Obstinate Elitists

35

When you tried to speak to Ginjirou in class, he was already occupied by other classmates. Faltering in disappointment, you dropped your advances and turned your head to the front. While you were stuck in your desk with pestering thoughts and feelings of humiliation, you wondered why you were so bothered by this. The ties had been cut and it should be all over. But after getting used to the elite's annoying jokes ringing behind you for weeks now, the silence felt somehow louder than ever before. It was like that with Kouki and now with Ginjirou. Deja vu took over you.

The teacher's voice echoed throughout the room's walls. "Get into groups of two again!"

Your heart immediately lurched at the sound of that. This was your opportunity, but only if you didn't fuck it up. Slowly inching around to face the male, you were met by a gnawing stare stemming from those glowing eyes. Slowly taking his gaze off of you, he turned to the worksheet and began writing on it. No words would leave his mouth, and the awkward atmosphere was suddenly overwhelming you.

You parted your lips and clamped them back shut. How could you explain your situation to him better? How could you tell him that you were having goddamn daddy issues to a man you didn't even know? Or that you didn't mind his company and would still be fine to tutor him? However, these were thoughts you could never reveal or say so bluntly. Your ego was a huge obstacle in the way, forcing you to come to terms to the fact that you barely ever apologized in the past life. So instead of telling the whole truth, you did what you knew best.

"Are you actually giving me the silent treatment here?" you murmured, taking your pencil and crossing off his wrong answer.

"I'm not giving you the silent treatment," he shot back, glaring at you, roughly erasing the crossed off answer with his eraser. "Just thought that since you're so obviously above me, we shouldn't work together anymore."

Flinching back, you couldn't keep the hurt from spreading through your features. But you couldn't complain, because you had done the same to him. "That's not true," you sighed. "You're the elite. That doesn't even make sense."

"And you're missing the point once again," he said bitterly. "It's not about the titles and statuses."

You groaned mentally. This was getting you nowhere. You didn't understand where he was getting at, but he was still angry, so you decided not to push any further. "Whatever. Let's divide up our problems and finish them."

He agreed to that a little too easily, and the two of you drew a line between the paper to start working on them. While every other group conversed among themselves, you and Ginjirou were stuck in a cold glass box, with nowhere to go. The scribblings of the pencils' tips were beginning to grow haunting, tightening a knot in your chest. Heads lowered and hands moving robotically, the hour was dragging on forever. You couldn't help but stay aware to the legs tangled together underneath the desk. Close to him and yet, it was off, and perhaps wouldn't be the same ever again.

You seriously... seriously sucked at apologies.

The bell rang in due time. In that moment, you wanted to either sag to the ground in relief or bang your head on the wall in frustration for your incompetence. Leaving the class, you rushed out of there like a madman and that was the end of it.

Crossing the green lawns of the school, you left the proximity and did not look back once. Without thinking, you walked in the other direction rather than home. A fresh breather was needed and the first thing that came to mind was the ice cream shop your mother showed you a few weeks ago. Sidestepping lingering pedestrians, you weaved through the streets until you arrived to the strip lined with shops. On one of the buildings was an old, crooked ice cream logo, in desperate need of a fix.