A Monster's Influence: Route C

SS - Playing Pool With the Boys

Ayanokouji's POV

"Why are you the one teachin' him, dumbass?" the guy with the buzzcut snickered at Yoshimoto, "You're the worst outta the five of us!"

"Need I remind you who came fourth last game?" Yoshimoto looked disdainfully at buzzcut, "Last Place-kun,"

"Maaaan, you know that was a fluke," he retorted with faux-contempt, "We all know you trash,"

"Well, you're bald."

The two kept bickering while everyone else just watched. The guy with the bucket hat slid next to me and murmured, "Those two guys are the worst out of the five of us. I'll teach you yotsudama. Oh, and the name is Izumi, by the way. I noticed on your phone that you have us labeled by our defining features. The guy with the buzzcut is Tora, the one with a face mask is Kana, and the guy with hair covering his eyes is Asahi. The reason why his hair covers his eyes is cuz of the H protagonist trope. He thinks it'll work, but we all know he can't get bitches with no game,"

"Man, I heard that you asshole!" the now-named Asahi slung an arm around Izumi's shoulders, knocked off his hat, and rubbed his knuckles on his head.

Not knowing what to do with my two apparent teachers being distracted, I just took a sip from my coffee can. The guy with the face mask, Kana, just sighed at their antics. "I'll be the one teaching you, I guess. Obviously, I'm not the best or the worst, but I can teach you how to play well enough. Have you ever played pool before?"

"Nah, I've never touched a pool cue in my life. My parents are too strict, so I didn't really get to do many, quote on quote, 'boorish activities'," I replied. I didn't know what happened to my mother. I hold neither positive nor negative feelings about her. Rather, I feel nothing for someone who hasn't been a part of my life. Less can be said about my biological father.

"A young master?"

"Hmm... I guess you can say that," I admitted, somewhat amused by how close the answer was to the title I was given, "My father is well-off. He just gave me things that he felt were needed for my overall growth and improvement."

"I see, so you aren't just a spoiled rich kid. Do you want me to bum you a cig?" he offered, pulling out his Marlboro carton that he probably swiped from a store or someone, but I refused, "Nah, cancer sticks aren't for me,"

"Suit yourself," he said, putting his pack of cigarettes back in his jacket pocket, lighting the one in his mouth, and started instructing me on the basics of holding a pool cue, "So you hold a pool cue like this with your dominant hand, then you form a bridge with your fingers like this..."

After I understood the mechanics of using the cue, he started to explain the game, "So what you gotta do is get the white ball to hit the two red balls,"

"Do I have to hit the red balls first, or can I bounce the cue ball off the cushion first?" I asked, a little intrigued about the game.

"Huh? You can bounce the ball off the cushions if you want— the most important thing is that you get both balls in one shot. Hitting two red balls is three points, but if you hit one red ball and the other cue ball, you can get two points,"

"Alright then," I readied my pool cue, "If I give the cue ball a counterclockwise spin in this situation and it hits the cushion before it hits the closer red ball, then it would create a better path for the cue ball to hit the second one."

"The fuck you talkin' 'bout?" Kana asked, bamboozled by what I said before his face changed into one of shock, "You lyin',"

The other four quit their antics and looked at the pool table in amazement, "There's no fuckin' way this is your first time, you're even nursing," Yoshimoto commented in envy.

"You can beat Kousetsu's ass and you're that smart? The fuck?" Asahi stared at me, "You're definitely on another level."

"Order for Ayanokouji Kiyotaka?" we heard at the counter, causing us to turn our heads towards the speaker.

"That's me," I raised my hand and walked over to the delivery person, exchanging private points for the food. I thanked them and sent them off before bringing over the food to the Kousetsu Fam, who pulled out their phones.

"You sure?" Yoshimoto said, confused about my apparent generosity, "We can just pay you for the food."

"No need. Just don't expect this to happen every time, though,"

With that, everyone else stopped paying attention to the pool game and focused on their food. A replay of a baseball game in America was seen on the television that was switched on and the Kousetsu Fam were just taking shots at one another. Soon, their conversation devolved into the degenerate category.

"Hey, Ayanokouji-san," one of them said as they turned towards me, "If you had to pick between Karuizawa from Class D and Manabe from our class, who would you pick?"

"That's definitely hard, bro," Asahi said, "But he'd probably pick Manabe. Those two have been flirting since the start. Obviously, if he could have both, he'd probably do that, but she's been hanging off of Hirata from her class."

"Bet you Ayanokouji-san could steal her if he wanted to," Tora grinned.

"I mean, I think you can't go wrong either way," Yoshimoto chimed in, "I feel like both of them would shit talk me—"

The rest of the Kousetsu Fam started snickering, "We're no stranger to the idea that you wanna be stepped on by your girl,"

Yoshimoto continued, "So—So, I feel like when we're banging, they'd shit talk me during it, and that shit would be hot, and that's why you can't go wrong with either or both of them," he finished.

I couldn't help but pinch the bridge of my nose. Is this what hormonal teenage boys talk about all the time?

"They'd be like, 'Yeah, you fucking loser, that's why your daddy don't love you. Fuck me harder,' and I'd be like 'OoOoOoOh shet!'" he mimed holding a girl's behind, which caused the other four to laugh themselves stupid.

"You're dumb as fuck, Kousetsu," Izumi scolded, but couldn't help but smile at the corner of his mouth.

All of us continued to chat with one another as they continued to eat their food. I closed my eyes and sighed. Ryuuen seems to be fashioning himself as another run-of-the-mill dictator. It appears that there's going to be no love lost between him and our class, and he doesn't care for his image, using Albert as a means to crush any opposition. Well, not that it matters to me. As long as I remain off his radar, I'd probably be regarded as just another pretty boy. As long as I have my ordinary life in the end, that's all that matters...

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I hope you enjoyed this short story of Kiyotaka hanging out with the Kousetsu Fam. Yoshimoto Kousetsu isn't too bad of a guy... even though he's still an asshole. He and his clique show reverence and friendliness to Kiyotaka cuz they're nervous around him, but he's still just another hormonal teenager like the rest of you degenerates, haha. They have stricken an odd friendship of sorts, owing to Kiyotaka's proactiveness of being friendly, even though he has an ulterior motive. You'll maybe see it in his plans for Ryuuen. Sorry if you cannot stomach the degeneracy, though.