ɴᴏ ᴛɪᴛʟᴇ

-ᴅᴇᴘᴀʀᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴘᴛ. ɪɪ-

First of all, I apologize for the MAJOR delay for this chapter. The virus outbreak caused my school to panic and somewhat... immediately bashing us students with lots of homework to do. But I sincerely do hope you'll enjoy this chapter! Stay safe, everyone ;-;)/

PS: I edited a few parts in the first chapter. I think... It hits different now, I hope you all like it!

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When Aesop arrived back in the auditorium, something was different when his eyes were set upon his bag. It moved to the chair he wanted to sit on with another bag next to it. Aesop grunted and walked up to the chair, about to move everything back to how it was. But then he stumbled, nearly tripped. He was taken to surprise as an arm wrapped around his shoulder, followed by a loud greeting, "Hey! Aesop, thank you so much for saving a spot for me!"

The grey-haired male exhaled as soon as he recognized to whom this limb belonged to. "How many times have I told you not to surprise me from the back? And move my luggage without my permission, Naib?" He asked with his head sinking low into his shoulders. His expression didn't display any negative emotion, but he was clearly annoyed by what his friend did.

Naib wasn't disappointed at all. He was used to the cold shoulder Aesop gives him. "Now, now, Aesop, you're gonna let me go for today since it's technically our last day at school. When will be the next time to see your bag getting moved while you're gone, right?"

The slender young man deadpanned, "At university. Where else?" He turned around and faced his hooded friend. He was dressed a tad different than usual. His skin was covered in black long sleeves, and he too, seems to be suffering underneath the tight layers of a tuxedo. But he's never forgotten the usual green hoodie, huh?

Dumbfounded, Naib sighed and his arm was dragged away.

"Alright," the brunette admitted defeat, "I'm sorry," he added, with a small chuckle as he took a step towards the chairs with their bags. His shoulder lightly brushed against Aesop's as there was very little room to move around in between the settled seats. This time, the grey-haired pulled Naib's body lightly.

"You don't need to," the taller male said, causing the other's tension to drop. His voice was as if telling him to let his guard down.

The pair of green eyes blinked twice in disbelief. Obviously, he was flummoxed. How is Aesop acting like this? Did he hit his head against the wall while he was away? An entry of questions continued to appear in the thoughts of Naib.

Naib, who obviously is antsy all the time, somewhat calmed down and noticed a bouquet of flowers. Apparently, it was daisies. "Nice flowers there. I assume you got them from Lisa?" the brunette questioned, reaching towards the chair to rest his feet.

"Huh? Oh, these? Wai- how do you...?"
"Went past her greenhouse the other day. Long story short, she asked me what kind of flowers she should give to you."
"Why didn't you just tell her not to?" Aesop asked, with a hand on his hip.

With a sigh, Naib somewhat knew this line would escape from the gray-haired's lips. He heaved a heavy sigh towards his friend who just fixed his silk white gloves, taking a seat on the bench.

"Aesop, this is her emotions we're talking about," he muttered, as the brunette dropped himself to the bench, placing his two feet on the seat in front of them.

"I know," the grey haired paused. "But knowing it was coming for me, and you would know what my answer would be, right? Then why didn't you reject her for me?"

The stubborn Aesop Carl kept on questioning. But there's no point in weeping over spoiled milk. Naib decided to drop the topic as soon as his eyes were fixated on someone else who decided to poke their nose out from the entrance of the gym.

"Well, if it isn't Demi Bourbon," the hooded young man said, still with his back slouched on his seat.

The young lady had a pained expression. Like she was feeling a plethora of stab wounds as she held onto her head. Her slim lady-like fingers clawed her scalp, ruining her hair as strands poked out astray.
As expected from the alcoholic. Perhaps knowing that she had graduated, the graying brown haired decided to go all out with the drinks. It was lucky of her being able to arrive here safely without her older brother's company.

"Huh? Who called?" Demi's ears perked up hearing her name escape someone's lips. Her head immediately turned as she hissed from the vision and pain piercing through her skull. One way or another, she regretted her decision to have drank all the Dovlin her brother made the night before. Sam wasn't upset of that. He knew his younger sister liked the liquor he made, and he did too. In fact, they celebrated today's event... maybe, a tad earlier than anybody else.

As if a lightning of remembrance had stuck her, Demi turned her head towards the gray haired. Struggling to walk towards the line in front of their seat, the drunkard reached her destination with her two feet wobbling, dropped her entire body weight and letting the chair support her entire figure. "So. I see you got those flowers already! How are you guys now? A thing?" She questioned, peeking into the arrangement of daisies.

Aesop heaved a sigh.

I guess a majority of people knows about it, huh? Great. I guess I will become famous in less than a day.

Naib casually patted the slender male's back. Backed him up with the talking, "Well, you can see how it ended. Lisa ain't here, so that means it was a no- Did you really need to ask?"

Miraculously, that was the exact same sentence the other male wanted to say. Having the male under the green hood was wonderful. Or at least for now.

Demi's expression changed. Her facial features crumpled as her lips curled downwards. She was rooting for Lisa, hoping it was a success, regardless of Aesop being deadpan emotionless. Honestly, it was a hard gamble, but Lisa took the risk anyway. The news saddened the young lady, making her immediately leave the auditorium in search for her florist friend.

"I'll check on her," Demi muttered, back on her two feet to look for her dear friend. One way or another, she needed company for sure.

As soon as the girl took her leave, the room was now empty.

"Never knew you could be that blunt to someone,"

"Well, Aesop. I couldn't help but think about what you would say,"

The exchange of dialogues between the two young men didn't last long as they were interrupted by the sound of the door opening again as a few more students entered the room. They were in their own group of friends, chattering about.

Among them was another friend of Naib. His emerald green eyes widened seeing the unusual. It was odd as he saw his other friend not wearing the usual attire. On top of that, the male was missing something iconic that made him stand out from the rest of the crowd. It was weird seeing them being weird, but it felt weirder seeing them normally blending in with the crowd.

"Is that-" Aesop's eyes squinted in order to make sure that his eyes weren't deceiving him.

"Eli? No mistaking it, yeah. Wait, is it just me or-" Naib paused, exchanging glances with his chairmate.

"He... Used hair gel...?" The two men asked in unison, awkwardly looking at each other like their friend who just arrived turned into an alien overnight.

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Info:

> Demi's elder brother, Sam, is alive in this AU. He is a bartender as he is stated to be in Demi's backstory.

> Eli here doesn't use a blindfold (Gonna be weird no matter how you look at it if he does)

> Please comment for me to decide a good name for Eli's precious hooter! I've heard a few claiming her name is Brooke Rose-

If nobody comments then I'll decide to name her Hooters and I promise, that even I won't be able to take the story seriously from seeing "Hooters". (Because not going to lie, Brooke Rose sounds like a really tryhard full name for an owl-)

~Thank you for reading~