The Pseudo Semicolon

CHAPTER 14: The Jaws of Death

"Is it 165?" Akira asked one Monday evening as both he and Devland hung out at the former's house. Devland held up his end of the deal, teaching Akira whenever the latter wanted. It was just an excuse to meet up often.

Devland looked at Akira's answer, leaning over his shoulder to get a better view. He gave Akira the brightest smile he could muster, "No."

"So cruel!" Akira huffed as the other inspected his answer. Devland simply shrugged, muttering the calculations softly as he trailed a pen over the numbers.

"The sign is wrong. It's negative here." Devland pointed to one of the digits, "That's why your answer is wrong."

"All because of one minus sign?!" Akira exclaimed, staring at the mistake in horror.

"Wonderful isn't it?" Devland smiled smugly, "All because of one foolish mistake, your whole answer is wrong. This is why I love Maths."

"You're a fucking psycho." Akira shivered as he started to redo the problem. Devland sat beside the boy, observing him keenly, His hair hung over his eyes, a frown scrunching his forehead as his eyes seemed to narrow at the paper, his pretty lips set in a scowl.

'Cute.' Devland thought to himself, "We can take a break–We've been doing this for over two hours. Too much studying is damaging to your already half-damaged brain."

"That's rich coming from you—I bet you study during your breaks."

"I do, in fact." Devland said defensively, "What's wrong with that?"

"Nerd."

"Loser."

"You're wearing less-oversized clothes today." Akira changed the topic, eyeing Devland cautiously, "Any reason?"

Devland had realised that. He had forced himself to not wear any more of Max's clothes, trying desperately to move on from him. Presently, he wore a white shirt tucked inside some black ripped jeans and shoes. It was a simple attire. "Nope. Just felt like it."

"It looks good on you." Akira said breezily, doodling on a page's corner.

"Everything looks good on me, Fukumoto." Devland whispered, leaning in to speak it in his ear. This made Akira blush and shuffle away from Devland.

"Where's my shirt?" Akira recalled.

"Gone. Uhhh, it's missing. Sorry." Devland said hurriedly. It was in fact, not missing, Devland just didn't want to return it. "Anyway we need to check the location again."

"Tonight? But it's so dark!"

"Maybe we'll find something in the dark."

"Or we'll die horribly."

Devland grinned wickedly, "See, it's a win-win situation."

"For you." Akira scoffed, standing up and walking towards his wardrobe. "I want my body preferably in one piece."

"Fine, fine, if anything happens, I'll try not to abandon you?"

"Soooo reassuring." Akira grumbled, eying a plain shirt, "Top ten things Devland says to his girlfriends."

"Oooh, what are the other nine?"

" 'I'm sorry for being an asshole, it's my default setting.' " Akira supplied, pulling off his shirt and spreading it on the bed. Devland's brain momentarily short-circuited in a way that made him not process the rest of what Akira was saying. "... and finally, in the first place, it's 'Would you like to break and enter into a house with me? It'll be like our second date.' "