"Anya, are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, loud and clear..." I yawn, glancing up at Hana. She's your typical shoujo protagonist, always caught up in a romance straight out of a manga. Wearing the same uniform as me, her red hair framed her emerald eyes. Cheerful, kind, and an airhead.

Her current dilemma? The "prince" of the school, Nishimiya Usui. Apparently, they're circling each other, neither one brave enough to admit their feelings.

Right now, Hana's venting about him playing with her emotions, same thing every day.

"I just can't understand him!" she groans, tossing her hands up in frustration. "One minute he's so sweet, and then the next, it's like he’s totally ignoring me!"

I nod absently, pretending to care. “Sounds rough.”

"Rough? It’s driving me insane!" Hana exclaims, clearly not noticing my lack of enthusiasm. "Why can’t he just be honest with me?"

I suppress a sigh. It's not like I don't care about Hana, she’s my friend after all, but this back-and-forth with Nishimiya has been going on for so long, I could write the next chapter myself.

The classroom door open, Mrs Scarlet walking in. Wearing tight skirt that way too short, and her blouse look like it can't hold any longer.

"Please settle down, class!" She says in a false sweetness voice.

"Now," she continues, her tone playful as she crosses her legs tighter, drawing even more attention to herself, "I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend because today we’re diving right into some very exciting material - Math." she says, her tone still dripping with that same melodramatic flair. "Yes, numbers. Cold, hard, unfeeling... just like the world."

A few students groan, while others sit up in their seats, realizing that we might actually be learning something useful for once.

How did she even allow having this job is beyond me. I’m not even sure what subject she’s supposed to be teaching half the time, but one thing’s for sure, she’s not shy about flirting with her students. Her “teaching methods” would probably get her fired in any normal school, but this is Starlight Academy, where the weirder the teacher, the more likely they are to have tenure.

Talk about the Academy, this school is ridiculously big and colorful.

If you’ve ever seen one of those super-elite anime high schools where everything is ten times fancier than it needs to be, congratulations, you’ve just pictured this place.

The campus is way too big. There’s a clock tower that no one uses, a garden that’s somehow always in bloom, and a fountain in the courtyard that looks like something out of a cheesy romance movie. I mean, who even designs these places? Is there a rule somewhere that says high schools need to be more luxurious than five-star resorts?

Then, there are the students. Most students here are just average people like me and Hana, but then we have a small portion of elites, some are idols, children of CEOs or politicians. Hell, some might not even human.

Nishimiya is also one of them, his family own that massive Nishimiya Enterprise. They fund this school, and thus, make him the president of the student council.

"There you have it. x equals 6. Simple, right?" Mrs. Scarlet turns around, clearly waiting for some kind of praise or reaction.

The class just stares back, some nodding, others clearly bored. Algebra isn’t exactly thrilling when you’ve got someone trying to turn it into a grand spectacle.

"And remember, math is everywhere, not just in the classroom. In life, in love, in the decisions you make." She taps the board dramatically. "Just like this equation, life is about balancing things out - finding your x."

There it is. She couldn’t resist.

I lean back in my seat, staring out the window. At least this time, the math part was short and painless.

_______________________

I take another bite of my curry buns, the flaky crust crumbling between my teethes as I glance across the table. Hana's bento sits untouched in front of her, the cute panda-shaped box staring up at her, probably as confused as I am.

She lets out a sigh, her second one this lunch.

"Thinking about Nishimiya, again?" I guess, already knowing the answer.

Hana nods, her eyes gazing off into space. And then sign again, deeper this time.

"He has been avoiding you for a month now. Maybe he's just really bad at communicating?" I offer, trying to sound nonchalant.

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Hana shakes her head, her ponytail bobbing behind her. "No way, Anya. He's always so smooth with everyone else.”

I roll my eyes and lean back. "You know, Julius Caesar was super smooth with the Senate too, until they stabbed him in the back. Maybe Nishimiya's just waiting for the right moment."

Hana pauses for a second, blinking at me. “Who the hell is Caesar?”

I shrug.

Hana's eyes narrow. “I'm going to talk to him today and get some answers."

"I'll be right back!”

Before I can react, she stands up abruptly, almost knocking over her chair, and marches out of the canteen without a word, leaving her bento behind.

I lean closer, the smell of freshly made tamagoyaki and fried chicken wafts up making my stomach growl a little despite already having eaten.

Sigh, I tossed my half-eaten curry buns away. " Guess someone’s gotta take care of you," I mutter to the bento, popping the lid off carefully.

I never notice three individuals emerge behind Hana, following her every footsteps.

_______________________

Walking back towards the classroom, I can't help but let out a contented sigh. Hana's cooking is always on point, even if her life choices aren’t.

As I crossing the school yard, I stumble upon a familiar keychain, with a small bunny on it. It belong to Hana.

A shadow falls over me as I bend down to pick the keychain up. I glance up, try to guess who’s that pokémon.

Blond hair, perfectly styled as if he just walked off a runway, catches the sun. His blue eyes are sharp, almost electric, and his expression unreadable. His uniform is immaculate, catching the light in a way that seems too flawless to be accidental.

It’s Pika—no, Nishimiya Usui.

He flick from the empty bento box clapsed in my arm to the keychain, then to me, lingering for a moment.

"That… belong to Hana." His voice is low, calm, with just a hint of suspicion.

I straighten up, holding the keychain between my fingers. "Yeah," I say, brushing off the uneasy feeling. "She must’ve dropped it earlier."

“Where is she?”

“Go looking for you half an hour ago.”

Now that I think about it, I’m starting to feel a bit uneasy. Hana had been gone for a while now, she didn’t met Nishimiya yet and her keychain is dropped here.

“Let me call her.”

Take out my phone, I try to call Hana. No answer.

“She’s not answering, is she?”

“No.”

“We need to find her,” He said, his tone show hint of anxiety.

If the knowledge from reading all those shoujo manga serves me right, then Hana’s probably wandered off somewhere dramatic, like the gym, to have one of those classic emotional breakdowns. You know the kind - where the girl runs off to cry in private, only to be found by someone else. And boom, tension.

“Let check the gym first,” I offer.

“The gym? What would she be doing there?”

“Who knows? Maybe she's working off the stress of all that unspoken romance," I shrug. "Or maybe... it’s just one of those classic misunderstandings.”

He raise an eyebrow at me, then nod.

We head toward the gym together. There's a part of me that wants to laugh at how typical this feels, like we’re characters in some over-the-top manga plot. At the same time, the worry gnawing at the back of my mind won’t go away.

_______________________

The gym interior looms ahead, the sun casting long shadows across the floor as we walk in.

A muffled sound comes from behind the gym equipment storage. It’s Hana.

“Let go of me!”

“Not gonna happen, bitch.” One of them said, holding a phone.

“That bastard Nishimiya,” one of the guys sneers, his hand gripping Hana’s arm tightly. “He thinks he’s untouchable just because he’s rich. We’re here to teach him a lesson.”

They're ripping at her shirt, exposing her chest.

“The fucker sure has a bad taste at women, this bitch is skinny as a stick!”

This is probably when the knight in shining armor comes to the rescue, right?

The whole situation screams dramatic confrontation—except this time, I’m stuck in the middle of it. Not exactly how I pictured my afternoon going.

Nishimiya strides past me, his expression colder than I’ve ever seen. His usual calm is replaced by something lethal, something ready to explode.

“W-What?!” one of the guys closest to the door stammers, his bravado crumbling as Nishimiya barrels toward him.

Without warning, Nishimiya’s fist connects with the guy’s face, a sickening thud reverberating through the gym. He crashes to the floor, the phone slipping from his hand, the screen cracking against the hard surface.

“What the fuck?!” The guy standing by Hana stammers, panic rising in his voice as he stand into defensive position. ‘You will pay for this!” He throw a punch.

Nishimiya dodges effortlessly, his eyes never leaving the target. Before the guy can even register his mistake, Nishimiya lands a brutal punch to his gut, doubling him over.

With a gasp, the guy collapses to his knees, clutching his stomach as the wind is knocked out of him. His bravado dissolves instantly.

“Fuck off,” Nishimiya said, his voice like ice.

The last guy standing in the corner trembles, fear written all over his face as he watches Nishimiya take down his friends with ease. He swallows hard, glancing between Nishimiya, Hana, and me, clearly realizing that he’s in over his head.

Without a word, he stumbles forward, rushing to grab his fallen friends. His hands shake as he hauls one of them up by the collar, the other groaning in pain on the floor. "C-Come on, let’s go," he mutters, his voice barely above a whisper.

They manage to stagger out of the gym, dragging their injured pride and bruised bodies with them.

Nishimiya let out a breath, then turn his attention back to Hana.

“Are you ok?” He ask softly, his hand on her left shoulder.

“I-I’m fine,” Hana stammers, turning away. Her face flushes with embarrassment, and she tugs at her torn shirt. “Don’t look.”

Nishimiya, the knight, averts his gaze like a gentleman, then lift Hana up in princess style.

“You need to go to the infirmary.”

“What?! No, I said I’m fine!”

“Hana,” I call out to her with a grin, pulling her keychain from my pocket. “I believe this is yours.”

Her gaze softens as she looks at me, gratitude filling her eyes. "Thanks," she whispers, taking the keychain from my hand.

Nishimiya then carrying her out of the gym, ignore her protest. The guy’s on a mission, and no one is stopping him.

And me? Well, I’m standing here, watching them leave, certain of one thing: they’re probably going to have sex like animals in the infirmary while confessing their pent-up emotions to each other.