Alte Liebe Rostet Nicht

Shunned

This was... A pain in the ass. Seriously, really. Never had Izumi imagined that this would happen to him of all people. What did Izumi do? No, seriously. This was getting confusing. The past few days things just had been weird, to say the least. At first he wished that he was just imagining things, maybe everyone had a bad day or something. However, this carried on for way over a week now. It was just so strange, being singled out like this, isolated by his own unit members. He didn't like it, at all. It made his stomach turn.

First there was Kasa–Kun who filled Izumi in only in the basics now. Their conversations had nothing suspicious going on and out of all of them, Kasa–Kun kept his usual attitude towards Izumi. However, he seemed to keep an unusual distance. As for whenever he would ask if something had been going on or if he said something Kasa–Kun would avoid the question altogether. Because he either had important business to attend to or would continue with whatever topic was important at the time. It was weird, very weird. It was out of line, him being left out of personal conversations... But at least Kasa–Kun was still talking to Izumi to some degree.

Same cannot be said for Leo who was actively avoiding him at that point. He stayed as far away as possible, or so it felt like, suddenly taking matters into his own hands.

"Haha, don't worry Sena! I will make sure to eat and wash myself properly! I'll be fine~!" Sure, he always had his cheerful tone at hand but it irked the model regardless. Leo didn't seem different but he clearly was. He was not like this, doing anything in his power to avoid those he considers friends. Not to mention that there were a few times where he could swear that Leo was about to snap but saved himself at the very last second. Maybe it was all just an imagination, fair, but he couldn't shake that feeling off. Something was up with Leo as well. Though he decided to hide it to not raise too much suspicion. But Izumi was't stupid of course, far from it! Ugh, this guy was a terrible actor after all.

Kuma–Kun and Naru–Chan were different stories, however. Whenever just greeting everyone for training they would glare at him in their own right. While Kuma–Kun kept silent Naru–Chan became snappier than usual. Even at the smallest disagreement she would just raise her voice towards Izumi, as if anything he could say right now would just throw her off. He couldn't say anything, literally, sometimes not even breathing. Of course she apologized for raising her voice like this at unnecessary times but it happened again and again. Izumi has had it honestly. Sometimes he even went with a direct confrontation yet those would usually lead to more arguing, more nonsense thrown at him and eventually Knights would just spend their time fighting, though this time it was four against one.

They singled him out, all of them, and left him in the dark... On purpose. It was as if they were trying to keep their distance, perhaps throw him out of the group. Would they throw him out? Could they do that? Could Kasa—Kun go that far? Ugh, Izumi hated that this shot through his mind and... Was somewhat afraid. Was this a possibility? Was it? Or was he just bening paranoid? He couldn't shake the feeling off, much to his own dismay. He just knew that something had been going on... And of course there is one person he would pin this on almost right away... Ann.

They had to do something with this, hadn't they!? After all, it is such a 'funny' coincidence that this happened shortly after they were around and seemed to talk about something with the other members of Knights! They had to be plotting something! It was the only option running through his very own mind and it was making him furious! The only possible conclusion!

Thus, as this was an emergency, he had decided to waste his energy to meet Ann in their office first thing in the morning. And he kept true to his own word, slamming the door right open and screaming from the top of his lungs: "What do you think you're doing!?"

It made the brunette fall over, their very own glasses nearly dropping off their eyes yet they managed to keep it in place. They looked like they had just escaped a heart attack when turning to the door to spot Izumi yet he didn't care. Instead he stomped over to them and slammed his hands on the table with an immense force, trying so hard to not punch their sorry face instead.

"What did you tell them!?"

"Huh? I... Izumi what—" Ann could only let out, looking at the young male confused yet he didn't have any of their shit today. Instead he leaned closer, coming face to face with them as his gaze was ignited with fury.

"Listen up! You tell me what lies you were spreading within Knights and I might let you off the hook! If you don't... I'm not afraid to pull the plug on your little job!"

"Eh? I did not—"

"Don't lie to me! Who else is at fault!?" He was yelling right into their face and was not able to hold himself back. He suddenly grabbed them by the collar of their shirt, lifting them off the chair and right up, as if ready to throw them at any moment. This little bitch won't get away with this! Not this time! He kept up with them long enough!

"You're slandering my name, aren't you!?"

"Wha— I—"

"Of course you are!" He didn't even give them a chance to defend themselves. He was just continuing to yell at them, no concern for them whatsoever. "Who else would waste their time dragging my name into the mud!? You wanna know what happened!? I tell you because you will love hearing it! I might as well go solo at this point!"

Hearing this made their own eyes go wide, he saw their body becoming a little more stiff. They were staring at him, as if shocked themselves. But at that moment he decided to ignore it, only throwing them back into their chair, not concerning himself if he hurt them or not.

"Whatever you say, you sort this mess out! Or else—"

"I can't." They finally spoke up, a little shaky yet clearly. It made him raise an eyebrow in response at first however.

"You can't? You want me to believe that nonsense?" He countered, voice lower now despite a calmer tone.

They only nodded however. "I can't."

"Or you don't want to!" He accused them, not understanding what they were heading at. They noticed, shaking their head before looking back up at him, having lowered their head only for a short moment. Their eyes were stern, trying to not look shocked or terrified, whichever it was, despite them shaking in their side.
"I can't!" They yelled and before he could say anything else they followed up with: "Maybe it's you who'll must do this! It's your fault!"