Green Light (GeminiFourth AU)

Chapter 4

♊4️⃣

I fled the school. I walked down the road next to the courtyard at practically a gallop and burst through the front gate of the school.

From there, it was just the school road, perfectly straight and surrounded on either side by woods thick with cherry trees and magnolias. Walking in the shade of the tree, I looked up at the early-summer sky, where the sun was still high above. In my wretched mood, even the nice weather pissed me off. Sure, I knew how dumb it was to take my anger out in the sky, but all pleasant things were enemies to me. The springtime of life, bittersweet love, passionate friendship, not only were all those things strangers to me, the only memories I had were miserable ones.

"Fourth!"

As I heaved a gloomy sigh, I heard someone calling my name from behind. When I turned around, someone was running toward me from the direction of the gate. It was Gemini. While I was busy being confused by this, he came up and stood in front of me.

"T-Thank goodness, I caught you!" Gemini smiled as he panted for breath.

Even the sweat soaking Mr. Pleasant's forehead looked refreshing. Two girls who'd passed near Gemini were stealing glances at him and exchanging whispers of "It's Gemini!"and "Oh my God!"

"Oh my God," my ass.

"What do you want? I thought you said I could go home."

"You can, but...wait a sec...it's still hard to breathe..."

"Were you going for some new world record? How fast did you sprint here?"

"Well, I figured if I didn't hurry, you'd get away. But I caught you, so that's a load off my mind." After letting out a huge breath, Gemini gave me a relieved smile.

Those words with that smile---he was a born casanova. It tugged a little on even my heartstrings, and I was a guy. Of course, when I said 'little,' I meant smaller than a grain of sand.

"I' sorry about what happened back there. They said some mean things to you."

"Why are you apologizing? The master takes responsibility for the errors of his entourage, is that it?"

When I hurled this sarcasm at him before he could finish his apology, Gemini's shoulder slumped.

"Later I'll tell them to apologize to you. But before that, I wanted to make sure I apologized. After all, it was my fault to begin with for not cleaning."

He looked just like a scolded puppy, inviting compassion from all who looked at him---but if he thought that would make me forgive him, he was mistaken. On the contrary, it actually pissed me off more.

Don't you be blinking back tears with those long lashes around me, pretty boy! You make it look like I'm a jerk picking on poor Gemini!

I choked back my urge to scream at him.

"Whatever, I don't care. And there's no point in you apologizing anyway."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Why not?Do you seriously not get it?If you apologize to me, the guys around you are just gonna sympathize with 'poor Gemini' and come glaring at me. To put it bluntly, you talking to me is he biggest nuisance here."

It was only after I'd spat the words in my snidest tones and thrown in a sardinic laugh as a bonus that I realized I'd gone too far. Gemini looked at me sadly. When he said 'sorry' to me with that morose face, even I felt really uncomfortable.

And then, a moment after the air between us had become oppressive---

"Gemini!I finally found you!" burst a high-pitched voice out of nowhere, and we both looked up.

The owner of the voice was a girl from our school, running toward us from the gate. She made a beeline for Gemini, sending the skirt she'd shortened to just above the knee fluttering in the breeze. Smoothing her shoulder-length hair with its loose permanent wave as she came to a stop before us, she let out a big breath.

"Honestly, I've been looking everywhere for you, Gemini! You better not tell me you mean to just go home."

"What's got you in a rush, Becky?"

Gemini turned to the girl he'd called Becky and blinked at her, puzzled.

"I wanted to talk to you. But when I went to your classroom, you weren't there. You skipped out on cleaning duty with no shame at all, didn't you?"

"I was planning to head right back when I was done here. And I told them that!"

"I don't know, Gemini. You are a smooth talker...but more importantly, shouldn't you be hurrying back? If you guys don't finish cleaning, your teacher will lose patience and come check on you." Becky wagged her index finger sternly as she spoke.

You could see why people said she put the starlets to shame. She was adorable, even when she pouted. She'd been completely ignoring me the whole time, even though I was standing right next to her.

"Now, stop dawdling and come along. I'll help out too."

"Okay, Becky, I get you. Sorry, but would you go on ahead and tell Mark and the others that I'll be right there?"

"Sure, but..."

Becky puffed her cheeks a little in frustration, turning towards me for the first time. "Fourth, did you say something mean to Gemini again? I don't know what is your problem with him, but try not to act too childish."

I let the shrill voice pass without even listening.

Childish, my ass. If you don't know what you're talking about, then don't come attacking me without hearing my side of the story.

I felt anger weling up in my stomach, and I turned around to walk away. I wasn't about to take any more unreasonable treatment when all I've done was some earnest cleaning.

"Fourth, wait!"

I brushed off Gemini's plea and began walking rapidly. I got the feeling he was going to try to come after me again, so I broke off the school road and headed into the woods, cutting my way through an animal trail overgrown with weeds.

TBC