Are You Jealous? It's Fine, She's Taken

「14:41」

It's snack time in the afternoon. I guess I'll invite Mae-chan to buy snack with me.

I have question about her relationship with Al.

“Mae-chan, want to buy some snacks with me in the canteen? I'll treat you with a sweet bananacue.”

Mae-chan looks at me before nodding.

“Eh Reverren?”

It's my seatmate. She just came back from the restroom.

“What?”

“Did you heed my advice? That's good. Miss Hecate is out of your league. Your chances are better with this transferee.”

Mae-chan looks confuse.

“They don't believe Eli-chan is mine.”

“Can you not lie to her? Don't believe him girl. There's no way miss Hecate will like him. But he's a good and intelligent guy. I see that there's a fate between you two.”

“You sounds like a scammer.”

“Why are you being rude? I'm helping you to get a girlfriend here. Humph. I won't care about you anymore then.”

“I thank you a lot but Mae-chan is taken.”

“Eh?”

She looks surprised.

“Poor you then. It looks like your destined to be single for the rest of your life. But that's fine. You have your waifus anyway.”

That's true but I'm not single.

“Whatever. I'll watch anime and so suffer in silence.”

She sticks her tongue out at me and then sits back on her chair to watch an anime.

“Fufu. Anyway, want to come?”

“Alright.”

Mae-chan stands up and I lead the way out of the room.

“I knew it.”

Walking on the aisle between two classroom building which are pretty much desolate, a voice came from the corner.

“Miss Hecate.”

It's Eli-chan. She looks angry and is fiercely glaring at Mae-chan.

Mae-chan steps back a little.

“How dare you.”

Eli-chan who's angry walks towards Mae-chan but I block her.

I can't possibly let her harm somebody in public.

Eli-chan looks at me with confusion and sadness.

She starts to tear up.

I pinch her cheeks.

“Don't cry. We're just going to buy some snacks. And it's our reunion so I ought to welcome her.”

“But...”

She looks really pitiful.

“Mark— uh, Mark-kun. It's fine. You should go with miss Hecate instead.”

Mae-chan didn't wait for my reply. She turns around to go back into the room.

Fuu~

I hold Eli-chan's hand and pull her away.

“Eli-chan, are you jealous?”

“.....yes.”

She still looks scared with her lowered head and weak steps.

I pull her to the side to sit on a stone bench then I made her sit on my lap.

Nobody is here so it's fine. Besides, I can tell if there are people coming.

“Alright. I apologize.”

I hug her from behind and I smell Eli-chan's fragrance.

Her legs and butt are soft as well.

I feel like I have a big cat nesting on my lap.

“... I'm sorry as well. I was just scared. She was your first love after all.”

I rest my chin on her soft shoulder and I feel her tough collar bone against it.

“But you don't have to worry about it. Mae-chan is with Al so I won't take her away from him.”

“....... He betrayed you.”

“Precisely. He betrayed me for her so the hollowness I felt that time will be pointless if I end up stealing her back from him. Besides, I don't have any feelings for her anymore.”

“Really?”

“You don't believe me?”

“I believe you.”

“Then rest assured.”

“Hehe. Alright.”

She stands up pulling me away with a smile on her face.

“Let's go and eat.”

It's a good thing I manage to calm Eli-chan down.

That aside, have you ever had those times where you are feeling some sort of emotions that's prickly in your heart?

Well, I currently do. And I wanted to release this to the outside world. I wanted to talk it out to someone. I don't need nor wanted any advice or anything for this sort.

I just really want to vent it out.

However, because Jeremy left early, I couldn't speak off these feelings of mine.

It's not like I can't say this to Eli-chan nor to any of my friends. It's just that it is something that Jeremy is the one who will most likely relate to me. Oh there's my seatmate as well but she'll just tease me.

Besides, Eli-chan and the other girls have some tasks to finish. They're not currently here. They left last 15:00 to attend to their meeting.

As far as I heard from Eli-chan, she's occupying the elective position of Vice President in the SSG.

‘SSG’ or the ‘Supreme Student Government’ which is a foremost co-curricular student organization authorized to manage and implement programs, projects, events, and activities in school.

Rose, as the daughter of the CEO of a well-known company, serves as their treasurer.

Yeah, Rose is rich. So why is she in this public school?

If I am not misremembering things, when I asked her when we were in grade 9, she said that it's because her father wanted to give her experience, which makes sense.

Mary is an officer as well. She's the PIO there. And that actually suits her. She's amiable, approachable, extroverted, and cheery so public interaction is her forte.

And they're not the only one I know in the SSG. In fact, I am quite close to their President.

What about me?

I have none. I am a nobody. I am just your average senior highschool student who got nothing special going on his school life.

And Mae-chan, well she's busy doing some paperwork.

So I'm kind of alone here. Because most of my classmates already left as well.

“Fuu~”

In order for me forget and relieve myself from what I feel, I start packing my things up. It's already 「17:42」 so Al is probably coming here soon. And Eli-chan and company, are probably done as well.

“I'm here.”

Speak of the devil, he's here.

I glance at him for a second then read the next line of the novel downloaded on my phone right after.

“Hey! Don't ignore me!”

He sits beside me wrapping his arms around my neck.

Oh hell, where do you even get this confidence to be so intimate despite everything that happened in the past?

“Yes.”

“Wh— Nevermind that. Let's go!”

“What do you mean ‘go’?”

He tilted his head slightly seemingly confused by the question.

“I mean, let's go now. We have something to talk about aren't we?”

“Oh hell, let's wait for Eli-chan and Rose. And there's still Mae-chan you know?”

He scratches his head.

“Okay okay. Then let's talk it out here.”

I nod then continue scrolling on my phone.

He unwraps his arm from my neck and waves his hand in front of my face.

“Hey~ Stop reading. We'll talk aren't we?”

“Yeah, that's why, start now. I'm listening.”

“You're listening? Come on
Take me seriously. What are you even reading seriously for?”

“Oh well, it's nothing.”

I look at him.

“It's just that I catched up to the latest chapter of the english translation of this novel I'm currently reading and it left me with anxiety, fear of the unknown, and curiosity. You know, this will be bad. If left like this, I will gradually lose my interest in the story even though I actually liked it just because I wanted to ‘ease’ those feelings. I like this novel and I really do, so I don't want to lose interest in this. So I don't want to read it just because. I wanted to have the desire to read it. The excitement derived from anticipation, the desire for a certain pay-off, etc. It's more fun that way.”

“You're curious so just used that as your motivation. Easy.”

“I'm not like that. If I wanted to know something, I don't want to delay searching for the answer because it makes me feel terrible. So in this case, I might spoil myself through research, and that would be bad. The excitement brought by anticipation and uncertainty would disappear.”

“Uh... Then just let the chapters accumulate.”

“I get bored easily. Once I stopped reading, the excitement would slowly diminish and when the next chapter comes, it would be back to square one. I need to read with neutral feelings and wait 'till I feel those excitement again.”

“Man, you're so hard to please. If I'm not wrong, there are those called ‘MTL’ Just read those.”

“Machine Translation? Oh hell, I won't be fully immersed to the story if I need to try to make sense of each sentences.”

“Oh god.... You're so— hmm, wait wait! This isn't what we should be talking about!”

“Don't scream near my ear. You're so loud.”

“Uh... hahahahaha! My bad my bad. Anyway, seriously, we should talk.”

I turn my phone off and arrange my chair to face him.

He looks around and whispers at me.

“We will talk here? Let's talk somewhere private.”

You just agreed earlier though.

“Why we can't do it here? Besides, I'm waiting for someone.”

“Just message them.”

“Oh hell. Alright then.”

「Eli-chan, are you done?」

「I'm sorry Mark. 😔 We're not done yet. But if you want, I could leave immediately.」

「No it's fine. What are you all discussing?」

「We're talking about the upcoming intramurals.」

「That's still September. Aren't you all too early for it?」

「Well, we should be planning in advance to prevent any rushed work as much as possible. We're currently not that busy so we might as well use this time to draft an outline. Right, there's a chocolate cake here 🍰🍰. I'll bring you some.😁😁」

「A chocolate? Is it dark chocolate? Anyway, please bring me some thank you.」

「Hehehe ❤️❤️❤️. You're more than welcome. It tasted delicious you know. I'll reserve you 3, no 5 slices.」

「That's too much. They might looked at you strangely you know fufufufu.」

「I don't care about that. I want to give it to you so I will.」

「That's lovely ~」

“Mark! What are you giggling for? Hurry up!”

“Why are you so impatient?”

「Aren't you busy? How come you can talk to me.」

「I told them to wait for me.」

「What...??? Don't make them wait. I have nothing important to say anyway!」

「But you're important to me.」

「Ohh. Well, I appreciate it but you have your duties. Ugh, anyway, I really have nothing important to say. I just messaged you to say that me and Al— you know, my friend,have something to talk about. So we will leave from the classroom and just message me if you're done.」

「You mean you won't message me if not because you need to inform me? You don't want to talk to me?」

「I didn't say anything like that. I like talking to you okay?」

「Oh yay! I like talking to you as well. Hehehe ~😗😍❤️」

「Anyway bye bye, let's just continue flirting later.」

「Bye bye~❤️❤️❤️」

“It's done. Let's go.”

“Let's go behind that school building we ate at last time.”

I shove the phone into the pocket of my pants. I will leave my bag here.

“Okay.”