to fucking do, it would be get a higher grade than him in that god damn class. She didn’t know how she’d do it, he was fluent afterall, but if there’s a will there’s a fucking way.

Walking to the counter, she slammed her books down.

“Did you, um, find everything you were looking for?” The librarian gently asked. It didn’t take a genius to see how shaken up Lumine was. At least the staff here seemed to care.

“Yes. Yes! I found a bit more than I was looking for actually,” she laughed with a very obvious irrtiance in her voice.

“Oh that’s… lovely! Well, your total is $506.51”

Great. Off to a great fucking start.

Chapter Text

If Lumine had learned one thing on her first night at Teyvat University, it was that her roommate snored. Really fucking loudly. She wasn’t opposed to sharing a room with someone, afterall she had shared one with Aether her whole life, but holy shit she had never roomed with a snorer. It was a new breed of hell. Groaning, she turned over on her side to check her phone and see what ungodly hour of night it currently was.

12:06AM

Lovely. Of course, like the dumbass she was, Lumine had waited ‘til the last minute to register for classes, leaving her with an 8:30 AM class. Part of it was her absolute bitterness and denial to the end that she was going to her bottom choice school, and part of it was she quite honestly just forgot. Making matters worse, her first, and earliest, class the next day was Sneznayan in Context I. She was still silently praying to any god that would answer that Childe was in a different time slot than her, but with the way things were going, she highly doubted it. There were literally only three periods available (guess it wasn’t the most popular language to take in college), and out of a one in three chance she’d be in the same class as him, she figured she’d be that one unlucky case.

Lumine put down her phone and sighed to herself. She really needed to get some sleep tonight. Nothing could be worse than pulling an all nighter then having to deal with one of her least favorite people in the world that morning. She turned over, once again, and used her pillow to block out the heinous noise coming from Hu Tao’s nostrils. How she was going to get used to this, she had no idea, but with an 8:30 AM class on mondays and wednesdays she was gonna have to find a way. Eventually, Lumine drifted into a not so peaceful slumber.

Lumine woke up to the dreaded blaring of her alarm and groaned. Somehow, her alarm didn’t wake up Hu Tao. That girl really was a deep sleeper. She jumped down from her bed and of course, missed the stool, landing flat on her ass.

Oh wow, guess this day is gonna be as shitty as the last. Can’t wait.

She slipped on her shower shoes and grabbed her classic communal bathroom shower caddy. Whoever’s idea it was to make 30 girls share showers for two semesters was Lumine’s second least favorite person, next to Childe. I mean seriously, how hard was it to just make the dorms suite style and give each dorm their own shower?

She approached the shower and turned on the water, praying it would actually be hot this morning. Like usual, her prayers were not answered. God had favorites, and Lumine was not one. She let the lukewarm water cover her body and waves of dread cover it as well. If skipping on the first day of classes was acceptable, she certainly would’ve done it. Aside from that, she did need to confirm that the cocky bastard actually was in the same class as her.

Lumine turned off the water and grabbed her towel. She stared at herself in the mirror for a second, giving herself a mini pep talk for the day.

You’ve got this, Lumine. You’re gonna walk into that classroom like nothing ever happened and like you don’t even know that guy! You are a smart, powerful, sexy bitch who doesn’t need to put herself down over a man.

She solemnly walked back to her room, struggling to keep those pep talk words in her head. Normally she was great at motivating herself, but right now everything was just absolute shit and she couldn’t find the strength. As she entered her dorm, she assumed Hu Tao was still asleep and slipped off her towel.

“You have really nice tits, Lumine!” Hu Tao remarked, staring her roommate up and down. Lumine shrieked and immediately picked up her towel and threw it over her naked body.

“Hu Tao, what the fuck!” she screamed.

“Oh sorry! I don’t really have a filter, and it just kinda came out. It was true though!” Hu Tao admitted, though she didn’t really seem sorry.

“It’s… fine. Just please keep those thoughts in your head next time…” Lumine groaned. Between the snoring and unwanted comments on her body, Hu Tao wasn’t making such a great first impression.

“Will do, boss!” she exclaimed, throwing Lumine a salute. Lumine rolled her eyes before beginning to get dressed for the day.

Yet another shitty moment in the life of Lumine Viatrix and it’s only 8 AM! Can’t wait for the rest of today!

“I’m going to class now, Hu Tao. Try not to get into any trouble while I’m gone,” Lumine told her roommate, slinging her backpack over her shoulder.

“No promises!” Hu Tao giggled. Lumine let out another sigh and headed out the door.

Grimacing, Lumine opened the door to her Sneznayan in Context I lecture. Her eyes immediately scanned the room for Childe, and to her delight, there was no sign of him. Her previous expression of dismay grew into a cocky smile.

Take that dipshit. Bit hard to compete with me if we’re in different classes.

Lumine took a seat in the front row of the lecture hall. One, to get the best view of the slides (in order to get a better grade than Childe), and two, it was normally the least popular place to sit in a classroom, lessening the chances of her having to sit next to someone and once again initiate small talk. Lumine really hated small talk.

She stared at the time on her phone.

8:25 AM

She was a bit nervous Childe would show up late, but pushed her worries aside. He had never been one to be late to class, sometimes even trying to show up before Lumine just to piss her off. As the clock ticked, almost all the students had arrived, however there was one empty seat next to her. The other girl sitting next to her hadn’t spoken to her, her first win of the day. She grinned to herself as she watched the clock strike 8:30. She won.

Her profesor walked to the podium and began to introduce herself. “Alright, welcome to the first day of Sneznayan in Context. I’m profesor Solovyova,” she announced to the class, when suddenly the door opened.

“Sorry I’m late!”

Lumine’s face went sheet white. Childe was in her fucking class.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. This cannot be fucking happening.

“Just don’t let it happen again. There’s an open seat over there,” their professor sighed, beckoning to the seat that just so happened to be next to Lumine. Noticing this, he began to grin.

“Well would you look at that, girlie, we’re in the same class,” he told her with a cocky smile on his face. She shot him a death glare, causing him to laugh.

What the fuck is so funny about this? Is messing with me just his hobby?

“Y’know, this just means our competition will be more fun,” Childe smirked.

“Is harassing me some sort of fetish of yours? You seem to have a little too much fun doing it,” Lumine shot at the ginger.

“Oh so now you wanna know about my fetishes? I didn’t think we were that close, though I wouldn’t mind getting closer to you,” Childe suggested. Her face went red from shame and she hit him over the head with her book.

“We are not going to get closer and I certainly didn’t mean it like that, you pervert!” she yelled at him. Even though he had just been whacked in the head so hard it’d probably leave a bump the next day, he continued to smile at her, pissing Lumine off even more.

“Is there a problem?” their professor asked the two, clearly annoyed.

“No! Not at all! I’m so sorry professor,” Lumine exasperated. Great, now Childe was getting her in trouble on the first day. She looked over at him and he was still smiling.

Bastard.

The professor began with her lecture, Lumine making sure to pay attention hard. She would not let annoyance ruin her GPA. As she wrote down her notes, Childe’s hand hovered over her notebook and began to doodle on it. “What are you doing?” she hissed.

“Oh you didn’t know? I’ve taken up art as a hobby,” he innocently said. Fed up with his antics, Lumine grabbed his pen and chucked it across the room.

“Hey!” he yelled. Childe didn’t expect her to cause a scene due to his teasing, but apparently he had pissed her off that much.

“What’s your name?” the profesor stopped her lecture and angrily asked, staring at Lumine. She gulped.

“It’s um Lumine,” she shyly responded, her voice filled with embarrassment.

“Well, Lumine, if you continue to disturb class, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” her profesor called. She meekly nodded. If there was one thing she couldn’t do, it was get kicked out of her class. It was a major requirement afterall. Childe chuckled under his breath, before reaching into his bag to pull out an extra pen.

“You’re lucky I keep a spare,” he notified her. Lumine slumped back in her seat.

God, what did I do to deserve this hell?

Childe started doodling on her paper again. Too worn out to retaliate, she sighed and continued to wallow in misery in her chair.

“I think you’re lying about art being a hobby considering how shit your drawings are,” she irritably whispered to him.

The word “rude” was sketched onto her paper. Lumine furiously grabbed her pen and wrote under it “oh and it’s not rude to torture me by forbidding me from taking proper notes?”

“Nope!” he wrote, drawing a smiley face next to it. The smiley face just sent extra anger to her brain. He truly found this amusing. What a dick.

After what Lumine considered to be the longest hour and fifteen minutes of her life, class ended and she was finally free. She hurriedly put her things away and threw her backpack on, desperate to leave before Childe could harass her any further. She speed walked towards the exit, before he called out her name.

“Lumine, wait!” he shouted with a strange panic in his voice. She rolled her eyes and picked up her pace. Whatever the fuck he wanted, it couldn’t have been good. He watched in slight horror as she disappeared into the hallway. Chasing after her while she was this pissed off couldn’t be a good idea. He didn’t want to get hit over the head again.

Childe sighed, staring at the notes he had intended to let her copy in his hands.

Chapter Text

Lumine stormed furiously back to her dorm. He was a fucking jackass. She had never been more angry in her life. One, Childe had fucked with her all of class. Two, he had the nerve to try and fuck with her even further afterwards.

“Hi! Would you like to join Kappa Kappa Gamma? Rush is next wee-”

Lumine ripped the paper from the hand offering it to her before crumbling it up and chucking it on the sidewalk. She was not in the mood to have shitty campus organizations try to recruit her. The only club she was interested in joining was the “Fuck Childe!” club. At this point, she was considering starting it. The only problem would be finding a sponsor.

Lumine ignored the eyes staring at her; she quite honestly couldn’t care if she had caused a scene, or well, another one. She pulled out her phone to see how much time she had until her next classes, and was met with a message that only caused her scowl to grow.

hey roomie!! yanfei’s over right now so you might not wanna come back rn ;p see u later!

Lumine audibly sighed. Day one and she was already getting kicked out so her roommate could get laid. She wished she could repay the favor, but who was she kidding, that wasn’t happening any time soon. With the chilling in her dorm for the next two hours option gone, she decided to numb the pain with one of the only good things Teyvat University had to offer: Starbucks.

“I’ll take an iced chai latte, please,” Lumine said, giving her order to the barista.

“Name for the order?”

“Lumine,” she told her. Upon hearing the total, she grumbled and pulled her wallet from her bag. It was basically empty at this point, reminding her she needed to secure a job on campus. She slid the bills on the counter and told the barista to keep the change. Maybe one good deed would grant her one herself.

Lumine stood in the corner for what seemed like an hour until her name was finally called. She took the drink from the barista’s hand and smiled. She looked at it for a second, making sure her order was right (with everything that happened today, a mess up was likely). Everything appeared correct, minus the misspelled name reading “loomeen,” but at this point it didn’t bother her too much.

She triumphantly exited the store.

Her positive thoughts were quickly interrupted by a brunette figure bumping into her, causing the drink to spill all over her shirt.

“Shit I’m so sorry!” the unfamiliar girl exclaimed.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Lumine sighed. She really shouldn’t have expected much more, things were going well for suspiciously too long.

“No really, I’m so sorry. I’ll buy you a new shirt. My name’s Mona by the way,” she offered and introduced herself.

“Lumine, and are you sure? I’d feel really bad, you really don’t have to,” Lumine reassured her.

“Those school shirts are quite expensive… Alright, I’ll just treat you to lunch,” she proposed. Lumine couldn’t blame her, shirts from the bookstore were in fact way too fucking expensive. She had considered buying one herself, but the $70 price tag was far too hefty.

“I have class in 30 minutes so I’m not really sure if I can… I do appreciate it though!” she told Mona.

“Oh come on don’t be such a goody two shoes! Everyone skips class, you’ll be fine!” she laughed.

“I… I’m not sure, I’ve never skipped class before,” Lumine said. She was telling the truth; she had shown up to every class in high school, even when she was sick. She couldn’t afford to miss a day and let Childe get further ahead of her.

“Hand me your schedule,” Mona commanded, reaching her hand out. Lumine sighed, pulled it up, and handed her phone to her.

“Geology with Profesor Zhongli? Oh you’ll be fine, he really doesn’t care as long as you get a good grade in his class,” Mona informed her. Lumine hadn’t gotten around to checking Rate My Professor, so she decided to trust Mona on this one.

“Alright alright, I’ll bite. I need something to keep my mind off this asshole that’s been bothering me,” Lumine said, giving in.

“Let me guess, shitty ex?” Mona asked her.

“God no, he’s far from an ex, just a douchebag that’s been my arch nemesis since high school,” she explained.

“Wait, what’s your sign and his?” Mona demanded.

“Um I’m not really sure why that matters,” Lumine responded in confusion.

“I’m trying to see if this is an incompatibility issue!” she clarified.

“Well um, he’s a cancer and I’m a virgo,” Lumine responded, earning a loud gasp from Mona.

“It’s not an incompatibility issue at all! You guys are extremely compatible, trust me on this. I’m the president of the astrology club and the stars do not lie,” Mona squealed and grabbed Lumine’s hand.

“Yeah I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say the stars are lying, I hate that guy more than anything,” she exasperated.

“Lumine I need you to send me your date of birth, year of birth, time of birth, and place where you were born, like ASAP. His too,” Mona commanded.

“That’s very personal information I really don’t want to share with someone I just met, and how the hell do I get his birth information?” Lumine told her, a bit weirded out by the demand for her birth information.

“We’ll talk about this over lunch. I’ll explain everything,” she urged, grabbing Lumine’s hand.

“So you’re telling me astrology led you to your boyfriend?” Lumine questioned.

“Yes! I hated that guy, he still pisses me off a lot but that’s besides the point, but once I saw his birth chart, I knew we were actually meant to be,” Mona explained.

“I really don’t think that’s the case between Childe and me,” Lumine groaned, taking a bite of the burger Mona had bought her.

“But it could be! You never know,” she said with urgency. Lumine had no idea why this girl was so set on proving her and Childe were soulmates, and truly was not buying a single bit of it.

“I know very well you’re wrong on this one. We’ve hated each other for 4 years now, an astrological reading isn’t going to change anything about that,” she replied.

“Okay, I’ll drop it for now, but I’m giving you my number in case you change your mind,” Mona told her, reaching for Lumine’s phone. She sighed and handed it to her, once again. “I may have said I was dropping the astrology thing, but I am curious why you hate this guy so much.”

“It’s a long story,” Lumine wryly laughed.

“Darling, I have time, trust me,” Mona insisted.

“Okay well, I’m kind of a try hard in school,” she began.

“That much I could tell by your opposition to skipping,” Mona remarked.

“Hey! Plenty of people don’t skip regardless of how much they worry about grades!” Lumine exclaimed, lightly slapping her newfound friend’s arm. Mona rolled her eyes in return. “But anyways, this guy, Childe, was also a try hard. At first I didn’t really care about him making better grades than me, but then he would start to rub it in my face! Naturally, I decided if he wanted to pull that shit I’d bite back, and thus began my horrible four years of fighting my life to beat some jackass to the valedictorian title,” she explained.

“And let me guess based on the way you’re still frustrated about this, he won?” Mona questioned.

“Normally, I’d applaud you on good intuition, but I don’t want to give you any ideas that your prediction about my love life was right, but yes, he did,” Lumine sighed, earning a grin from Mona.

“Maybe he just liked you! You know what they say about boys teasing girls they like,” she suggested. Lumine faked a gag.

“Gross! I highly doubt it considering he’s just an all around douchebag, and besides with how smart he is, I’d think he has the brains to know that doesn’t actually work on girls,” she responded.

“You put too much faith in the brain capacity of men, Lumine. They’re idiots and know nothing about how to win our hearts,” Mona told her.

“You’re right on that one,” Lumine replied, taking a sip of her soda, “but I really do just think he was just your average high school asshole.”

“I have an idea,” Mona proposed, causing Lumine to look up, “you need to get laid.” She nearly spit out her drink.

“W-what?” she exasperated.

“Oh come on! You have all this pent up rage about one guy, why not use it to fuck another! It’ll get your mind off things!” Mona encouraged.

“I’m going to pass on that one, hook ups aren’t my style,” Lumine reminded her.

“That’s what everyone says when they start college, and trust me it changes. Why don’t you just come to this party with me this weekend. Whether or not you take my advice, some vodka always takes your mind off things,” she suggested.

“You know what, fine. I think my roommate’s girlfriend is coming over again this weekend anyways,” Lumine said, giving in. Mona let out an excited squeal.

“Great! I’ll text you the details, I have to go now. That idiot Scaramouche is blowing up my phone,” she told her and started to gather her things. Lumine didn’t know too much about their relationship and didn’t want to pry, but she wondered how Mona could stay with someone she often described as insufferable. That’s college dating for you. As she watched her walk away, she couldn’t help but laugh at her mumbled curses about men.

Lumine finished the food Mona had bought for her and gathered her things as well. She was feeling triumphant, she’d actually had some fun today, even made her first friend. She figured Hu Tao would’ve finished her fun by now and decided to head back to her dorm.

Lumine texted Hu Tao she was coming back, but was met with no response. Oblivious, Lumine assumed this just meant she was in class. Surely the girl had to get her hands off her girlfriend and go to class at some point.

As she walked to her dorm, Lumine couldn’t help but smile. The day started off rough for obvious reasons, but it was seemingly ending well. She’d finally gotten the balls to skip class for the first time, made a friend who seemed to be good fun, and was invited to her very first party. That one she was nervous for, it went without saying due to her academic endeavors in high school she never had time for any parties. Maybe Teyvat University wouldn’t be that bad afterall.

Opening the door, Lumine planned to both bitch about Childe and boast about Mona to her roommate. Gossip is what roommates are for afterall, right? Instead, she was met with one screaming naked girl and another who felt as if the situation was a little amusing.

“You told me she wasn’t going to be back for awhile!”

“How was I supposed to know? At least she knows what a smoking hot body you have now! I just hope she doesn’t wanna share now.”

Good things only last so long. Maybe tomorrow would be better.