Chapter 5

Classes:

Everyone was still stunned when Rena had left the room. They all stood there frozen for a minute; only confused breaths were heard. Chung was the first to snap out of the trance just to angrily dash out the door screaming, "BITCH, WHAT DID YOU SAY? I DON'T LOSE TO NO ONE!"

Chung's reaction snapped the other two out of their trance. Elsword noticed that Chung probably only heard the declaration of war and not the reason of the declaration. At least, he assumed it to be a war. He turned to Raven and saw that he appeared to be very shaken up.

Raven's lips were trembling slightly, his back was hunched over and he was looking at the ground with an unreadable expression. Concern sprang up in Elsword's chest immediately. He was about to make his move but suddenly Raven fell back onto a chair and started laughing. Bitterly. Raven could hear it in his own voice, he even tasted it. Elsword must've thought he looked crazy right now.

Contrary, Elsword had no clue what was going on. Raven seemed fragile, despite how maniac he was acting at the moment, "Raven…?"

Golden eyes met his red ones briefly. Raven stopped laughing and before Elsword could do anything, he stepped out of the dorm and closed the door behind him. Elsword didn't chase after him, he knew the guy had to sort whatever problem he had out.

Instead he waited on Raven's bed with a pillow in his arms. He grew increasingly worried with each minute that passed by. When was he coming back? Where was he right now? Is he okay? With those thoughts in mind, he accidentally drifted off to an anxious sleep.

He woke up after dreaming of the same golden eyes that looked at him earlier. They were full of sadness that couldn't be expressed. If it were to be expressed, it would leave him broken. Yes, Raven was that fragile in his dreams, but that was what he saw earlier today.

Elsword rubbed his eyes and glanced at the clock. It was getting late. It was only half an hour before curfew struck, and he couldn't help but worry. Yes, he knew Raven was a private man that needed his space, but it wouldn't be any good if a teacher caught him wandering around the school past curfew. Elsword vaguely remembered of the time he broke curfew. He ended up with a week straight detention with an insane pile of work that he had to finish before he was allowed to leave. Never again.

He pushed the thoughts away. It wasn't a good time for him to start drifting off. He grabbed his jacket and ran out the door, searching for his roommate. Hopefully finding him before curfew struck.

XxXxXxXxXx

Elsword ran and ran more. He was panting hard and lord, it hurt to breathe. He searched over half the campus and still not a single, black-haired male was found.

'Just where could one person hide in such a limited space?' Elsword wondered. Most of the buildings were locked so Elsword was for sure Raven must be lingering somewhere outside.

He continued to run, the feeling of worry stabbing at his gut. In the midst of his adrenaline, he actually found Raven standing randomly outside of the cafeteria. As he approached him, he noticed that Raven was staring at the sky wearing the same unreadable expression as earlier.

A little scared, Elsword huffed out, "R-Raven?" He leaned over and placed his hands on his knees to keep himself up and breathing.

Raven's eyes flickered over to him, expressionless, "Elsword? What are you doing here?"

Elsword replied once he caught his breath, "I should be asking YOU that. Do you know what time it is and how worried I was?" He frowned although he was relieved he found Raven.

Raven didn't respond to his question, just stood there silently. Not wanting to get caught by the teachers, he grabbed Raven's hand to lead him back to the dorms, but got an unexpected reaction.

Raven flinched and ripped his hand out of Elsword's grip, "Don't touch me," He scowled.

Something in Elsword's chest stung slightly , but he ignored it, "Look, it's almost past curfew. We need to go back before the teachers find us," It almost seemed like Raven was as withdrawn as he was on his first day, Elsword noted sadly.

"I don't want to. Just leave me be," Raven turned to go back to where he was, but Elsword grabbed onto his arm again, "No. We need to go back. Do you want to get in trouble?"

"Can't you just fucking understand I want to be left alone?!" Raven violently jerked away and attempted to quickly walk away to leave some distance between the two.

Elsword didn't know what came over him. The next thing he knew, he was holding Raven in a tight embrace. Even though Raven initially struggled, he eventually stopped resisting and even leaned back slightly. Elsword felt like that his roommate/friend needed someone to lean on, someone to ground him.

Raven didn't know why either. He felt annoyed, hurt, sad, and angry but at the same time, a little warm inside. Maybe that small warmth was what made everything tumble out of his mouth.

"Rena and I used to be a couple. We were both really happy, at least I thought we were. At first, I couldn't believe someone as amazing as her was going out with me. She brought out the best in me," Raven paused for a second to catch his breath before continuing. Elsword just listened, absorbing everything he was told.

"We did a lot of couple-like things together. We went out on dates, our friends got along, everything," Raven closed his eyes. He felt the memories flooding back into him. The time when they both held hands and whispered sweet words to each other that now meant nothing. The time when they just sat together, cuddling on the bench. The time when they would kiss only have their friends pretending to gag and poke fun at them.

He opened his eyes again and gazed up at Elsword, with traces of fear resting in eyes. Unconsciously he leaned into Elsword, "But then, I realized I liked guys. As well as girls, I still loved Rena with everything I had," Raven whispered the first part and looked at Elsword. The red-head didn't seem to mind what he said though, as he was still listening.

Raven continued, "I told Rena that. At first, she was kinda shocked and a little upset. It was a little tense at first, but then things seemed like it slipped back into the normal routine. Something felt off to me though. Sure enough, I found her…cheating on me with another guy," He took a quivering breath and kept going. He didn't want to break down before he could finish.

"The worst part was that she didn't care. We didn't talk for a while. I was too busy coping with what had happened, and the next thing I knew, she didn't care to say anything to me about the situation. She was openly holding hands with him, hugging him…Maybe she left me because I was too pathetic to do anything about it," Raven started laughing bitterly to himself. No tears came out, but everything about him showed how hurt he and sad he was.

Elsword hugged Raven, trying to comfort him the best he could, "You weren't pathetic. She was insensitive," He continued consoling Raven by telling him how he wasn't at fault. Yes, he couldn't take away what Raven thought he did wrong, but he could comfort him by telling him what he did right. What he did for Elsword.

Raven let Elsword rub soothing circles on his back, let Elsword comfort him. And he was very appreciative of it. When was the last time someone tried to help him? His old friends took the subject lightly, and just left him alone. They weren't bad people, but they just didn't understand how deeply Raven felt about Rena.

When Raven finally collected himself after some time, he thanked Elsword. He felt that his friend felt better now, "You're welcome, Raven."

All of a sudden, Elsword felt two arms wrapping around him for a few seconds and his mind went blank. Raven hugged him. Was he dreaming?

"I know I was being hard to deal with, so I'm sorry for that. But thanks again, Elsword. And also…thank you for accepting me. You don't know how grateful I feel right now."

This time it was Elsword's turn to collect himself, which took a second. He could feel his heart thumping, "I-it's okay. Things like that don't really bother me. You like who you like. It's natural."

'But I like you, Elsword. Heck, I think you made me like you even more now…' Raven thought warmly before coming back to reality.

It was now when they both stood up that Raven realized that they were both sitting down earlier. He also noticed that Elsword had placed his jacket on him. It was small for him but nonetheless warm. He opened his mouth and was about to take it off to hand it back, but then a voice boomed out:

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING OUT THIS LATE? DO YOU REALIZE WHAT TIME IT IS?"

"Shit…" Elsword muttered under his breath. He considered making a run for it, but it was too late when the teacher grouchily walked up to them.

Everything else after that just went by one ear and out the other.

XxXxXxXxXx

Elsword groaned when they got back to the dorms and face-smashed himself onto Raven's pillow, "I can't believe the teacher gave us two weeks of detention!" He was internally crying already for the future work that awaited him tomorrow.

Raven sat down on his bed, "Why are you on my bed, punk?"

Elsword grinned cheekily and pulled Raven and the blanket down with him.

Raven didn't protest and even returned the embrace before falling asleep.

AN: I am like so sorry for posting so late! I originally wrote this chapter 2 weeks ago, but I didn't like it so I put it off, and last Saturday was all-state so I didn't have the time to write it then. Gosh, this chap might seem rushy, and I apologize for that. I just also have a project that's due tomorrow and I didn't eat yet and woiofeh, and now I'm ranting. Hopefully the wait is worth it, as I wrote it slightly more longer. Reviews give the power to post! Q(*^*Q)