Running through the halls, Boboiboy sees his grandfather, whom he reaches out to.

"Tok Abaaa! Tok Abaaaaa!" He cries out to him, but the hallway expands abruptly, and he appears to always be just out of reach, no matter how fast he runs.

"Tok Abaaa!"

Boboiboy looks around and finds himself in his old race car bed. Holding his hands were a familiar pair of aged hands, which were connected to an even more familiar blue flannel shirt.

"Boboiboy!" The concerned old man shouts, "Are you alright?"

Boboiboy's eyes moisten as he looks up before he simply cries.

"I thought I'd never see you!" Boboiboy sobs on the old man's shirt, who only caresses his nape while hugging him.

"It was all a dream, my grandson." The old man consoles him. "You're alright now."

Boboiboy continues to cry for a bit more, and when it subsided, his grandfather told him, "Now come on, you have classes today." He then coaxes the boy up as he tells him, "You can tell me what the dream was about on the way."

"Alright." Boboiboy nods, still somewhat taken aback by such a vivid and long dream.

But Tok Aba was right—however crazy long that dream was, school still comes first.

With that, he reaches for the side of his bed to grab his watch and—

"Eh?" Boboiboy exclaims. "What happened to my watch?"

"What do you mean, Boboiboy?" The old man asks, befuddled at his sudden query.

"Where's my orange watch?"

"It's in the toy box, remember?" comes the old man's confused answer. He explains that "I gifted you that black watch because you didn't want to look like a kid anymore."

The old man waves as he tries to recall those words. "Something about your teacher telling you to be a Boboi "man" or something."

"Huh..." Boboiboy voices out his confusion.

He swears those thoughts were wrong, but the longer he looked at the black wrist watch, yeah, that made sense. While he knows he's the type to go out and help if the need arises, he also knows that he is content as he is.

After bathing, brushing his teeth, and putting on his clothes, he goes to breakfast only to see someone in the window.

"Ah! It's Aramugam!" Boboiboy exclaims happily.

"The one and only!" The stranger intones, getting closer to show himself as Boboiboy's self-proclaimed best friend, Gopa-Aramugam!

Tok Aba rolls his eyes as he says, "What are you doing here, Aramugam?" He continues, saying, "The shop doesn't open until much later."

Seemingly taking offense to this, Aramugam goes in and gives a side hug to Boboiboy, saying, "I'm not that scummy Tok Aba! I just want to hang with my best friend. That's all!" He looks away and quietly mutters, "I wasn't here to ask if I could have some of the morning cocoa or anything."

"I didn't even say anything about the cocoa." Tok Aba says, which makes Aramugam jerk in response before awkwardly laughing.

"Anyways, finish your food, Boboiboy." Aramugam says as he smacks Boboiboy in the back. "We need to arrive early!"

Aramugam then grabs Boboiboy by the arm before dragging him away, much to the orange-clad boy's annoyance.

"Wait, I haven't even taken a bite!"

They eventually find themselves in school, where Boboiboy shouts at Aramugam, "I told you I haven't eaten yet!"

The taller boy sheepishly chuckles as he reasons out, "Hehe, sorry, force of habit."

Rolling his eyes, Boboiboy mutters, "Whatever."

As he entered the school, the rest of his friends greeted him.

"Good morning, Boboiboy!"

"Oh hello!"

"Tsch, so you're here, Boboiboy?"

Boboiboy smiled at this and said, "Mimi, Fing, Pang!"

After an hour of conversation, classes began, and they all sat at the table.

Mimi stands up first, commanding everyone else to stand up as well. "Stand uuuup!"

Everyone complies as a man in blue walks in. He caresses his moustache as he looks around with a critical eye.

Mimi then greets the professor, "A very good morning, teacher." Everyone else parrots those words.

The teacher then smirks before placing all the fingertips of one hand on his forehead while stretching his other hand out to the students. He then speaks. "A very good... MORNING STUDEEEEENTS!"

This loud introduction left everyone quiet.

The classes continued as they always had, normally.

As they left for home, Aramugam looked considerably tuckered out. Contrastingly, Boboiboy had a large, beaming one.

"Boboiboy, quit it."

"Quit what?" he asked, looking back at his friend.

"Smiling!" Aramugam shouts. "It's creepy, dude!"

"Well, I'm sorry about that." He chuckles before sighing deeply. "I had a super crazy dream last night, and it just... made me appreciate what I have more."

"What?" Aramugam asks, confused by his statement. "Did you die?"

"Well... not really." Boboiboy shrugs. Recognizing that the sun was setting quickly, he suggested that they talk about it as they walked.

As they continued their little trip, Gop-er... Aramugam then exclaimed, "Eh?! Now way!"

"What is it?" Boboiboy's best friend's sudden outburst perplexed him.

"Those people you're talking about, those are the main characters of the show." The boy with the green varsity jacket states before asking, "Weren't we supposed to watch that together on movie night with Pang, Fing, and Mimi?" The boy with a green and yellow jacket expressed his outrage.

Panicking, Boboiboy tries to remember where he got that information. Then he vaguely remembered Aramugam looking down at him; he didn't know why, but he was. Proceeding from that, he vaguely remembers hearing the voice of one of these characters. His eyes then widen as he says, "It's because you spoiled it for me, remember?"

Aramugam seems to freeze upon hearing that a tad too long—enough to make Boboiboy worry but not long enough to allow him to voice his concern.

"Are you-"

"Yes!"

That loud shout startles Boboiboy. Seeing this, the boy lowers his voice and apologizes, "Yeah, sorry." He then explains, "I just lacked sleep last night."

"I couldn't sleep from the excitement, Boboiboy!"

This assuages the orange-clad boy's worry, despite how weird everything is.

"Anyways, I'm going in now, Aramugam." As he turns the knob on his front door, Boboiboy says, "See you tomorrow."

"Right! Right!"

Before Boboiboy could fully enter his grandfather's house, his friend called out to him one last time.

"Er... Boboiboy?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you not tell the others that I spoiled you?" "I don't want them to get mad."

Rolling his eyes again, Boboiboy then sighs.

"Fiiiine. Besides, I'm just content to hang out with you guys."

Shortly after, they bid their farewells as Tok Aba greets Boboiboy inside.

"Ah! Boboiboy!" "How's school today?"

"Fine, Ozpin."

"Huh?"

Boboiboy then looks up before saying, "I mean Tok Aba." He then looks at his hand and mutters, "Man, what just happened?"

After eating dinner and doing his homework, Boboiboy decided to go to bed early that night.

"What a nice, mundane day today has been..." He mutters as he stretches. He then closes his eyes and sleeps.

It then cuts to Ruby crying, huddled up as she watches Boboiboy's seemingly lifeless body get hauled off to the hospital.

A few weeks pass...

The annual school dance is a day that means different things to different Beacon students. Some see it as an opportunity to interact with their peers and form friendships outside of their usual group circles. Others see it as an opportunity to dance away their stress. To others, it is an upcoming battle for the top, for the distinguished title of "king" or "queen" of the prom.

And yet, for others...

"Ruby... please come outside?"

For nearly three hours now, Yang has been knocking on the door of the dorm bedroom where Ruby has shut herself out of the world. To her own credit, Yang has tried to open the door, and my gosh, did she try—even nearly getting into trouble when she tried to break it down.

"Go away, Yang."

"Just go to the prom without me." Ruby tries to shoo her sister away, coming up with the poor excuse, "I'll just sit here rereading my... gun manual."

"You've used that excuse already." Yang tells Ruby as she crosses her arms. "That was after pretending to be asleep, remember?"

Ruby goes quiet at this, which Yang takes as a cue to press onward.

"Besides, I don't think someone like you reading a gun book would sound like she was silently crying into her pillow."

"Wha--how do you know that!?" Ruby screams, her grief obscured by shock.

"Blake told me." Yang replies. "She has cat ears, remember?"

"Urgh." Ruby groans before cursing out, "Stupid cat ears." She then suddenly shouts, "So what if I'm crying!?"

"Go away!"

"I feel sorry for him too, but moping there won't really be of help to him, yeah?"

Once more, Ruby goes quiet, making Yang take a deep, long sigh of frustration. Arriving at this sad scene were Weiss and Blake, who wore contrasting dresses. Weiss wore black and dark purple, while Blake wore white and yellow.

"Heh, look at you two, really pulling off that checkered look." Yang quips before trying to laugh and failing...

"How is she?" Blake asks, to which Yang shakes her head. "Ah, so not good..."

Yang then asks Weiss, "And how is he?" "Did the doctor say anything about his condition?"

Weiss proceeds to explain.

"Physically, he is completely fine." "They said nothing could be seen on him except a slight bruise on his cheek from falling face-first to the floor, but the doctor also said that they'd be calling in a specialist away from Vale."

When Yang hears this, she tries to persuade Ruby by saying, "Hear that, Boboiboy will be fine soon!"

"Hey guys, what's popping here?" Sun appears alongside Neptune with an easy grin.

"S-Sun! You're okay!" Blake exclaims in shock and relief.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Sun asks, faking confusion. He then proceeds to hold her hands, saying, "Anyone would be if they were now with you."

This cheesy remark earns an eye roll from Blake, but her smirk and the small blush on her cheeks betray her emotions.

She then notices Neptune raise an eyebrow at her, as if reminding her of something.Then it clicked.

She then stiffly turns to Sun before asking him, "Do you want to go as my date to the prom?"

Sun blinks twice in shock before replying, "I was planning to ask you, but since you're inviting, hell yeah!" However, he quickly remembers what he was doing here in the first place.

"Oh yeah, by the way, what are you three doing out here?" "Where are Boboiboy and Ruby?"

"Their, uh..." Yang says, her eyes drooping downward.

Weiss then enters the conversation to take the focus away from Yang.

"They are not in a good place right now." Weiss drawls before deciding to end with, "Let's leave it at that."

"Well, is there any way I can help them then?"

"Thanks but..." Weiss then trails off, leaving Blake to continue.

"Thank you, Sun, really." "But this is more of a... medical problem."

Weiss then adds, saying, "Unless you're a medical professional, there's really nothing for you here." "So, scram."

Blake elbows Weiss.

"What?" Weiss whispers.

"A bit much?" Blake whispers back.

Weiss rolls her eyes, still not a fan of Sun's lackadaisical disposition.

"Weeeeell... maybe not, but I do have experience being the friend to vent to."

"Well, that might work, but... there's a problem." "The doors have very strong locks." Blake says as she places her hand on her waist, knocking on the door with the other.

"And?" Sun asks with a confident tone, much to everyone's surprise.

"... And?" Weiss looks at the monkey Faunus, puzzled."We just said it's not unlockable."

"Team SSSN does not get hindered by locks." Sun confidently replies before turning to his friend. "Neptune, if you will?"

With a sigh, Neptune approaches the door before inspecting the key. "Fiiine... this isn't so bad." He then spits on both of his hands before finger-gunning the door lock with his spit, which short-circuits and opens it.

"What- how-" Weiss stammered out her response.

Neptune shrugs before saying, "This is the same lock used back in Haven." "Headmaster Leonhart was kind of a paranoid mess." "So when we're done with our homework and we're craving a bit of beer, I do this."

"A bit of a rebel, aren't you?" Yang teases, only to be met with a dry stare from the water bender.

"Don't you have a sister to worry about?"

"O-oh... Right..."

Knocking lightly on the doorframe, Sun opens the door slowly. However, as he was about to open, Yang stopped him and told him, "I'll do it."

Sun nods and lets her in. Yang enters the room with Sun.

"Hey... Ruby? I just... want to talk, okay?"

Looking up in terror, Ruby quickly tries to cover up the mess of wet tissue paper her bed has become.

"Ruby, you know you can't hide that, right?"

Even if she tried to hide the mess, she was a mess all unto herself. Acknowledging this, Ruby huddles up into a ball instead.

"Yang, I just..."

A warm hug envelopes Ruby as Yang gently tells her, "I know." "I know you feel like... you've failed him, right?"

"Yeah, I'm the team leader, and yet I couldn't do anything for him." "I failed him before by not saying anything to him... and now I'm failing him again."

"Ok, look, that's not fair to you, Ruby." "With that first one, your heart was in the right place." "We all knew he was going to go into shock if he faced those kids with the same watch powers, and no one else could do it at the time." "That was the best decision we could have made because we could see the results firsthand, and the second... well, you couldn't possibly predict... he literally ran out of the room, and we found him in a coma." "This is not your fault, Ruby." "No one was at fault."

Ruby digests these words and tries to deflect them. But then she remembers her own words to Boboiboy...

"Nope! Why? because having one person hurt is bad enough as it is. "We don't need two people going through depression." "Listen, what you did earlier was correct."

With a sniffle, she wipes her face, saying, "You know what? Yeah, you're right." "Besides, I'd hate it if Boboiboy was acting the same way I am right now."

"That's the spirit." Yang cheers.

"Meet you in 30?"

"Yeah."

Exiting, Yang breathes out a deep sigh.

"So, how was it?" "Is she coming?" Weiss asks, quite curious about the development.

With a smile and a nod, Yang confirms that notion. The five of them proceeded to the ballroom.

As Ruby looks back at Boboiboy's bed, she mutters, "Please don't leave me like mom."

She sighs before proceeding with her dress. As she wears it, she thinks to herself, "I wonder what Boboiboy would wear in an event like this...

She then chuckled to herself.

"Probably something dorky..."

In 30 minutes, surely enough, she arrives with the rest of the group.

"Ruby!" "So glad you could make it!"

Yang enthusiastically waves her hand. Ruby laughs nervously before sheepishly waving back.

"Well... what are we waiting for then?" "Let's go." Weiss says, beckoning everyone to follow her.

She then leads everyone to the ballroom, opening it up to show that everyone from various different schools was there.

Beacon, Haven, Shade, and Mistral—everyone was here. This was too much for Ruby.

"This is a mistake." She stutters as she tries to back away.

However, Yang stops her, saying, "Please?"

Seeing how hesitant Ruby was, Yang simply opted to give up. She's already accomplished what she set out to do.

"If you really don't want to go... then I won't force you."

This catches Ruby off guard. She was sure Yang was going to drag her in against her will, but she doesn't seem to mean it.

"Really?"

"Yes.

She goes in and timidly walks around, looking around for something to do in the ball.

Being too awkward to interact with anyone, she sighs and walks over to the punch bowl. Yet, as she approaches, she accidentally bumps into someone else. A familiar girl with amber eyes

"O-oh, sorry." Ruby stammers before recognizing the woman's face. "Ash, right?"

"It's no bother." "And if memory serves me right, you are Ruby, yes?" "Come on, I was just about to get some punch." "I need the drink if I have to continue dealing with the antics of my teammates."

She then rolls her eyes off to her back, and Ruby follows her line of sight and sees Emerald and Mercury about to fistfight due to both having become drunk.

Ruby chuckles and nods. "Yeah. Okay." As they drank punch, Ash would look at Ruby and see her gaze at her drink with a forlorn look.

"You seem... down." "Do you want to talk about it?"

Ruby drawls out, "Err.." before quickly dousing her awkwardness with a cup of punch.

Ash hesitates for a moment, but soon realizes why. "Apologies, Ruby. "I may have overstepped my boundaries."

Ruby awkwardly chuckles in response. "No, I should be sorry."

Though that was what Ruby said, her mind couldn't help but go to the actual reason she was hesitant to share with Ash. She can't help but feel an off-putting aura emanating from her teammate's regular patron.

Her mom and dad taught her to never judge a book by its cover, but for once, the aura she feels around the person seated beside her is akin to a metaphorical necronomicon.

Once Ash took notice of Ruby's stare, she tilted her head and asked, "Uh... Ruby?"

This shakes Ruby awake. She groggily asks, "Y-yes?" "What?"

"You were sort of spacing out." "Are you alright?"

"Oh... yeah... sorry." Ruby looks around rapidly to cut off further awkwardness. She then reflects on her current situation by curling into an inquisitive pose while looking away from Ash.

"Sure, the lady next to me is intimidating, but surely I'm mistaken in thinking she's evil... right?" "After all, Boboiboy hangs out with her all the time, technically." "Surely that means Boboiboy doesn't see it, and if he doesn't see it, then am I just seeing things?" She mumbles to herself.

She takes a small break and drinks more punch.

"Am I just scared that Boboiboy has left us?" "Is this what envy feels like?" "Am I envious?" "But why would I be envious?"

"Envious of who?" Ash suddenly interrupts her musing, making Ruby shriek in terror.

"Er... Ruby?" "Are you alright?"

"Who? Huh? Oh! Y-yeah!" Ruby tried her best to regain composure as she sat down.

"What were you muttering about?"

"Er... uh..." Ruby still seemed hesitant, but then she recalled how distraught Ash and her team were when she overheard them talking with Boboiboy in the hospital.

"If Boboiboy sees something good about her... Surely there's just something I'm not getting..." Ruby thinks to herself again, this time making sure she isn't speaking her thoughts aloud.

Furthermore, she doesn't know why, but she also feels less tight-lipped than earlier. Probably the alcohol in the punch is just kicking in. Either way, she's going to try and

"I'm envious of you."

"What!?"

Ruby quickly covers her mouth, realizing what she just blurted out of nowhere.

Ash gives Ruby a confused look, which only furthers her embarrassment. However, she realized that since things were already out in the open, she might as well lay them bare...

Ruby sighs and hides her face.

"I... envy you..."

Ash chuckles and asks Ruby why.

Ruby moans in annoyance at her stupid mouth but explains anyway. She might as well get it over with since she's blurted it out already.

"It... seems like lately... Boboiboy hasn't been talking to us as much as he does with you guys. Maybe it's just because you guys are his customers, but to me, it feels like he's been growing closer to you guys while distancing himself from us. I mean, you guys are close enough that you offered him a place on your team.

The fact that he hesitated indicated that he, even subconsciously, believes we have failed—that I have failed him. And the most painful part is that I see where he's getting at... "I mean, if I were in his position, I'd be more likely to open up to you than to me." "I mean, you manage to keep together a team with a deserter, and... those guys," she says, pointing at Emerald and Mercury as they tried to maliciously kick and claw at each other as they danced.

She quickly realizes what she was implying and immediately apologizes, "No offense."

Another realization Ruby gets is that she's been rambling long enough, and so she goes and concludes her rant.

"The point is, you're a better leader than me, and I envy you for it." "And I shouldn't be selfish." "If Boboiboy changes his mind and wants to join you guys, who am I to stop him?"

Ruby looks at Ash and sees her fellow leader show mixed signals. On one hand, her bronze eyes did not make any effort to hide the pride of some admitting they were beneath her, yet her mouth curled into a subconscious frown and her eyebrows furrowed.

Ash replies, "Ruby, while I am indeed a better leader than you, you can't allow yourself to settle for "not good enough." with a surprising amount of passion.

Ruby was shocked to hear this from someone whom she had feared until now. There was a genuineness to her voice that indicated a hatred for this defeatist attitude.

"Ruby... Emerald only gave him the invite because we were still sore from our teammate leaving." "We thought he was going through the same thing in reverse."

Ruby quickly counters, "We would never!"

"I know. Boboiboy cleared it up, but even if I am objectively a better leader than you, he doesn't seem to want to trade his team for anyone.

Ruby felt relief wash over her. She may have heard him say it before, but by then it felt more like he was just saying that out of guilt, which made Ruby feel even more guilty. An outside perspective clearing things up helped assuage her guilt.

"Now, if I may ask a more personal pair of questions, what are your personalities and semblances?" Ash asks, throwing Ruby for a loop.

"What?"

Ash restates her query. "What are your teammates' personalities and semblances?"

Ruby grows suspicious of Ash, and despite her strange urge to still tell the truth right away, she manages to stop herself and instead ask, "Why?"

"Well..." Ash mumbles. Ruby couldn't tell if it was because she was writing her next sentence well or because she was inventing an excuse. Ash has proven herself unpredictable already with how she seems to be constantly looking down on everyone yet took the time to be compassionate to Ruby, so she would rather not assume.

"Do you remember what semblances are?"

"Well, they're an expression of the soul." Ruby answers unsurely.

"Correct. I want to prove to you that you and your teammates are compatible with Boboiboy.

However, before she could probe Ruby more, Ash's eyes suddenly widen as her scroll rings.

"Oh... sorry Ruby." "I... must accept this call." "Do you mind?"

"Go right ahead." Ruby sheepishly replies. When Ash left, Ruby groaned in relief. While she understood where Ash was coming from, it's just too suspicious for her to blab about her team like that. As much as she weirdly wanted to—seriously, what was that about?

Meanwhile, as Ash walks off to one of the empty balconies, her pleasant smile turns dour as she pulls up the phone.

"Yes..."

Her voice was dissatisfied with how things were going, and she wished she could reject the call, but she couldn't.

"Ah, if it isn't the megalomaniac with a tendency for tardiness, how is your mission going?" A middle-aged male voice sneers with a southern Atlesian accent and a lot of sass.

"Get on with it."

"Did you get her to spill about her boy toy's secrets, Cinder-dear?"

Cinder, rather than Ash, clenches her fists. "No, it turns out that this truth-telling mixture of yours worked so well that it made her dump her fears and insecurities on me instead of the things I was asking of her." "You also made the dose last too briefly."

She then mutters, "Some scientist you are."

The voice on the other side scoffs before sneering, "Do not blame me for your shortcomings, girl." "Just get on with your job."

She growls lowly at this but takes a deep breath to compose herself. She then vanishes into the shadows to fulfill her next objective.