Gears of Harmony

Episode 17 - The meeting

I walked up the stairs on lunchtime, heading for the rooftop. I decided to come looking for somewhere quiet since I kept getting teased by Amy, Callie, and the others. Not to mention, it was another mentally tiring Saturday with those girls in the cooking class. I figured that the rooftop would be better since it's quieter. Yes, that was all there was. Anyway, I sighed as I dragged my feet up the stairs. However, at the last step of stairs, I heard voices coming out of the rooftop. Male voices.

Hmm? That's unusual... did someone get up here before I did? I thought.

I opened the door a little, peeking behind it. There was nothing in sight. The voice became louder, coming from the direction of the roofed area on my right. I tiptoed to my right and peeked from behind the wall. There was the smoky brown haired guy with deep blue eyes as usual, but he was not reading anything at that time. Instead, beside him sat a fairly buff guy with tan skin, black hair, and saffron eyes. The same one I saw back on the training camp.

"Come on, I really need some help for the math test on Monday," the guy said, "not just me, everyone else too,"

"Then which part exactly that you don't understand, Julius?" asked Gale.

"That's the problem, I don't understand all of them!" answered the guy called Julius.

Gale raised an eyebrow at him and shot him a questioning look, as if he was wondering whether someone can really understand nothing at all. But then, he seemed to have noticed me. His blue eyes darted towards me and the other guy followed Gale's gaze and turned around, meeting my eyes.

"Oh, Wina?" the other guy asked and gestured me to come forward, "hey, come here, it's okay,"

What? How does he know my name? I thought as I walked over to them, and why is he talking to me that way?

"Sorry to bother you guys, I'm just gonna head back right now-" I said.

"No, no, you're all good," he quickly said, "you sound like you've caught someone doing illegal things in a deserted place,"

"I... didn't mean that, I apologise for my insolence," I said.

"There's no need to be that formal," he said and laughed, "hey, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Julius Clemence, Gale's friend from 3B. Bio major - I'm going to take medicine after school,"

"Oh, nice to meet you," I said and nodded politely.

"I'm just here today to beg this guy to teach us some math for an upcoming test on Monday," said Julius, "so, Wina, mind helping me?"

"Helping you? How?" I asked.

"Ask Gale to come down and teach us," said Julius and smiled.

"But didn't you just ask him that a few moments ago?" I asked, "he didn't say no to you,"

"Yeah, but he's clearly reluctant to do so," said Julius, "if you ask him, however, it might turn out differently,"

"But he must have had a reason for being reluctant to..." I said.

"Oh, come on, just a little persuasion," said Julius, "charm him a little-"

Gale rolled his eyes and nudged an elbow to Julius.

"Sorry, sorry," said Julius, though he didn't seem sorry, "I was just kidding, I didn't know you're quite jumpy. I talk about whatever comes to mind, but I didn't mean to startle you, just like back then on the training camp. Sorry,"

"Oh... uhh, that's okay," I said.

At least he has some self-awareness, I thought.

"But at least you two had a good time on the courage test together, rig-AAAHHH!" Julius screamed.