Takuma whipped around, examining the unfamiliar person that stood before him. "Who are you?"
The taller boy stared back in disbelief, raising his eyebrows. "That's really insulting. You've been following her home for almost an entire year," he bluntly said. "Yet you still don't know who I am? What a pathetic stalker." The boy became amused after seeing that the older male's face darkened. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone about your little past-time as long as you don't try anything sketchy." Cutting the conversation short, he proceeded to walk past the breathing time-bomb then stopped. "Just so you know, I'm hardly a threat to whatever love life you have going there. I already have a shit load of problems I have to deal with at home so I don't have time for your stupid crap. Anyways, you're probably Rin's only hope of ever getting married because she literally never talks to anyone. Guess I'll see you tomorrow too."
After seeing the boy enter Rin's house, Takuma assumed that this guy was probably her brother and made a mental note to deal with him in the future. Currently, this kid posed a significant threat to him if word ever got out about him following a female student home. Everyone would obviously get the wrong idea through their thick, idiotic skulls. Most importantly, if Rin knew about this, his future with her would be done for.
Sulking, he arrived at his front door and was tempted to angrily bash the doorbell a million times. Opening the door, his mother noticed his agitation.
"Did something bad happen at school today, Takuma?" she inquired, quickly walking back to the stove to make sure nothing burned.
"No, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." he frustratedly mumbled back as he flopped onto the sofa, imagining how things were going to play out tomorrow.
She pursed her lips in concern. "If you say so. I'm making your favourite tonight so cheer up."
➳
The next school day, Takuma sluggishly found his way to the desk in the back corner and was comforted seeing that no one else had filled that area yet. As he waited for time to pass, he stared off, thinking about what Rin's brother had said about being Rin's only hope for marriage and indulging himself with happy thoughts.
A few minutes had passed when the corner of his eye caught a particular blonde sliding into the seat beside him. Regaining his senses, he slowly glanced to his left, hoping it wasn't who he assumed it was.
"Shit, out of all the open seats she chooses to sit here?"
"Hiii, I'm Elle! You new here? I've never seen you around before." The girl brightly introduced herself to the aloof male, seeing that he looked lonely among the loud classroom.
Takuma was considering whether or not he should ignore her but because he didn't want to end up with a bad reputation, he forced himself to keep his composure.
"Actually, no. I've been going to this school since I was a first year..."
"Oh. My bad. I just assumed you were new because I've never seen you around and plus you haven't talked to anyone since you walked in and you looked kinda lonely," she rambled on. Her response was genuine but Takuma felt like he was about to lash at her at any moment.
As if on cue, their math teacher stood up from his desk and waited for his class to silence (and unknowingly came to the rescue of his two students today). "We should chat again sometime!" she cheerfully said before shifting her attention to the teacher.
Letting out an irritated sigh, he boredly stared at the teacher as the adult explained how things would function in his classroom and the expectations he had for his students.
"To help you guys familiarize yourselves with your new peers, the assignment that will be given to you all will be completed in partners," Several eye contacts were made within these few seconds. "Which I will be randomly selecting." Only for them to be interrupted with disappointment following the finished sentence. The projector had been turned on and was showing an online random partner generator that already had names inserted. Clicking "Randomize", the next webpage loaded and displayed a list of his matched peers.
"Let's see which idiot I'm going to get paired up with." Takuma scanned the list for his name. His eyes stopped at his partner's name as he tried to process the despair he was experiencing at that moment. "Fuckkkk." He took a deep breath before he glanced over at his partner who was all smiles.
"I can't believe we're partners!" Elle exclaimed as their fated chatting time had arrived earlier than she expected.
"Yeah, I can't believe it either." The male responded with sourness laced in his words. The teacher then explained the gist of the assignment and gave his students the remaining class time to work on it. Takuma absentmindedly worked on the assignment while he unconsciously put together a plan. "Wait. Omg. This is actually such a great opportunity for me to shut her up for good now."
Looking up at the clock, he saw that it was almost time until the next period. He decided that now would be the best time to ask his partner the question that he expected would undoubtedly lead to her death. "Hey Elle," Takuma happily exclaimed. "If you don't mind, would you like to meet up after school tomorrow so we can work on the project?"
"Okay, sure!" she enthusiastically agreed. "Just wondering though, isn't a bit too early to work on this for homework? I mean, we just got it."
"Uh yeah... but... we can..." The boy tensed up as he realized that he forgot to make up an excuse beforehand and said the first thing that came to mind. "...get to know each other better because we're partners?" He wanted to run into a wall for making up such a lame excuse.
The girl's eyes lit up hearing those words from Takuma himself. From her view, that meant she was a couple hundred steps closer to becoming friends with him. "I'll meet you at the school park and we can head to the library from there!" she mentioned as the bell sounded the rotation to the next period.
"Perfect. Then I'm going to lead her to the hidden alleyway and help the world get rid of her useless and annoying existence." He subconsciously let out a small chuckle from the thought of this.
Throughout the day, Takuma and Elle were anticipating the events that would play out tomorrow.
