President's Delinquent (&TEAM)

THIRTY FIVE

A couple weeks had passed and everything seemed fine. Taki was discharged from hospital and went to school as usual. Maki and Harua still had their 'tutoring sessions', but everyone knew it was just an excuse for them to be together. The only thing that was different was the fact that Jo had been ignoring Nicholas. Nicholas thought that Jo would've been fine about a week after the incident, but Jo hadn't talked to him since.

Every day, Nicholas would sit in his seat, waiting for Jo to come to class. Once the boy came in, he would try to make conversation, but the boy would put on headphones and sleep at his desk. In the hallway, Nicholas would try and reach out to him, but Jo would hastily walk away.

"You've been miserable lately, what's been going on while I was in hospital?" Taki asked his friend as he leaned against the wall.

"Oh, right. I haven't told you yet," The boy answered.

"What? Did something actually happen?"

"I like someone."

"What!?" Taki exclaimed, his mouth wide open.

"In all the years I've known you, I never thought you would like someone," Taki said, his jaw almost touching the ground.

"But why are you so sad about it?" Taki realised.

"I may or may not have confessed, and now he's ignoring me," Nicholas sighed.

"Nicholas, you should've taken it slow and waited to get closer and... Wait... Did you say he?!" Taki yelled.

"Yeah," Nicholas admitted, unfazed by his friend's reaction.

"Who is it? Is it someone I know?" Taki asked, interested in the boy that had captured Nicholas' attention.

"You know him, but you also don't know him," Nicholas stated.

"That's bullcrap, do I know him or not?"

"I mean, you know of him, but you don't know him personally," Nicholas corrected.

"That still gives me no clues, it could be anyone," Taki replied, scrunching his nose.

"Let's just say, I protect him a lot."

"Alright, I know who it is now," Taki immediately said.

"What, how?"

"Who else do you protect more than once?" Taki asked, rolling his eyes at his friend.

Nicholas laughed a bit, but his mind drifted to Jo again. He wanted to talk to him again. He missed him.

– – – – – – – –

"So, how have you and Maki been going?" Euijoo asked his junior as he did his paperwork.

Harua blushed slightly.

"We've been going good. It's been a month now," Harua replied happily.

Euijoo smiled in response. He was glad that his junior was happy.

"How are you and Taki?"

Euijoo froze for a minute. Harua couldn't have known about them unless someone told him.

"I mean, you were mad at him, but you guys seem fine nowadays, you guys cleared everything up?" Harua added, realising the silence.

"Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, we're doing fine, we apologised in the hospital," Euijoo replied, worried if Harua had caught onto something.

Harua's phone suddenly buzzed and the boy looked at his phone.

"Maki's coming. Can you do me a favour?" Harua asked.