There really was no getting out of this bet he made with Odasaku, Dazai realized, when the night before Halloween, his best friend stopped by his dorm to check if the brunet has prepared the costume. Hearing the knock on the door, Osamu reluctantly got up from his bed, where he’d been reading in a relative peace – his annoying roommate was already out, meeting his friends before the party – and went to open the door.
Oda stood at the door with snacks, already wearing the costume and a grin on his face which remained there as the man strolled into the dorm room.
“Well, let’s see it, Dazai,” – mischievously said Sakunosuke, sitting down on his friend’s bed, leaving the Crab Rangoon on Osamu’s table.
Osamu rolled his eyes, murmuring “fine”, and pretended to reluctantly go to his closet to take his costume out.
About two weeks before Halloween, Dazai as per usual joined his friend in the school cafeteria for lunch, in his post-classroom-argument-went-poorly mood. Plopping down next to Oda, who has gracefully brought food for them both (in part because he knew that otherwise Dazai just won’t eat anything until later, surviving on coffee and an occasional apple), Osamu crossed his hands over his head, as if to hide from the world, and made an annoyed sound:
“Ugggggghhhh.”
Completely unfazed, as this type of thing was a usual occurrence after this particular lecture, Sakunosuke inquired:
“So, who won the argument this time?”
When instead of a response, he just got an angry-looking pout, Oda chuckled:
“Not you, evidently.”
Dazai rolled his eyes, pulling on his sweater’s turtle neck to hide half of his face in it.
“Odasaku, he is so annoying! He said that even though it can be argued that Snow White takes its inspiration from the real-life story of countess Margarete von Waldeck, there is no clear evidence for it! And therefore, there is no need to discuss Brother’s Grimm in this class!”
“Isn’t she from the 16th century?”
“Yes, and?”
“And you’re taking a course on “Medieval Fairytale”?”
“What’s your point, Odasaku?”
“Medieval period is considered to end around the early 1400-s, no? So Chuuya is right about this one.”
Making another groan, Dazai pulled the sweater over his head, hiding from reality. This situation was embarrassing already, since making such a mistake in front of the entire classroom was mortifying for Dazai, but Odasaku really could have played along, pretending like he agreed, to let Osamu have the remainder of his dignity. But alas, that was not to be, as the conversation showed.
The professor was used to his two best students arguing during the classroom discussions at this point, and so was everybody else. Even those who were taking a class with them for the first time, after two months of incessant academically fueled bickering, were used to the notion that these rivals would find a way to quarrel about almost any topic.
But this time, it was something so, so stupid. Somebody in class mentioned the original fairy tale of “Snow White”, and they were making point of tracing the development of the medieval fairy tale into what one recognizes as it today. Dazai adored the Brothers Grimm’s fables, so naturally, he had to express his passion, disguised as commentary, in relating some of his knowledge on the subject. And of course, the little annoying chibi had to make him sound like a fool, saying that it wasn’t even related to what they were studying in class!
