The sound of someone stepping on a stick went through your eardrums.

Panic took all over you and you accidentally released the paper clip from your grip.

The high pitched sound that the paper clip made, blasted into the silence.

"Shit!"

You were pissed to a degree that you could commit arson at this amusement park. Your arms were in pain due to the narrow space of the gate that kept on clenching your biceps ruthlessly and the damn paper clip even decided to fly off from your hands.

Today was unfortunate indeed.

So yeah, now it's all hopeless.

Speaking of the paper clip...it slipped up from your hands because of a scary sound you heard before. It was around 7.20 p.m., so there ain't no way there are ghosts at this hour. It was still early in the night.

Then, it could be.

You aren't alone here.

You moved your gaze towards the clown's mouth, where the outside can be seen. There was no figure that could be seen there. And the noise before wasn't present anymore, it most probably better for you to ignore it.

But no way in hell you will do that.

You were at a dangerous place by yourself and you sure damn well that you don't want to die early...seventeen is such a young age anyway.

You put back your flip phone to its rightful place and tried to find something to defend yourself. But nothing will do much. You lost your scissors for the umpteenth time since the early weeks, just because the class was busy doing decorations and somehow your scissors were passed around until it ceased to exist.

So there's only one suitable thing to use.

And that is your clipboard.

There were tons of paper clipped onto the board so it makes the clipboard heavier than it was supposed to be. So it seems safe to just smack someone's face if they try to hurt you...but you weren't sure though.

You wore your backpack and hold the clipboard tightly. Seems like anyone who passes by you will get a good hit from you indeed. Your expression sure remained calm but your hands weren't. They were trembling tremendously and made the clipboard let out a few noises because of the intense shake.

As you exited the clown's mouth...

You didn't make any noise, you even tiptoed your way out. You looked to your right side seems like there was no one there. So you are safe...

"Can I-

A harsh thud resonated the whole silence. You were too scared to think thoroughly because your assumption before was wrong indeed. You weren't definitely alone. Someone's unpleasant company is here...and you wouldn't appreciate it at all.

So that's why you smacked your clipboard to the stranger's face rapidly, it was a flight or fight response...but you choose to fight only for now. The sound of clicking from the person's eyeglasses can also be heard when you smack them, so it's possible that you might have broken them even.

You couldn't see who the victim was since all of their face was still covered by the clipboard that you were holding tightly in your grip.

You slowly moved the clipboard away from the person and felt guilty because the strength that you gave on the smack before was forceful and harsh. So it must hurt a lot, especially at their eye area... since you already assume that they wore eyeglasses.

All you could see was a boy that was about your age and he was about 5'10, he's not very tall but just an average height for a Japanese boy. He had both of his hands tucked inside of his pocket but one of them had to be taken out, due to fixing back his golden round glasses that was about to fall off from his face.

He had his eyes closed forcefully shut to compensate for the pain that you gave to him. Although that hit was a normal thing for him, especially with that lifestyle of his, never did he know he was going to get some at this peaceful night.

You bring the clipboard right back to your chest getting more nervous about what this dude going to say after what you've done. He might scream his lungs out from anger, he might hit you back and made you unconscious instead, too many bad possibilities could happen.

"...I'm so sorry..." you trailed softly. You moved your gaze everywhere except for his eyes because it was too scary to look at. You could imagine fire coming out from his eyes if you were daring enough to look at them.

But unexpected things do come to you without any warning.

"It's okay." He said in a calm voice, no emotions were present even.

You were dumbfounded by his reaction. That's it? He's not going to be mad at you?

It's not like you were hoping and begging for him to get angry with you (now that's kinda weird) but it's logical for someone to be furious, especially when they got hit for no reason.

His response encouraged you enough to look at him. You were too curious who this person might be. His tone before was not comforting to be exact but it wasn't scaring you either, and the way he said the word before just meant that 'your hit wasn't that strong anyway, so no biggie.'

As your gaze met him, there's where you unconsciously studied his features one by one. He had these blazing amethyst-coloured eyes, that can literally shine this whole amusement park if possible, his hair was styled in a mullet with baby blue dye decorating some strands of his soft blonde hair, not to mention the little silver-coloured piercing on his left ear that made him thousand times attractive than he already is...it just can't be denied...

That Haitani Rindou is a walking piece of art.

But somehow you weren't enthralled at all with those majestic attributes that Rindou has, because you were too busy trying to find out who in the hell is he. Examining his face like your eyes were X-Rays. After thinking so deeply about who this person might be, that's when you realised...

He was the guy that you keep on looking for.

You let out a gasp and you never even knew why these words instead come out from your mouth.

"I've finally found you!" A wide grin spread across your face, you were too oblivious to think that your words weirded out the boy.

She's weird. Rindou cocked one of his 'angry' eyebrows, can't figure out what was in your head.

To be honest, he was mad that you literally hit his pretty face but still, he tried to suppress that anger, especially when you're just a stranger. But you saying nonsense makes his rage increase even more, he just went back to the hideout because he left some important stuff there.

Getting hit was not what he wanted.

You realised that what you said before escalated the awkward tension between the two of you. Rindou with his stoic expression and you grinning all of sudden, the energies you both radiate weren't matching at all.

So you returned back to your usual expression and cleared your throat so that it will ease up the unwieldy atmosphere.

"I'm (Last Name) (First Name)." You reached out your hand for him to shake.

He stared at your hand and back to your (eye colour) eyes. You saw the hands that were in his pockets were moving but it didn't reach your hand, instead, it went deeper into them.

You then pulled back your hand to your sides and gave him a tight lip smile. Showing how unamused you were.

I need to hit his face even harder if I ever get another chance!

"Right." That's the only appropriate response that you gave after that rude stunt he just made.

"...Well, you see-

"I'm not interested."

He didn't talk at all before, he was an introverted person indeed. But when he does start using that mouth of his, blunt or straightforward words will run to his mouth.

That's why he is weirded out why you weren't offended at all but you looked confused instead.

"I didn't fi-

"I know what you're going to ask. And that's my answer."

Does he already know what I'm going to ask? Oh! Does that mean...

"So you already know that we are writing portfolio partners?"

Now it was Rindou's turn to be puzzled. Writing portfolio? What in the actual fuck is that? He never even heard of any portfolio or shit from school that he needed to do.

"Huh?" That's the only response Rindou can give. His eyebrows furrowed.

This dude was being more complicated than Newton's Law of Motion at this point, so now you can't decide if he didn't know or he pretended that he didn't understand what you were talking about. You just can't figure out and read him indeed.

"I was going to ask you about the writing portfolio. Then, you said you already knew what I was going to ask. And what do you even mean by 'not intre-

Oh my.

The realisation hits you like a truck. This is a really bad misunderstanding. Why would he think that you were here to do that? There's no way you will persevere to walk from cram school to this Haitani hideout just for you to do what he assumed you to do. He's just giving you secondhand embarrassment at this point. God, he is so full of himself and thinks that all the girls in Roppongi will act the same when they see him.

At first, you wanted to ignore it. Because you want to be decent to him.

But you don't care anymore, you wouldn't hesitate to be vile to this dual-coloured hair male. He should know that this was the consequence of him cutting you off twice and even not shaking your hand before.

Poor Rindou not knowing that he was going to be embarrassed as hell after this.

You gave him a downgrading smirk and looked at him up and down.

"Dude...

....I'm not trying to court you."

Rindou turned his face away to the side, trying his best to mask his embarrassed expression. His cheeks burned up a little.

Fuck!

Even if he was cursing inside like it was the last day of his life, he's just that good at hiding how humiliated he felt. He is so good at keeping a composed expression, some of his 'fanboys' even said that it was his strength indeed. His opponents will conjecture that he was weak due to that stoic facade of his but little did they know he was having the time of his life, breaking their bones like they were breakable lightsticks when they'll fight later on.

You on the other hand tried your best to not laugh at him. Obviously, you are not an angel or too nice to let this embarrassing moment slip too easily. You slightly puffed up your cheeks to suppress a boisterous laugh that you were about to let out.

As Rindou moved his eyes to you, his annoyance grew intensely. He was sure it was your fault from the first place for wording out your words oddly. 'I've finally found you!', sounds like someone that searched for him like crazy so that they could make a love confession. But turns out you weren't. Rindou truly wants to bury himself forever and never be seen by you anymore.

"So you tryna trespass this place...just to talk to me about some writing portfolio?"

You let out a nervous chuckle and scratched your nape. The word 'trespass' was too much for you since you've never done anything as evil as this. It's not like you were scared to do all of these 'illegal' things but you had no reason to do them anyways. But you were desperate. You just want to save your ass from doing too much work this year, at least you want to do the writing portfolio with your partner, maybe it can lessen the burden you will endure later on.

"Yeah...sorry."

The male let out a scoff, "Don't worry. You were pretty shit at it anyway."

Your mouth fell agape slightly. His words were unbelievably hurtful. But for sure, he wasn't lying about what he said. You didn't succeed in trespassing the amusement park anyways, so there's no point in him being mad. Your attempt to be a lowkey criminal was a failure indeed. Seems like destiny had stopped you from doing this horrible crime stuff.

You ignored his remark before and took a glance at your clipboard. You push away the unnecessary papers that were on top of the important one to the back.

Shoving the clipboard onto his chest, Rindou flinched from the sudden contact and felt a slight pain from the force you put.

"So, are you gonna do this with me or not?"

Rindou finally took his hands out of his pockets and took the clipboard from you. He scanned through the paper you were showing him and it was the instructions about the writing portfolio. The title on the paper wrote 'WrItInG PoRtFoLiO' and he was cringing to death with this teacher's pathetic taste in fonts. Well, obviously the title wasn't the case, but the small points under it were. There were 6 bullet points and each of them showed the question for the 6 essays that you both needed to write.

Just like we all know, Haitani Rindou is not doing bad at school and he is witty even, so he knows that all the essays were different types since the questions already give a clue on what type of essay and writing style that someone must use. Be it narrative, argumentative or a reflective essay, it's no biggie for Rindou at all. So, he can help because this wasn't out of his capabilities.

But he is too prideful for all of this, there ain't no way he will easily lend help to someone, especially when the person is a stranger. Every effort and help he gives, they are valuable like gold, so he wants to get something in exchange.

Then, this is where Rindou's facade fades away...and he starts being childish.

"Sure...."

He let out a teasing chuckle.

"...but you have to beg first."

How amused he was for challenging you to do that. What the hell does he think you are? A servant? First of all, he acts like you were the one that wanted him to be your partner from the first place but in reality, you were forced to because the teacher had no choice. So you don't need to go this far to make him help you because it was his responsibility. It was not optional for him to do it or not but somehow the dumbass made it that way.

You let out a sigh.

Rindou sure was enjoying this scene. His egotistic ass loves to see people being desperate or begging. It makes him feel like he is above others like he is a king or whatever.

You filled the gap between your fingers with the opposite ones, forming a shell-like shape. Eyes moving towards your hands, not wanting to look at the male at all.

"Please..." You sounded like you were pleading, trying to say that you will do anything to gain his help. Rindou was having a lot of fun.

But....

"....who the hell do you think you are?"

Rindou was stunned by your sudden change of act.

Your eyes only pierced through his and a lazy grin wore on your face.

The teenage boy was unaware that he is going to be in so much pain after this.

Because you can't stand him anymore. This is where you started to show your true colours.

And use that sharp tongue of yours that you have been holding in for the past minutes already.

"Man, you're so fucking full of yourself."

You snatched your clipboard harshly from him. This time, you make his palm hurt due to the sharp friction that the clipboard gives. He only winced in pain subtly.

"You know what? I think it's better for me to do this shit alone. Because it'll be no difference if you help or not..."

"And why is that?" He was curious about what you had to say later on. His left brow cocked up. Awaiting for your next words.

Well, this is new. Rindou thought.

"Because my mom said that self-conceited people are dumb."

Rindou felt like a sharp arrow burst through his body.

"So in the end my brain is the only one that we'll be using, right?"

Another arrow shot him again.

"And I'm truly confident that the essay marks will be lower if you helped rather than me doing it alone."

Another one again.

Your words were more hurtful than the words that he ever gave to any opponents that he ever fought.

The boy was too stunned to say anything at all. He can't even comprehend what's happening to him.

Because it's been a long time since anyone had insulted him (it could be no one ever did). All that everyone had ever done to him in his life was praise his looks, his strength, his charisma, his leadership and how he can get that big ass tattoo that he has on the right side of his body when he was just 12.

Haitani Rindou, the one that all these delinquents have been praising and worshipping, is getting insulted by some mere girl that literally just asked for 'his help'.

Insults weren't supposed to be something that a 'king' should be getting, right? Citizens in medieval times obeyed and praised their beloved king, even if he was just doing the bare minimum.

The 17-year-old boy froze in his spot like he witnessed something so horrifying, that he didn't know how to react at all.

"I'll be on my merry way now. Thanks for wasting my time, Haitani."

You left the boy abruptly, not wanting to stay longer with him. Because he makes you sick in your stomach.

You loathe people that are self-absorbed and think they're superior to others. They think that looking at people below them will make them feel better.

So there ain't no way you want to do the writing portfolio with him. You can't even stand him for the couple minutes before and compare it to three months with him.

Hell no.

Because a hectic year is better than having Haitani Rindou entering your life.

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