【COZEN】Bloody Painter x Reader

❥Chapter 7

Time felt so slow when you were walking with him, it felt awkward and he looked like he was about to walk in a faster pace than you at any minute. But he seemed to try and think of a conversation since he threw a few glances at you and made small inhales like he was about to say something but refrained from doing so.

It took him a bit until he finally gained the courage to start the conversation once again, "so what made you join art class?"

That was a question that actually struck you, it was so random to be put in a class that you're not really good at. Your lips parted a bit to give him an answer, "I was actually put in there randomly, I honestly didn't know I was gonna be there in the first place," you let out a soft snort, thinking that all the classes you actually have were just randomly there since you didn't have an idea on what classes to take, or what classes were good enough to earn credits, "to be honest with you, all my classes were already there, so I don't really know if I still have time to change them."

This seemed to amuse Helen, since he let out an exhaled laugh and smiles a bit, he shook his head in disbelief to what he was hearing, he looks at you still with a smile in his face, "that's surprising." That's all he said, and that was the only thing that broke this awkward tension.

"Well, maybe I'll keep art class, and you can teach me, give me advice you know?" You said to him, he stopped smiling and looked a bit hesitant about it, which made you feel confused, a small frown appeared in your face and you talk again, "well... you don't really have to though." You look forward, breaking eye contact with Helen, the lighthearted conversation you were having with him suddenly turned awkward and tense again, like a business type of conversation.

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After the conversation you had with Helen, you ended up in your first class with him, and it was like you never talked to him in the first place, he never looked your way or anything and it made you feel bad. In the other hand Maggie and her friends were there to distract you, and surprisingly Tom was there, which it was weird since you didn't see him there on your first day. Now that you think about it, you haven't seen Aiden ever since you got to your first period, neither you saw him with Tom.

After first period ended you reached Tom and asked him about Aiden, but he didn't know where he was either, so you two planned on looking for him everywhere. Tom speaks up as he looked around the hallways, "I don't understand... he said he was gonna come to school today."

"Maybe he was feeling bad and couldn't come?" You respond, as you looked for him. Then you remembered the time where Tom and Aiden were hiding, maybe he was there for a reason, "I think I know where he is!" Before Tom could say anything you start running, leading to the exit of the school trying to get to the tree.

You finally get there, you slow your pace when you get close to the tree, you started to hear soft sniffles like someone crying, as you get closer and look around the tree you see Aiden hugging his knees and covering his face as he was crying, you call out to him softly to not scare him, "Aiden...?"

He slowly lifts his head up and looks your way, glossy eyes and a red nose in front of you, he quickly wipes his tears away with the sleeves of his hoodie and looks away from you, a hint of embarrassment for crying in front of you, "hey, (Y/n)." He stammered, that's all he could say and that made you frown.

"What happened, why are you crying?" You ask in a soft voice, trying to calm him down as you sit on the ground next to him. But now that you were close to him you noticed a few scratches and bruises on his face making you gasp.

"They beat me up again." He wipes his nose with his sleeve as he stuttered, having hiccups from crying too, but he tried to hold them as much as he could, "I tried to defend myself but... I couldn't they beat me up even more when I tried." Tears started to build up once again when he was telling you what happened.

"Who did this to you?" You ask, getting more concerned at how violent the person was with Aiden, and for no reason.

"Ban did it. He said that I should keep my mouth shut or else he's gonna shut me up himself," he inhales deeply trying his best to not cry. "But I haven't-" he couldn't help but let the tears flow, a desperate sigh comes out from him, and sudden hash and fast breaths were coming from him, "-I haven't said anything to him!" He yells out before hiding his face from you.

You quickly hug him, trying to soothe his crying as you start rubbing his head. You didn't understand, how can a sweet boy like him get treated like this? It might have been rumors that Ban heard.

Now all made sense, no wonder Ban wasn't in class with Maggie.

Though it seemed that the hug calmed Aiden, as he also returned the hug, holding you in a warm embrace. His tears made your shirt wet, but that didn't matter, as long as Aiden calmed down was mostly important.

"What happened?" A voice joins in, making Aiden break the hug and sits back on the ground. You look up and you see Tom looking down at you confused, he adjusts his glasses and sees in what state Aiden was in, he quickly goes towards him and crouches down, "Aiden? Are you alright?"

Aiden nodded as a response, and Tom just frowned at that.

"You need to stop crying, you're gonna be fine." He says, in a way to 'comfort' him, but it didn't seem to help since Aiden lowered his head even more.

"Aiden said that Ban beat him up because of some rumors going around." You say and Tom turns to you, he looked surprised and looks at Aiden, "but I don't think Aiden would be the type to say those kinds of rumors."

Tom completely sits down in front of Aiden and looks at him with a serious face, "you need to be careful, Aiden whatever you say those words are gonna be twisted and it's gonna be used as a rumor like today."

You frowned at this, who would make up those rumors in the first place?