𝐄𝐔𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐂 ★彡[xɪᴀᴏ, ᴋᴀᴢᴜʜᴀ, ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴇɪᴢᴏᴜ​]彡★

𝗖𝗛𝗫𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝟯

"Huh?" you blinked. "Wait, what? I think we skipped a few steps here."

"I was wondering why Xiao cared so much about you," Venti chirped, swinging our hands back and forth, "and I thought that you must be a very interesting person. It seems as if my magnificent intuition was correct! There's no wonder you're the smartest person in our grade."

"You flatter me," you sighed, "but I'm really not... I'm nothing too special."

"Hm," Venti stared at you for a second before nodding to himself, as if confirming something in his own head. "Yeah, I see. So we are really similar, then."

You ignored him and began to walk ahead, dragging him along with you. "No one will recognize you since you have your hoodie tucked into your sweatshirt, right?"

"Mhm," Venti nodded.

"Alright, then I don't have to worry about rumors. Since Xiao doesn't really attempt to hide his hair I don't hold hands with him, it's been a long time," you enjoyed the feeling of someone's palm against yours as your fingers were intertwined together. It gave you a rush of childhood nostalgia and longing that you sorely longed for.

"Xiao seems awfully smitten for you," Venti commented, "I think that he has a case of the 'childhood friend syndrome.'"

You scowled. "I think he just cares about me since we've known each other for so long. It's more of a sense of obligation than anything else, I think."

"I could see that," he grinned, "but there's also the chance that he has intense and fiery feelings for you."

"I don't think I could even imagine that happening," you laughed along with him, thoroughly enjoying his company. It had been quite a long time since you had been able to let yourself go like this. It was nice.

"Your reputation describes you as cruel and unforgiving, but it seems like you're quite the opposite," he observed, talking more to himself than to me.

"I'd rather live by that reputation than be known as pathetic," you simply stated, causing Venti to fall silent and the rest of the walk to continue in silence.

When you returned to class, Heizou, unfortunately, sat down beside you, warranting unwanted attention from everyone.

"Yo, Miss Prez!" Heizou lay his hand on his cheek and stared at you intently.

"Hello," you greeted him coldly, pulling out a few papers from your bag in an attempt to give the illusion you were busy. Heizou, of course, failed to pick up on this.

"Thank you for today, I'm so happy to- mmph!"

The familiar white-haired boy slapped a hand over his mouth, his harsh stare boring into him.

"Heizou."

"Ah, Kaedehara," you blinked, surprised to see him there. Well, it shouldn't have been surprising as he was in your class, but his presence was less than prominent. What's the appeal to him outside of his looks?

"Sorry," Kazuha told me, his dark eyes unreadable. "Heizou isn't as dumb as he's acting."

"It's fine," you replied, looking away from them.

You knew that the fans weren't as prone to go after you due to your high standing, but that wouldn't stop the particularly rambunctious ones from confronting you if you appeared to have a close relationship with them. Due to the fact that Heizou was normally front-and-center on stage, he was extremely popular amongst the girls in your grade. His extremely energetic and charismatic personality just added fuel to the fire.

"Why are you being so cold?" Heizou frowned. "I just want to get to know you better."

He's guilt-tripping me! You knew this tactic and were unfortunately incredibly susceptible to it.

"I'm not being cold," you gave him a look, "I just want to focus on my academics. There isn't time to be idly chit-chatting during classes. I suggest you do the-"

"There's no need to act like a class president, Miss Prez!" Heizou grinned, directly contradicting his own words. "I promise I won't judge you- YOWCH! HEY! WHAT'S WITH ALL THE PHYSICAL ABUSE TODAY?"

"Why are you acting like such a moron?" Kazuha sighed, placing a hand on his forehead in exasperation. "Are you trying to give her a bad impression of you? You're not this much of an airhead."

"She seems like the kind of person that would prefer that sort of character archetype," Heizou shrugged, "so I figured I would align myself to her standards."

"How would you even know her type?" Kazuha tilted his head to the side whilst looking genuinely baffled.

"Because I'm her type, right?" Heizou turned to me and winked, mouthing 'say yes' to you in a two-hundred percent completely discreet way.

"Yes," you replied, smirking at him, "you're exactly my type."

"HUH!??!? WAIT, HOLD ON. REALLY!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!!?!?!?!!??!?!?!!?" Heizou shouted, drawing everyone's undivided attention to us.

"Only slightly," you smiled deviously, "I have a wide variety of character traits I'm interested in."

"Ahh, alright," Heizou laughed it off, his ears pink.

"I had no idea that you were one to tease," Kazuha observed, sounding unnaturally passive in his dialect.

"I tease Xiao from time to time," you shrugged your shoulders impartially. "I don't mean it at all, so it's not particularly different."

"Hm." Kazuha blinked at you. "I see. Well, it was a humorous sight, so thank you. However, I think it would be best if we returned to our actual seats now, Heizou."

"I'm sitting here, what do you mean?" Heizou tilted his head to the side with a shrewd smirk. "This seat was open, so I don't think it's going to be an issue."

"(Y/n) will sit with me," Xiao cut in, suddenly appearing beside them in a dramatic turn of events.
Kazuha sighed and stared at you. "You can pick whoever, it's not like it's a big deal. I would try to get it over with before these two cause a scene."

Pick someone?

You grimaced.

"I don't want any of you to sit next to me, no offense."

"Can't you just pick one of us?" Xiao grumbled. It's not like it's going to be that big of a deal and you'd look weird sitting all alone."

"Fine, fine," you shrugged, "I feel like the main character of an otome game right now. I guess the person I'll sit next to is-"

*From this point forward, the story will branch out into three separate routes. While they may share some plot points, each will be vastly different and contain a different love interest. I will write Xiao's first, then Kazuha, then Heizou's, but if you're reading this after everything is written, you can pick whichever one you want and go from there. The recommended order is the order I'm writing them in, though. The 'common route' of this story is short because each of the routes will branch out separately from this point forward. :) Thank you for 500 reads!

Much love,

Wasabi