Trying something new

Stretching his arms behind him, Victor released some of the tension from his back. Sitting down for so long really didn’t do his body any good. But at least class wasn’t as bad as the breaks. He was in Sanctum city for about a month now and even at home he’d never felt this lonely. He didn’t know anyone at the university, wasn’t the best at making friends and so he’d spent most of his time alone, trying to avoid the other students. How could he connect to them when he could count the amount of friends he’d made in his life on one hand?

Today, however, he’d decided it was time to stop being so pathetic and try and talk to someone. The only question was who? And how? And where? There were actually a lot of questions… But he was going to do it. And so he dropped his stuff in his room after class and went to the cafeteria for lunch. After picking up something to eat at the counter he looked around the room to find an empty seat. Turns out, most people already had a group they belonged to after a month at university. Victor’s shoulders slumped until he saw someone sitting alone. Of course he didn’t know whether the other was alone or just waiting for their friends, but this was his chance. Victor went up to the student and more confident than he felt he tried to grab the other's attention before asking: “Could I sit here?” while gesturing to the empty seat next to the other.

Victor had mastered the art of looking more confident than he felt early in life, but when he noticed the other was listening to music and hadn’t heard him, he felt his self-assured mask crack. “Yeah, euhm, sorry,” he tried to explain himself, at a loss of words. Luckily the other understood Victor’s gestures and said the chair was free for him to take.

“Thank you.” Victor nodded and used the moment it took to sit down to collect himself. He’d been stupid not to notice the ear buds and had already made a fool of himself in his first interaction with the other. “I’m Victor,” he introduced himself, trying to ignore his self doubt eating at the corners of his mind. “Can I ask what you’re listening too?” he nodded to the ear buds. He was actually curious what kind of music the other was listening to.

Victor shook the other’s hand. “A pleasure to meet you too,” he said with a smile. He felt more at ease now that he knew the other seemed interested in getting to know him. For all he knew, he’d sat down next to a loner who wouldn’t say more than a word to him. He was happy that wasn’t the case.

His eyebrows raised when Vincze asked him not to laugh, but he nodded that he wouldn’t. He was familiar with Shakira. His parents had always made him go to classical concerts and all his music teachers had only been interested in classical pieces and so, naturally, Victor had scoured the internet for anything else. “It’s catchy,” he admitted. Though he wouldn’t listen to it himself, he had to admit that. But the other was right, Shakira wasn’t really his thing. “Do you know Sabaton?” He loved a lot of music and bands, but this one was the first he could think of right now.

When Vincze didn’t recognise the name, Victor thought that would be it, but he was happily surprised when the other held out his phone and asked him to show him one of their songs. He hadn’t expected anyone to be interested in something he liked when they didn’t know it already, especially someone who just met him two seconds ago.

Victor accepted the phone and typed Sabaton into spotify’s search bar. He scrolled for a bit, thinking of what song he would let the other listen to, until he settled on ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’. He selected the song and handed the phone back to Vincze so he could listen to it.

Victor almost had to laugh at the look Vincze had on his face when he looked up at him, but he kept himself from doing so. He’d told the other before that he wouldn’t laugh at the other’s musical tastes, so he wouldn’t do so now either. When the other joked, he let the laugh come out. “No, I don’t think she has.”

How would you dance to a song like this? “You don’t really dance to it,” he said, thinking about how he should explain it. “It’s more about what the song is about, about the lyrics,” he said. “You should see one of their shows; a large crowd singing along. It’s really an experience.” He’d been to one of their shows a few years before and it was one of the best concerts he’d ever seen.

Victor took the other at his word when he said the crowd went wild at Beyoncé’s concerts. He’d never seen one of them, but he believed Vincze. It was kinda funny how the music they listened to might be different, but their experiences with it didn’t differ that much.

The other opened his phone again and Victor could see he was looking up the lyrics to the song. “It is,” Victor said. “It’s based on a real story. It’s about a soldier who went to fight in a war and then wrote a book about it called ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ and the song tells what he went through,” he explained. “All their songs are about historical events.” That was what he liked about this band the most. Every time he listened to their songs, he learned something new.

The other’s smile faltered for a moment, but Victor couldn’t understand why. He must’ve imagined the emotion, he thought, because as soon as he noticed it was there, it was gone again and Vincze’s smile was back. “Exactly,” Victor agreed. He never would’ve known about the stories these lyrics told if Sabaton had never decided to write these songs. “It’s truly amazing that you can learn about history through songs.” Victor took every opportunity he had to learn more so these kinds of songs were perfect for him.

Victor nodded at the next question. “I have.” He looked up for a moment in thought before he focused back on the other. “That must’ve been two years ago. When they were touring in Galar.” He smiled at the memory. His father hadn’t been home at the time, but he’d instructed Victor to stay home and spend his time on his studies, leaving the servants with the order to keep an eye on him. “I snuck out of the house so I could go,” he grinned.

Victor laughed. “It was.” Justine had actually caught him when he’d snuck back in. He’d been so afraid that his father would find out he’d been gone, but the maid had reassured him she wouldn’t say anything, and she hadn’t.

“It’s where I’m from,” Victor answered. “I only came to Cerynia at the start of the school year.” A great opportunity for his studies, but also a good way to get away from home. “I’m studying medicine.” He would soon start his internship here in Cerynia. After all these years doing nothing but reading more and more papers, he would finally be able to truly help people. “How about you?”

What was it like? “Mmm… Well, the most striking difference is that we don’t have affinities. I’m still not used to seeing people use them,” he said. “They’re really cool though. A few days ago I saw a girl making ice cubes to put in her drink,” he laughed. If Victor’d had an affinity, he’d have used it for something more useful than that, but he just loved the idea of affinities. All that could be accomplished with them, the possibilities were endless.

Victor nodded at Vincze’s statement. “You’re from Iskra?” Victor’d accompanied his father on some of his business trips since he wanted him to take over the family business. They’d visited Iskra on one of those trips but they’d mostly spend their time there in boring meetings. “Have you been in Sanctum for long?” Victor asked. It was nice to meet someone else who wasn’t from here. “Do you have any plans for after your studies?” he inquired further. He was curious what the other wanted to do with business administration.