By the time I returned to the classroom I was well-fed both in terms of food (Snowy gave me the last slice she couldn't eat) and information. Once I got her talking, she turned out to be quite knowledgeable about Abyssal politics and metaphysics. Most of it was fairly boring technical stuff, but it was still new and probably useful, so it was all good.

But back to the classroom. First off, I noticed that Judy and the princess were still huddled over my assistant's desk and animatedly discussing something. I didn't need to peek in with my Far Sight to realize it was still about their ‘date plans'. I would have sighed and wondered just how much time one needed to plan these things out, but then I remembered how I had spent half a night looking up areas of interest before my first outing with Judy. Though that was originally supposed to be a research trip, so I didn't know how much that applied to the current situation.

Either way, I headed for my desk. I only tried though, as I was flagged down by the class rep after a single step. She waved for me to go over to her desk, so I did just that.

"Leo, we need to talk," she told me dryly in place of a greeting, already in her authority mode. "Are you free after school?"

I thought about it for a moment. While technically I was only invited to Judy's place for dinner, we had a lot of things to discuss, and I had a feeling she wouldn't have taken it well if I told her to go ahead while I talked with the class rep, so I shook my head.

"Sorry, I already have plans for today. Is it urgent?"

"Yes."

"Oooookay..." I quipped in face of the unexpectedly firm answer. "How about the next break then?"

"It will have to do."

I nodded to her and, and since she didn't add anything else, I continued on my way to my desk. I found Joshua slumped over the neighboring one and he only looked up once he heard the creak of my chair as I sat down.

"Welcome back, Casanova," he greeted me with an uncharacteristically acidic tone.

"Would you please stop with that?" I answered in kind, with a pinch of exasperation sprinkled on top. "Just how many times do I have to tell you that just because I discuss things with the girls one on one, it doesn't automatically mean I'm flirting with them?"

"No matter how many times you say it, it doesn't matter if you keep doing it." He huffed, but the jab probably allowed him to let out some of the steam, as he continued in a more casual voice. "So, how was your lunch break?"

"It was nice enough. I learned a bunch of new things."

"Oh? Such as?"

"Snowy's family situation, amongst other things," I told him, carefully omitting all the other crazy stuff.

"Her family, huh?" My friend slumped over his desk again and muttered, "She never told me anything about them."

It took me several seconds to recognize the, in retrospect quite obvious, expression on his face and I raised a hand to my temple to rub it.

"Are you seriously sulking right now?"

"No, I'm not!" Josh bit back immediately, but then he averted his eyes and added, "I'm just a little disappointed, that's all."

With my temple-rubbing steadily intensifying I leaned back in my chair and dropped my shoulder. I couldn't believe we were having this conversation.

"I'm sure she will tell you in time. It's not like it's going to stay a secret forever... I hope."

"A secret? What secret?"

"One that wouldn't be a secret if I told you," I responded with a roll of my eyes. The grimace he gave me in return was just too pitiful to bear though, so I threw him a bone. "Fine, here's another secret I can actually tell you."

"What is it?"

I leaned closer and whispered to him, "She loves apple pies."

"She likes apple pies?"

"No, she loves them." I paused for a meaningful beat before I winked and added, "Use that information how you will."

"Um... thanks?"

"You are welcome."

It was a good thing that the teacher showed up at this point, as I had no idea where to take the conversation from there. The lesson itself (biology, FYI) was the same as always and the 45 minutes passed by in the blink of an eye, especially since I had so many things on my mind.

First and foremost, I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious about what the class rep wanted to talk about. She sounded really serious, so maybe it was something related to the fight a couple of days ago? Or maybe it was because of Judy's questions? Or the Magi organization in general? Either way, I was about to find out when the chime finally sounded. Maybe it was because of dumb luck, but Mrs. Applebottom just finished talking about taxonomy, so this time she didn't leave her sentence half-finished. Yay for progress?

Our last class was PE again, so all the placeholders sprung to their feet and began trickling out of the classroom with gym bags in hand. I was about to get up and head towards the class rep, but I was beaten to the punch by her. She gestured for me to follow, so I did so after grabbing my own gym bag. We exited the classroom post-haste and headed in the opposite direction from the others, towards a short dead-end leading to the computer room and the emergency fire escape. We didn't go that far, only a couple of meters so that we would be out of direct earshot.

"We need to talk," she told me grimly once she stopped and faced me, and I almost gulped in reaction. This had to be big if she was this serious.

"Yes, you already told me that. I'm listening."

She eyed me suspiciously, as if looking for traces of sarcasm in my words. For the record, there wasn't any. After a short while she took a deep breath, looked me in the eye, and said, "Leo, you have to stop leading Judy and Eleanor along."

I blinked at her, opened my mouth to respond, but then I closed it again and instead facepalmed so hard the sound of the impact must've been audible on the frickin moon.

"Are you serious?! Are? You? Serious?!" I hissed through gritted teeth. She was taken aback by my reaction, so I let out most of my pent-up frustration in a breathy groan and threw my arms into the air. "We just had a battle two days ago and the supernatural exploded into the forefront yesterday, but all you guys can talk about is my love-life?! Really?!"

"Leo, I—"

"Don't ‘Leo' me right now! Do you have any idea how annoying it is to keep explaining this to every single one of you? I have way too much on my plate already. I do not have the time for all this!"

"Then why are you flirting with them?"

"I am not flirting!" I hissed a little louder this time, turning a few placeholder heads, but I didn't care. At all. Not one bit. I still lowered my voice a little though. Just because I felt like it. "Why do all of you immediately presume that if I am friendly with a girl I must be automatically flirting?"

"You are doing more than being friendly."

"That is entirely your subjective opinion."

She stayed silent for a second as she furrowed her brows and finally said, "And you think that is all the reason they like you? ... You are aware that they like you and not just being ‘friendly', right?"

I scoffed at her and rolled my eyes.

"Of course I do. I'm not Josh."

"But if you do, then why don't you tell them?"

"Tell them what? That I'm aware of the blindingly obvious?"

"No. You should tell them whether you reciprocate their feelings or not." She paused here for a moment to narrow her eyes, and she even tweaked her glasses a little before she added, "Do you actually like them?"

Her question threw me on a loop for a moment. Without noticing it, my voice also became a bit more subdued.

"It's more complicated than that. I mean, I do like them, just not necessarily in the face-sucking, cuddling, date-going way."

"Aren't you going on a date though?"

"It's more of a group outing, and you are also purposefully misrepresenting my point. Stop it."

Her brows furrowed even deeper as she looked me in the eye again and then subsequently emphasized, "Listen, Leo. You need to tell them how you feel about them. Otherwise, everyone will get hurt."

"Okay, time out. The truth of the matter is, I'm doing a thing right now precisely to avoid that. It's complicated, it could backfire, and I would probably have a much better chance at getting it right if you guys stopped meddling." I stopped here to catch my breath, and then continued with, "Also, this whole 'you must tell them your feelings' thing would sound a lot more convincing if you practiced what you preach."

Ammy immediately twitched like I just sucket-punched her and hastily excused herself with, "My situation is different from yours."

"If you say so. It looks similar in principle."

"It doesn't matter," she burst out and simultaneously poked me in the chest. "We are talking about you."

"And I would prefer if we weren't."

"But we have to. Especially if you keep playing with the others too."

I had a snappy response on the tip of my tongue, but then her words sank in and it turned into a dumbfounded, "... Wait, what?"

"I've heard from Joshua. You've been spending a lot of time with Neige and Angie too."

"If by ‘a lot' you mean one lunch break and a short afternoon then yes, though I would like to see your dictionary first, because that is the loosest damn definition I've ever heard." I paused to take a breath, and then let out a soft ‘oh' as realization dawned on me. "Wait a minute... I get it now! Josh set you up for this!"

"He didn't set me up," Ammy denied it just a touch defensively. "He just shared his worries with me."

"All the same," I grumbled as I made a new mental note about whacking the guy over the head for creating even more misunderstandings. "Listen, this is just a case of miscommunication. I was talking to them about supernatural politics and I didn't want Josh to stick around when we did that, so he is sulking about it. There is nothing more going on."

"With Angie too?"

I mouthed a silent ‘oh crap'. Right, Angie being a Celestial was supposed to be a secret. I had to salvage this ASAP, though I had no idea how.

"Um... Yeah?" I nearly hit myself in the head for saying that. Stupid brain! That was the opposite of salvaging the situation! "I mean... could you pretend you didn't hear that? It's supposed to be a secret for the moment. Not a dangerous kind of secret, mind you, but I would prefer if Angie was the one to tell you, so could you please let it go?"

She gave me a dubious look, but eventually shrugged and answered, "Fine, but only if you promise me that you sit down with the others and discuss your..." She pointedly cleared her throat at this point and finished with, "this 'thing' of yours with them."

I tried to object, but I was too mentally drained to come up with a witty response (not to mention, at this rate I was only going to dig myself even deeper), so I grabbed hold of the opportunity to end the conversation and gave her a nod.

"I'll think about it. We should get going though. We still have to change."

With that, we began walking. She made me promise several times that I would have that pointless discussion with the girls, but I managed to get her to stop hounding me by the time we reached the changing rooms. When I got there, there was only one thing left to do.

"Hey, Josh?"

My friend turned to me. He was already wearing his gym clothes and he looked at me skeptically as I walked over to him.

"What?" I smiled at him and then promptly whacked him over the head. He let out a loud ‘ow' and gave me a look that was equally hurt and confused. "What the hell was that for?!"

I shrugged saying, "Think about it," and left him to do just that while I changed.