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"go on."
— flashback —
scaramouche was on his way to his unit until a girl stopped him on his tracks, preventing him to walk further, calling out to him.
he turned around and saw mona, who was panting, probably because she ran around the the entire big campus just to find him.
"i need to tell you something."
"what?" scaramouche scoffed. "i already said i don't want to talk to you."
"please! it's about y/n."
scaramouche paused, "what about y/n?"
"follow me."
he groaned, before following her to a place away from the main campus area, thinking no one would interrupt them here.
"i might've been a little harsh on y/n that day.."
"a little? think again." he raised his eyebrows.
"okay, okay fine! maybe i did go overboard.. but i want to apologise to her."
"so? do it. why are you telling this to me?"
"because.. because i wanted to apologise to you too." mona answered, looking down. "sorry for saying all that stuff about you and making a big deal out of your relationship with her."
"...whatever. i don't really care. you should apologise to y/n, not me." scaramouche said, looking away from her.
"does that mean you'll forgive me?"
"don't get too ahead of yourself, that's for y/n to decide. you still did a wrong thing."
mona sighed. she felt relieved that at least he heard her out today instead of pushing her away for the hundredth time. talking to him made her realise he still had some kind of feelings for y/n, which he himself wasn't aware of. and it would probably be almost impossible for her to make him like her back. if only she could..
she doesn't know what came over her but she found herself suddenly throwing her arms around scaramouche, embracing in a hug.
"thank you." mona mumbled.
"w-wha— what are you doing??" scaramouche asked with a shocked and puzzled expression plastered on his face, though he didn't push her back. he somehow knew her hug had no bad intentions.
after a while, mona pulled away and looked at him in the eyes, searching for a hint of hope, that maybe, somewhere in his heart, he had a place for her. but no, that wasn't the case, as expected. his heart was already taken over by someone, it always was.
"if you meet y/n, can you at least tell her i want to apologise to her?" she asked, with hope and worry in her eyes.
"..fine."
—☆—
y/n felt stupid and speechless. maybe she was the asshole after all. all mona wanted to do was apologise to both her and scaramouche, in hopes of redeeming herself, but she interpreted it in a negative way. why does she always look for the worst in everything?
"it's not your fault, if that's what you are thinking." almost as if he read her mind, scaramouche suddenly spoke.
"sorry, i made things worse." y/n replied, as if she didn't just hear him telling her it's not her fault. but it kinda is isn't it? what's the point of a fake reassurance? y/n always preferred being straightforward.
"i told you not to apologise."
"sorry i just—"
"y/n."
"alright, alright i'm sorr— i mean i'll stop."
'sorry for saying sorry too much.' y/n spoke in her mind, annoyed by herself.
"are you still mad at me?" he asked, looking straight into her eyes.
"huh? no of course not. now i know the whole story so.. haha."
suddenly, a loud sigh escaped scaramouche's mouth, as if he was just relieved or because he lowkey expected this response.
"still the same as ever, aren't you? you forgive so easily.."
—☆—
after the long conversation she had with scaramouche, she was back to the main area, trying to search for her friends. since scaramouche's friends were also with her friends the last time they saw them, they were walking together. for some reason, she didn't feel uncomfortable around him for the first time.
"where the hell are the—"
"YO SCARA! Y/N!"
both y/n and scaramouche looked back to see childe waving as he walked towards them, with the others following him.
"where did you two disappear? tomo said y'all went to kis—"
"I SAID NOTHING. HAHAH." tomo nervously laughed, while covering childe's mouth with one hand to prevent him from speaking further.
scaramouche deadpanned at them, already wanting to escape from this group.
"took you long enough! let's go to the dance floor upstairs!" thoma exclaimed happily. he knew ayato would also be upstairs.
"WOOHOO FINALLY THE FUN PART! let's go homies i bet none of y'all win a dance off against me! HAHAHA." itto laughed.
"oh really? so confident aren't you? wanna bet on it??" heizou suddenly responded in a competitive tone.
"oh my bro, YOU'RE ON."
with that, both itto and heizou ran upstairs as fast as they could, without a care.
"wait for me guys!!!" thoma shouted, following them.
"MMMHMMHMMMHH" meanwhile childe was still held hostage in tomo's arms, as his hand still covered his mouth and refrained him from speaking.
"you know what tomo, this is better. keep him like that." yoimiya chuckled, gaining an angry expression from childe.
he again mumbled a few incoherent words which were not even words at this point, it was just him going "mmmhmhmh".
—☆—
soon everyone was upstairs, with y/n sitting in one of the empty chairs, eating. yes, she had brought one of the cup ramen packets that she had stolen from the convenience store that night for free and decided now would be the perfect time to have it. for some reason.
she watched as itto and heizou were having their little "dance-off", which even made them get looks from everyone with how funny they looked. yoimiya and shinobu stood aside, with sweatmarks visible on their faces as they pretended they didn't know those two.
her eyes then followed thoma who finally had a one-on-one conversation with ayato, and ayaka was right beside them.
she then saw her best friend hu tao, who seemed to had dragged xiao into dancing because he did not move a single muscle, as her, xiangling, xingqiu and chongyun forced him to at least move a hand. but no, he was still as a statue with a stoic expression.
further away, her eyes fell on childe, tomo and kazuha, who stood near the edge of the dance floor, as childe and tomo kept pointing their fingers towards random people who were dancing, probably roasting them because she saw kazuha laughing.
and then she looked for—
"looking for me?" a voice suddenly spoke right behind her ear in a teasing way, causing her to flinch.
she furrowed her eyebrows and glared at the guy, who now causally took a seat right beside her.
in his eyes, she looked nowhere close to intimidating at the moment, she only looked adorable.
scaramouche probably hadn't paid attention when he came behind her because he soon noticed she was holding a cup ramen in her hands and eating it.
"seriously? now??" he asked in a tone that sounded like he was already used to her weird tactics.
"if not now, then when?" y/n rolled her eyes, as she continued eating.
"you know, you look like a fool being the only person having a cup ramen while everyone else is out here dancing. shameless."
"if you're so embarrassed then go away and pretend you don't know me. no one asked you to sit right next to me, idiot."
"you're lucky i don't care what other people think of me."
"mhm. explains why you're an angry emo dude with mommy issues and no signs of improvement in having a likeable personality."
scaramouche turned his head towards y/n to look at her with an exasperated expression. "at least i don't look like some 13 year old loner having her favourite food while everyone else around is partying like normal adults."
now it was y/n's turn to get annoyed. "i can't believe i dated a bowl cut.."
"for the last time y/n, this is NOT a bowl-cut." scaramouche scoffed. "and at least i still look pretty."
y/n only responded to him with an eye-smile, and continued eating.
she wasn't going to dance, and neither was scaramouche. this was not some teenage high school love story where the guy would ask the girl for a dance and she would happily accept it. it was not new for the both of them to observe instead of joining in something. so that's what they did. observe their friends, with scaramouche occasionally making snarky remarks on the others, mostly childe.
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a/n: i'm officially a hu tao haver!! this is like my third time consecutively winning a 50/50 and i'm currently at 63 pity for yelan but i don't think hoyoverse is kind enough to make me win again lol rip ⚰️