1999, May 23rd

  William sat on his bed, his face contemplating. It wasn't that he couldn't understand what the girl in the dream was hinting at. He understood perfectly. She must have been his girlfriend in the past, then! No, just kidding. There's no way he had a girlfriend. He sighed. It's pointless to speculate. Let's focus more on the present. Why am I so obsessed with these dreams anyway? They could just be dreams, nothing more. But my gut is telling me that it's important... Why?

  Waving his thoughts away, he noticed that it was still quite early. Only 9 AM. With no more desire to sleep, he walked over to the bathroom and did his usual routine. After washing his face, he stared into the mirror. He was still, sometimes, surprised by the mismatched eyes. He still wasn't used to this, even after all these years. He cleaned his face with a towel and walked downstairs, towards the kitchen. Sarah looked at him, surprised, "Oh my, you're awake early."

  He chuckled, "Just had a weird dream, that's all. Didn't want to sleep anymore after that, so I came down."

  Sarah nodded, "That's good. That's good. You should start fixing your sleep schedule, William. It's abysmal and really not good for your health."

  "But, Sarah. I work best at night."

  "That may be so, but your health is more important."

  William chuckled and walked over beside her, "Alright, alright. So what're we cooking today?"

  She looked at him with disdain, "We? I'd rather eat Eve's cookies than let you cook anything, Will."

  His smile froze on his face before he forced himself to laugh a little, "Alright. What're you cooking then?"

  She hummed, "For breakfast, it's just toast, as usual. For lunch, you can expect some steak with a side of mashed potatoes."

  He took a deep breath, as if he could already smell the meal, "That sounds amazing. Thanks, Sarah. Anyway, where's the toast?"

  She pointed with her spatula at the fridge, "In there."

  "Got it." He took it out and put it in the microwave. After about a minute of awkward silence, he took out the toast and started preparing it with some butter and sugar.

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  After finishing the toast, he started stretching. The stretching session would last about half an hour, which was perfect for him. After thoroughly stretching to maintain his flexibility, he started with his usual workout. A hundred push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and sit-ups. It was the 'anime workout' as he called it. It worked wonders for him. With him adding a hundred pull-ups to the routine, he felt it was truly complete. Maybe I'll become bald soon, too. However, he didn't want to become bald as he thought it just didn't fit his looks.

  William's thoughts wandered as he continued with his workout. What the fuck did the girl mean by I'm not emotionally mature enough. I've lived two lives. That alone should make me mature enough. He complained, but he understood that he truly was not mature enough, emotionally at least. He sighed and got up from doing push-ups. He grabbed a water bottle from the side and drank. After that, he jumped up to the bar and started doing pull-ups. His muscles, well defined from the constant workout, worked overtime to lift him up.

  Fuck, this is difficult without rest. He thought, but he pulled on through. After about 50 pull-ups, he dropped down and sat down, panting. Fuck, let's not do that again, at least until I've reached 7 in Body. He sighed. He continued his workout, his thoughts still wandering. After some pull-ups, he rested again for five minutes before doing squats. After a hundred squats, he rested again and then, finally, started sit-ups.

  William started stretching, wanting to relieve the pain and pressure in his muscles. After cooling down and resting a little, he started running. Before, he would run around the neighbourhood, but now, he'd bought a treadmill so that he could run at home. He started with an incline walk before he started jogging. After a minute or so of jogging, he started running, still inclined. He continued running. Damn, I miss YouTube so much, man. Before, whenever I went to the gym, I would either watch YouTube while doing it or listen to music. Now, I can do neither. Well, I can buy a speaker and blast music, but there's no excellent workout music here. After all, anime music isn't really a big thing yet. He sighed, feeling regretful, but didn't dwell too much on it.

  He continued running in complete silence, only hearing the sound of his steps, the treadmill, and the air conditioner blasting cool air into the room. After running for about 40 minutes, he finally reached the 10km mark and slowed down. He took off his T-shirt, which was soaked with sweat, and carried it with him as he went back to his own room. In his bathroom, he squeezed out the sweat in the shirt before throwing it into his laundry pile. After that, he decided to take a bath, a rare decision for him. He usually showered with hot water. William decided to switch it up this time, feeling that since he woke up early, he would spend that time taking a nice, long, warm, relaxing bath instead of just taking a quick hot shower.

  Inspiration flashed in his mind as he prepared the bath. He grinned. Let's have a bubble bath. It's been so long since I've had one. He chuckled and resisted the urge to bring in a rubber ducky or a toy boat. Clearly, that would be going too far, even for him.