Oh, God, he's here, too!
The last few days have been awkward, to put it lightly. After Karin and Tayuya told me about Yahiko's reputation, I avoided him. The man's probably not even noticed because he goes out of his way to ignore me, but my pulse skyrockets each time I see him. I'm not sure how to act, that's why. The fact that I half-heartedly demanded he apologize for being rude doesn't help.
If I ask him if the rumors are true, he'll be irritated that I spoke to him about un-school-related things no matter what. Say the stories are false; his already poor opinion of me will worsen because he'll see me as a gossip. If they're true, he might get angry and even hurt me for sticking my nose where it doesn't belong.
So, you see my dilemma.
On the board was a seating chart, and I sighed defeatedly when, surprise, surprise, my seat was right next to him. Karin was behind me, though, and I turned in my chair after sitting down to greet her with a look of acknowledgment.
She grinned mischievously, "You almost smiled. I'm flattered."
"What is this, high school? Since when do colleges have assigned seats?" I complained quietly.
Tayuya sat on her left and rolled her eyes, bluntly saying, "You're just mad you have to sit by The Monster."
My brow furrowed, and I made a shushing motion with my hands, too afraid to look back and verify if Yahiko had heard that remark, "Well, if anything, I wouldn't have chosen a seat right beneath the air vent."
Icy, cold air blew down on me. Though the summer heat is still baking outside, we're indoors most of the day, and it's freezing in my seat. I still don't have any new clothes, so I'm stuck with goosebumps running up and down my bare arms. My plan is to only spend half of my monthly allowance given by the school for food and use the rest to buy clothes for the winter.
After hearing that almost all scholarship students flunk out of their first year here, I think getting a part-time job might be detrimental to my grades. So, I'll wait until after the first exam period in October to see their warnings' validity and go from there.
"Would you like to borrow my jacket?"
The three of us looked over to see, on my other side, a red-haired young man with pale skin and dark purple eyes. I gave him an incredulous look, to which he sheepishly grinned, "Sorry for eavesdropping. Just trying to make some friends here."
Like me, he seemed honest and a little socially awkward, so I smirked but still turned down his offer, "That's alright. Thanks though. What's your name?"
"Nagato. You're Konan, right? This year's scholarship winner," he shrugged off my refusal.
Groaning, I nodded, rubbing my forehead as a mild headache began to form, "Is the scholarship student famous or something? Everyone knows me already."
Karin snickered, "You're the shiny new toy, that's all. Everyone else here went to art academies together."
"I see…."
"Oh! I forgot to get your number, by the way! Here, put it in my phone," the red-haired woman mused.
I accepted the device instinctually, looking down at it with a frown before swallowing my pride, coming up with as believable a lie as possible, and offering the phone back, "I, uh, don't have one right now. My phone broke a few weeks ago, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it yet."
The twin sisters before me shared a look before Karin took back the device, "Give us your info when you get a new one, 'kay?"
After I agreed, the room became awkwardly silent for a moment, or maybe that was just how it felt for me. I don't know. Suddenly, the man in front of me with silverish blonde hair turned with a toothy grin, "Aren't you The Monster's roommate? I bet you won't last a month."
My eyes narrowed, "Excuse me?"
"You're in Yahiko's dorm?!" Nagato suddenly asked.
I nodded defensively, temporarily forgetting the rude man before me, "Yeah. What of it?"
He grinned shyly, "Nothing. He's my friend, so I wondered who ended up there."
We all turned to look at the man in question, whose glare remained on the book atop his desk. He didn't acknowledge us at all.
"The Silent Monster has a friend. I never would've guessed," the stranger in front of me said.
I finally lost my temper, biting at him under my breath, "Call him that one more time and see what happens. Don't you have any manners?"
Someone like me, who pretty much grew up on the streets, having better behavior than some of these people is something I just can't wrap my head around and definitely won't tolerate. Maybe Yahiko did all those terrible things, and perhaps he didn't. Either way, it's not our place to speculate.
The young man seemed surprised but put his hands up defensively, "Didn't realize he needed his little girlfriend to defend him."
Nagato and I opened our mouths to argue, but a deep voice cut us off, "She's not my girlfriend." Everyone turned to see Yahiko glaring at him with a silent threat to stay quiet.
With gritted teeth, my eyes narrowed as they fell to my desk again. Great. He probably thinks this is my roundabout way of trying to get closer to him. Even if it was, which it's not, it backfired completely because he sounded very irritated.
Though the expression put ice down my spine, reminding me of a few of my foster parents growing up when I'd do something wrong, the silver-haired man laughed calmly, "Alright, fine. My bad. I was just messing with her 'cause she's cute."
I rolled my eyes, opening my notebook to prepare to take notes for class.
"The name's Hidan, by the way. I didn't mean anything by it."
Tayuya mused, "You were kinda hot 'til you opened your mouth, y'know. Maybe work on that."
Hidan scoffed, making me look up from my desk to see him waggle his eyebrows at the redhead sitting behind Nagato, "Most women like it when I use my mouth."
The twin redheads behind me made simultaneous disgusted sounds, Karin then saying, "And now your chances are zero."
Though irritating, Hidan somehow hit it off with everyone by the end of class. I couldn't care less because the group of us, me, Nagato, Yahiko, Hidan, Tayuya, and Karin, walked together to our next class. For the first time, it felt like I'd made some honest-to-God friends.
By the end of the school day, we'd gained more members.
There's Deidara, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed ceramics major who's prettier than most women I've seen. Then, there's Sasori, a redhead puppetry major with dusty red hair, light brown eyes, and a primarily emotionless disposition.
Cousins Tobi and Itachi also joined us. Tobi has short black hair and one black eye. The right side of his face is heavily scarred, and he wears an eye patch over that side, too. Itachi has pretty, long hair, and sleepy-looking eyes but is as pretty as a porcelain doll. Tobi is studying digital media, while Itachi is studying photography.
After the final class of the day, I gathered up all my books and turned to leave, only for Nagato to stop me, "Hey, Konan. Can you wait up for a sec?"
Nodding, I leaned against the nearest desk and waited for him to speak.
To my surprise, he waited for everyone else to leave the room before smiling softly, "Sorry, but I wanted to thank you for standing up for Yahiko this morning."
Suddenly nervous, I averted my gaze to the ground and absently ran my thumb over the metal rings of my notebook to keep my calm composure, "Oh. That. I'm pretty sure it pissed him off. He doesn't really like me."
"To be fair, he doesn't like many people. I don't think he necessarily dislikes you, though. He's probably just indifferent," the redhead offered, and we shared a knowing look.
He sighed, "I won't lie and say he's an angel because he's not. There are definitely things he's-" I cut him off with a frown, "Please don't take this the wrong way, but if I'm gonna learn anything about his past, I'd rather it be from him." Too many times, I've been judged by rumors. Each time I meet someone new at this school, they automatically look at me like I've already failed, not to mention that I'm as poor as can be; it doesn't feel good.
Nagato's mouth shut in surprise before he nodded, grinning, "Of course," he nodded toward the door to signal we should get a move on, "I like you. Let's become better friends."
The tiniest hint of blush warmed my face as I glared at the ground, trying not to let on just how touched I was to hear him say that, "Alright, sure."
Back in the dorm, I sat at my desk and worked on the assignments from school and tried to ignore the sound of Yahiko's quick typing on his laptop.
Should I say something about what happened or not? It'll probably just anger him further. …But I want him to know the truth.
Swallowing my pride and discomfort, I said without turning to look at his back, "About this morning, I didn't do that expecting anything in return, so don't get the wrong idea."
His typing stopped, making the pencil in my hand freeze as well. After a moment, it returned, and I sighed softly.
This man is a tough nut to crack.