Bite the hand that feeds one || Ayato Aishi/Male Rivals

Chapter 4

————Ayato Aishi

The classroom filled with chatter as I wrote my name on top of the mathematics worksheet handed out by Miss Mida. She decided to allow partners to help with the work, she must've been as stuck as us. I tapped the eraser of my pencil on the paper, thinking, but not about the work. I was thinking about Amao and the subtle way he hid the abuse performed on him.

I tapped the paper again, but how would I be able to help Amao? Ayano told me that some random delinquents had been harassing him, although I'm not too sure how true that was considering she's a liar. Could it be the delinquents in the school? No.. the cooking club still passes out food to them, Amao definitely feeds them. I tapped the paper once again, if it couldn't be the school delinquents.. maybe I'd be able to recruit them. To ask them to...

"Wow, are you having a hard time too?", My heart skipped a couple beats, I quickly looked up, a tanned boy with blond-.. ish hair had his desk connected to the front of mine, sitting at it. What the fuck. I guess I didn't notice when he did that.. "My name is Rito Aso, Wanna help each other?", I opened my mouth but the words caught in my throat. I closed my mouth again and slightly nodded.
Rito's eyes softened as he gazed at me, a small and comforting smile plastered on his calmed expression. It reminded me of how Amao looked at me. A lot of boys had been giving me that look recently...

  I looked back down at my sheet, not very bothered by his decision to go out of his way to talk to me anymore. Maybe he wanted something?
I looked back up, "Aishi Ayato" I finally answered after gaining some courage. I didn't feel very shy but I didn't feel very confident. "Nice to meet you!" Rito rested his cheek against his hand. "I've never seen your hair down before"
"Oh, this?" I softly spoke, "I forgot today, stayed up a little late last night"
"Well, it looks nice. You should wear it down more often!"
"Thanks" and we quieted down for a bit.
"Where you from, Aishi-Kun?"
"Oh, I was born here."
"Me too!"
Perhaps he was just trying to make conversation, I owed him a response or two back, at least until the conversation was fluid.
"Did you get number 3 yet?" He banged the eraser to his pencil against his desk repeatedly, I nodded my head, "It goes like this" and I pointed and instructed. It went quiet again after he thanked me. I thought about Amao once more, just like before Rito came over here. He must have noticed my dazed or maybe distracted state. Rito tapped my hand that was resting on my worksheet with his eraser.
"I heard you were in the cooking club, that must be exciting" He looked back down at his work and I did too. He heard that.. were there rumors flying about me..? If so then Osano or maybe even Taeko would notify me. Ayano was kind of blind to rumors until it was too late..

  I set up the equation for number 5, thinking about my response as I did so, "Yeah, we are holding a bake sale soon. The club leader is deciding on a theme right now"
"I never thought you would like cooking, your more of an artsy-painting type to me. Maybe that's just me feeding into the quiet-kid-draws stereotype" He looked at my work, "Hey, how'd you get that for number 5?"
I looked at his paper, "You set it up wrong, this number right here is in the wrong place. It's a bit confusing because of the wording it uses, I almost didn't catch it myself" I hoped I made him feel a little less dumb.
  "Ah! Thanks!" And he wrote down the correct answer. Rito looked back up at me, "Hey, I'm doing some practice and need a partner, if you're available at all, when?"
  I thought for a moment, not about my availability but about if it was legit or not. Seriously, I felt like a dick-magnet. "Wednesdays I don't have club and club usually ends at 5:30"
  "Perfect! My club ends at 5:30 too! Can we meet up at the track?"
  I nodded, "Awesome!" Rito smiled widely, his teeth were less taken care of than Amao's, but not disgusting or anything.
  "Why me though?" I spoke without thinking, it was an unusual habit I didn't know I had until.. now.
  "You seem fit, sure you are.. pretty short but you have some decent muscles!"
   Short.

_____

  "Ayato" I gripped the sheet pan filled with raw cookie dough in my hands and turned my head around. "Oh, hey Odayaka-Kun" I turned back around and crouched in front of the open oven and put the third batch of cookies in.
  "I wanted to thank you about the list again. It really took a bunch of stress off." Odayaka cupped his hands together, he had cupcake batters, cookie batters and even flour or other assortments of ingredients on himself and his apron. "It's no issue..." I spoke gently but hasty and I guess he took note of that, even after he chose to still stand there. Would now be a perfect time to confront him about his bruises?

When I looked back at him he had tears. I furrowed my brows, my plan wasn't to make him cry, "Odayaka. It really was nothing. Honest." I washed my hands after taking the oven mitts off.
"Yeah but I feel like you're the only who cares enough to do something. And you've been here less than three days.." His voice trembled, "All of my members either don't know what to do or don't want to do anything"
"Have you tried yelling at them?" I dried my hands with a paper towel. The four other members scavenged supplies from home eco., the storage rooms and even their own bags in their lockers.
"I could never! Sure, I'd yell out of frustration but I just.. never even thought of about yelling at them.. Their my classmates and club members, not children..."
"But it sounds like they act like children" I grabbed the used dishes and started the sink up, Odayaka started grabbing other dishes. "Yeah but what if they get mad? What if they quit?" He grabbed a rag and began wiping down counters, "Then they weren't meant for this club", I quickly washed and rinsed the pans. Odayaka said nothing back, in fact, he didn't move or say anything for a long time. Just watched me. He whirled around to face me and leaned on the counter, my back turned to him as I wrapped up my cleaning, "I just don't think I have it in me to yell.." The timer for the cookies began to ring and I grabbed the oven mitts after drying the sink and my hands. I opened the stove and crouched to grab the cookies, I didn't respond to Odayaka.

I turned around and faced Amao, leaning on the counter next to the stovetop. We stared at each other for a while, Amao blinking away the tears successfully, a direct contradiction to my face that dawned an RBF. I turned back to the stovetop, whirling my head back around to the left with surprise. A sharp knife was left out, I saw my reflection in it, making my eye twitch a little. It was weird, It reminded me of my mother in some way. Maybe just like a knife, she was unpredictable, ready to slice and cut you at any moment you slip up. I speak slice and cut in a metaphorical way. There is no way she would be able to kill someone.. She was too loving for that.

Odayaka noticed my staring and slowly took the knife from the counter, breaking my thoughts like glass. He walked behind me to the sink and washed it. I grabbed some ziploc bags, the big ones, and started putting the cupcakes, cookies and other baked goods in the bags. "That's good enough for today, Ayato. We'll frost them Thursday and get everything set up on Friday morning. When the others restock things I'll let them off too" I nodded and took my apron off, Odayaka came up from behind me and took off my handkerchief-hat. "I really can't thank you enough for the list... It was really helpful." I softened my eyes at him on purpose, letting my 'You're Welcome' look glaze him over.
I put my apron and hat in the laundry basket near the door and exited the club room. It was exactly 5:30 when I left and 5:42 when I met Rito.

Status: Edited

My god that typo. "Shattered my glass like thoughts" WHAT.