Ex's to Lovers

Chapter 16

In Which Ivan and Alfred are Oblivious and Also There May Be a War

Alfred's school was large for the town he lived in, but actually quite small compared to bigger cities. This meant that if there was someone in the school who somehow didn't know him, or Ivan, they knew someone who did know him, which meant everyone knew what was going on. What Alfred didn't know is that the main perpetrator of the spreading rumours was not Francis, or Gilbert, but himself. Alfred was not the type to think before he spoke, but he wasn't naturally eloquent like Francis, or good at bullshitting on the spot like his older brother Arthur, so in the end, Alfred often blurted things out in a way that led to more misunderstandings.

Alfred, who didn't realize this, chose to blame the rumours on the same person he blamed everything on; Ivan. Ivan, who was smart enough to figure out the truth, but couldn't be bothered to explain it to such an obnoxious person, simply responded with a dangerous smile whenever Alfred acused him. Unfortunately there was one other thing that neither Ivan nor Alfred had noticed:

The entire school had split into factions to show their support for the two well-known jocks. There was the Pro-Ivan faction, that was made up of people who supported Ivan, knew someone else who did (or was threatened into it by his sister) or just generally disliked Alfred for reasons likely related to his flippant attitude and self-centered view on life. Then there was the Pro-Alfred faction, which was pretty much the same thing in reverse (minus threatening sister and substituting guilt-tripping brother), and somewhere stuck between the two was a small Nuetral faction of class mates who just simply didn't care, or the rare friend of both parties, like Alfred's friend Toris, who wisely chose not to take sides.

The two factions had been boiling at the edge of a confrontation for weeks since the rumours began spreading, and unbeknownst to Ivan, scowling at Alfred's last provoking text, and Alfred, sulking his way through tutoring with his older brother after dropping a grade and getting humiliating by Ivan bragging about his good grades, both Pro factions were finally clashing for the first time time after school.

It was a smallish town, which meant most people knew each other and even if you didn't you'd still run into them in town, simply because there weren't many places to go. This is why the two groups managed to clash in the middle of an impromptu after school soccer game. It started when Kiku, a second year but also a close friend of Alfred's made a comment to the main Pro-Alfred faction leader, Alfred's twin brother Mathew.

"Is Alfred okay? I saw he ran into Ivan earlier today and he looked upset after."

Mathew, who did not know this event had happened until this point, frowned, but he wasn't given the chance to respond. Yao, Kiku's older brother who had invited himself into their game, and more importantly, was part of the Pro-Ivan faction, interjected in a scandalized tone.

"Why would you worry about Alfred? Did you see Ivan's face? That Alfred broke his heart and all anyone talks about is 'poor Alfred'. Aiya!"

Yao ended his statement with a sigh, and for a moment, Mathew couldn't even speak with anger. Then, the field erupted into chaos.