"Y/n, ganbatte! The strawberry cheesecake is waiting for you!" Ace yelled from behind while you were on your way to the detention room. You grabbed a few textbooks, your notebook, and the pencil case in your arms, sighing at the misfortunes that you had been through. For the first time, you missed the grey seal being your partner. "Ahh, Grim, it'd be good if you were here..." mumbling, you arrived at the door of the detention room. It is the most left room on the ground floor. Usually, students would not come over, but of course, there are some specialties, like you. You peeped into the room through the small glass on the door, but there was no one, neither the monitoring teacher nor other students. "Did I come to the wrong room?' You asked yourself, trying to recall what Deuce had instructed you before the lesson ended.
"Nope, you are in the exact right place." Just when you were still bringing back your memories, a deep male voice suddenly came from behind and totally startled you. You immediately turned to the back. You rolled your eyes when you saw it was your detention buddy, aka the annoying lion, Leona Kingscholar who was standing in front of you. Unlike you, he had got nothing in his hands. "It's rude of you to eavesdrop on the others, Kingscholar." You hissed.
"Such a punctual herbivore you are." He teased, not forgetting to emphasize the nickname you had told him not to use. You glared at the tall boy and gnashed your teeth. How could someone be that annoying and restless? You thought. "Well, I suppose YOU are the one who is expected to be late." Of course, you would not surrender to your "enemy".
Leona smirked. He ran his gloved finger through the long fringes covering his forehead, and asked, "So we are going to stay in this position for a while longer, or will you excuse me, so I can open the door behind you?"
You all of a sudden realized that there were again only a few inches between you and the junior. You were trapped between him and the cold door behind you. His chest was right in front of the tip of your nose. After all, he is 20 cm taller than you. You stopped in nervousness due to the short distance between you two, but you immediately faked a cough and cleared your throat. "Of course the latter option, I'd choose." You said and moved aside to the left, to let him reach the lock of the door.
You two entered the empty room with only wooden desks and chairs, and a tall bookcase in front of the wall. Leona randomly sat on a chair in the middle of the classroom, and you picked one far away from his, at the back of the classroom. You surely didn't want to get close to the troublemaker anymore.
You took out a pen from the pencil case and carefully tore a paper from the notebook. One of the things that Crewel cares about the most is tidiness, so you wouldn't want to write the essay on a broken paper. You seldom write an apology essay, probably within three times, so it's a little bit difficult for you to start the first line
Dear Crewel-sensei,
I am writing to express my sincerest apology for the incident that happened in the potionology lesson. I believe the problem lies in the communication between Kingscholar-kun and I. We accidentally mixed-
"Hey, do you have one more paper?" Suddenly you heard someone ask in the quiet classroom, and of course, that someone was your detention partner. He was turning the upper part of his body to the back, facing you. Obviously, the boy brought nothing for his detention class, and he was daydreaming before he saw you buried your head to the table, reminding him of the apology letter.
"Are you doing this on purpose, huh? Not bringing anything to your detention." You questioned in annoyance. You decided to ignore him and went back to your essay.
"C'mon, I am just a bit forgetful. You wouldn't mind sharing a paper with your senpai, would you?" He shrugged with a light-minded smile, continuing to annoy you. You rolled your eyes and opened the notebook. If providing him with a paper could stop him from bothering you, it does worth. You then tore a paper from the last page and lifted it in the air, "Take it."
"How generous you are, herbivore." He stood up from his seat and walked towards yours. You didn't bother to look up, but continued to write the letter with your other hand. The faster you could finish it, the faster you could leave this room and the troublesome upperclassman.
"Can I have one more?" Just when the paper was taken away from your hand, you heard another request from the boy standing next to your table. You couldn't believe your ears. Once again you stopped your writing hand and looked up, "Seriously?"
"You know, I may write a LONNGG paragraph to express my heartfelt regretfulness to Crewel." Leona added. Lier. You already couldn't count how many times you had rolled your eyes today, but as long as he wouldn't bother you anymore, it's fine. "Take the whole notebook. Don't bother me anymore." You replied while taking out the notebook from your drawer and then returning to the letter.
Leona took the notebook from the table and thanked you, "Thank you. Oh, and I will take a pen from here..." "Take it!" You didn't wait for him the finish his words and let him take any stationary he liked from your pencil case. Grabbing the notebook and a pen in his hand, he left your desk with a satisfied face. However, instead of returning to his original seat, he put stuff on a desk near your seat and pulled out the chair, sitting on it without any hesitation.
"Shouldn't you be sitting at the front?" You questioned when you heard the loud noise produced by pulling the chair from the right. He's only 3 seats apart from you.
"I kinda like this seat here. I could feel the sunshine outside the window." He explained. You didn't have to think for a second to know it was just another excuse for him to sit near you, so he could annoy you more easily. You seriously could not understand the mentality of this man. You had only known him for a few days, and you had no idea why you would become a target for him to annoy and bother. And yes, you didn't forget the fact that you had stepped on his tail and slapped him, but it was for self-defense! You told yourself. "Ugh..." you muttered as you tried to clear your mind so you can focus on your work, but not the restless annoyer.
Meanwhile, after returning to the seat, Leona roughly wrote a few lines on the paper borrowed from you. "Sorry, Crewel... I'll get you... a new coat when I return home in the next... holiday. Done." He muttered in a low voice while writing. After signing at the bottom of the letter, he folded it in half. He then rested his cheek on a hand, while spinning the pen you had borrowed him with the other hand. He had no plan to spend the whole detention period writing a stupid apology letter. Taking a nap would be a better option than compositing a long and sincere letter to Crewel. "Hhhhaaaahh... boring..." he yawned. He noticed your notebook lying peacefully on the desk. He decided to take a look at it. After all, he had got nothing more interesting to do.
The first and only things he could see were the handwritten notes and charts drawn on single-lined paper. Not gonna lie to himself, your handwriting was neat and tidy. All the key points were highlighted in different colours. This is something he would never do. He did notice that you're kinda into the colour blue, as it's the most used colour in your notes. He continued to flick through your notebook. They were from different classes, including the main subjects and all the electives that freshmen are required to study. It brought him back to the memories of his first year at Night Raven College. As he flicked, he probably didn't notice that he was somehow obsessed with it and couldn't stop turning to the next page.
Soon, it came to the last written page, and the rest were blank. Leona closed the notebook, he then leaned back and put his hands behind his head. Boredom once again returned to him. "Ughhh... boring..." he complained. A sudden sound of something dropping to the ground caught his attention. He turned to the back where the sound came from and saw you crouching on the floor, picking up the pen you had accidentally dropped.
"What are you looking at?" You noticed that the boy with lion ears was looking at you, and asked. You patted the dust and sit back on your seat without waiting for him to answer. Leona could feel your hostility of you towards him. But it would not reduce his interest in provoking and teasing you, it's kinda fun for him to watch you puffing your cheeks in anger. This is not a "Leona thing", even himself could tell. Usually, he would not bother to even just talk with strangers. But it's probably because you had literally slapped him and stepped on his tail, which made him insist on irritating and tricking you as revenge.
He thought of having another nap, but he already had one in the last lesson, and surprisingly, he didn't feel tired at all. He then noticed the wooden bookcase behind with several levels and decided to check if there was something interesting.
...Allow me to once again apologize for the trouble that we have caused. I promise that...
"Oh look what I have found, a chess." You were writing the last paragraph of the essay until you heard that voice of the Savannaclaw housewarden. You blinked twice and tried to ignore him. You were close to finishing the letter.
"Hey, you know how to play chess?" But the next second, Leona was sitting on the seat right in front of you, resting an arm on the chair back, and toying a chess pawn with the other hand. You were startled by his sudden appearance and were jump scared. "Jeez! Could you stop showing up in front of someone without any sound?!"
"Chess, you know how to play huh?" Leona ignored your complaint and repeated his question while waving the chess in his hand. You looked at the pawn, and at him, then straight back to your writing. "Yes, but I am not playing." Was all you dropped for him. You didn't want to waste any time dealing with him anymore. You used to take a few chess lessons back in your world, but just the basic ones. All you had learnt were the basic rules and a few strategies.
"C'mon, it is just a game. How could it harm you anyways?" The junior didn't give up. Instead, he started taking the chess pieces out from the container and opened the checkerboard. How could he leave his favourite pastime other than sleeping, chess, on the bookcase while he had got nothing to do? "Still no, give up." You insisted, keeping your head down, trying your best to reduce any eye contact with him.
"Just one round, what would it cost you?" The chess lover continued to lure, "Now that I am literally providing you a chance to defeat me, you're giving it up without even trying?" Still, you weren't moved and kept silent.
"Are you deaf or something? Ugh..." Leona grumbled in impatience, but then his lips curved into a smirk. He then turned to the front and purposely rose his voice, "Well, fine. After all, you are a chicken-hearted herbivore. What was I expecting?"
He is using reverse psychology! You knew it. You had been grabbing your pen so tight so as to stop yourself from being triggered by him successfully. However, when you heard him calling you chicken-hearted, you couldn't hold yourself anymore. You put down the pen and tied your hair into a ponytail. Even if it's a wrong and stupid decision to waste time on him, you wouldn't let him look down on you. "Fine, you want to play a round. Then be it."
Hearing your reply, Leona widened his smile and immediately moved the whole chessboard to your table. The black-and-white chessmen were already well-placed opposite to each other. "Wonderful, let's start the game." He had already foreseen you accepting his challenge, that's why he already had everything ready. "You take white, and I'll have black." He added.
You looked at the black-and-white checkerboard and swallowed hard, trying to recall what the teacher had taught you. It's been years since the last time you played, so it took time for you to recover the memories. A while later, you looked up to Leona with a calm smile, "I am ready." Leona grinned. A new game, a new competitor. Although he could already foresee the results of this round, he's still enthusiastic about it. "Lady first." He said and crossed his arms, waiting for his opponent to take the first step. It wouldn't affect him much just to let you take the first move instead of himself.
"Sure." You acted calm and moved your hand from your knee to the chess. You picked up the knight and moved it two squares forward horizontally. You kinda remembered that your teacher had taught you to move the knights and bishops prior to the queens and rooks.
The upperclassman nodded his head as he saw your decision. "Great first move." He commented. He then slightly pulled his black gloves and stretched his neck and shoulders, getting ready for his first step in this game.
"Now, it's my turn."