This weekend ended faster than I had anticipated it would. School hit me hard, like really hard. There were all of these people that had been learning this stuff for basically the entirety of their lives but I was only just starting. It felt impossible. And what's worse is that I think my professor is literally crazy. His name is Dr Stein- Doctor Franken Stein. He is obsessed with dissecting things which I find gruesome and a little disturbing. Nothing I can do about it though, so, oh well.

Today is Wednesday and lately, I've just been hanging around with Maka. She's been really helpful and I like her, you know. I'm currently in the middle of my 8:30 am class and we're just sitting, listening to Dr Stein rant on endlessly about how science is essentially the world. To my right, Maka and Soul are talking. Yes, I know it is rude to eavesdrop but sometimes I just can't resist.

"He's not coming out. No matter how hard I try, he just sits in his room, in the corner. It's ridiculous and I'm honestly starting to lose all hope in him. I mean, I just wanted to be his friend but I never thought it'd be like this. He needs too much babying, like I don't think I have enough patience to deal with him anymore. If this keeps up, I'm just going to give up on him as a whole," Maka said angrily. Soul responded, "just smack some sense into him."

"Soul, you know I'm not one to handle things violently if I don't have to. Crona wouldn't even respond to that anyways. Haven't you seen him with Ragnarok? The boy is complacent and just endures the abuse. No, you know, I've honestly had enough of Crona and he's pushed me too far this time. I don't think he'll let anyone inside anymore."

"You really won't give him another chance?"

"No, I don't think so. I've had enough of this shit, to-," Maka declared, as I cut her off. I had no clue what she was going off about but I figured there was no harm in asking. After all, how else would I be expected to integrate myself into this friend group? "Who's Crona?", I asked.

"Oh, sorry, Y/N, I didn't mean to exclude you. Sometimes I forget that you're new here. Crona's a student who lives underground, like a prisoner. Well, technically he is a prisoner. But anyway, he's scared of pretty much everything. He's never had any friends before and grew up in a rough place, so I figured I'd befriend him. It's been hard though, like, he's so closed in and I can't handle it anymore. After an incident that happened during a recent fight against a witch, he's completely shut himself away. He's been a pain in my ass, lately. I honestly give up on being his friend," Maka explained. "You really won't give him a chance?", I questioned. Maka was being really harsh, which I didn't expect of her, based on her character. "You sound like Soul," she told me, "if you're so interested in giving Crona more chances then you go try to be his friend. See how hard he is to deal with and tell me how that goes," she snapped. Maka's reaction annoyed me. Real friends don't give up on each other, at least in my opinion, that is. I wouldn't want my friends to give up on me if I was going through a rough patch and so I felt offended, for Crona. The poor boy had nobody.

I mean, how hard could it really be to be his friend. Maka ripped a corner off of the piece of paper she was writing notes on and she scribbled out some words on it. She folded it up and passed it to me. "Directions to Crona's room since it's kind of hard to find, at first. Go knock yourself out", she told me. I put the folded paper into my pocket and the bell rang. Dr. Stein finally stopped ranting, thank goodness. He told the class to "read pages seven to thirty-four, in the textbook section on Dissection". The whole class groaned, in response.

Finally, my only Wednesday class was over. This was relieving. I could have my free time. I followed Soul and Maka down the auditorium stairs and out the door. As I started down the halls I wondered if I should maybe visit Crona. After all, I did have nothing to do for the rest of the day. I reached into my pocket and took out the directions that Maka had written for me. The directions started by instructing me to go into the basement of the school. Odd place for a room, in my opinion. Regardless, I'll go. I walked down the main stairs to the first floor and found the stairs leading to the basement. I continued down, walking through what felt like a long, confusing maze. I got lost. Luckily, I saw a blue man sitting in the corner of the hallway. "Um excuse me," I called out to him. "Yeah," he answered. "Do you know where I could find Crona's room?", I asked him. He responded, "down this hall and to the left. There will be a big steel door on the right side. Are you visiting him? I haven't seen you here before".

"Yeah, and I'm new. Maka suggested I meet Crona so here I am."

"Alright. Oh, and the doors heavy so twist hard to the right."

I thanked the blue man, who then proceeded to introduce himself as Sid. I told him my name and then proceeded walking down the hall, turning to the left, just as he advised. The big metal door was right there. Man, Maka was right, Crona does live in a prison. I wonder what he did to be put in a terrible place like this, in the first place. I wonder what he's like.

Here I am, standing in front of this door. How am I supposed to do this? Crona doesn't even know me. I'm honestly crazy and I have no clue why I decided to do this. Whatever, I'm here now so I should just go for it and knock. I proceeded to knock on the metal slab, waiting for a bit. Silence. I knocked again and heard nothing, in return. Maybe he wasn't here, I wondered. But then again, it didn't look like he could get out. Maybe the door was soundproof. I grabbed the door's wheel and turned it really hard. I had to use all of my strength to get it to open. I then pushed it open and it made a loud creaking noise that sent shivers down my back. There was a bed in the right corner of the room with checkered bedding. There was a wooden desk accompanied by a fragile-looking chair, in the left corner of the room. Oh, and there was also a set of drawers and a sink. There was one small window in the room, completely barred. This was a literal prison cell. If it isn't, then I really don't know what is. I stepped inside the room.

"Hello, is Crona in here?", I asked. "Go away!", a voice yelled back, startling me. I turned to my left and saw a skinny pink-haired boy sitting in the corner of the room with his head buried in his knees. His arms were wrapped around his legs and he trembled. He's so skinny. I slowly approached him with caution. "Stay away!", he screamed. "I just wanted to meet you, Crona. My name is Y/N, I'm Maka's friend," I informed him. "I don't know who you are. Just please go away," Crona pleaded. I asked him why he wanted me to leave so badly. After all, I deserved an answer, didn't I? "I'm scared," he told me, "I don't know how to deal with people, especially not new people". That didn't really make much sense. How could one not know how to deal with people? He probably has some form of anxiety. I walked over and sat down beside him. "No!", he screamed, "go away! Please get out!"

I stayed. He was persistent telling me to leave but no matter what he said, I stayed. I knew he just needed a friend. I'd be his friend. He was silent, for a brief minute. I moved over, getting a bit closer to him. He seemed to ignore it, thankfully not responding negatively right away. I kept moving closer until he started to complain again, which was when I was about a meter away from him. So, I sat there. I ended up sitting there for about an hour. I just stayed, hoping I was a comforting presence to him. Luckily, he did eventually calm down again, allowing me to get relatively close to him. Finally, I asked, "Crona, can I be your friend?"

"I don't know how to deal with people. I don't have friends and I don't want any. Please understand that and just go away," he responded to me. "I don't think you actually want me to go," I said, "I think that you're just scared of what might happen if you get close to someone."

"No. I just don't know how to de-"

I cut him off. "It's not that you don't know how to deal with people, people don't know how to deal with you. Isolation isn't the solution to that, Crona," I explained. He was silent. I moved a bit closer so that I was maybe half a foot away from him. The room was so dark and it was hard to see much. The only light in the room was coming from the barred-up window. I moved a bit closer, again. "P-please don't!", he protested. I felt bad. Maybe I shouldn't invade his space. As much as I would be okay with most people getting this close to me, he might not be, and I want to respect that. I think that this is enough, for today. I introduced myself and physically put myself in his bubble, and I think that's a good start. "Crona. I'm going to go," I told him. He thanked me, but I continued, "I'm going to come back tomorrow, though. And the next day, as well as the next day after that. I want to be your friend so I'm going to work on earning your trust. I hope we can be close friends, someday". He didn't respond. I put an arm behind me and pushed myself up and off the ground, making a groaning sound while doing so. I walked over to the door and opened it.

"I hope you have a great rest of your day, Crona. I'll see you tomorrow."