'Rena Koboko-san… I hold no ill-will towards you either… well… none that I can directly blame you for…'

Yuuta recalled his words prior to Rena's arrival, and couldn't help but smirk at the situation that's come as a result, 'My my, I guess what the other's say is true. She can be really attractive when she's upset… It's unfortunate though, because that'll make things harder for the both of us…'

Yuuta nudged his head towards the direction of the whiteboard, and though Rena initially hesitated, she turned around to see just why his gaze was so fixed on it.

~

MANDATORY TEAM PROJECT

…

-Arthur & Itsuki

-Rena & Yuuta

-Matthiew & Rindou

-Shinji & Shuji

…

~

Rena paused… And then did a double-take, making sure that the information was matching the signals that her brain was sending. And when it was shown that there was no miscommunication between the two, her eyes narrowed,

"A team project? With *him*? What a joke, I'm not doing that. Coming to class really *was* a waste of time." Rena was aggravated, and rightfully so, but she managed not to let it ruin her general expression - at least not completely.

"Think about it." The teacher in the front of the room stood up, drawing the attention of the two bickering students just before him. One of his hands gripped his own hip, while the other pointed towards the board again, "This will literally be the easiest A in your lives!"

Despite how nice he attempted to make the prospect sound, he failed to get a rise out of either of them. Yuuta looked indifferent, wiping blood from off of his chin, while Rena directed her attention towards the teacher who seemingly always wanted to make her life hell.

"I. Am not. Working. With, Him." Rena told him strongly, also making sure that her expression was as empty and dull as she could keep. After she got her point across, she went cleaning at the liquid dripping down her cheek as well, "Tch, did you forget that I don't work with people-"

"This is a *mandatory* assignment."

It was a rarity, but this time, it was the instructor that cut off Rena's words, and in the same breath, he brought his fist down on the desk, dropping a few of his items in the process.

The stressed look was an uncomfortable one, and his forehead and ears were a strained red from stress.

The tension could've been cut with a knife, and if the opportunity presented itself, surely someone would've taken it up. For the time being at least, Yuuta let out an obnoxiously loud sigh, coming to his feet, and doing a large stretch afterwards.

"Anyway… I'm going to go and clean my face. You'd be smart to follow, Rena Koboko-san." He suggested, shooting her a look from out the corner of his eye. Then, he faced forwards and exited the room.

Rena glared at him as he exited, taking out the same knife she had just used to cut him, and twirling it a few times. Then, she skillfully tossed it, though instead of using it as a projectile to take out Yuuta himself, it landed on the whiteboard, between her and Yuuta's names, and after the grandiose gesture, she glared at the teacher who was already majorly stressed himself, making her own way out of the room.

"You'll soon realize that I don't care about the word mandatory."

Rena's long, black ponytail shined thanks to the hallway's lights above, but now without the gazes from everyone else in class, she openly glared at Yuuta, finally able to directly address him, "You know, I was gonna wait after class, but I could settle to beat you up now, since you seem to be into it."

She raised an eyebrow, and tilted her head a bit, more confused out of a sense of disgust, than intrigued out of a sense of curiosity, "What, is your knife-play some sort of foreplay to you? Hate to break it to you, but I'm not interested in that sort of thing."

"For starters," Yuuta began, slowing his pace to allow her to catch up… though out of spite, Rena slowed down as well, refusing to walk by his side. Yuuta simply narrowed his eyes towards the relatively petty gesture, keeping his current pace,

"I highly suggest that you wait until after class for you to get all, 'I'm gonna kick your ass'. I think you would very well be interested in taking up the teacher's word in regards to this assignment."

Rena rolled her eyes in response to his suggestion, but since he was facing forwards by this point, Yuuta didn't see it anyway. Instead, he took a left, and entered the men's restroom, and though she took a moment to catch up, she also turned into the same stop.

She went in and cleaned her cut with soap and water, placing a band-aid on her cheek at the conclusion of it all. She hated having a band-aid on each cheek; it looked childish to her, and that's something she didn't want to be seen as.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

A glance over towards Yuuta at least showed him in the exact same predicament. He stared dead into his own dull eyes in the mirror, just satisfied that the blood-leakage had finally come to an end.

Rena stepped out, starting to make her way back to class. As she took her time, she suddenly recalled that Roma was a living, breathing person, and she couldn't help but wonder where the hell he was. She was even contemplating returning to her room and checking for him.

"The theme is American Cuisine. This would be right up Arthur Roma-san's alley, wouldn't it?" Yuuta managed to catch back up with her rather easily, digging his hands into his pockets while staring straight ahead. He admittedly didn't really expect a response from her, so he continued to speak,

"What do you think he'd make in a situation like this?"

"I don't know. Stop talking to me. I don't like you."

The only thing worse than being ignored, was blunt apathy, and Rena's words earned an annoyed look from Yuuta himself. He watched as she took her hair out of its ponytail for a bit, only to sling her hoodie over her head for a bit.

The action also served as an unwanted reminder that her head had been bugging the hell out of her. She winced, and lightly put a hand on her head, but made sure to keep a dull expression, refusing to let her guard down - especially around him.

The rest of the walk was silent, save for their footsteps, but considering the class was less than a mere two minutes away, that wasn't particularly an issue. Yuuta returned to his normal seat, but cleared off the one next to him - a desk that was generally empty, but served as extra storage space for the student for the time being.

The thought behind it was obviously for Rena to come and sit next to him, of course. And once it was presentable, she took a seat, finally opting to give Yuuta a bone of some sort, after having been extra strict towards him all this time.

Without prompt though, she suddenly had a knife again and put it to his neck, making a slow, taunting slit motion. That, accompanied with the glowing, golden-eyed glare she gave him, was potentially another, if not final warning that if he didn't trace his steps carefully, she'd make sure that there'd be hell to pay for it.

Her gesture was met by another annoyingly characteristic smirk from Yuuta himself. Intimidation tactics apparently didn't bring the success that she expected, but that was fine. So as long as he knew just what the stakes were.

Then, she retracted it, and began tossing it up and down, miraculously catching it by the hilt every time. Her eyes were focused on the teacher up front, explaining ideas and concepts that she knew like the back of her own hand.

A few moments after, Yuuta opened his mouth to speak again, turning to Rena and tilting his head a little, "What are staples in American breakfasts anyway?"

"Americans love pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits. Y'know, sandwiches. Stuff like that." Rena replied, before her ahoge suddenly shot straight up, "Oh, waffles too, but you'd have to have an acquired taste to prefer waffles over pancakes."

"Then let us create a dish that includes waffles… and sandwiches. There's a way to accompany both on the same plate, right?" Yuuta asked, pulling out his phone and researching a recipe before they began. Before Rena managed to put in her two cents, the front door suddenly flung open, .

"I'M LATE, BUT I MADE IT!"

Making his… loud arrival, was one Arthur Roma. Rena didn't realize, but it felt like a huge weight was taken off of her shoulders by way of his appearance.

"Why do you have such a noisy boyfriend?" Yuuta was quick to rain on the imaginary parade within Rena's mind, "It's bad enough that he's a beast within the kitchen, but does he really need to be one outside of it as well?"

In truth, his statement was a backhanded compliment, but he was genuinely annoyed by the amount of noise that he managed to generate just by himself. Rena had been trying to resist a smile, but the moment Yuuta started talking, that hardly became a task at all. She was admittedly close to stabbing him in the thigh with a knife, so instead, she threw a plastic salt shaker at Roma.

"You're late! What the hell took you so long, slowpoke?!"

And in the same breath, she threw a plastic pepper shaker at Yuuta's head from point-blank range, for no other reason than the fact that she didn't like what he had to say.

"Boy's gotta do, what a boy's gotta do. Anyway, you get your seat changed, or something?" Roma asked, approaching Rena and Yuuta, while he rubbed the growing bulge on his forehead, though his eyes narrowed when he realized who Rena had been sitting next to,

'And next to him, no less…'

Yuuta's hand was on the back of his head, stroking the injury that Rena caused there as well, but saw this as an opportunity. He suddenly came to his feet, and leaned against the whiteboard, almost in an confrontational sense, while he addressed his late classmate,

"Say, in America, is there a way to mix waffles and sandwiches together?" Yuuta asked, while tilting his head curiously. It prompted a response from Rena, and the girl tapped her fingers on the table, watching Yuuta carefully,

"Of course there is, stupid." She replied… But opted not to elaborate. She knew what she could do, but she didn't feel like talking to him.

After glancing at Rena, Roma nodded as well, focusing on Yuuta again, "That question's awfully specific… But yeah, there is. You could always use waffles as the bun. Normally it's a breakfast type of thing, and you just put your other items in the middle." Roma explained with a straight face, "Why do you ask?"

"Simply wondering." Yuuta briskly replied, stepping away from the board, and towards the adjacent corner in the room, "Rena Koboko-san, I'll make the waffles. Do you think you can start the eggs? Scrambled, but perhaps a little runny?"

"You *do* know that I *still* don't work with people, right? I don't even like you."

Rena glanced at Yuuta to see the faintest bit of purple in her eyes… almost as if they were glowing, despite the dark color within them. She opted not to comment on it, but did start to braid her long hair, redirecting her attention to her roommate next,

"Hey, Arthur, did you know Yuuta was into knife-play? After all, I don't think you slit the cheeks of someone you want to work with." The second half of her words were accompanied by a glare towards Yuuta, but Roma remained casual, at least.

He actually laughed a bit at her implication, "Knife-play, huh? Kinky." As late as he was, he finally looked towards the whiteboard to know just what today's activity would be.

"createanamericanbreakfast- Hey, I can do that! Yo, Itsuki, let's do this! I think we should make a waffle sand- HOLD THE FUCK UP!!"

Roma glared at a Yuuta who was in the midst of creating his own waffle batter. Once this plan was officially revealed, a smug smirk began to grow across his face.

After being so easily manipulated, Arthur Roma was already playing catch-up.