Rayleigh stands still, perplexed as the girl keeps crying while squeezing him tightly, as if he was her own personal favorite soft toy, and she had every right to soak him with her tears!
Though Rayleigh is feeling uncomfortable and almost suffocated from the meaty odor coming out of the girl's body, still he lets her soak his t-shirt with her salty tears to her heart's content. It's ridiculous how Rayleigh is feeling irritated by her non-stop crying, hungered by her smell yet, somehow complete in centuries.
Rayleigh closes his eyes and holds his breath, trying to control the hunger and keep this moment still. It's funny how desperately he wants to stop the time and let her hug him but at the same time, wants to move away from her instantly and never again come near her. How can a person feel both completely opposite feelings at the same time?
After a good ten minutes, realization seems to strike the weeping girl, as she stops crying and moves away abruptly. A conflicting mixture of fear and embarrassment bursts inside her, making her cheeks hot and crimson. Rayleigh opens his eyes and looks her.
She keeps her face lowered, making it hard for Rayleigh to see it. Because of the height difference, Rayleigh is only able to see her head full of red wavy hairs and a bit of her eyes under large semi round spectacles.
"Thank you," she whispers in a broken, weepy voice.
Rayleigh nods his head, despite having the critical desire to see her face, he forces himself to turn around and get out of the washroom without wasting another second.
Rayleigh strides towards his history class, cursing under his breath when he realizes he has spent too much time rescuing the girl and the class has already started.
As he stands at the door like a gentleman and asks for the teacher's permission, the whole class falls into a pin drop of silence. Soon, whispering and murmuring fills the environment, Rayleigh hears them all with a casual expression on his face as he stands straight, head high, both hands inside his jacket's pocket. A middle-aged blonde haired woman turns her head towards him, then scans her eyes at the class as if trying to find something.
"May I ask why are you late for my class, Mr...(checks a notebook)... Winslet, is it?" she asks in a stern, rough tone without looking at him.
"It's my first day here and I got lost," Rayleigh puts on a poker face as he replies steadily, still confidently holding his previous posture.
This time the teacher turns her bead to face him, which clearly portrays the fact that he has gotten her attention.
"Lost, huh? I believe, you punched one of the senior students because he was providing you help with finding my class?"
the teacher starts walking straight towards Rayleigh, while keeping a piercing gaze steady on him like an Eagle.
The atmosphere in the whole class immediately tenses, and everyone holds their breaths as they wait for Rayleigh to burst out because of the bold personally he has portrayed so far.
On the other hand, Rayleigh observes everything remaining eerily quiet and decides against gaining much attention.
He lowers his head as he speaks in a very soft and apologetic voice, taking everyone by surprise,"I'm extremely sorry, Ms. Valentine. Though the reason of punching was different but I assure you, it won't happen again."
As soon as the words leave his mouth, he hears many students huffing and calling him by several nicknames, like; "looser","Nonsense", coward","pu·sy". And many more comments of mockery are passed by them within a second. Rayleigh tries to hide his smirk, seems like they were all expecting a good drama.
"SORRY to disappoint but I need everyone's interest and attention in me to be diverted already," Rayleigh thinks.
But he misses noticing a pair of glowering, curios eyes scanning him.
Ms. Valentine ponders for a few seconds, her intelligent pair eyes glued on Rayleigh before regaining her previous stern image.
"I hope you would remember that. I'm not giving you detention for the rest of the week, because it's the first day but don't test me. Now, don't waste any more of my time and take your seat," Ms. Valentine speaks in a rude tone while walking back towards the podium.
Rayleigh sighs in relief and walks towards an empty seat at the front. During the whole period his thoughts keep getting engulfed over and over by that unknown girl from a while ago. The class ends sooner than Rayleigh had expected, seems like he had really spent too much time both cooling himself off and rescuing that weird girl.
He walks towards the cafeteria, while thinking about her. Why was she locked inside a boy's washroom in the first place?
"Wait a minute! Why the hell am I continuously thinking about her?"
A frown appears on his handsome face.
Rayleigh shrugs and heads straight for the cafeteria, when Max appears in front of him again, this time with a band-aid on his nose.
Rayleigh groans with displeasure as he tries to ignore him and keep walking straight, he doesn't want another drama to begin.
"Running away like a coward?" Max puts a hand in front of Rayleigh blocking his way.
Students start gathering around them in the hallway, waiting for the drama to unfold. But unfortunately, Rayleigh has already decided against feeding them any more drama for today.
So, he just stands there with a blank face, hands folded against his chest.
Max grabs his jacket by its collar and pins him against the wall, of course because Rayleigh lets him to do so. Max's face fills up with a triumphant smirk as he prepares to charge a punch directly on Rayleigh's face. The whole time, Rayleigh keeps his eyes wide open and keeps them locked into Max's one, like a fearless lion.
Pulling his right-hand backwards, Max prepares to strike at Rayleigh like a mad dog, when someone comes yelling," Stop, Max."
"That smell! " Rayleigh knows instantly who it is.
Both of Rayleigh and Max's face turn towards the source of the voice. Rayleigh is taken aback by the pale skinned girl with long red wavy hairs around her back, pointed nose, a pair of green ruby like eyes covered under her spectacles and crimson plump lips.
Rayleigh can't help but ogling at her like a hawk. Meanwhile, the tiny figure jumps in between them, almost touching her back against Rayleigh and jerks Max's hand away from Rayleigh's collar. All on a sudden, the smell from earlier strengthens again, making Rayleigh hungry instantly. He just stands there, without taking a breath as his eyes linger on her pale neck.
Max yells back at her, looking frustrated and angry," What the hell are you doing, Aria?"
"Trying to repay my savior, and stopping my brother from killing him," Aria replies with equal amount of anger visible in her tone.
Max's eyes widen as he looks back at Rayleigh. When Aria had told him about a boy saving her earlier, he genuinely wanted to thank that boy for saving his sister, but he never expected it to be Rayleigh.
Max's angry eyes start calming down, and gets replaced by a grateful expression. He looks at Rayleigh, "Thank you for saving my sister. I guess, I owe you."
Rayleigh frowns, quite jolted by the sudden change in situation, but he covers it quickly with a blank face as he nods back at Max. He turns around starts walking away from Max and Aria, like nothing happened.
It takes Aria some time to realize that Rayleigh has walked away without making any sound, but when she realizes she quickly runs after him while mumbling, "See you later, bro."
Max looks at his sister dumbfounded, who just left him and ran away after a guy!!!
"Hey, wait!!..." Aria shouts from the back as she tries to catch up with Rayleigh.
Rayleigh on the other hand increases his speed, trying to avoid Aria. But she follows him anyway. Because of being late, Rayleigh finds the food queue quite empty. So, he walks straight to the counter. After checking in with the student id card, he orders a hamburger with medium rare cooked patty and fries. Aria catches up with him, while the attendee starts filling a plate with his order.
Aria starts panting, both hands resting on her knees as she speaks with gaps," Are... You.(breath)…deaf?"
Rayleigh doesn't even look back at her as he stops his breathing.
"Hello… I'm talking to you… " Aria pokes at Rayleigh's arm.
Rayleigh gives Aria a quick pointed look and again moves his eyes from her. This time, Aria feels anger burning in her veins. She is about to shout at him, when the attendee delivers Rayleigh's order and Rayleigh quickly moves away with his plate.
Aria stands there awestruck, an enormous amount of rage boiling inside her as she screams at Rayleigh, "You, brown hair, I am speaking to you."
Rayleigh halts, and all the heads in the cafeteria turns to Aria's direction abruptly. But being blinded by anger, Aria keeps screaming," What the hell is your problem? I am trying to thank you and you are giving me unnecessary attitude. Who the fuck do you think you are?"
Rayleigh turns back to find Aria fuming with anger. Her face and eyes are blood-shot red, paired with her red hair, she looks completely like a bright red tomato. Rayleigh tries his best to control his laughter as he replies in a cold tone and stern expression,"You are welcome."
Then again he turns back and starts walking towards an empty table.
Aria stands frozen at her place for the next few minutes, bewildered by Rayleigh's reaction.
After a few minutes when the shock wears off, she stomps on her feet and heads straight for Rayleigh's table.
Rayleigh was munching the burger peacefully when someone pulls the chair beside him and snatches the burger away from his hand.
Rayleigh looks at Aria, both irritated and surprised by her action.
Aria gives him a look that says,"You asked for it, jerk."
"What?" Rayleigh huffs.
"If you want your burger, talk properly. What's your name?" Aria takes a fry from his plate and starts munching it while Rayleigh's eyes brows knit as he wonders if it is the same girl who had cried for ten minutes on his shoulder this very morning.
When Rayleigh doesn't reply and keeps gawking at her, Aria shifts uncomfortably and clears her throat. Never in her life she has tried to talk to a boy like this, but for some unknown reasons
she wants to get to know Rayleigh.
"Okay, I will go first. I'm Aria Chase. Now your turn,"Aria expectantly looks at Rayleigh whose expression depicts of unbearable suffering. Aria's eyebrows squints, why does he look like he is having cramps?
The next moment before she can ask or say anything, Rayleigh stands up from his chair and runs out of the cafeteria door.