Lee yawned and stretched as he woke up. When he jumped down from his bunk he noticed a flashing notification on his phone. He checked it and saw a text from his father.

Legosi: "I contacted Ellen. Alfred is better. He'll be coming back to school tomorrow."

Lee: "Glad to hear that. Thanks."

Legosi: "No problem. Have a good day, Lee."

At least Lee got to start his day off with some good news. Soon, his roommates woke up one by one.

The chimera smiled. "Alfred-kun is going to be okay."

The others smiled and vocalized their relief that the zebra survived.

Theo chuckled. "I've got good news too. I got into that cheetah's phone."

Lee gave the goat an astonished expression. "Already? Did you stay up all night cracking it?"

Theo snorted. "No. I didn't even try until just now. The answer was an hourglass shape. Everybody does an hourglass shape."

Lee laughed. "So what now?"

Theo focused his attention on the phone. "Now I look through his texts and messaging apps. I'll get back to you with what I've learned."

Lee nodded. "Good luck."

Lee walked out of the dorm building and started on his way to his first class.

A familiar voice came from behind him. "Hey. Lee-kun."

Lee turned to see Ibuki approaching him. In both of his hands were two glass bottles of cold coffee. The deer-wolf handed one to the wolf-rabbit.

Lee looked a little confused. "Cold coffee?"

Ibuki smiled. "What? You loved this stuff in middle school, didn't you?"

The wolf-rabbit chuckled. "I still like it. Where'd you get it?"

Ibuki raised an eyebrow. "The school store. Where else?"

Lee gave his fellow chimera a look of surprise. "Nobody told me there's a school store."

The deer-wolf laughed. "I'll lead you to it later."

The two drank their coffee and made small talk on their way to their classes. Eventually, they had to split up. But Lee was happy Ibuki was being friendly all of the sudden.

After his last class got out, Lee started walking down one of the less populated hallways so he could be alone with his thoughts.

His life at Cherryton had been absolute madness. Encountering Ibuki, getting blackmailed, saving Ibuki's life, finding out there's an anti-hybrid group that wants Ibuki dead, learning Ibuki is gay and has the hots for him.

Lee chuckled. He didn't think about it before but so many of his wildest experiences tied back to the other chimera. What a roller coaster his life had become.

The wolf-rabbit didn't want to admit it, but on some level he actually liked it. He loved that his school life turned out to be so wild and interesting. He sure hasn't been bored. Still, this "Coffee Club" needs to be disposed of somehow. Such a dangerous and hateful group should not exist.

This was the body Lee was born with. It was his parents' choice to bring him into this world where he stands out so much. And he's hated because of a man he never met that was defeated by his own father.

The chimera sighed. People are scared of anything different. But it's not Lee's fault he's different. Why does he need to be hated just for being born? Why does he have to hide who he is and just pray nobody from his past exposes him? Sometimes the hybrid would wonder why his parents had him and didn't just adopt a "normal" child. It's not like he wished he was never born or anything. But it just seemed so strange and unfair that there are people that wanted to punish him for existing.

"You bastard!"

Lee snapped out of his thoughts when he heard somebody shouting at the other end of the hall. He sprinted down and turned to see Sebastian on his knees, covering his right eye with his hand while Viola crouched next to and embraced him.

A male bull towered above them with a sneer on his face, while Viola gave him a hateful glare. "Nobody… Nobody hurts my brother! I'll make you pay for this!"

The bull chuckled. "So cute how she's standing up for her little fairy brother. This little drag queen ruined Adler. He deserves a good smack for dragging his lifestyle into the theater and rubbing his degeneracy in our faces."

Lee scowled and approached the bull. "Things change, man. You don't need to hit people over it."

The bull glared at Lee and slowly approached him. The bovine towered over the chimera and Lee had to look up to keep eye contact.

The bull sneered again. "Run along, little rabbit. Before I have to break you."

Lee smirked. "Give it a shot. Let's see what happens."

The bull snorted before kicking Lee in the gut, causing him to slam into a wall. Lee grunted in pain, but then he started grinning like a madman.

A conversation with his father from many years ago echoed through his head.

"Are you okay, Lee?"

"You gonna yell at me for beating someone up again?"

"No. Your teachers explained the situation. He attacked first, right?"

"Yeah?"

"It's not wrong to attack someone that hit you first. It's called 'self-defense'."

"Really?"

"Well, as long as you don't overdo it. If they surrender or can't fight anymore, you needto stop. Got it?"

"Okay, Dad."

The chimera sprinted forward and delivered a punch to the bull's gut. It seemed the bovine greatly underestimated the rabbit's strength as he looked shocked when he hit so hard it knocked him off his feet.

The bull stood up and Lee charged him again, this time delivering an uppercut to his jaw. The chimera had a big grin on his face. Having his violence be justified gave him such a massive thrill. Under his right pant leg, his tail attempted to wag but couldn't with so little space.

The bull stepped back, dazed, and confused by the rabbit's strength. He snarled before attempting to punch the chimera. Lee grabbed the bull's fist with both hands. However, he couldn't stop the shock of the punch from traveling through his body and grunted as the pain went straight to his back.

The chimera briefly considered trying to toss the bull to the side while holding his fist. However, even with Lee's considerable strength, this opponent would be impossible for him to lift.

Instead, he swung his body to the left of the bull and released his fist. Before the bull could retaliate, Lee skidded to a halt and reached down to grab the bovine by the ankles. Putting as much strength and body weight into it as he could, he pulled hard enough to trip the bull up and cause him to face-plant on the ground.

The bull's weight caused the ground to tremble. "Oof!"

Lee then grabbed the bull's horns and pulled them in different directions.

"Ow! Ow! The hell are ya doing?!"

Lee cackled. "You're gonna run off now and not come near these two again. If you don't agree, I break these horns and tell the entire school you got beat by a rabbit."

The bull growled. "Fine…"

Lee released his horns and the bovine got to his feet. He spit on the floor before storming away.

The chimera approached the twins. "You alright?"

Sebastian groaned and moved his right hand. Lee winced when he saw his right eye was pitch black and swollen so badly he could only partially open it.

He looked at his sister. "How bad does it look?"

Viola grimaced. "Pretty bad."

The sheep dragged a hand down his black eye and sighed. "Yeah, makeup isn't going to hide this."

This behavior was a little strange to Lee. This was the same sheep that had an emotional breakdown from a short amount of time away from his sister and trembled in fear at the very mention of Riz, the bear. Yet getting decked in the face by a bully seemed like a minor inconvenience. The chimera expected him to be crying. Perhaps he was just used to it at this point.

The sheep finally acknowledged the chimera's existence. "Oh. Thanks for taking care of him, Lee-kun."

Lee nodded.

Sebastian sighed. "We have another Adler performance tonight. The amount of makeup I'd have to use… may as well put it on with a paint roller."

Lee's ears shot up as he remembered what Sebastian was saying was true. It completely slipped the chimera's mind. He was not looking forward to getting back into that damned costume.

...Unless maybe there's an alternative.

Ibuki sprinted across the stage in full Adler costume, while he held Lee's hand, who was wearing a very generic but time period appropriate male outfit. An outfit that was slapped together at the last second because there was no way in hell Lee was wearing a dress.

Lee panted as he ran. "Reaper-san! Why are they chasing us?"

Ibuki halted. "You were supposed to have died three days ago."

Lee came up with the idea to take Sebastian's role while Ibuki took over as Adler. There was no chance a member of the Coffee Club would have time to prepare for another attack.

Tonight is the only night the deer-wolf would be able to play Adler. But Lee wanted him to have just one chance to play the role he practiced so hard for.

Lee became annoyed when he heard booes and jeers coming from the audience.

"Shut up!"

"We're trying to watch the play!"

"Be quiet!"

The chimera was surprised. The audience appeared to be enraptured by Ibuki's performance and would shout down hecklers. He had to hold back his desire to smile for the sake of his performance. But it made him very happy to hear.

"Lee… Have you said your farewells to this world?"

When the curtain came down, Ibuki immediately took off the hat and skull. Lee opened his eyes to see Ibuki smiling. It was a very genuine smile that Lee hadn't seen on his fellow chimera since they were both children.

Sanu approached with his clipboard and a big grin on his face. "Excellent work, Ibuki-kun! I don't think I've seen an Adler performance that good since your father played him."

Ben followed behind him, looking giddy. "That was just as good as I had hoped! You truly are a brilliant actor!"

The deer-wolf nearly fell over when Esther gave him a pat on the back. "That was badass Ibuki-kun! You looked cool as hell!"

Ibuki blushed. "Umm… Th-thanks."

Sebastian approached with a big grin on his face and his cellphone in hand. "You'll never guess who I have on the phone right now!"

He pressed a button to put the phone on speaker.

A familiar male voice could be heard through the phone. "Hello?"

Ibuki jumped in surprise with a very alarmed expression on his face. "D-Dad?!"

"Hey, Ibuki! Viola-chan streamed your performance to me from up on the lighting crew's catwalk."

Ibuki's face turned completely red. Lee could feel the embarrassment radiating off of him.

"You were great! I'm very proud of you! I could tell you practiced a lot."

Lee heard a female voice. "I saw it too!"

Ibuki's left eye twitched. "M-Mom too?"

"You and Lee were wonderful together!"

The deer-wolf hid his face in his hands. Lee was feeling a little bad for him at this point. Ibuki had just recently admitted his sexuality to his father and just ran around the stage pretending to be in love with Lee.

Louis cleared his throat. "I wish we could chat more. But that play was pretty lengthy and I'm low on time. I'll talk to you later, Ibuki."

The humiliated chimera slowly uncovered his face. "Y-yeah… Bye."

Juno giggled. "Bye, sweetie!"

Sebastian hung up and Ibuki continued to look traumatized.

Lee chuckled "Well, they liked it."

Ibuki didn't respond. He just sighed. Lee stood up and grabbed Ibuki's hand, pulling him to his feet.

"At least you got to be Adler like you wanted."

Ibuki nodded as his blush faded. "Umm… Thanks for that, Lee-kun."

Lee smiled. "You're welcome."

The chimera noticed a male lion janitor was cleaning the floor. Seemed a little strange when people were still using it.

He shrugged and escorted Ibuki back to his dorm.

Lee was a little late when he got back to the dorms. All of his roommates already left to take a shower.

The chimera walked over to Stanley's TV and was about to turn it on when he heard a phone vibrate. He turned around to see a cell phone light up on Theo's bunk. The goat must have unlocked Thomas's phone and left it there.

Lee decided it wouldn't hurt to take a peek for himself. He picked up the phone, quickly dragging a finger along it to stop it from going into standby and locking again, and noticed it was open to some kind of messenger app. The contact was listed as "Mistress". Lee wondered if this was the Coffee Club's leader. If it is, maybe he can find some hints as to her identity.

He scrolled through the messages and was extremely creeped out by the contents. The cheetah talked about wanting to be tied up and beaten by this "Mistress" while she referred to him with really demeaning language. However, he seemed to like it and responded with nothing but groveling. She listed off a bunch of ways she wanted him to hurt himself for her and he claimed to have done all of them. A chill went down Lee's spine as he wondered if the cheetah was getting off to being choked by him. The text implied these two met through some online BDSM community, so Lee doubted there was even a Coffee Club connection.

The door to the dorm opened and Theo walked in. It had only been a few minutes, so Lee assumed he forgot something. "Oh hey, Lee-kun. Only getting back now?"

The chimera chuckled. "Yeah. Hope you don't mind but I'm reading through messages on Thomas's phone. Looks like the dude was into some really weird fetish shit. He's been talking to some chick online named 'Mistress' and saying how he wants her to hit him with whips and paddles. Pretty creepy."

The chimera turned around and was surprised and confused when he looked at Theo. The angora goat was covering his mouth, his eyes wide open in shock as they started to tear up.

Lee tilted his head. "What's wro-"

A thought crossed the chimera's mind. A thought that he hoped was completely wrong. He flipped the phone over and gasped when he recognized the case. Lee dropped the phone in shock. "Oh my God. Theo-kun, I am so sorry. I didn't-"

The goat sobbed as he ran to the door.

Lee tried to follow him. "Theo, wait! I didn't know-"

SLAM!

Lee rounded the corner in time just to see the door slam shut. The chimera slapped his forehead. "Now you've done it, Lee…"