They played cards quietly as the dryer rumbled from the kitchen. Neither were playing particularly attentively, but neither of them really cared.
As Noll placed a winning hand down, the dryer came to a finish.
"I'll just-" Mai began, but Noll held up a hand to stop her.
"I'll do it."
She watched him check his clothes.
"Are they dry? You can put it on longer if they need it," Mai said.
"They're dry," he replied. He bundled his clothes up and Mai followed him with her eyes as he retreated to her bedroom to change. She tried to imprint the image of him in the pink dressing gown in her mind.
Mai packed away the cards and pulled her school planner out of her school bag. She had French, English, maths and biology homework to do.
But she didn't really want to do them.
What she wanted was an answer to her earlier question: what did Noll want from 'them'?
In truth, she quite liked kissing him. Mai felt her cheeks flush at the mere idea. But kissing Noll was oddly relaxing and exciting all at the same time.
Yet, she wanted to be his friend too. But how was a romantic relationship different to being good friends with kissing?
Perhaps, she thought, that it was the labels of 'girlfriend' and 'boyfriend' that Noll was confused about. She wasn't entirely sure if he had anyone that he would label as a 'friend'. The only person that came close was Gene, but they were brothers, so it was different.
Noll returned a minute later dressed in his completely dry school uniform.
"What are we starting with?" he asked, taking a seat.
"Biology shouldn't take long," Mai mumbled in reply. "Aren't you going to do your own homework?"
"I could," he said.
Mai frowned at him. He sighed and pulled out some of his own homework. Mai opened up her Biology workbook and together, they began to work.
Once Mai had completed her maths homework, she sat back and watched Noll for a moment. His hand was writing in an effortlessly neat script. He barely paused in relentlessly filling the page with mathematical symbols and equations.
"Why don't you start cooking tea instead of staring at me?" he suggested without looking up.
Mai scowled, but complied. Her own stomach was starting to indicate that she was going to be hungry soon.
"Do you and Gene have the same handwriting?" she asked as she filled a pan with water.
"No, why would we?"
"Well you switch lessons…"
"Come here, I'll show you."
Mai placed the pan on the hob and then moved over to the table. Noll took a piece of scrap paper and began writing.
Hello Mai!
He had written in his usual tidy calligraphy. Noll then switched the pen to his left hand and rewrote the phrase in a larger and loopier script.
"Gene is left handed," he explained.
"Oh," Mai said with dawning comprehension. "That's really cool!"
Noll smirked at her words before continuing his homework. Mai returned to the hob and added pasta and frozen veg to the pan.
"You've made a mistake," Noll's voice said from behind her. Mai spun around to see him examining her maths homework.
"Huh?"
"Nine minus two is seven, not eleven."
"What? Where?" Mai took the sheet from him and look down her answers. "Oh bugger."
"Stupid mistakes like that are common for scatter-brained idiots."
"I got the difficult bit right though!"
"Inequalities are hardly taxing."
"Oh shut up."
Noll rolled his eyes.
Mai corrected her answer and shoved her things back into her bag.
"Might I borrow your laptop?" Noll asked. Mai replied with questioning look. "Part of my psychology homework is to read a paper, it won't take long."
Mai retrieved her laptop, opened it up and typed in her password. She slid the device towards Noll and he began typing. Mai returned to the kitchen and stirred the food.
"Well…" Noll muttered a few minutes later. "I certainly did not expect you to read such things."
"Huh?" Mai looked around in alarm. "What are…?" She hurried around to stand being Noll. Her mouth fell open in horror. The Hak x Yona smutty, lemon-filled fanfiction she had been planning to read that night was still open from when she found it before breakfast.
"This is awfully graphic," Noll commented dryly.
Mai's mouth made as if she was going to protest, but then closed. She knew her face was flushed.
"I know you said you're friends teased you for being inexperienced, but I doubt reading such things will help you much."
Mai's mouth opened, closed, opened again and then closed in a pout.
"I didn't know that it contained inappropriate things…" she attempted weakly.
"If you didn't know what it contained, why do you look so embarrassed?"
"I'm not embarrassed."
"Mai, you could give a tomato a run for its money," Noll said with a smirk. Mai stalked back to the pan and checked the pasta. It wasn't quite done yet. "Though I could comment on the inaccuracies in this piece," he added conversationally.
"It's fanfiction!" Mai protested. "You have to suspend reality a little bit!"
"I was referring to the sex scene," Noll said. "No guy is going to cum twice that quickly."
"I don't want to know that," Mai squealed, covering her ears.
"So you will happily read porn, but you won't discuss it?"
"Not with you!"
"Why not?" Noll asked, knowing full well that if he continued down this path, Mai's head would likely explode from embarrassment.
"Because!"
She turned around and stirred the pasta and vegetables. It didn't really need stirring, but Mai needed something to do.
"And despite the fact that you read such adult things, you don't understand the connotations of thigh high socks," Noll said from directly behind her. Mai turned and looked up at him.
"You don't mean…" If she had been red-faced before, it was nothing to the shade her cheeks had become now. "You are such a pervert!"
"Excuse me?" Noll raised an eyebrow at her.
"Thats so…" Mai struggled for a word bad enough. "Creepy!"
"How is it creepy?"
"Because it's like oversexualised sailor suit school uniform perverted!"
"The pasta is done," Noll said, ignoring Mai's comment.
"Don't avoid the subject!" Mai retorted triumphantly. "You only change the subject when you're loosing!"
"I don't see a problem in being attracted to such things."
"Because it's-"
"I am a school boy. Girls of the same age as me, i.e. those that I would be attracted to, would also be wearing school uniform. I don't see an issue."
Mai scowled at him. How was she supposed to counter that?
She couldn't. Instead, she drained the pasta before tipping it back into the pan and adding the sauce. Mai ignored Noll as she tipped half the food onto a plate and retrieved the cheese grater from the cupboard.
"Do you want cheese?" she asked as she took it from the fridge. He nodded and she passed it to him. A few minutes later they were sat at the table, eating in silence. Mai chose to break that silence. "What happened to you acting oddly in front of your brother?"
"I had other things on my mind."
"Like what?"
"Like the fact you were missing," Noll replied shortly.
This stumped Mai. It was hardly an opening to a conversation. But as if he had read her thoughts, he posed his own question.
"Why do you call me Oliver?"
"Because it's your name?"
"Almost everyone else calls me Noll."
"Yeah?" Mai frowned.
"You don't."
"Well it's your nickname. I can't just use a nickname that I'm not privy too."
"I don't care if you do," Noll said.
"Okay," Mai said with a slight smile. She took another bite of her food. She swallowed and then blurted, "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Calling you a pervert," Mai said. Noll didn't respond. "I don't really think you are, I was just…"
"Surprised?" Noll supplied. Mai nodded.
Then there was a knock on the door.
"Who…?" Mai mumbled as she got up from the table.
She opened the door to reveal Gene.
"What are you doing here?" Noll asked tersely.
"You failed to mention to Mum that you wouldn't be coming home. She was worried," Gene said. "I told her that your phone rang out of battery and that I was going to pick you up."
"So why are you here now?" Mai asked.
"It's almost 10pm," Gene pointed out. "Mum wanted you home," he added to Noll.
"Can he at least finish eating?"
"I suppose," Gene said reluctantly. "May I come in?"
Mai stood aside and Gene entered the apartment. Mai shut the door and returned to her dinner.
"I would offer you some food but…" she trailed off apologetically.
"It's fine, I've already eaten," Gene said as he took a seat next to his brother. "You two been having fun?"
"If you can call homework fun," Mai muttered.
"You've been doing homework?" Gene asked incredulously. "Really?"
"Of course! We've got literally no time after school for the next few days!"
"Mai, we have exemption from handing in work because of the play," Gene revealed.
"What?"
"Is that true?" Noll asked. Gene nodded. "Mai, you're an idiot."
Mai scowled at him.
"You said that you were going to kiss me everytime I did something idiotic," she pointed out. Noll did not blush, but his body tensed slightly.
"Is this true?" Gene looked ecstatic.
"Well thats the excuse he's been using." Mai had a smugly satisfied look on her face.
"Mai, do you own a magnifying glass?" Gene asked.
"No, why?"
"Well I think he's almost blushing. I wanted to check."
"Would you like me to share with Gene the porn you've been reading?" Noll replied venomously.
"He's probably already read it," Mai said offhandedly. "Masako suggested it."
"I've finished," Noll said. He pushed his plate away from him and shoved his stuff back into his bag. "Let's go," he added to Gene.
"Noll don't be so petty." Gene rolled his eyes.
"It doesn't matter," Mai said. She took the plate and began washing up. "I'll see you tomorrow, shut the door behind you."
Behind her, Gene headed for the door. But Noll paused.
"Mai, I-"
"Just go Oliver, it doesn't matter."
She heard the door close. Mai sighed.
There had just been too many emotions in one day. Turning off the tap, she decided to finish the washing up in the morning. It wasn't like anyone was going to nag her about it.
As she climbed into bed fifteen minutes later, she turned off the light and stared up at the ceiling.
"Everything will be better tomorrow," she whispered softly.
If only she knew how wrong she was.
The following day, Noll strode out of Miss Mori's office having just signed up to assist with the production. She had been honestly shocked when he revealed Gene had had nothing to do with his decision.
He headed towards the Sixth Form common room as break was about to end and he had a free period next.
"Noll!" a shout came from down the corridor. Noll turned to see Yasuhara and a group of girls walking his way.
"Yes?"
"With regards to the issue you brought up yesterday, I think you ought to speak to these young ladies," Yasuhara said as they got close enough.
"They wrote the letter?"
"Yes," Yasuhara said sternly. "I hoped that you could clear up the matter for them." Yasuhara leant in and whispered, "they don't seem to want to listen to anyone else about this."
Noll sighed.
"Fine," he said. If talking to these girls got them to leave Mai alone, then so be it. Yasuhara nodded his thanks and walked off. He turned and faced the three girls. "Why did you do it?"
"So she'd stop bugging you!" The shortest of the three girls stepped forward slightly, Noll took her to be their 'leader' so to speak. "I know exactly how annoying she can be!"
"And calling her a - and I quote - 'disgusting skank whore' was qualified how?"
The short girl rolled her eyes.
"Because she's been throwing herself at you and batting her eyelids at you like some slut!" the girl said with a sneer. Noll took a deep breath. It was infuriating.
"Look," he began, deciding that appearing to agree with these imbeciles was probably going to be the best course of action in order to get what he wanted. There was no point lecturing to pigs after all. "Mai is just an idiotic Year 11 that I am tutoring so she doesn't fail and so I have something to put on my personal statement. I am completely unaffected by any attempts by her to 'throw herself at me' as you put it," he lied with ease.
"Thats all?" The girls had initially looked taken aback but his words, but their expressions had quickly grown into smirks. "She means nothing to you?"
"Nothing at all."
The short girl looked past Oliver and grinned.
"I told you Mai, didn't I? He doesn't want anything to do with you."
Noll frowned, then spun to see Mai standing a few paces away. Her face was completely blank. She nodded slowly.
"Mai," Noll began with no idea what he was going to say next.
"Don't," she ordered calmly. "I won't need you to 'tutor me' any more." The girls were withholding sniggers. "Do you girls want to know what he wants in a girl?" she added. They froze, obviously interested. Mai spoke directly to them, ignoring Noll. "He likes girls that he can bully. That he can degrade and put down because he's so damn insecure that everyone likes Gene better. So if you have no self respect, keep going after him. But I promise you, you can do better." And with that, Mai turned on her heel and started walking away before turning back for a moment. "Oh, and he has a thing for thigh high socks."
Noll stood there frozen as she strode down the corridor. He knew he had to go and explain why he said those things, but his feet weren't moving. He noted she was wearing ordinary tights.
"What a weirdo," one of the girls said. They moved away, frowning over the incident.
But Mai was gone.
And somehow Noll knew that something had broken between them.
Only when the bell went did Noll's feet begin to move again. They carried him to the common room where he sank into a chair in the corner and stared out of the window.
"How did it go?" Yasuhara asked. Noll had not noticed him approach.
"Everything will be fine now," he replied quietly. Mai would be safe from those girls' wroth. Even if that meant she was no longer speaking to him.
"Great!"
Noll watched Yasuhara go, and then returned to staring out of the window.
Author's note: So on Wednesday, I bought tickets to Japan. Yesterday I bought tickets to Portugal. In the next few days I might be buying tickets to Poland and Vienna... So much travel!
I have made a forum detailing the themed writing week, the link is on my profile! So please check it out! Don't hesitate to ask me anything about it! I want as many people to participate as possible!
I'm seriously so close to just deleting the whole of AHOAD. I tried to write it yesterday and just couldn't do it. I ended up writing this instead...
Please review :)