"How brave!" came the half-reply, half-taunt.
His eyes slanted in Edo's direction, gleaming with flashes of anger and scorn. There was a wretchedness reflecting in those jewels of deepening grey lined with silver in the moonlight that silently accented Misawa's frustration.
"How come you get so much attention, huh, Phoenix?" he demanded. "You get noticed just by being pretty but I'm always ignored even as the smartest student in this academia! The only time I'm ever acknowledged is when I make a mistake—then I'm really noticed."
He spat out the last few words like they were poison on lips and the sarcasm glistened jagged emotion in the cracks of his voice. There was a thin veil of pain draped over his facial features and his body movements spoke a language that could only be deciphered by a man who experienced the same amount of anguish.
"Everybody seems to overlook my presence nowadays." Shades of anguish and remorse flitted over his half-lidded eyes. "I thought at the beginning of the year I'd become less lonely now that I had friends that shared the same dorm as me…but both Shou and Kenzan abandoned Ra Yellow to move in with Ichiban-kun…"
The indirect method Misawa used to address the smile that the little group of protagonists crowded around was as transparent as his thinly concealed jealousy. Then his anger dissolved into sorrow. Misawa hunched his shoulders and covered his face with his hands; his posture painted a dejected, crushed silhouette against the iridescent illumination. His eyes masked with absent emotion and his voice began to quiver with wavering control.
"A-all I want is to be recognized by everybody. By anybody. I just want to have friends, get into a good college, marry a pretty girl and have a happy ending." He peered up despairingly. "Is that r-really too much to ask for?"
Contrary to what Misawa had expected, neither a look of sympathy nor one of scornful disgust ignited on Edo's delicate features. His eyes of frozen blue remained dull and misted like frosted glass and because of this, Misawa found his grief transforming into irritation that peaked like spikes of incensed metal. He straightened up and drew a controlled breath. Edo didn't understand what he was going through. He was just wasting his time.
"Just…just…forget it," Misawa snapped; the exasperation was razor-sharp in his voice. "Forget everything I just said. This conversation never existed."
He whirled around and began stalking towards the Obelisk White dorms once more without a second glance at the silver-haired duelist. Benowest to Misawa, sharp piercing eyes of sapphire continued trailing his movement in the night's darkness. Finally uncrossing his arms, Edo gently nudged himself away from the pillar and stared at the broad silhouette of the once acclaimed leader of Ra Yellow.
"Yes," he said quietly and Misawa's footsteps immediately ceased. "Sometimes a happy ending is too much to ask."