Attack on Titan © Isayama Hajime
"Krista, look." Mina leaned into her. "Armin is checking you out."
Sasha was too quick to respond by looking at Armin's direction and confirmed loudly. "Oh yeah! There is Armin!"
The said boy hurriedly turned his head away at the mention of his name. Blushed a little as he has been found out.
"Shh! You are too loud, Sasha!" Minna elbowed her in friendly manner. "At this rate he won't have courage to face us later. Poor guy…"
"Franz told me that the guys kept teasing him for being a boy scout," chimed in Hannah. "You know the whole 'any normal guy in that situation would try to do something to the girl, unless that's Armin'." She was referring to 7-minutes-in-heaven game they played the day before.
Krista hoped her smile didn't reveal any sardonic edge her inside was. The role model Boy Scout had been another naughty boy who went boy gone wild on her. The only proof that had happened was bruises on her wrists that began to fade.
"Now I see why you picked him to play the game with." Mina winked at her. "Someone like Armin sure makes the girls feel safe. He is very far from those big, bad wolf guy stereotype."
"Hah! A guy will still be a guy!" Ymir interjected. "He must have something dirty on his mind, only didn't have enough balls to do it! You better avoid that little creep, Krista!"
"Ymir, you are so bad!" Mina laughed heartedly with the girls followed her along shortly.
Soon their laughter died into an awkward silence when they suddenly realized Mikasa standing rigidly at the corner of their table. She had definitely overheard their conversation. The whole table gulped nervously, except for Ymir who found the situation amusing.
"Hi Mikasa! We didn't see you there!" greeted Hannah. "We were talking about Armin, you know…"
"Ye… yeah! So what do you think about Armin? Is he always so timid around girls?" Mina quickly jumped, seeing her friend faltered under Mikasa's judging eyes.
The girl with red scarf looked at Krista before placing her eyes on Mina. "He is very shy…" Then her intimidating gaze was directed to Ymir. "But that doesn't mean he is not manly enough to fight when it's necessary."
Ymir raised an eyebrow in response. Feeling the tension thickened, the girls shifted uncomfortably on their seats. Their eyes took turn from glancing at unfazed Ymir to intense-looking Mikasa.
"Oi Eren! What's wrong with your head!" Jean's loud voice broke the staring contest, driving people's attention right away.
"Eren and Jean fight again," muttered someone.
"Why is he getting wet?" Sasha pointed at Armin. "I thought the fight was between Jean and Eren!"
The girls stared at the watermark on Armin's uniform. There were trail of water and a broken glass near his feet. The object of their examination was calmly standing still as if nothing had happened.
"Beat me. He might try to play hero and get in the middle of their fight," guessed Ymir with a shrug. "Serve him right."
Krista noticed Armin... Jean... Marco... Connie... but no sign of Eren. She frantically scanned the room in an attempt to find him...
There he was!
Halfway walked to the door was Eren. There was annoyed look on his face. Mikasa who spotted him in time quickly flew to his side, abandoning her confrontation with Ymir without a second thought. Krista's eyes followed both of them until they disappeared behind the door.
"Oh yeah! There is Armin!"
Armin dunked his head in shame. Sasha's cheerful voice made the other tables turning eyes on his direction.
That was uncharacteristically for him to leer at a girl first thing in the morning… Well, the girl he had his first kiss with was not just a girl on his book, he reluctantly admitted.
From the corner of his eyes, he took another glance at Krista. This time in caution and not as openly as before. All the while his observant side began to question.
What was it with this sudden… Curiosity? Clinginess? Possessiveness? Obsession?
The intelligent boy scratched all of them in frustration, failing to come up with proper term to address the problem. He wondered whether this unfamiliar feeling was due to attraction or just pure euphoria of post-first kiss.
A hard slap on his back woke Armin from his train of thoughts. Rubbing the sore spot, he looked at Connie who was grinning from ear to ear. "So… you still daydreaming about your time at the closet with Krista?"
Hearing the question, Thomas who passed their table with a tray of food chided in, "Boy scout's honor, duh!" The boys snickered, fully understanding what it meant.
Jean plopped at the empty seat beside Armin along with Marco. "Beside all their nasty remarks, I don't believe you did nothing during those 7 minutes though."
"As if you have a lot of experience," scoffed Eren earning a glare from his opponent. "Can you believe anything coming out from the horse's mouth?"
"Nobody asked for your opinion, bastard!" Jean snapped. "At least I know what I'm talking about!"
"Please, Jean, Eren…" Marco decided to come in between.
"Horse face just implied that you are a pervert. Are you okay with that, Armin?"
In response to that question, the blond boy just flushed.
"No offense, Armin. Jean has this theory that when you put a boy and a girl in compromising situation, something bound to happen. At least one of them will try something," Marco added in for good measure.
"That makes sense!" Connie looked at Jean with newfound respect. "Especially if the girl is a babe like Krista!"
"I'm finished so I'll be joining Sasha and the others," announced Mikasa all of sudden, ignoring Armin's subtle S.O.S. signal.
"Good luck," she mouthed off before getting up and leaving him in the mercy of Jean and Connie.
Jean's bright eyes dimmed a notch as he keeping his eyes on Mikasa's retreating figure. Connie on the other hand, lit up like Christmas, figuring one less obstacle to deal with. "From here on is strictly guys! So you better spill!"
"N-nothing of that sort!" Armin exclaimed too fast, which made him appearing more suspicious than he intended.
"Ghhhh! He is lying, Jean!"
"I don't buy it too! There's got to be something you hide!" Jean insisted.
"If you don't believe me, why don't you ask Krista then?" Armin used the last resort he could think of. Knowing he couldn't possibly play dumb forever might as well pass the baton. Besides, he was certain that his interrogators wouldn't have the courage to ambush the girl the way they did to him now.
"No need for that. I bet she's being questioned by her own crowd." Jean jutted his chin to the direction of Krista's table. "So you better answer to us or I will let them to come after you."
Armin began to sweat, desperately looking around for anybody to save him. Marco sent him apologetic look. Reiner was nowhere to be seen. Eren…! He almost forgot his best friend was present since the hotheaded teen was turning quiet in the middle of the conversation, barely made a sound.
Still baffling, Armin turned his head to face him, only to be stunned.
Eren shot him an accusatory glance. An uneasy feeling started to grow on the pit of his stomach. Armin would never consider that his childhood friend could feel anything but that toward him...
Eren was jealous of him for the first time…
Because Krista had picked him to play a silly game…
What a bad joke…
He felt like he had to laugh.
Apparently Marco read Armin's silence as the sign of distressed. The freckled guy cleared his throat and put each of his hands on Jean and Connie's shoulders. "Guys, stop badgering Armin. If he doesn't want to talk, you can't force him. It's his privacy after all."
"But-!"
"Marco, you…!"
Jean and Connie hadn't had chance to protest as Marco quickly dragged both of them away from Armin. When they'd been far enough not to hear what he was about to say, Armin decided to come clean.
"Eren, are you angry at me?"
"Don't be stupid. Angry for what?" he laughed lightly. His eyes spoke differently, betraying his charade.
"Aren't you curious about what happened?"
"Putting it bluntly like that was the only way Armin knew to make Eren cut the crap. At first Eren stared hard at him. He was about to say something then changed his mind and sighed, "You get the wrong person to confess. It's none of my…"
"We kissed," cut Armin swiftly.
The dark-haired boy blinked. Once. Twice. And he knocked the glass on Armin's hand, splashing the content onto Armin's uniform. Just like that, he turned and walked away without saying anything.