The Tyrant's Pride

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Non-speech, thoughts, text

"There's a commoner scum in Hyotei."

"Yeah, she's getting picked on all the time but she's been attending the school every day."

"He's been trying to weave out what doesn't belong here but she's stubborn."

"Although she's not on the same social standing as the other students in our school, she excels in all areas. She is a model student and we are grateful to have such lovely juvenile."

"Aahn~? Her? She's so pathetic she makes me want to give her a reason to make her hate herself. Me? This Ore-sama has all the rights, because I'm the King, after all."

"There are opposites everywhere: the cold and the hot, the turbulent and the calm, the hard and the soft, and many more that comprise the entirety that surrounds us.

We can categorize everything, even on the smallest scale, into either one or another after funneling down to its most fundamental states. Its fundamental, polarized integrity is the identity that defines the very own existence, the proof—and is the basic building blocks of our universe.

This particular phenomenon also transcends upon people. There are those who are good and those who are evil. Those who are active and those who are passive. Those who find values in tangible things and those who don't.

According to the Chinese philosophy, yin and yang, the light and the dark—the two polar opposites coexist in harmony and are interdependent, giving each other meaning and existence through an intrinsic, ubiquitous bond.

That is why—

An 'S' end to your 'N' self—is a must in your life."

"A great passage reflection, absolutely beautiful. And also a very clever play of phonetics in your last sentence. S to an "N" of the "end" and "N" to an "S" of the self. Stunning work. Class, a round of applause for Ms. Haraue." The teacher in her mid-40s said with delight in her voice. "You may go back to your seat, Ms. Haraue."

A round of applause rang out in the classroom as the girl walked through a row of desks. As she passed by a certain area she heard a rather amused smirk of a male voice. She merely ignored it and sat back down.

Just as the girl was quietly organizing her belongings in the desk, the school bell rang, signaling an end to another school day.

"Oi, Haraue."

She recognized her name in the sentence but didn't bother to look up at the figure that had supposedly called her, standing just a few inches away and towering over her. The figure patiently waited for the girl to zip up her bag and finally give an attention.

In front of her was a tall and handsome boy with dark lavender-colored hair that parted down the middle of his head. The boy had a mole right underneath his right eye which seemingly, with the other pair, condescendingly and amusingly looked down on the girl who merely looked up in an uninterested demeanor.

"Beautifully written essay, Haraue. That Aoyama-sensei really loves showering you with sugar-coated compliments. Surely you don't bribe teachers to do that since, well... since you simply can't." He said with intended sarcasm, still smirking.

"Go fuck yourself you narcissistic asshole."

Instead of directly letting out what she was thinking, she merely flashed a smile at him, standing up slowly. "Why thank you Atobe. Thanks for gracing your way to tell me that she isn't the only one that knows how to shower me with sugar-coated compliments. I certainly didn't bribe you this time around." She retorted, nuancing that he was the one who also complimented her.

There was a slight twitch in his lips and eyebrows that showed distress, but he soon composed himself and flashed a yet another belittling smile.

Before even giving him a chance to open his mouth she brushed past him. She had better things to do in her life than get caught in a pointless squabble for having the wittiest mouth.

This was Hyotei High School—a school known for having all sorts of well-off kids who were born with golden spoons in their pompous little mouths and had everything in life simply handed to them—or at least that was the definition Haraue Miho had always held in her mind. But she was one of the rare exceptions that didn't fit in.

"Mihooo~!"

She heard a familiar voice calling out to her as she was walking out of the school. One of the very few down-to-earth people in Hyotei who Miho had befriended, Aoki Hana, came running over to her.

"Hi Hana."

"Hey I heard that Atobe-sama tried to pick on you again!" She whispered, glancing around the perimeter a bit.

"Not really. He knows how to give me sugar-coated compliments." She smirked, thinking back to a few minutes ago when she did a pretty good job in giving him a witty come-back.

"Did you show him up?" Her friend smirked along, getting a pretty good grasp of what it would have been like.

"Pretty much." She replied. They then continued walking out of the school gate.

"I wonder why he picks on you so much." Hana frowned a bit and wondered. "I've always wondered but you're the only one getting picked on by him."

"It's more like I'm the only one getting picked on by about half of the student body." Miho corrected—and held up her Hyotei school bag, covering her face, and protecting Hana with her other free arm. A car whizzed by, and crackle noises rang out upon impact. Hana squeaked and Miho merely sighed. After looking around and saw nothing of threat, Miho brought her bag down and let go of Hana.

She looked at the bag—transparent and yellow goo with some white shells trickled down from her bag.

"Again?" Hana frowned as Miho took off a protective vinyl layer that she had put on just in case since this kind of thing happened to her almost every day.

Miho calmly took off the layer and shoved it into the trashcan along the way. She then held up her bag and smiled faintly after checking the cleanliness.

"We should really tell someone about this…! They'll keep on bullying you more and more at this rate." Her friend said out of concern.

"As Aesop once said, "any excuse will serve a tyrant." Asking the school for help alone won't stop them, so might as well leave them be. Plus the school feeds off of those tyrants."

"But still…"

"I just have to hang on for another half a year and I'll be fine." She said, smiling casually. "And as for you, are you sure you can hang around me like this? You'll end up like me too."

"Hehe~ Don't worry don't worry! You know people can't do things to me so easily." She said, laughing.

"That's true." Miho smirked. Hana was one of the richest, most powerful students in Hyotei due to her family background. Miho was always skeptical as to why she, of all people, tried to get along with someone like herself. Keeping the skepticism aside, Miho admitted that she appreciated Hana's frequent company in an establishment full of people eager to gnash out their fangs at her.

"Well then, I'll see you tomorrow. Have fun at work!" Her friend waved and dashed off towards a black limousine parked on the street a few feet away from the school gate. Miho waved back and continued walking down her path.

Miho walked for a few minutes, took the bus, and stopped in front of a bookstore. She walked in and set her bag down on a cabinet behind the counter.

"Good afternoon, tenchou!" Miho greeted after noticing an old man in his late 60's coming out of the door at the back.

"Oh, Miho. Good afternoon. How was school today?" The man smiled benevolently and asked.

"It was pretty good. Reading the book yesterday definitely helped me write a good essay for my homework. The teacher complimented me." She said, laughing. She of course left out the part where a certain nuisance provoked her.

"It's really nice to see you doing well in Hyotei. It''s not very common to see people from around here go to a school that prestigious." He said, smiling.

"Hehe, I'm just barely getting used to it still, but thank you, tenchou." Miho smugly scratched her head.

Miho worked part time four days a week, Fridays through Mondays, in a small but frequent bookstore in a busy part of Tokyo; while working she could study as well as read books when there weren't too many customers. It then became six o'clock; the store was the busiest after lunchtime and the traffic died out little by little Miho was able to relax a bit and start reading. Being too indulged in the book, she didn't realize that someone was standing in front of the counter.

"Excuse me—"

"…"

"Excuse me?"

"Huh?" She shot her head up and found a handsome, tall guy with hazel-brown hair and glasses standing in front of the counter, staring at her intently. "Ah, I'm sorry! How can I help you?"

She put her book face-down without closing the book so she could come back to it.

'Macbeth… a rather depressing book for a teenage girl.' The guy thought after reading the cover. "I was wondering if you had Pride and Prejudice in stock."

"Hm, is it not in the shelves?" Miho went around the counter to check out the shelves.

'Huh, Hyotei Gakuen…' He recognized the uniform the girl was wearing. He found it rather odd to find a girl from a school of rich kids working at such a small store.

He followed her to the isle where the book was supposed to be. She looked around—

"It looks like we haven't re-stocked it. I'll check the back for a copy, so please wait a moment." She said and hurried off to the back. After a bit she came back with more copies in her hand. The boy met her at the counter and she scanned the copy.

"And would this be all for you today?"

"Yes."

She then took out a paper wrapping and started wrapping the book.

"Is this your first time reading this book?" She asked, carefully wrapping the book.

"Actually, no. I read it a couple times; I just thought I'd get my own copy." He replied.

"That's good. This one's a pretty great novel, although I only read it once because I found it a bit delusional." She laughed, recalling Mr. Darcy of the book and comparing him to the other similar "nobles" of Hyotei and finding everything but good things common: skyrocketing pride, dramatic demeanor, bossy language, and many more she couldn't quite count with her five fingers.

She was done with the first layer of wrapping.

"Delusional?" He questioned. Usually people's opinion on the novel was nothing of the sort, especially not girls, who were in love with Mr. Darcy.

"I personally think it's delusional. A British woman, in the 1800s, writing about a romance between a high-class aristocrat and a near-commoner gentry? She was 21 when she wrote this. Even though she projected her opinions regarding the upper social class on Darcy, making him such an annoying, rude character, she still chose to have Elizabeth fall for him."

"That's certainly a new way to look at it." He said, thinking over about what she said.

"Ah, I'm sorry if I ruined your favorite book." She apologized after seeing the boy put on a serious look.

"No, I'm rather intrigued. It's a fresh perspective. And that's a rather somber book you're reading." He eyed the book resting on the counter, not too far away from them.

"Oh, Macbeth?" She glanced at the book she was reading. "Yeah, it is pretty depressing."

"The last and shortest tragedy Shakespeare ever wrote."

She was done wrapping the book, taping it up and stamping it with the store's logo stamp.

"You know your classics. It's nice to know that there are still people who appreciate good books." She laughed as she handed the paper-wrapped book to him.

"I feel the same."

"Thank you. Please visit again." She said, being handed the money and returning a receipt in return.

"Thank you." He said as well and exited the store. He was reflecting on what the girl had just told him. 'Ah, now that I notice…'

As he passed by, he glanced into the store through the glass windows, and found the girl glued back to the book she was previously reading.

'A girl from Hyotei saying Jane Austen was delusional… hm. Maybe she's not one of the Atobe's kinds."

He stopped a bit and observed her a bit more carefully. Had he not talked to her and got a sense of her opinions and values, he would have thought that she was one of the rich, well-off kids from Hyotei. He recalled their exchange of dialogue a couple seconds ago; she had soft, slender fingers, long eyelashes, and long black hair tied up in an elegant ponytail. The way she carried herself while wrapping the book looked graceful.

Now he was slightly disappointed, thinking that he should've made an eye contact with her for a bit longer; he couldn't quite recall what color her eyes were. As he was thinking about the girl while observing her side on the other side of the show window, the girl looked up from her book and turned to the window as well.

Their eyes met for a short but long three seconds until the he snapped out as the girl smiled and waved at him. He seemed a bit surprised, feeling guilty from being caught staring at her, but nonetheless nodded in acknowledgement, and hurried on his way.

"Keigo-sama. How was your day at school today?" An old man dressed nicely in a butler suit greeted as he was handed over a bag and a jacket from a young boy walking in through a giant two-door entrance held open by two maids.

"There's a… vermin—still going around." He replied as he put on a rather irritated smile, pausing a bit in between his sentence to carefully dissect his thoughts to settle on an appropriate vocabulary.

"Vermin?" The butler raised his eyebrows, rather surprised by a sudden animosity coming out of his young master's mouth. "Keigo-sama, you seem to be rather… agitated recently. I suggest you counsel the school to address anything that is troubling you and your last year in high school."

"Thanks for the concern, Michael, but I'll take care of it soon enough."

2 years ago—

"Hey did you hear? We have a commoner joining this year!"

"How interesting! It's always a sight to see when they run off like little pests."

Excited chatters filled the elegant hall; in front of the hall above the stage was a huge banner that said "Hyotei Gakuen 89th Entrance Ceremony."

A girl with black hair, fair, white skin, and brown eyes sat quietly among excited students, looking at the front. On her uniform was a silver name badge that said "Haraue Miho."

Soon, they all quieted down as a certain lavender-haired boy appeared over the podium.

"It's Atobe-sama!"

"Shh, quiet!"

Without any official instructions for silence, the student body quieted down, their eyes pinned on the person that stood behind the podium.

'Who the hell is he?' She thought, curious as to why his presence was able to quiet down a body of 200 people in an instant.

"You all know who I am—" he began, bringing himself closer to the mic. "For those of you who don't know me because you were so unfortunate to have gone to a different middle school before to have missed this Ore-sama's amazing prowess, I'm Atobe Keigo."

'Having "amazing prowess" on top of calling yourself in third person? Ridiculous.' The girl scoffed inwardly after listening to the person spew out pure nonsense. 'No, Haraue Miho. You expected this. Don't bother with it.'

"Atobe-sama's so great, isn't he?"

Miho then heard a voice say next to her ear; she turned and found a beautiful girl with brown hair and green eyes.

"Um… yeah." She answered, not wanting to cause any trouble by getting into an argument with her peers on the first day of school.

"He's so handsome… and his voice just melts my ears!" The girl squealed and Miho just laughed smugly. "Ah! I'm Aoki Hana by the way." She held out her hand. "I'm the daughter of Aoki Corporations."

"Haraue Miho." She recognized the company name the girl just introduced along with herself—it was one of the main exporting companies that she could recall off the top of her head. Not knowing how to introduce her being the daughter of as, she merely disclosed her name and shook the girl's hand.

"Which company's daughter are you?" The girl asked much too innocently for Miho to ignore.

"I'm just a normal person." She said, not seeing a reason to hide.

"You're the commoner?" The girl gasped and said a bit too loudly for people around to hear; after she said out loud the word "commoner," everyone repeated the word in surprise and curiosity and turned to look at Miho who just sat there rigidly.

"Commoner?"

"She's the one."

People whispered among themselves and soon the attention shifted from the boy up on the podium to Miho. People that were too far to see Miho just mumbled among themselves and peeped around to hopefully get a glance at the commoner.

The boy who soon realized that no one was paying attention to him came around from the podium and looked around, seeking a source that disrupted his magnificent speech which should not have been interfered.

He then found a lot of people's head turned to a certain girl sitting towards the back.

"Atobe, apparently she's the commoner." One of the students in the front row told him. His eyes pinned on the girl like everyone else; then the girl who was looking around nervously, looked up at the stage—and their eyes met.

Miho locked the door to her tiny studio apartment, just big enough to accommodate one person. On the way to school she drank the last milk in her fridge and ate a banana. She had to walk 20 minutes and take the bus 30 minutes—a total of almost an hour to commute to school.

While she was in the bus she took out a book and read, or sometimes studied if she had a test or a quiz. She didn't have a big test or quiz coming up, so she grabbed the book she was reading recently—Macbeth—and plugged in her earphones into her ears.

She yawned—

She got up at six in the morning but slept at two in the morning. She came back home at ten the night before and she studied and finished her homework until two.

Every morning was a sight to see for Miho as she got in the vicinity of her school; Bentleys, Lincolns, Rolls Royces, Mercedes—the luxurious cars that the upper 1% of the population rode passed by the enormous school fence gate and dropped off kids.

'I'd rather sell that car and pay for my college tuition.' She thought, but soon brushed it off because it was absurd to be wishing for a car as nice as those.

The real sight to see was when—on days which he didn't have a morning practice for the tennis team—Atobe Keigo arrived in his fancy car and was immediately surrounded by a mob of girls that desperately sought his attention, calling out his name and screaming and whatnot.

Every time that happened Miho scoffed inwardly and walked past, raising the volume of her music.

It was about five minutes before the lunch bell;

"Ms. Haraue, could you come up to the board and solve this problem?" A male teacher in his 30s asked. Miho stood up and walked up to the front. She grabbed the chalk and started writing without stopping.

After boxing her final answer she put the chalk down.

"Alright let's see… correct, good job Ms. Haraue, you may go back to your seat. You first approach this problem by writing a differential equation…"

The teacher faced the board and began writing down things. Miho then walked back to her seats. As she passed through the isle, her leg was caught onto something, and she fell forward onto her knees. When she made contact with the ground she could hear stifles of laughter coming from around.

She could very well surmise what that "something" she tripped over was, and she could even more clearly tell that the giggles and snickers were directed toward her. Atobe, even though he tormented her the most, never actually inflicted physical damage on her. It was probably another classmate that tripped her over.

"Ms. Haraue, are you all right?" The teacher who turned around after hearing her collapsing onto the floor asked worriedly.

"I'm fine." She said and walked back to her seat, expressing not much distress.

Atobe, who was watching all along, scoffed when he noticed a red liquid flowing down from her right knee as she passed by. 'Pathetic.'

The bell then rang and students all packed their belongings and rushed outside to enjoy their lunch break in a long, monotonous daily schedule.

Miho stood up as well after organizing her belongings and walked out of the class. Atobe, who was now surrounded by girls asking him if they could eat lunch together, noticed her walk out of the class in his peripheral vision.

"Atobe-sama~ can we eat with you?"

"I apologize, but I have student council matters to attend to," he said as he got up, "but I will join you next time."

Miho walked down the hall, ignoring the stares and whispers people gave her as they passed by. She opened the door to the infirmary and noticed that the doctor wasn't there; she just walked over to a cabinet, took out a first-aid kit, and started treating the cut on her knee.

After school she headed out to the bus station to get to work just like the other days. After about a 30 minute drive she got off the bus in the busy downtown of Tokyo.

'It's hot.' Miho thought immediately after she stepped off the bus. Although she tied her hair up, the heat wave in Tokyo building forest was still enough to make her feel hot. She fanned herself on the face and neck in attempt to cool herself a bit.

The same boy who bought a book a couple days ago noticed Miho as she was waiting by the crosswalk to cross the big street. 'Ah, it's her. So she takes normal city busses…' Finding it weird that someone from Hyotei is taking public transportation, the boy observed her and inquired.

She had earphones plugged in, her fingers tapping a little to the beat of the music—

'I wonder what she's listening to.'

Then she started crossing with mobs of other people as the light turned green. His feet naturally followed her, as if he was being drawn in. The bookstore was located right in front of the crosswalk; she walked in, greeted her old store manager, and sat down behind the same counter.

Before he walked in, he saw a sign that said "hiring – part or full time." He opened the door and walked in.

"Welcome—oh, hello. You bought Pride and Prejudice a few days ago, right?" She noticed him and asked.

"Yes." He nodded. "I finished reading and I thought I'd find another book to read."

"I see. Let me know if you need anything." She smiled and sat back down.

The boy walked over to a random isle and pretended to look for books; he then glanced to the side to see what she was doing: reading. He didn't recognize the cover as it wasn't Macbeth that she was reading a few days ago.

'I wonder what she's reading now?' He wondered, being a tad bit far to read the title of the book.

She didn't budge and kept on reading; thinking that he'd get an interesting book himself, he looked around the shelves.

He grabbed Jane Eyre, a book he always thought that he should read. He walked up to the counter and she stood up, with a book still in her hand.

"Oh, you're getting this?" She looked rather surprised. She held her book up too and it was Jane Eyre as well.

"I thought I should give it a try." He said.

"It's a really good book." She said and smiled. "You have good taste in books."

She began wrapping the book with the same paper that she used a few days ago. While he waited around and watched her wrap the book, he remembered the sign that they had on their door. And he admitted that he was being impulsive, which he never have been.

"Oh, and by the way…" He spoke up. "Are you still hiring part-time positions? I was wondering if I could apply."

"We are. Tenchou~" She called and soon a door to the back opened up.

"Yes?"

"He wanted to apply for a part time job." She said.

"How very nice. Nice to meet you, I'm the store manager Hosoda Yoshimoto."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Tezuka Kunimitsu." Tezuka said and bowed politely.

"Which days can you work? I need someone to work Friday through Mondays with this girl."

"I could work Fridays and weekends." The boy answered. 'I get to work with her…'

"That's good. Fridays we need afternoons from 4 to 9 and weekends either mornings or afternoons."

"Fridays and weekend mornings work for me."

"Alright. Are you a high schooler?"

"Yes, I'm a 3rd year." He answered.

"That's the same as this girl! You guys could get along well while working." The old man laughed and said. "Which school do you go to?"

"Seishun Gakuen."

"Ah, the school not too far away from here, I see. Now then, when can you start?"

"I could start as soon as possible."

"Then can you start training today? Let's see… 5 to 9, so 4 hours. That should be enough training. It's not too hard working here. "

"I could start today, yes."

"Great. Miho, I'll leave the training to you." The old man said and walked back into the back room.

"I'm Haraue Miho, by the way. I'm 3rd year like tenchou said." The girl smiled and held her hand out which he shook.

'Her name was Haraue Miho…' He repeated her name in his mind as he shook hands. "Tezuka Kunimitsu."

"You can set your bag behind the counter here." She showed him around.

She taught him how the shelves are organized, where they kept extra books, how to work the register, and all sorts of things about the shop.

"As you can see, it's usually really quiet and empty during non-rush hours, so you'll have plenty of time to study or read books."

"I see."

"There'll be a lot of people coming in starting around 6 o'clock, but don't worry it's really not that hard."

They got busy from 6 o'clock to around 8; after 8, less people came in, and the store was completely empty by the time they were about to close.

They had about 30 minutes of downtime until 9 o'clock;

Tezuka was sitting down on the chair behind the counter; Miho came over with a can of drink she got from the small fridge next to the counter and handed one to Tezuka.

"Ah, thank you."

"Mmhm. By the way, Tezuka, do you play tennis?" She asked. "I saw you holding a tennis bag the other day."

"Yes." He replied, finding himself slightly excited that she had noticed something about him.

"Do you play for Seigaku?"

"Yes, I'm the buchou."

"Oh, then you must be really good."

"I'm alright." He answered. "You go to Hyotei, right?"

"Mmhm."

"You must know Atobe Keigo."

"Ah… yeah. Everyone knows him, I guess. I don't really talk to him though." She replied, catching herself right before she could spit out all sorts of things she had in her mind regarding the arrogant "King" of Hyotei.

"I see. He's a rival of mine for tennis."

"Now that you mention, I remember him being in the tennis club or something." She said. "Never seen him play, though."

"He's very good."

She smirked. "I figured." Of course, as expected of the King Atobe—he'd be elite at everything he does.

'She seemed a bit bitter. Am I imagining?'

A new fic, I hope you like it! Let me know what your first impression is! :D

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