Reawakening Mishaps

t w e n t y t h r e e

"It was our pleasure presenting in front of you all." 

Both you and Hideaki bowed simultaneously, the clapping of the audience being the only thing that was ringing inside your ears. It was a job well done, and you wouldn't be able to put into words how jovial you were currently feeling because not only did you two seem like you were going to get high marks with how the teacher was pleasantly smiling, but also because you were now able to cut all ties that you had with Hideaki.

But you did admit that all those times that you'd spent with him after school hours weren't all that bad. Sometimes, he could be a pain in the arse, but having said that, he did have his own redeeming moments. He would explain to you everything that you didn't understand and intermittently, he would just throw you a snack that he had gotten from a vending machine that sold moderately priced goods for students in Royal Brix that weren't able to buy lunch from the cafeteria because as much as the food tasted like heaven there, some weren't privileged enough to have the cash needed to buy them every day.

Hideaki both had his good and bad sides, the hindmost being exposed more often than the aforesaid. With this in mind, would you still want to hang out with him after the reason that the two of you were gathered together had reached its end? 

Yes, but actually no. Would you explain your answer further? No.

Because you two were done, it was time for the duo to clean up after the visual aids that were taped on the blackboard. And for the reason that you two didn't have the greatest of distance separating you both, your hands had come in contact with his several times. You glanced at him sideways whenever the touching occurred, and each time, it had greatly frazzled you that he didn't even flinch considering that he often wore gloves to prevent catching the bacteria that other people carry with them.

No, you weren't making shit up because he actually said that to you during the times in which you had requested for a break while making the charts you two used today. Did his nonchalance meant that he was opening up to you and that you now weren't just one of the extras that filthied hs life?

You weren't too sure if you should be happy if that happened.

Once finished packing things up, the both of you returned back to your seats as you waited for two more pairs to present. After this, it was another vacant for you. You didn't really feel like you were going to school at this time around, excluding works like this one, because you had so much free time in your hands. You should be relishing this liberation though because once the exam weeks were soon to come, you would be bombarded with different projects from teachers and you wouldn't have the time to relax once that moment has arrived.

Leaning back on the support of your wooden chair that seemed like it was still freshly painted after being used for a couple of months now, your e/c eyes were directed at the bulbs attached to the ceiling. You should be listening right now to other reporters, but you couldn't really focus on them right now even if you wanted to.

As of the moment, you could feel some of your classmates peeping at you every now and then, presumably because of the incident that had happened the day before this one. Some were even whispering to themselves and they weren't even trying to hide that fact. This was also why you were not looking forward to your free time. You were certain that no matter where you went, you would be the subject of attention because of your little 'brawl' with Clementine. You couldn't even call it as that because the slapping that you received was so weak that it just felt like a mosquito was biting your cheeks and you were absolute that the punch that you had thrown at her face was 10 times more impactful than hers. It did crack her nose and all. 

You couldn't really find it in you to feel sorry for her and feel even an ounce of guilt. You just defended yourself from being bullied and it wasn't your fault that she was a weak asshat that couldn't slap for what's her worth. Going to your father and whining about something that didn't have anything to do with them wasn't your thing since you preferred doing and solving things on your own.