"What do you want?" Seraphina asked Remi as she stood in the doorway to John's bedroom. Her arms were crossed over her chest and part of her blazer slipped down her shoulder.
Why did she have to cut their conversation short like this? It was such an inconvenient time. Plus, she probably wanted to talk to John by herself.
"I'm here to talk," Remi replied. She held her hand up to her chest where she wore a light green t-shirt with white edges at the neck, shoulders and at the base. She also wore short light brown shorts. Remi stood on her tiptoes and peered over her shoulders. "With John."
Isen cowered against the wall.
"I'm not interested in talking," John called out from behind her. "Send her away."
Seraphina placed both her hands on the doorframe to block her.
"NO!" Remi shoved her hand away from the door frame, but she quickly repositioned it. "Not till you hear what I have to say!"
John walked up behind her and she let him pass by her. He shoved Remi away from the door as she took a seat on his bed and he began to close the door.
"I told you to leave!"
Blyke caught Remi as she fell before pushing the door back open.
"This door isn't closing till you hear her out," Blyke stated.
Sera sighed. This wasn't going to work any other way. "Just let her talk."
John glanced back to her before he stepped aside.
"Isen." Remi offered out her pink phone in her hand. "Here, take my phone."
Did she not have pockets?
"Erm, okay?" Remi handed her phone off to her partner.
She stepped into the room. "John let's be civil! I just want a private conversation between the two of us."
"Sera stays."
Remi nodded and the door closed behind her. John joined her on the edge of the bed.
"What?" John asked.
"I'd like to avoid a fight at all costs, so I'm here to see if we can find a middle ground," Remi answered. "What will make you stop all this?"
"This is how all high-tiers work? You only want to negotiate when you know you can't win? I'm no going to stop and I won't settle for a census. Get lost."
Sera smiled to herself. Damn, that was accurate.
"I know what you're trying to do!" Remi continued, "You want to throw the school into a state of panic and by hiding your identity while brutalising the top students. You want to embarrass us and make people lose faith in high-rankers. Why are you doing this? You must have a reason!"
He could go lighter on them. That's a compromise – which I would need to suggest because either of these two idiots are going to realise it themselves.
"It's about time people realise how useless you high rankers are. None of you deserve to be put on a pedestal. You're all arrogant and entitled and you abuse your power. Everyone's better off without you."
"What are you talking about? We've always tried to maintain a safe environment for everyone in the school!"
"What are you talking about?" Seraphina questioned, raising an eyebrow. "What's the 'we' in keeping the school safe? The only high-ranker that has possibly been trying to keep the school safe is you and I wouldn't even say you've tried. You've turned a blind eye to everything."
"No, I haven't," Remi responded. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. "We try to catch as many incidents as we can! We dissolve the unfair fights we see and that sets an example for the rest of the school."
"The only person I've seen intervene in what are basically 'beat downs' is Arlo and that was for me. He had ulterior motives of trying to gain my trust for when I regained my ability. He gave up when it appeared that it would not be coming back." She paused. "In fact, Cecile has also done stuff, but again, with hidden motives. I have never seen you, Blyke or Isen lift a finger to help any low-tier, or Arlo and Cecile help anyone else."
"Both of them normally encourage the violence too," John added.
"But you just gave example of them helping," Remi said. "You aren't around to see them all the time. You don't know if they actually help or not."
"Okay, then. Take Zeke as an example. He is an elite yet he beat my ass as a welcome gift for moving in."
"And he beat us up as soon as he could corner us when it was revealed I had lost my ability."
"And those two dumbasses outside broke my wrist and shot a beam at my head!" John continued. "Oh and let's not forget Arlo! Dragged me out to a field and ambushed me just for trying to befriend him!"
"W-what?" Remi's irises narrowed as her body shook in shock. A tear rolled down her cheek.
John pulled up the bottom of his top to reveal the lower half of his torso, covered in welling up purple bruises.
"In all the time I've spent here, there's hardly been a day when I haven't been injured. This is the fucking example you see for everyone!"
"Wait, when did you get those?" Sera asked. She placed her hand on his chest as he dropped his top back down.
"I-I wasn't aware all this was happening," Remi replied. "Sorry you had to go through this."
"Sorry my ass," John responded. "You're apologetic now that your reputation is on the time, but you don't actually care. Useless. You 'respected' high-rankers are the reason why everyone jumps at the opportunity to torture one another! Because all you do is boast about your strength and belittle the people below you. You deserve to lose every bit of the credibility you have!"
Remi remained silent in thought.
"I've lost focus lately because I've had some personal issues to deal with but believe me when I say that I really do care. Now that this has been brought to my attention, I know what I need to do. Moving forward, I'll put all my energy into fixing this imbalance."
"And how could you possibly do that?! You clearly know nothing about how the world works!"
"You don't get to tell me what I know or don't know! John, I hope you realise just how hypocritical you are. I may have been oblivious, but I've always stepped in when a situation called for it. You, on the other hand, witnessed everything that went on and did nothing about it. You know you're the strongest out of all of us! If you had an issue with all this injustice, you could've fixed it-!"
John's frown deepened as Remi continued to speak.
This wasn't going to end well.
"Hey." She covered his ears. "We probably should get this have. We've not going to reach any resolution at this rate."
Remi glared. "No, we can. I'm not going to have all the blame put on me when it's equally his responsibility." She pointed her finger at John accusingly.
"As I said, you two are not going to reach a resolution, so you may as well end it now before either of you say something you regret."
"But he needs to hear that this is only going to encourage the violence in the school!"
"Just text me if you have something to say to him. I'll tell him."
"I can talk to her myself."
She ignored him even as he attempted to yank her hands away from his ears.
Remi turned away and stomped to the door.
"Then I'll see you in two days."
Blyke and Isen opened the door for her and pulled her out.
John grabbed her arm and flipped her over onto her back on the bed. He loomed over her as she laid unmoving on the bed.
"Why did you do that?" he questioned, grabbing her wrist.
"You were going to say something that you'd regret later. It would alienate her from possibly listening to you," she replied. "Remi may be a cloud, but she's going to be the most sympathetic one to you."
He laughed. "She's a cloud? What the hell do you mean by that?"
"That's besides the point. You weren't going to compromise, were you? I just saved you from the rest of the conversation."
He pulled her up off where she laid on the bed and into a hug. He buried his head into the side of her neck and sobbed.
"Hey." She ran her hand through his hair. "Everything will be okay."
She pursed her lips as she continued to stroke his head.
Should I really be surprised her build this all up?
"Can you do something for me?" she whispered into his hair. "Can you go lighter on them?"
John nodded against her.
"Oh and hey, by the way, I like you too."
A/N: Oh my god, 'passion' doesn't always mean lust, guys.
Also, why do the girls' dorms have single bed and the boys' dorms have double beds? Like, Remi, Seraphina and Elaine all have single beds whilst Blyke, John and Isen have double beds. And these dorms aren't in like an old converted building, but a modern building. Like why? This isn't even an accident of the dorms changing design overtime as Remi's dorm is seen soon before John's in the same episode (149, I believe).
I don't know when the next chapter will come out. This chapter was only so quick due to the fact that I'm on a week holidays and I had a planned break from revision yesterday.
Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts on the chapter in the comments.