Gaze

Chapter 12: It's Getting Worse!

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It's so much worse.
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"There you guys are!" Ace greets us, Deuce standing at his side. "We ready to confront Trey?"

"Yes."

"Yeah!"

"Then let's go!"
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Trey walks up to a bookshelf with a cook book in hand, returning it to its proper place. He seemed to be in a daze, many thoughts running through his mind. Thoughts about what happened during the Unbirthday Party, no doubt.

"Target spotted." I give Ace, Deuce, and Grim a thumbs up as we hid behind another bookshelf, keeping my eyes on him to ensure he's not moving away. "Roll out."

We walk up to the green-haired third year as casually as we can, hands in pockets like gangsters (or paws placed on the sides, in Grim's case), with Deuce mumbling something along the lines of "why are we treating this like he's got some 150-year long debt...?"

Eventually Trey notices us, his daze turning into bewilderment and shock when he saw us approaching him like he owed us a huge amount of money he hasn't paid back in a long time. "Wha- Why are you guys walking like that??"

"Oh, Trey." I immediately quit walking menacingly, and approach him like I wasn't about to disappointedly stare him down into talking about his most likely suppressed feelings. "We wanted to talk to you. We figured if we waited in the library, we'd run into you since you'd probably return a cook book of sorts."

"Oh, I... see...?" He replies, still mind-boggled over the fact that he just saw the freshmen that baked a mont blanc with him walking towards him like they were loan sharks. "Well... what did you guys want to talk to me about?"

Deuce starts the conversation. "Look, we really don't agree with the way our dormleader's doing things. Rule enforcement is good, but what Riddle's doing is not rule enforcement, it's oppression. It's affecting not only us, but everyone else in the dorm and the students outside of it!"

"Yeah! Even though we're not even from Heartslabyul, Henchman and I got collared!" Grim joins Deuce in protest, pointing to his collar, before pointing to my uncollared neck. "Henchman broke his though."

Trey exhaled a breath, having expected this kind of talk. "I see."

"So we wanna know," Ace takes the lead. "Even though you've seen how he is up close, and have probably seen it multiple times, why are you still letting him slide like he's done no wrong?"

"Well, that's because-"

"It's because Riddle is your childhood friend and not because he's trying to raise the grades and reputatation of Heartslabyul's dorm members, is it not?" I cut him off, staring him dead in the eyes. "I'm not allowing you to make that excuse again, Clover. Answer us honestly."

At that, Trey froze, looking at me like I had uncovered some deep dark secret he had kept hidden away from the world, while I simply stared back.

<Caught his broccoli ass dead in the act, good job Child of Trailblaze!>

<That's right, assert the dominance you should've asserted long ago.>

Thank you, Aha, Nanook.

...Okay, this is getting way too silent, maybe I asserted too much dominance there, let me rephrase. "...Trey, we don't mean to try and convert you to hating Riddle. We just want to hear your part of the story."

"...Right. One question though." Trey refocuses his attention to us, clearly shaken by the words I said previously. "Who told you that Riddle and I were childhood friends?"