Bloodlust 〳『A Vampire Yuuichi AU』

ꕥ-4-ꕥ

Was he able to do anything gratifying after what he had witnessed? I don't think so. I wouldn't be able to. 

But with an ironclad will, he put up a face like nothing had happened and went to school. Delusional at first, he entered his class and scanned the atmosphere. With a relieved sigh, he sat down in his seat as nobody paid attention to him except Tenji, sitting in his chair with a thesaurus in front of him. A short, jerky wave, was the way the two said their morning greetings without any verbal communication.

"Thank goodness," he lay his head on the desk. "That nothing went wrong yet. I can still buy time."

The minutes passed on by, as after Yuuichi came Shiho, then Shibe, and lastly, Kokorogi. Yuuichi's sharp eyes were quick to the change in Kokorogi's usual demeanor. During the lunch break, when the five friends were having lunch on the rooftop, Yuuichi quietly used this opportunity to ask Kokorogi if anything was wrong.

She wasn't talking as usual. She was a shy one, no doubt, but today she was painfully quiet. Eyebags were visible under her eyes, and her gaze lingered from one point to another. She was restless.

"Kokorogi," Yuuichi approached her as she planned to get back to class. "Is anything wrong? I can help if you want."

The brunette turned around briskly with a sharp gaze. "Yu-Yuuichi..." She stuttered. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do for you."

Seeds of doubt were planted in the ravenette's brain.  "What do you mean, Kokorogi? We are friends, aren't we? You can tell me what's bothering you."

She turned her back on him and took two steps towards the bottom. "I don't want to. Just know that I don't want to do anything with you."

With this, she left without another word, leaving Yuuichi in his confusion. His silence was broken by Shibe, who was going downstairs to fetch his water bottle. 

"What's up, Yuuichi?" he inquired. "What's with the long face?"

Yuuichi shook his head. First, not want to tell anything to someone as loose-lipped as Shibe, but eventually gave in to his gut feeling. What if he had a piece of good advice?

"You see, Shibe..." He began as the blond wrapped his arm around the ravenette's shoulder. "Kokorogi is acting strange, and I don't know why. I think I did something to make her angry."

Shibe patted his shoulder three times hyperactively with a big grin. "Oh it's just something as simple as that!" he laughed. "Maybe she just wants your attention! Take her out for a walk sometime!"

Yuuichi accepted his proposal and agreed to act on it, whenever he had the time. 

"I'll definitely try it out. Taking into consideration that I have enough time." he smiled. "Thanks again."

"Oi oi, you're too serious about the other night! We are friends, after all!" he grinned. "Go back up, I'll return with my bottle!"

With that, he pushed Yuuichi back up while happily scrambling down to the classrooms like his usual energetic self.

Yuuichi came up to Shiho and Tenji and slumped on the ground beside the two. "Ah, the math this semester is quite hard, even for me." Tenji started. "We'll have to make double the efforts to score decent this time."

Shiho nodded, but Yuuichi leaned against the wall. "Come on, Tenji." he yawned. "Leave the topic of studies out at least in the lunch break."

The spectacle wielder pushed his glasses up his nose to a certain limit. "You'll have to focus on studies a bit more, or else you won't be able to get a decent job."

Shiho looked away and quietly nodded. "Tenji-san is correct, Yuuichi," she spoke in an inaudible voice.

"But I already do jobs," he whined. "I think I could survive long enough."

"But the rising unemployment and inflation-"

"I'll survive that too, Sawaragi."

The taller boy stood up and looked down on Yuuichi. "Just because you can do some odd jobs here and there with little to no practical knowledge, you think you are cool? You think all of us are lazy bluffers, who do nothing but laze around all day, don't you?" he spat. "You should start putting more attention to your studies and stop dragging all of us down."

"Little to no practical knowledge, huh?"

The ravenette looked around the two and as Shibe entered. It didn't make sense. It almost felt as if their relationship was fabricated the whole time. And piece by piece it was tearing down. Why was it like that? Yuuichi didn't have enough info to describe any hypotheses.

That feeling was what he hated. 

Shiho, after Tenji, got up without a word and the two walked away together, leaving Yuuichi all alone.

"Seems like I was too early to think that today would go well."

Shibe, came up to the Yuuichi lost in his thoughts as the others walked away. He sat down beside the ravenette. 

"They are not feeling it today, are they?" he smiled, as his eyebrows curled up in concern. "They aren't telling me what is going on, and continue to act this way. I honestly don't get it at all."

"I'm on the same page, Shibe," Yuuichi answered. "They were all perfectly fine yesterday."

"Maybe something happened during the night?"

Yuuichi looked at Shibe jerkily who had his gaze fixed on the blue sky. 

The blond looked down and returned Yuuichi's fixated gaze. "Like if they all got bad scores on yesterday's math tests and they spent their whole night studying," he explained. "That explains Kokorogi's eyes today. But I'm stupid whatsoever, so I don't really know."

Yuuichi let out an inaudible sigh and chuckled. "Yeah, we both get bad grades regularly so I guess it doesn't affect us that much."

"But don't forget to cheer Kokorogi up, alright man?"

"Roger."

The day passed, and Yuuichi went home alone; he always walked with his friends. The day was a bit lonely for him, it was fine as he would make them realize he was not at fault. 

"It had been less than twenty-four hours but they look at me with those eyes. I must've been suspicious that I took the bag home."

Yuuichi dragged himself home, opened his door, and without wasting a second, flumped into his mattress. He didn't want to do anything that day. The dull and gloomy atmosphere around his friends had taken a toll on his productivity and turned it into procrastination.

But he wasn't just lazing around.

His brain was buzzing in all different directions, trying to link every response to every little trap he set down.

He had two major suspects. But he couldn't just confirm them without any evidence. He had to look deeper.

Deeper into their mask, their personas and break them down.

Before they could reveal his information.