Royal Pride (Leona Kingscholar/Yuu)

25 ~ Lover's Quarrel

Yuu's head snapped towards the voice. Impeccable timing. Of course, Leona would decide to appear when Jack went to tell Yuu the truth. And of course, he'd make it a whole confrontation.

"Hey," Yuu said pointedly, standing next to Jack with her arms crossed. Leona had his hands in his pockets, head tilted back in a haughty manner. He had a dark glare in his eyes. "I asked what you're doing, Jack."

She felt her temper flare as she pushed between the two boys and grabbed Leona's shirt. "You'd better have a good explanation," she growled, glowering at him.

He looked away, so she used her other hand to grab his cheeks and force him to look at her. His eyes widened in surprise. "...Fine. Let's go somewhere else."

Though she was seeing red, she gave Jack a kind smile, mouthing 'go' to him before following after Leona, who led her to the botanical gardens. She hadn't been there in a while.

They sat down on an empty bench, the place mostly void of people. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. It was clear that he wasn't planning on talking first, which somehow infuriated her more.

"Start talking," she barked. He wouldn't make eye contact with her.

"Are you really gonna believe everything that frosh says?"

She blinked a few times incredulously. It sounded more like, "Are you really trusting him over me?"

But the truth of the matter was that she was. Jack went out of his way, risking her neck to tell her the truth, while Leona and Ruggie went into hiding.

"Yes," she said shortly. "Why wouldn't I, after everything you've done?"

"What, you want me to be by your side all the time?" He growled back. She flinched, unbelieving what she'd just heard. He seemed to not believe it either, his eyes widening. "I didn't mean that—"

"Then what did you mean?" She whispered.

"I promise that I've been busy—"

"Yeah, busy pushing people down the stairs," she scoffed. "Where's Ruggie been? How exactly are you going about doing this whole thing?"

He responded with silence. "Jamil said he felt like someone was using their magic on him. I know you're making Ruggie do your dirty work."

"I'm tired of Malleus wiping the floor with our team every year," he conceded, but it wasn't enough of a response for Yuu. "Then why all the other victims? Why haven't you attacked anyone from Diasomnia? You just don't wanna have to work hard, so you're taking the easy way—!!"

He snapped his arms on both sides of her on the bench, trapping her where she sat. "Shut up," he snarled. "You don't know anything about how hard I've been working!"

She'd stung a sensitive spot, but she was already long past caring if Leona got mad at her. She was going to speak her mind, whether he liked it or not.

"You call laying around the greenhouse napping during class hard work? Skipping Spelldrive practice? Dumping all of your work onto your subordinates? Tell me, how is any of that hard work?" She grabbed his biceps, yelling in his face.

"You wouldn't understand! You don't know what it's like to constantly pour effort into things and not get anything out of it!" His hands gripped the bench tighter, his knuckles turning white.

"You're literally hurting people! You're injuring my friends! And for what? To win a Spelldrive competition!?"

"I'm doing what I need to! Just because it's not the ideal way of doing things doesn't mean you get to look down on me! We don't all get the privilege of taking moral high-road!"

"Then how come you two avoided me for so long if you don't see the issue with what you're doing!?"

His voice turned icy. "It was just a few days, get over it! It's not that long if a time!"

"It's that long of a time to me because you made me believe that you'd be there for me! You left me at my worst!" She felt her voice break and turned her head to the side.

"I didn't make you believe anything," he growled. "What you believe is up to you! I'm a Housewarden, so of course I can't be there for you all the time! I have responsibilities outside of you!"

She let out a loud scoff. "Now you're pulling the Housewarden card? Even within your dorm, everyone knows you don't do anything but lay back and dump all of your responsibilities on others! You're privileged enough to have a Housewarden position, yet you still complain about your hard work not being recognized! Wake up!"

"I've never been more awake! All of you idiots like to act all high and mighty, but none of you know what I have to go through!"

"We're all going through stuff! I was literally kidnapped a few days ago! That doesn't give you the right to take it out on others!"

"...I should've just kept my distance from you altogether." His voice dropped, his eyes with a new intense look, more venomous than she'd ever seen.

The words stung harsher than anything he'd said before, and her thoughts started overtaking her mind again. She let go of him, pulling her arms over herself. "You're right, I am a waste of space."

His head snapped towards her, a look of concern laced in his intense expression. "I didn't say that."

"I thought I was more important to you than this, but I guess not."

He didn't respond, and he didn't protest as Yuu got up and left. She exited the botanical gardens, and neither of them said a word.