Kyle and I walk into the courtyard annd sit in the farthest area away from the main building.
"Perhaps we should go back to our dorms before suspicion rises with us being the only ones who fled."
"I agree, I'll see you at dinner?"
"Yeah."
We both walk into the dorm house, into the elevator and we split ways. When I walk into my dorm Ash is sitting on the bed, "Hey."
"Hey, want to go out now, maybe after we get out for a bit dinner will be ready?"
I shrug and get out the doorway into the hallway with Ash behind me. We take the elevator down which stops on the fourth floor for some odd reason, "That's weird, I guess we are taking the stairs." We get out and walk down the hall, when we get halfway down we hear a door slam...hard. Following the slam we hear a dull crash and turn around. Behind us was a frame facedown on the ground, Ash picks it up and holds it in front of his, scowling.
"What?"
"That's weird, I can't really tell what the painting is."
"Probably because you have it upside down."
"How would you know that?"
"The signature is upside down, I believe."
When he turns the photo around, the image shows a man on his knees before a large scale figure of a woman. What is mostly interesting is that the color scale changes between the two, where the woman is painted with bright, beautiful colors while the man is painted in dark blues.
"Hmm, I wonder what that's about."
Ash hangs the photo back into it's designated spot, as he does that I find the caption, "Unrequited Love by Miki De Goodaboom, that makes sense."
"How so?"
"Unrequited is when you love someone and they do not return it, that's why the photo is that way. The man is clearly in love with the woman who he sees as her world, when he sees her he sees beauty and colors, much like the sunset. The thought of her...and the colors is so strong it brings him to despair which explains the darkness, and he is stuck. He gets the happiness of seeing her but the despair of knowing she'll never love him back."
"Wow, that's so dark, I wonder why it's in a school, especially considering it's called Hope's Peak."
"Maybe he has a false sense of hope believing that she will eventually love him."
"Ah, I see what you did there."
"Yeah, perhaps we should venture off now."
We walk back down to the stairwell and get out the building walking around campus. I must say, it's so beautiful, especially accompanied with the colors of the sunset. After walking for an hour we saw students go to the dining hall, "Maybe we should get going, Ash."
"Wait, Rainne?"
"Hmm?"
"I thought about what you said about the painting, and I don't want to end up like that guy. Since you've arrived I've thought about you a ton, I really like you, and I swear it isn't infatuation...but will you, you know, date you--I mean me? Like, be my girlfriend?"
I give him a puzzled look, he goes on, "I know, I sound ridiculous. You don't even have to do so now, you can think about it if you'd like, I'd understand if you don't...He walks away from me head down.
My mind suddenly crashed into our first real heart to heart, everything he told me. No one has ever done that with me, I needed him.
"Yeah."
He turns around, "What?"
"I'll date you."
His eyes grow wide as well with his smile, we get closer and he embraces me.
"Let's make a deal, though, Rainne."
"Oh, god, what is it?"
"We can't say I love you until we date for at least three months, so we know whether we actually love each other. So we don't throw the word around for nothing."
"Deal."
"But we can still show some type of affection," He takes me hand as we walk to the dining hall, where all our friends greet us with a large pizza. There was so secret that Ash and I were official, hey could see it in my face, his as well. Avery is beaming with life, "I KNEW IT! I CALLED IT FIRST KAMI WATASHI NO A, WATASHI WA SORE O AISURU!" Everyone turns toward Avery and stares at her as if she has a frog growing off her forehead. Kate puts a nail file back into her purse, "Looks like the weeaboo is a little excited." She peers at Avery through her glasses while snickering. Then she walks off, "I'm going to get water, Levi, would you like to join along?" Levi shrugs and walks off along with her. Victoria looks up and gives a cold glare, "What's their deal?" Andy groans, "Ugh, a cool guy with a cynical girlfriend."
"WHAT?!"
Everyone stares at the area Kate and Levi left and back at Andy. "They're dating?" Katelyn drops her pen. Andy looks puzzled, "Yeah, you didn't know?"
"How could we know, she's so...eugh, and he's so..cool," Katelyn shudders and picks up her pen and starts drawing again.
Andy shrugs, "Well, it was quite obvious. They just don't show affection like some." She turns her head toward Victoria and Alex going at it again and opens her mouth and points her finger to it, gagging. "Oh my god, will you guys just go somewhere with that already?" Adam hits his head on the table multiple time as Cayman proceeds to laugh. Victoria moves around three inches from Alex's face and retorts, "Oh, shut up, stop being so jealous of what you can't have."
"I'm sure I can have a virginity still."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know that, but still what you meant is nothing we want."
"You know wh--"
"Can you guys please shut up? Ash and Rainne are now official and you guys are still stuck on Victoria and Alexander. They're old news! Let's celebrate the new!"
There were small mumbles of agreement and Cayman pipes up, "Yeah, they do look really cute." Charlie goes from his silence, "I sadly agree, but Rainne would have been so much better off with me."
"Watch it, Charlie," Ash glares off at him.
"Oh, trust me I will," Charlie stands up, "but if you were to have your heart broken by this thing, you know where to find me, babe." Charlie walks away before Ashes gets too mad and starts another round of fighting. To replace Charlie's place Kyle comes about with a large bottle of rootbeer, "Hey, guys!"
"Hey, Kyle," Cayman starts laughing hysterically as usual. "What did I miss?" Kyle grabs a slice of pizza and takes a bite, Avery pipes up, "Kate and Levi are in a relationship."
"Yeah, I care about people's relationships because?"
"I guess you don't care that Ashes and Rainne are in a relationship either."
As soon as the words register to him he starts choking on the small corner of pizza he bit into. He puts his head down as his coughs begin to subside, "When did this happen?" Ash puts his arm around me, resting his hand on my outer elbow, "Tonight, before we got here." Kyle takes a slight nod and goes for the soda to pour himself a cup. As he twists the top, the bottle fizzes loudly and sprays rootbeer all over him. Cayman bursts into loud laughture and Kyle goes red. After a second he smashes his hands on the table and storms off away from the table, colliding with Levi.
"Aye, watch where the fuck you're going punk," Levi playfully says laughing. When Levi got to the table with Kate, there was a red handprint on his cheek.
"Maybe we should go," Ash whispers in my ear, I nod in agreement, "Well, guys, we'll be going now."
We leave the rest of whoever occupied the table there on our way back into the dorm building, "What do you think Kyle's deal was?" I look up at Ash and shrug, "Honestly, I have no clue, maybe he just had a bad day or something." We walk into the stairwell and make our way to the fourth floor. As we walk down the hallway the Unrequited Love painting was on the floor, this time faced upward. The dark side of the painting seemed even darker and and bright silhoutte of the woman brighter but more distant.
You could even hear faint crying lingering from a dorm through the hallway.