Ren isn't stupid. He prides himself on that. He's one of the 5 masterminds, friends with the top students in school. He has lots of volunteer work and references under his belt. In addition he's charming and lovely to all the ladies.
But Ren isn't thinking of grades. He thinks of Gakushuu Asano, son of the headmaster. AKA his best friend. When Gakushuu grins at him and starts going up the stairs to his bedroom, Ren waits at the bottom of the stairs and observes him.
Ren isn't stupid. He suspects - well, knows. No one is ever that damaged when they enter high school. He blames it on the headmaster - that bastard. Just thinking of that man, that creature that has near-destroyed the good person Gakushuu really is underneath his obsession with grades and appearances and E-class, makes his blood boil.
But he also blames it on what happened to Gakushuu.
He's seen what happens when Gakushuu runs into lower-grade students. The tests, the bets. Then E-class came along, and Gakushuu was surprisingly soft to them. Didn't give them an impossible challenge like he'd do with the D-class, or C-class students. In fact, he made it easy for them. Physical challenges are their forte - and he gave them one.
He's also seen the way Gakushuu looks at that boy. The E-class kid. Blue hair tied up. Lithe figure with soft lines. Ren doesn't know his name, but he knows how Gakushuu feels about him. That's why he always went easy on them. Went to them for help when his father poisoned A-class with obsession.
Is the headmaster homophobic? Is that why they can't be together? He wonders, watching Gakushuu steal his food. He certainly wouldn't have minded if his friend dated a lower-grade student, if it meant he was happy. "Hey! That's my popcorn!"
"Not anymore. I'm top dog now," cackles Gakushuu, eating the popcorn. Gakushuu smirks his evil smirk and settles himself on the sofa with a calculus book spread across his lap. Ren flicks it off. "Ren!"
"Let's do something else!" Ren announces. "In celebration of you coming over!"
"It's not the first time I've ever come over," shoots back Gakushuu.
"No, but it'll be the last time if you don't give me my popcorn!"
Gakushuu gives up the popcorn, chucking it at Ren. Ren doesn't miss the "It might be the last time ever," Gakushuu mutters. He pretends not to have heard it. "HAHA! MINE!"
"For a mastermind, you're an idiot."
"For an idiot, you're a mastermind." They have always bantered like this. Ren likes to think that Gakushuu thinks of him as his best friend, just like he does to Gakushuu. Gakushuu does tell him a lot of things he doesn't tell the other masterminds, or anyone.
But he doesn't talk about his past with blue-haired boy. Ren doesn't ask. "Let's paint. I've got a couple of easels in the closet - the paintbrushes are in the draws, can you get them?"
Gakushuu has drawn the blue haired boy.
Somehow, he has captured a soft light, the movement of an ever-flowing river, and the stillness of the mountain that E-class is on in a painting. The blue haired boy is sitting by the river, smiling, holding the hand of someone outside the painting. He gazes out into the sky.
"Wow! Who is it?" Ren asks. There is no denying it - his best friend is in love. Or was.
"Nobody - just someone fictional now," Gakushuu replies.
Now? wonders Ren. Why is he fictional now? Did you have a bad relationship? What happened? Was it the headmaster? He wants to know, but doesn't push it, instead handing it back. "You should hang it up, like a memory!"
"A... memory?" Murmurs Gakushuu. "Yeah. That's nice."
They don't speak of the painting - or the past - for the rest of the night.
