Getting Pulled Over and Bundled into the Trunk

Everything is fine

"Maybe..." Araki looked at him hesitantly. "But what I mean is, when people like that have a hold over you, you can't always tell when you're being manipulated..."

Gakushuu stayed tensed, keeping his guard up. "It's still a different situation." He shuffled his card apprehensively. "When was the last time your sister went back to him anyway?"

Araki grimaced. "Well, my dad and her husband had a big fight before Christmas because they were moving out of the city." A sad look overcast his face. "She stopped talking to us after that and I haven't seen her since." His brow furrowed. "She won't even text me..."

"Oh..." Gakushuu's stomach twisted, feeling some guilt mix in with his caution. "That's...unfortunate." His thoughts drifted to when his father had tried to isolate and cut him off from his friends and classmates.

"The point is, you should be careful," Araki replied, sighing. "The Principal could still manipulate you..."

"Yeah, he's a creep!" Seo said grimly. "I'm still having nightmares from when he messed with our heads."

Gakushuu held back a grimace when he remembered seeing how awful they had looked at finals. "Yes, I know."

"So you'll call us if something's wrong?" Ren prodded.

He scowled faintly. "If it'll shut you up."

Ren smiled in amusement. "Good."

Gakushuu discreetly rolled his eyes. "Now can we move on from this conversation? Currently you're all going to be bankrupt by this rate since I own half the board."

"What? No, you haven't," Seo quickly looked at his cards.

"He bought another railroad," Itona said.

"For fuck sake!" Seo tossed his cards on his lap. "This game is shit! I wanna play Cluedo."

"Why? So you'll lose again?" Ren teased.

Gakushuu smirked, tidying his cards. "You were abysmal."

"I'm telling you it was that scarlet bitch!" Seo snapped.

Araki rolled his eyes. "Yeah, no. Let's just hope you never try to become a detective in the future."

"Fuck off." Seo tossed his monopoly piece at him.

"Ow!"

"We can play Shoji or sugoroku next?" Ren suggested.

"I don't think we have Shoji," Itona replied, shrugging. "We could ask Koro-sensei."

Gakushuu sighed. "If we do that he'll want to join us."

"He does seem kind of clingy," Araki commented.

"You have no idea," Gakushuu replied dryly, opening a can of cherry pop. "If he comes over he'll eat all our food and ruin the game."

"Yeah, I was gonna ask, for a super creature, what's with the obsession with junk food and porn?" Koyama asked.

"It's a tentacle thing," Itona replied, shrugging. "I never really got the porn thing when I had tentacles though."

There was a beat of the silence as the other four stared at him.

"...You had tentacles?" Araki looked confused.

Gakushuu slurped his drink. "Yes, he did. Though, I honestly nearly forgot."

Itona raised an eyebrow. "Good for you." He looked back at the other Big Five before taking out his phone. "They were on my head."

The four boys gawked when they saw photo of Itona using his tentacles to feed himself crisps while he read through an adult magazine.