"Dude, are you out of your fucking mind?"

If being popular was a superpower, Trunks Briefs would be a superhero. He's the kind of player with whom everyone wanted to play ball with as soon he stepped into the playing field. If you want to get a better picture of what I'm like, just try imagining the very opposite of that. We're the school's typical jock versus geek archetypes, except that he's not only athletic but also brainy whereas I'm strong as much as I'm bookish; those balancing traits are just not the first thing others see when they try to match labels to the package. When it comes to matters like the 'wheres', 'whens', 'whos' and 'whats' of love and its acceptable boundaries, I've always pegged Trunks as the expert. He has the flair and the experience where I'm just awkward.

Although his rhetorical outburst wasn't exactly the concerned or even interested reaction I was expecting when I asked him about her, I decided that a safe answer would be more judicious.

"Err… Maybe?"

2
More Falling

Her name was Cello Maoh (rhymes with "hello now" except with a "c" before the "h" and an "m" in place of the "n"). She's a foreign student with alien descent as I was. Apparently, if being popular for being misunderstood was a superpower, then she would be the supervillain of this story (as far as the majority of the university campus was concerned).

I shrugged my shoulders and got a genuinely sympathetic shake of the head in response that pretty much eloquently expressed: 'You are so screwed!'.

It turns out that Cello Maoh was a proud misandrist; a notorious man-hater. No one knew why, though. But what bothered me more was how everyone generally disliked her because of this without even bothering to actually understand why.

Girls hated her because she was always a hot topic of discussion among the boys. When they didn't hate her for that reason, they'd still hate her anyway because she came on too strong and was unbecoming for a girl (at least, as far as their opinion of how a girl should conduct herself). Her relationship with boys was even messier. Those who weren't betting and competing on who could get her to submit to a man were magnetized by her standoffish aura and tried to win her over the old-fashioned way, which didn't end any better.

According to Trunks, she has rejected every single one of them to date, and not everyone has had the balls to take it like a man. That pretty much explained the ridiculous amount of aggression she always got from the boys. Nothing hurts the brittlest of male egos better than the existence of a strong and independent woman who genuinely didn't need whatever it was that men believed they had to offer.

I could imagine how the fact that Cello Maoh was all that plus a bonafide misandronist must have been one heck of a low blow to them, which is why the losers who had nothing to brag about but their machismo felt the need to assert their virility over her.

I was masochistic and suicidal (apart from the obvious "downright stupid"). That was Trunks' initial assessment of the situation. Of all the "safer" and more available options who were already doing everything from batting their extended eyelashes to flashing their enhanced assets at me just for a speck of my attention, the first one I show legitimate interest in is the mental case Amazonian chick who just didn't go for dick.

Point taken.

I had to admit he had a good argument.

He was convinced that being the (-and I quote-) 'golden-hearted naïve virgin' that I was, I was merely confusing pity for attraction. This part of his verdict surprised me. I knew I was interested in her, yeah. But I've been so caught up in just wanting to find out more about her that I didn't think to even analyze that I might be attracted to her romantically. I couldn't really say I had enough experience of what that felt like to deny it. It certainly gave me something to think about that night.

All I was sure of then was that Cello Maoh was a mystery I had to solve; a puzzle I wanted to piece together. And the more pieces of that puzzle I found, the more I needed to know what secrets she kept; to see the whole picture of her. Even weirder was something in me was already positive that I was going to like what I stood to see. Trunks' warnings and disapproval didn't even faze me in my quest. It became a compulsion fuelled by something I couldn't explain more than curiosity at that time. I just couldn't get her out my system. If attraction was anything like that, then…

And it just kept getting worse from there. I didn't bother letting Trunks know that I didn't heed his advice to stay away from Cello Maoh and go chase someone else instead; someone who wouldn't be more than happy to kick me in the nuts the soonest opportunity that presented itself. Maybe I thought he was overreacting and the whole matter would blow over once I've figured Cello Maoh out. Or maybe, a part of me knew that he was only too right about everything: That I was most probably going crazy.

I found myself doing the exact opposite of Trunks' advice.

I pursued the elusive Cello Maoh. Sort of.

I've never actively pursued any girl. But maybe that's only because I've never felt the urge to, even if I had been mildly interested in one or two before. Pestering or stalking girls were things I would never have considered proper by any standards. Neither was meddling in other people's business or being where I wasn't wanted. But before I even realized it, I was already doing all that.

It became a habit for me to get up ten minutes earlier just to wait for her to emerge from her residence hall and follow her to the college building. I did all of this discreetly, of course, keeping a safe distance. She already had enough bad stalkers, and if I had to be a stalker, I was determined to be a good one. If I had to resort to unconventional means just to make sure she was safe from her unconventionally terrible circumstances, then so be it. I knew she would never admit it, but at the rate of the growing enmity around her, she needed me. I liked to think of myself as her secret protector. At least- that was how I justified my creepy behaviour.

It went on for a month or two until it happened: I levelled up from "getting worse" and entered a whole new phase of crazy I couldn't even define anymore. I couldn't remember when anything else mattered more than whatever it was I was doing then.

Was this still classified as "attraction"? If not, then what's worse than attraction? What usually came after that?

I didn't bother asking Trunks for the answer to that, either.

Somehow, I think I already knew.

End of Chapter 2
Continued in Chapter 3: "Bust Them Balls"…

Notes:

Preliminary design sketch for Cello Maoh can be found on AO3. Just type up 10871973 in the search box & you'll find her in chapter 3.

Replies to Reviews:

To X3runner:
Thanks a lot for the favourite, follow, and comment! Well, I can't say much yet or I will be spoiling the plot for you. All of your questions will be answered in future chapters. But I can tell you that although there will be some fighting and they are still somewhat half aliens here with some level of power, this story won't follow the Dragon Ball Z plot at all. This will be more focused on their relationship and totally different backstories.