Monster || among us

s e v e n ;

s e v e n ;

For the next few months, Raven and Roseanne started spending all of their time together. They had their meals together every day. They spent their free period together, and even their daily homework time together. He even picked her up from her dorm in the mornings and walked her back there at night. She started seeing less and less of her other friends in the group and they seemed to be resentful and even jealous of Raven. They felt as though he had taken one of their friends away. Their instructors noticed them too and their head instructor even pulled them to the side one day after intelligence classes. 

"Black, Pink..." She started, looking from one to the other. Neither Raven nor Roseanne knew what this talk was going to be about. Their academics were top of their class--both of them were tied for first rank at the moment at ninety nine percent academic success in every thing they did. Both of them were rank one at the moment, with Scarlet as rank two at ninety seven percent, Ciel as rank three with ninety six percent, Mauve as rank four with ninety three percent, and Seville as rank five in their classes with ninety one percent. The instructors had no reason to scold them about anything. But when she started talking, it dawned on the two that their growing relationship seemed like more to outside eyes. "We've all noticed the way you two are spending so much time together. But as you already know, romantic relationships are forbidden in the garden since it can inhibit your ability for concentration. Love basically makes you weak and a group is only as strong as its weakest link. We can't let your vast potential go to waste like this."

Roseanne immediately gave a shake of her head. "There's really no need for this talk. Raven--I mean, Black--and I are just friends." She remembered that the instructors at the facility did not recognize their chosen names as their official names. In the Garden, Raven was just Black and she was just Pink. They would never bother to learnt heir names because it didn't actually matter to them. The kids that were brought into the garden were merely pawns used for space exploration. "Plus, you're the one who asked me to get to know the other crew mates better. Since I've spent almost a year with the others, I thought I would get to know Raven more."

"Yes." Her instructor nodded in agreement, bringing her hands together as she continued to explain. "But to get to know someone doesn't mean you have to seduce them, get in their bed, or anything like that. Merely the basics would have sufficed."

Roseanne felt her heart drop at their instructor's words. In a facility with only one hundred and eight crew members and about twelve joining every year, everyone saw everything and people didn't hesitate to start rumors. They didn't have anything better to do for fun. Roseanne herself had heard a rumor about two kids from generation 3000--a brown boy and a white girl. He was from Province of Lumber, while she was from Province of Grains. They were currently seventeen and it was said that the two were in a relationship. The instructors didn't pay too much attention to the rumors, since they were basically kids and they thought the two would grow out of it eventually.

But with Roseanne and Raven being older and being a part of the most upcoming mission, the administration felt like they needed to do something about it. 

Roseanne saw from the corner of her eye how Raven's hand balled up into a fist in anger by his side. And she looked towards him, giving him a look that begged him not to make things worse for them. She didn't want to have to leave their training group, and she didn't want him to have to leave either. When he opened his mouth to speak, she was relieved and surprised with what he said to her. "Roseanne isn't like that. There are rules at this facility, you can rest assured we are following them. Just because a boy and a girl are friends doesn't mean they're in a romantic relationship. And even if I did have romantic feelings towards her, and she towards me, that doesn't mean we're going to be sneaking around breaking the rules. We've worked too hard to get to our mission. I don't think either of us wants to throw that away."