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"the world is a cruel place"
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tw: violence & abuse
mess hall
the sting of rejection clung to you like a second skin, suffocating as you trudged through the rest of your classes. every tick of the clock seemed louder, dragging you through an endless haze of monotony.
your thoughts, though you tried to avoid them, circled back to that exchange, gnawing at the edges of your sanity. by the time the bell rang for lunch, the anxiety had settled in, heavy and unmoving.
you entered the cafeteria with one thought: the comfort of your friends. you slid into your usual spot at the table, where historia, petra, and mikasa were already waiting. their eyes tracked your every action like they were waiting for you to crack.
"you just let him go?" mikasa pressed, deftly unboxing her meticulously arranged bento box.
you shrugged, staring blankly at the tray in front of you, your appetite long gone."what else was i supposed to do?" you sighed, feeling your forehead meet the cool surface of the table, a weak attempt at hiding from their probing stares.
petra offered you a fruit-filled sandwich, bright colours tempting, but you waved it off with a polite decline.
"i couldn't just keep begging."
the memory of levi's words replayed like a fresh bruise.
"what are you going to do now? you can't tell everyone that you lied. especially not after what happened in the classroom."
"i know," you uttered, feeling the weight of your friend's words pressing down on you.
"he's really heartless. i mean, he rejected you even after he overheard what jean had to say about you?"
overwhelmed by a surge of emotions, you grasped a handful of your hair, groaning into your arm while struggling to maintain your composure. no matter how much you wished for it all to disappear, the humiliation, the confusion—it was all too real.
