Aether awkwardly shuffled to the spot Xiao sat beside. He threw his backpack over the chair and pulled out a stack of textbooks that Lumine gave to him. He shifted his vision to Xiao, who's eyes didn't even glance up at him. 'He can't even afford to acknowledge the fact that I have to sit next to him now?'

Mr. Zhongli continued to teach the lesson they were covering while Aether squeaked back and forth in his chair anxiously. He kept looking at his seatmate with anger and agitation, hoping to spark some conflict; but all Xiao did was focus intently on the class at hand. "Alright. I need someone to hand out the packets." The teacher offered. Xiao was about to stand from his seat but a student quickly shot up before him. "I will!" The person who volunteered had dark blue hair with short, choppy bangs. His movements were somehow extremely graceful, and he gave off a very intelligent energy. 'I guess all the students here are pretty dedicated..' Aether thought to himself in annoyance as he propped his head against his hand. "Thank you Xingqiu. Now…yada yada yada.." Mr. Zhongli continued to go on about the course while Xingqui handed everyone a bunch of papers. When he got to Xiao, Aether noticed him quickly slipping a sticky note in the corner of his eye. Xiao plucked it off his paper and started reading while Xinqiu covertly walked to the next desk. He then crumpled it and dropped it to the floor, not giving it another glimpse.

'What the hell was that all about…? He seemed sort of…bothered. Whatever, I probably shouldn't care too much. I already have a feeling that snobby smart ass is going to be a pain in my ass for a ton of different reasons.' He dropped his head to the desk and groaned heavily.

After an hour into the class Aether felt like he was probably at LEAST ten steps behind of everyone. He boringly spread his arms all over the top of the desk and looked up as if he was dying. Xiao grabbed a textbook and pushed Aether's hand off his side. Aether looked to him in surprise and stared, as if to say; 'Wow, really?'

Out of spite, he nudged Xiao's foot with his and snickered. "You must hate this huh. Oh wait! Lemme guess. Those shoes are new?" He whispered and nudged his foot some more. His deskmate closed his eyes in vexation and after at least a minute of nonstop pestering; nudged Aether's back. He turned to him and shot him a glare that could turn someone into stone. "Stop it right now. You're pissing me off."

Aether took this as bait to continue and a foot war began underneath of their desks. One would kick, the other would tackle, and the cycle would repeat itself. Xiao's patience was wearing thin as Aether showed no signs of stopping. "We have 30 minutes left...do you really think you can handle my ten dollar shoes against your super-high-quality ones?" Xiao stomped his foot to the ground and Aether yelped. When he lifted it up Aether quickly checked under his desk to see that it was scuffed. "Fuck, oh my god. These were 20 dollars…" Xiao smirked and turned back to his papers feeling satified. 'DAMN YOU!' He searched for something to get his revenge and noticed the crumpled up note by Xiao's chair leg. Strenuously, he reached his shoe over to drag the note closer to him. He leaned down and quietly picked it up. "Psst. Xiao. Hey.." The boy ignored him and picked up a pencil to start writing. "Pssttttt. Over here!" He softly snapped, careful to avoid the teacher's attention. Xiao's pencil moved faster. "You skimmed over this pretty quick. I bet you didn't even look at it! Here, I'll read it for you…" Aether almost uncrumpled it before Xiao turned and grabbed his wrist.

"Can't you just leave me alone? Just put it down." He violently hissed. His intentions seemed intimidating, but Aether could feel an underlying panic in his voice. A giddy feeling overrode him knowin Xiao had a soft spot to poke at. "Or what? You scared?" He broke free of his grip and quickly unfolded it. "Let's see… 'You're a'- wait, huh?-" Xiao got up and gripped Aether by the collar, shoving him against the wall. His golden-yellow eyes shot daggers at him with a newfound agitation. The entire class turned to see the two sparking a new tension into the atmosphere. "Cut the bullshit. Now. Don't make me repeat myself."

A drop of sweat went down Aether's forehead as he looked at him with a guise of confidence. "HAH..ha…why would I listen to you? Look, everyone's staring. It looks like you're gonna beat me up, eh?"

Xiao turned his head to see Mr. Zhongli folding his arms and tapping the desk impatiently. He let go of Aether's collar and put his head down, feeling the eyes of 25 people looking down on him. "Xiao. Look at me." Mr. Zhongli boomed. Xiao slowly moved his head upwards to see his teacher shaking his head disappointedly. Aether saw his face warp into one full of shame. A couple students in the class snickered after their initial shock. Xingqiu was calmly reading a book with a small smile on his face.

"I–I'm.." He took a big gulp and straightened his expression. "I apologize for the outburst. I promise that it won't happen again."

Aether put his fingers to his neck and sighed a breath of relief. 'That was close.. I went too far.' The atmosphere was so thick he could cut it with a knife.'He looks really upset…Am I going to get in trouble for this too? Cause I can't afford any more issues with this school..' "Just—*sigh.* Stay after class so we can talk. Are you alright Aether?" Aether perked up and pointed to himself. "Huh? Me? I'm…" He peeked at Xiao's guilt-ridden expression and nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine."

On perfect cue the bell blared loudly across the school; alerting the herd of students to begin packing their bags. "Are you certain?" The teacher tentatively asked him. "If you'd like, I can have someone escort you to the nurse." He shook his head in refusal. "It's a nice offer but I'll pass. Thanks teach–I mean; thank you very much Mr. Zhongli." Aether went to leave, and in the corner of his eye saw Xiao distressfully clenching his fist to his chest and panting.

'Man! I feel kinda guilty…Haah…Forget it. He literally had me in a chokehold! Maybe the note did it in..?' He stopped in his tracks. His mind wandered to what Xingqiu has passed Xiao and furrowed his brows. He thought about what exactly the note had said; "You're a joke. Everyone already knows."

'I guess even rich kids get bullied… I'd rather not get involved with either of them..'