"Stop what?"

Kaiba could not believe what he was hearing. How could this guy have no clue what he was doing? Every time he slapped his lips together, Kaiba just wanted to rip them off.

"Stop eating so loudly." He could feel the venom in his own words. He felt as though all this pent up rage was going to kill him, or take over and kill Honda. Preferably both. Both was good.

"Oh, uh, sorry." He still didn't really seem to get it.

Kaiba would give him the benefit of the now. If he started up again, he was going to die. That was that. He turned back around without another word. Honda could figure out how to handle eating like a normal human being himself. Kaiba wasn't going to hold his hand.

Slowly, it started again.

It was barely noticeable at first, the occasional crunch. Honda had slowed down his eating in attempts to silence himself, but he clearly had no clue that this only made the sounds worse as time progressed. Kaiba was sick. He felt like ripping his own ears off. The sound was too much.

The teacher wasn't teaching and it was too loud in here.

Kaiba leaned over to get his headphones. He made sure to make eye contact with Honda as he put them on. Let him know that he was the cause of this. Kaiba wasn't going to sit there and listen to his tongue slosh food around, or literally any of the other noises his mouth was making. It was disgusting, and it was obnoxious. Kaiba needed the break. Sixth period would be over soon. He wouldn't have to sit there for very much longer.

Endure.

The period finished out, and while Kaiba hadn't heard the bell, watching his other classmates throw their things together in a hurry to get out was more than enough of a hint to know they were headed for seventh. Seventh would be easier. A language class. Kaiba didn't need to learn another language, he already spoke multiple, he merely needed the credit to graduate on the "preferred" plan, although he could easily go for an easier route and graduate immediately, as he held all of the credits he'd need for that. A university would be easier to find with the language credits, because apparently he'd need to go to a community college first without it. The American system was all kinds of weird.

He was taking an advanced course on Mandarin. The teacher wasn't located in state, so the class had to be taken online. Not that this really mattered for Kaiba. He spoke the language easily. It was his third language, English being his first, and Japanese his second. He didn't have any issues getting his assignments for the day done, and no homework assigned. More free time. With cellular signal, he took this free time to message Isono and ask for updates from work. He had nothing to do for school and so long as work was stable he'd read.

Isono was good at keeping things stable for him. The man worked around the clock and never once complained. Kaiba respected that, and trusted Isono because of it.

A chunk of time just for reading, and one more class after. That was all he needed.

Life was exhausting. He didn't know how so many people put up with it. If he had the choice, he would quit his job, quit school, and live in the forest with the people he loved and nothing more.

He didn't understand why anyone would put so much focus on school if they were given the choice. Why ignore life for work?

How did they do it?

He knew other fellow classmates, one in particular, who tossed their social lives out the window by their own choice just for the sake of grades.

How could they stand it? Why did they allow these letters to define their worth? The system was messy and broken, yet they were fine with that.

How did they manage to keep themselves sane while others floundered and eventually gave in? So many students stopped trying so long ago. How was Kaiba not one of them? He already wanted to quit, he had for years now. He loved learning, but this wasn't learning, this wasn't teaching him anything.

High school was nothing but a waste of his time, a waste of everyone's time. It offered nothing. The system needed to be fixed.

He wanted to go home.

He had work.