After Alfred stopped breathing, Oscar handed the phone over to Lee. The operator instructed the chimera on how to perform chest compressions while Oscar gave mouth-to-mouth. Despite their efforts, it felt as if nothing would make Alfred's breathing resume. By the time EMTs arrived, Lee had no idea how long the zebra went without oxygen. When he was taken away in an ambulance, his roommates didn't even know if he was still alive.

The chimera climbed into his bunk with a melancholic expression. All of his roommates were shaken up. No movies, no homework, no guitar, no talking. Nobody was in the mood to do anything.

Lee pulled out his phone and noticed he never ended his conversation with his parents.

Lee: "Sorry for not responding. Alfred-kun had an asthma attack."

Haru: "Oh no! Is he okay?"

Lee: "No. He's in the hospital."

Legosi: "He didn't have an inhaler?"

Lee: "He couldn't find it."

Legosi: "Is he a zebra?"

Lee: "Yeah. How'd you know?"

Legosi: "I thought I recognized his name. I know his mother."

Lee: "Really?"

Legosi: "Her name is Ellen. I knew her from Drama Club."

Haru: "You've kept up with a lot of Drama Club members, haven't you?"

Legosi: "Not really. I haven't spoken to her in a while. I remember her telling me she had a son with asthma. His father needed to quit smoking after he was born."

Haru: "Well, that's not exactly a bad thing."

Legosi: "True. But she said it was very hard for him. At least, in the end, he prioritized his family over his addiction."

Lee: "I just hope his father doesn't lose a family member tonight."

Legosi: "I'll try to contact Ellen. Hopefully, I can update you on his condition."

Lee: "Thanks, Dad. I love you guys."

Haru: "We love you too, Lee. Good night."

Legosi: "Good night, Lee."

The next day, everybody was still feeling anxious about Alfred. Nobody said a word to each other as they prepared for the day. Lee had to push his feelings aside though. Tonight, he plays Adler for the first time. He memorized every line. Now, he just hoped he wouldn't choke.

When Lee arrived backstage, everybody was hustling and bustling while preparing for the show. Lee spotted Ibuki setting up the backdrop. The two chimeras locked eyes and the deer-wolf blushed before looking away and getting back to work. Lee had to put aside his drama with the other chimera for the night.

Sebastian looked great in the green dress of the love interest. But he was still doing that thing where he seemed to be meditating to take his mind off of him wearing something different from his sister's current outfit. Lee was happy the Dall sheep could get over this issue temporarily, at the very least.

Lee had to put on the costume in the bathroom so nobody saw his tail. Once he had it on, he fell in love with it immediately. He picked up the sword and made a few swings with it, relishing how badass he must look.

He picked up the skull and hat, both of which had slits for his rabbit ears to poke out of and put them on. His vision was somewhat obscured by the skull, but he knew he could manage.

When Lee walked over to the stage, his clubmates wished him good luck.

The chimera sprinted onto the stage and bent down into a pose. Showtime.

Lee impressed himself with how well he remembered the script. Every single word just came to him naturally. He never paused or stuttered in an attempt to remember something. He could tell his acting was probably a little cheesy, but at least his delivery was flawless.

Eventually, Sebastian made his way onto the stage, playing the role of the love interest. To Lee's irritation, there were people in the audience booing the cross-dressing sheep. Lee repressed the urge to call them out. Thankfully, Sebastian seemed completely unaffected by the jeers and performed his best. The chimera envied the Dall sheep's performance. He certainly had better acting chops than the chimera. Lee started to suspect that either good acting runs in the blood or these two have been trained by their father since they were small children.

Lee glanced up for a second to make sure nobody was dropping anything on him. He didn't need to though. Fen's sister, Lin, volunteered her time to help protect the actors by sitting cross-legged on the spot on the beams where the light was dropped from.

As the play went on, everybody gave their best performance. However, near the end, Lee just wanted it to be over. The theater lights were way too hot and his costume was getting smelly as he started to sweat.

They finally got to the end. Lee sat on his knees while Sebastian "died" embracing the chimera. Lee was very, very, happy to finally read the final line of the play.

"Sebastian... Have you said your farewells to this world?"

Most of the audience applauded as the curtain came down. If there were jeers or boos, they were drowned out. Lee pulled off the skull and hat and started heavily panting. He was drenched with sweat and was feeling very tired. He gave a sigh of relief.

Then, suddenly, Sebastian got up and wrapped his arms around Lee's shoulders before planting a kiss on his cheek. "How heroic." The chimera blushed.

An annoyed looking Ibuki walked up to Sebastian and pulled the sheep by the arm to his feet. "That's enough of that."

Sebastian looked confused by Ibuki's hostile demeanor, but just casually walked off stage where Viola hugged and praised him.

The deer-wolf extended his hand and helped Lee off the ground. "Good job out there, Lee-kun."

The wolf-rabbit smiled. "Thanks."

Ibuki blushed. "Can I talk to you in private?"

Lee and Ibuki stood in the backstage bathroom. Now that the play was over most people had left, meaning there was little chance of someone interrupting them. Ibuki leaned against the wall, arms crossed, an uncomfortable look on his face while Lee stood across from him, still in the Adler costume (Sans skull and hat).

The deer-wolf looked at Lee nervously. "I spoke with my father. He told me it doesn't matter what sex my partner is."

Lee smiled. "See? I told you your dad is more accepting than that."

Ibuki sighed. "Yeah. But umm… Do you think we could…?"

Lee's smile faded, replaced with a face that showed how conflicted he felt. "Uhh… I dunno about that. It's pretty hard to put the last few years behind me."

Ibuki seemed surprised by Lee's reaction. However, he quickly put on a smile and chuckled. "Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking." The deer-wolf extended his hand. "I'd still like to try to be friends though if that's an option. I promise I'll put an end to my disrespectful behavior."

Lee nodded and shook Ibuki's hand.

When the two parted ways and walked down different hallways, Lee was happy his fellow chimera got over the harsh feelings they had for each other.

Meanwhile, Ibuki stopped walking through the hallway and leaned against a wall. The deer-wolf rubbed his face in frustration. He snarled and punched a hole in the wall directly behind him before mumbling to himself. "Ibuki, you idiot."

When Lee got back to the dorm he was anxious to shower off. He hated that he had to wait for everyone else to finish. While his roommates knew his secret, they weren't the only ones that showered at the same time. So the chimera just had to wait for his turn. He pulled out his phone.

Lee: "Adler went great. I'm sweaty as hell though."

Legosi: "Those lights are pretty hot. But I'm happy to hear you performed well."

Haru: "I wonder if anybody recorded the play? I'd love to see your performance."

Lee: "Some jackasses were booing Sebastian-kun though."

Legosi: "Making Adler a same-sex love story will gain controversy no matter what."

Haru: "It really sucks, but that's just how people are."

Before Lee could send another message, Theo came in earlier than everyone else. "I did some dumpster diving."

Lee raised an eyebrow. "Umm… Okay? Interesting way to start a conversation."

Theo rolled his eyes. "I went looking through the dumpster near the running track. I found this."

Theo reached into his pocket and Lee's eyes widened when he pulled out a familiar piece of red plastic. Alfred's inhaler!

The goat gave Lee a serious expression. "I don't think he threw this away, do you?"

Lee's fist tightened as he felt burning anger very quickly building up inside him. "That cheetah did it, didn't he?"

Theo nodded. "It's the only thing that makes sense."

The chimera's blood was boiling hotter than hell. There was only one reasonable conclusion to reach. This was attempted murder. All because Alfred asked him a few questions.

Lee took a deep breath. "Do you have his schedule?"

Esther returned to her dorm in high spirits. She lost her virginity and Adler went well.

As Esther walked in, Lin smirked. "You did a pretty great job. Although, it was kinda hard to see your face from a bird's eye view."

Esther smiled. "Y'know, you didn't haveto play lookout."

Lin shrugged. "I didn't have anything better to do. Besides, I feel kinda bad I didn't realize there was something rotten about Donna sooner. Maybe I could've stopped her."

Hikari scoffed. "Ridiculous. Don't hold yourself responsible for what your roommate did."

Ceci nodded. "She acted totally normal. How could anybodytell she was nuts?"

Mila was lying on her belly in her bunk. "Why do you think she hated Ibuki so much?"

Esther sighed. "I dunno. Apparently she's part of some group that hates hybrids. I hope we can out these guys before they can find out about Lee-kun, though."

The girls all stared at her with confused expressions. Ceci raised an eyebrow. "What was that about Lee-kun?"

The gears in Esther's head moved slowly until she finally realized what she just said. The tiger gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh shit."

Lin looked at Esther curiously. "Lee? Isn't that the really tall rabbit that was playing Adler?"

Mila looked confused. "Is this Lee person a hybrid too?"

Esther groaned. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that." She smacked her forehead. "Why am I so stupid?"

Hikari tilted her head. "What's he a hybrid of?"

Esther sighed. "Guess it's too late now… He's half-rabbit and half-wolf. His dad is Legosi, the grey wolf."

Hikari's eyes widened in shock. "L-Legosi, the grey wolf?"

Mila looked at Hikari. "Hey, isn't that the guy that-"

Hikari vigorously nodded at Mila.

Esther crossed her arms. "He's been trying to hide that he's half-wolf. He wears those gloves to hide his claws and tucks in his wolf tail."

Lin looked fascinated. "So there's two herbivore-carnivore hybrids in this school. Huh."

Esther blushed and hid her face in her hands. "Please, don't tell anybody else. Everybody's gonna be pissed at me."

Ceci scoffed. "Of course we're not telling anybody."

Hikari looked serious. "There're some dangerous people in this school. I'd like to weed them out and prevent another Donna situation."

Lin gave a confident smirk. "If you need any of us to gather information, let us know. We're not letting any more attempted murders take place here."

Esther looked up, surprised by her roommate's cooperation. She nodded. "Right."

Back in his dorm, Ibuki stared out the window in despair while his friends played games and Jiro drew in his sketchbook. The chimera was incredibly depressed. Coming out of the closet went well, but Lee's rejection stung. The worst thing about it was that the wolf-rabbit was completely in the right. Who would want to date somebody that's antagonized them for so long?

Jiro stopped sketching when he noticed how sad the chimera looked. He pulled his notebook out and showed Ibuki his concerned face. "Is something wrong, Ibuki-kun?"

Ibuki sighed. "Nothing I'd like to talk about."

The Tibetan fox jumped from his bunk onto the floor. "No offense, but your moping is making everyone else miserable. I'd like to talk to you about it in private."

Ibuki shook his head. "Not interested."

Jiro stared at Ibuki before opening the notepad to a page of him glaring with a very stern face. "I insist."

Ibuki rolled his eyes and stood up. "Fine, we can talk in the showers."

It was dark out. Lee hid behind a tree outside the feline dorms. After what felt like an hour, they finally arrived. Thomas, the cheetah, and his timber wolf buddy, Walter. The two were chatting as they walked towards the dorm. Unfortunately, they weren't talking about the group they're a part of, just hot girls, so Lee didn't get any new information. Lee had to repress his urge to kick the shit out of that wolf when he started talking about "That dog in Gardening Club with giant melons."

The two said their goodbyes and Walter left, presumably to go to the canine dorms. The cheetah turned towards the door to the feline dorms to go inside, but Lee acted quickly. The rabbit sprinted towards Thomas and wrapped his arms around him from behind. One around his torso the other around his mouth.

"Mmmpph!"

Lee dragged the cheetah behind the tree with him, careful to not allow the feline to see his face. The chimera put on a deep, gravelly voice to hide his identity. "Shut up."

Lee got the idea from a superhero movie he liked where a bat put on the same voice so nobody knew he was secretly a famous multi-millionaire. "I'm going to stop covering your mouth. If you try to scream or call for help, I'll snap your neck."

Lee moved his arm down from Thomas's mouth to his throat.

The cheetah's voice trembled. "W-what do you want?"

"You tried to kill Alfred, the zebra."

Thomas gulped. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Lee growled. "That's a lie. I know you're part of the group that tried to kill Ibuki-san."

The cheetah started to blubber like a baby. "H-he was asking questions about our group. I had to do something. The others would've killed me if they knew I was letting someone in track snoop around."

"Your group. What's it called?"

Thomas choked back tears. "T-they'll kill me."

Lee snorted. "They're way less likely to kill you than Iam. Now answer my question."

The cheetah took a deep breath. "The C-Coffee Club."

Lee was taken aback. What a stupid name. He thought it was at least going to be something ominous and cool like "The Order of the Pureblood" or something. Then he remembered what his father told him about a pureblood supremacy group that named itself after cat shit coffee. A connection?

The chimera reached into Thomas's pocket and stole his phone. The wolf-rabbit shoved the phone into his own pocket.

Lee scowled. "Do you want to know what it feels like to not be able to breathe?"

"H-huh?"

The chimera sneered. "Let me show you how Alfred felt."

Lee greatly tightened his hold on the cheetah's neck, completely cutting off his air supply. Thomas violently thrashed about and made gagging sounds as he clawed at Lee's arm. However, the chimera didn't give in to the pain and continued to choke him. While Lee felt somewhat uncomfortable doing this, he needed to get away without the cheetah seeing his face.

After a while, the cheetah's struggling started to slow down. Once the chimera was completely certain Thomas was out cold, he released his grip. When the cheetah flopped to the ground, Lee put a finger on his neck to check his pulse. Still alive.

The chimera chuckled when he noticed the cheetah wet himself in fear again. However, Lee started sniffing the air and gagged when he smelled the noxious scent of feces coming from Thomas's pants.

Lee pulled out his phone and dialed emergency services. As furious as he was, Lee knew the cheetah could die or get brain damage if left unconscious. He cleared his throat and put on that same fake voice from earlier. "There's a student outside the feline carnivore dorms at Cherryton Academy. He stopped breathing and passed out. Get here fast."

The chimera hung up and sprinted away.

As Lee entered his dorm he felt his confidence draining. It took him a while to realize the gravity of strangling another student until they passed out. He could hear the sirens off in the distance, but at this point, they had no chance to catch Lee and connect him to the assault. If he got caught, he could only imagine what kind of punishment his mother would give him or how disappointed his father would be. Assuming he didn't go to juvie for it.

Lee handed the phone over to Theo. "Here's Thomas's phone."

Theo had an alarmed expression. "How did you get this? And please tell me those sirens have nothing to do with it."

The chimera sighed. "I didn't kill him if that's your concern."

Theo laughed nervously. "O-of course not."

The goat tried to unlock the phone and gave an amused snort. "One of those locks where you have to draw lines. I'll see if I can get into this."

Lee nodded. Maybe Esther was right about him being a hacker.

The chimera, still sweaty from his performance, went to take a shower. Feeling the cold water wash the sweat off him was the best feeling in the world.

Ibuki sat on the bench in the showers looking dejected.

Jiro sat next to him. "I see. Yeah, I can imagine why that'd cause you a lot of stress."

The chimera sighed. "I… I don't know what to do about it. I hated him for so long but now…" He groaned. "Everything is my fault. I treated him so badly for such a long time."

Jiro nodded. "I understand. Well, it seems obvious to me that the first thing to do is repair that bridge?"

Ibuki looked at him. "How do I do that?"

"Well, Lee-kun told you he's willing to be your friend. You should probably start there."

"I don't really know how to start though."

Jiro opened his notepad to the small smile. "Do something nice for him. Personally, I like to give people gifts as apologies. Do you know anything he likes?"

Ibuki contemplated this and a memory from middle school returned to him. "Yeah, there's something I remember him liking. I think they sell it at the school store, actually."

Jiro flipped to the big smile. "Great! You're off to a good start, at least."

Ibuki still looked sad. "Umm… Jiro-kun. What do you think my chances are of getting him to love me?"

The fox shut the notepad and shrugged. "I'm not sure. Matters of the heart are incredibly complicated." He reopened the notepad to the big smile. "But even if you can't get him as a boyfriend, you should still be trying to be friends with him."

Ibuki crossed his arms and shut his eyes. Perhaps he does at least owe it to Lee to try being friends. "Thank you, Jiro-kun."

The fox nodded. "Any time!" He stood up.

Ibuki got up quickly. "Actually, if you don't mind me asking, is there anybody in this school that you're interested in like that."

Jiro chuckled. "I don't know if any girl would be interested in me. She'd probably be made fun of just for being around ol' stone face."

The chimera tilted his head. "'Ol' stone face?"

Jiro nodded. "It's a nickname some of the other guys in my class gave me. Y'know, for obvious reasons."

Ibuki looked sad. "So people are making fun of you for how you were born, huh?"

Jiro shrugged. "I'm sure you've seen it a million times in this school. It's just something you have to put up with."

The chimera sighed. "It seems unfair though, doesn't it?"

Jiro stared at Ibuki for a bit. "A lot of things are out of our control. All we can do is find ways to cope. Fair or not, it's the reality we're stuck with."

Ibuki looked away sadly. "I guess."

Jiro opened the notepad back to the small smile. "Let's go to bed for now. Tell me how your apology to Lee-kun goes tomorrow."

Ibuki nodded as he followed Jiro out. The deer-wolf had many pleasant memories from being close friends with his fellow chimera. Now, he's determined to fix the damage he's caused these last few years.