All You Need Is Love (MewGulf AU)

🌞Chapter 21🌻

PAST
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Two months after Mew arrived, Gulf was invited to his house for the first time.

It was in the top floor of a luxury high-rise condominium building that didn't seem to belong in the town. The foyer alone was more than thirty-five square feet, its floor inlaid with high-quality marble. A cabinet of shoes covered one entire wall, from floor to ceiling. An enormous room contained both a sofa set and dining table. An expensive lamp hung from the ceiling and shelves lined the wall, all black and modern. In the dining room, there was a full dinner service, in the living room, a television and stereo system.

Gulf set on the sofa hesitantly and found that it was fluffy, seeming to mold itself to the shape of his hips. He hugged one of the downy cushions to his chest and leaned back. The room's temperature was set comfortably, and a faint scent of flowers wafted in, though he couldn't see its source.

Gulf suspected that model homes must have been like this, though he had never been to one. It was undeniably beautiful, but he felt that it was somehow empty of life.

The floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the tiny town. Gulf propped his legs up while he waited and Mew stuck his head out of the kitchen.

"Sorry, this is all we've got."

He set a bag of chips, and amazingly, an armload of beer cans on the coffee table.

"What's with the beer?"

"I didn't have any choice. We don't have anything to drink besides beer."

"No. No way. Why do you think I came here?"

Mew sat down on the sofa and pulled open a can of beer. "I thought you came over to play."

"Idiot." Gulf tossed a nearby cushion at Mew. But Mew tilted his head to one side and easily dodged it.

"You know I'm going out of my way to be here at such an important time because you said the finals were going to be on some things you didn't understand and that you needed my help."

Gulf thumped on the table as he spoke.

"Are you sure?"

"Don't play dumb!"

Ever since he'd transferred in, Mew's attitude had been consistent. He didn't act especially tough, but he didn't show even the most basic interest in his surroundings and hardly ever initiated conversations with other people. In one of his elective classes, apparently even the teacher was so cowed by the aura that Mew gave off that he never called on him.

And the attitude of his classmates hadn't changed.

Gulf's order on the first day seemed to have had an effect, and no one spread rumors about Mew openly. But he noticed that Mew's persona was snowballing and gaining influence.

Gulf had thought it was high school girls who were supposed to love to gossip, but it was exactly the same at his all-boys school.

Gulf kept trying to bring Mew into the fold by greeting him in the halls or by taking him places, but he could only do that if Mew attended school. If he didn't bother to come, Gulf wouldn't even have been able to do that much.

"If Mew keeps this up, he won't be able to graduate."

Gulf rushed into action after hearing what he had long suspected. 'During what little time we do have, I'd like to be your friend,' he'd said before with such charm, but if Mew didn't graduate then it was meaningless.

What would he do? He found it impossible to believe that he would just bravely go back to school the next year if he were held back.

That was why Gulf decided to do whatever he could to make sure they graduate together, and he didn't care if he made a nuisance of himself.

The first step was to study for the exams.

TBC