PAUSED-Man of Whispers (Yandere! Bully x Reader)

25: Tranquility pt. 1

The bell strikes and the school day is completed. Science achieved nothing, simply a blur. I worked to distract myself with the current class curriculum among two other students covering a practical report.

However, the newfangled transition from lazy drawn-out periods of hunkering with uninspired teachers who didn't consider fulfiling their responsibility since the Timberwolves seized control...to being submitted into something productive and reasonable classes, that the other kids seemed to cling to as if it presented them nostalgia of how everything used to be before all this mayhem...to me, this was just some kind of fever dream.

While I recorded the findings of our basic chemistry experiment, I additionally kept a focus on the situation around me because something else was happening too. the other students I barely knew - and didn't begin to get to know - had maintained their distance. The avoidance was subtle, making positively sure they passed me by without any awkward contact, transferring materials quickly and briefly without a second glance, apologising after every accidental touch...

I remained so dissimilar to my classmates, they thanked me for arranging things to where they are now...but even still, there existed an unusual manner of tension surrounding how they behaved around me. Including the new teachers...especially the new teachers.

"Here Mr Dawson," I said handing him the printed sheet work. The balding bespectacled man turned in his office chair with a thin smile, which easily faltered upon meeting my stare with specific recognition.

"Ah, young (Y-Y/N)." The teacher reserved a nice demeanour although unpleasantly twitched in assessing my report. "You...put in quite the effort for such a simple assignment, I see." He states in uncomfortable laughter.

"Oh," Silence descends the science lab.

I view the full paragraphs of my report in comparison to all the other works on his desk. The students appeared to still be getting accustomed to a return of hardcore private school study without the fear of Markov and The Dogs despite the desperate want for this change.

"Right, maybe I did." I scratched the back of my neck, feeling all the eyes and ears of the other students accumulating my every movement.

"N-Not that it's a bad thing! Please forgive me!" The old man suddenly bowed his head down low, shivering as he did so. I took a step back to assess just what I was looking at, something digging in my memory that had inexplicably reminded me of Janus.

"Don't worry I get what you mean sir. It's just...My grandfather and I would do this sort of thing together in our spare time when he was researching seabirds." Mr Dawson raised his bowed head, blinking, my words seemed to have some calming effect.

"Oh...yes, Steven Wesley." He raises the report and looks at it closer, eyes jumping from it to me on several occasions. Then turned to me with his lips tight together in stress. "I've come to read his works of study on the local sea life, a certain...acquaintance...of yours told me that Mr Wesley found sixteen new species all by himself."

Mr Dawson files the report away and brushes down his pants before seeing me in the eye once more. Before I could probe further about who he was referring to, - although I knew he was talking about Markov by the fearful and dreary way he's spoken - Mr Dawson held his hand outstretched. "Never met him myself, but he'd be proud of what you have done for everyone here."