Wednesday.
As usual, Noele was sleeping through the class.
Vinny twiddled her thumbs as she stared at his back, pursing her lips.
Meanwhile, Felum glared at Vinny. 'Stop staring at Noele, what are you planning to do!'
Contrary to his expectations, class ended without Vinny doing anything.
'Weird. This isn't her usual style. She should've extorted some money from Noele by now!'
After thinking about it, Felum shrugged. 'I guess my guess was right? She's not gonna bully Noele anymore?'
As Noele bid goodbye to his classmates, he headed home.
On the way, he met Megna, who wasn't wearing her work attire.
"Megna? Why aren't you at work?"
"I, uh, visited a friend." Megna nervously scratched her head.
Noele could tell that Megna was uneasy. "Er, if you don't want to tell me, it's fine. I don't need to know."
Megna let out a relieved sigh. She and Noele headed to their respective apartments.
Soon enough, the sun started to set, and the two prepared for dinner.
When it was time to eat, Megna closely observed Noele and any signs of his mana leaking like last time.
Noele let out a soft burp. "Oops, excuse me..."
He grabbed the glass of water and drank it.
"Hmm, this water is kinda cold."
All of a sudden, Megna nabbed his glass of water and drank it down to the last drop.
"Ah, refreshing." Megna smiled.
Noele took a peek at Megna's glass and found that it was still full of water. "..."
He shook his head and continued eating.
With one of his spoonfuls, he felt his throat heating up. He exhaled to let out the spiciness. "Whoo! I think I put too much spice in this. What do you think?"
Megna stayed silent, her eyes wide as she stared at Noele.
"Megna? Hello!"
"It's, it's not spicy at all..." Megna breathed in and out to calm herself down.
'...the hell? He's breathing fire now!' She could not calm down after all. "How about you just drink some more water then?"
"You just drank all my water."
"Here, my glass."
"No... I'll just get some cold water from the fridge." Noele sighed. 'She's usually pretty weird, but now she's acting super weird.'
Biting her lip, Megna rushed to the bathroom, leaving her phone on the table. 'I gotta compose myself quickly...'
"Oh? You got the runs?"
"No!"
Noele shrugged. He sat back on his chair and continued eating. In the midst of his chewing, Megna's phone suddenly rang.
'Hmm? Who is this?' Noele grabbed the phone and saw "Alexis" on the screen.
He then recalled their conversation earlier.
'She visited a friend, huh... When she said that, she was kinda hesitant. That, coupled with this phone call... Alexis is her boyfriend then?'
As Noele continued to think about it, it made more sense. He teared up, proud. He had never expected the weird Megna to get a boyfriend.
"Hey! Megna, your boyfriend's calling you!"
The instant he spoke those words out, the door to the bathroom opened and Megna ran to grab her phone.
'He... If he talks with Alexis, he might find out about the Mana Suppressing Pills!'
She quickly snatched her ringing phone from Noele and headed to the back to the bathroom, shutting the door.
"Haah, they grow up so fast." Noele solemnly ate the spicy dish by himself.
Soon enough, Megna exited the bathroom and sat back on the table.
"So... congratulations then." Noele gave her a thumbs-up.
"Alexis isn't my boyfriend! She's a girl!" Megna creased her brows.
'Woah, I didn't know she swung that way... Whatever.' Since Noele could notice that she didn't want to talk about Alexis, he wouldn't push her. Anyway, it was pretty obvious to him that they were in a relationship, one way or another.
Meanwhile, in a dilapidated shack far away...
"Achoo!" Alexis rubbed her nose. "Is someone talking about me?"
-----
Thursday passed like a flash, and it was now Friday.
Megna left last night to get the Mana Suppressing Pills from Alexis as soon as possible. She'd stay the night if she had to. Before she left, Noele smiled knowingly, resulting in a smack to the head.
He headed to school with a slight bump on his forehead.
.....
11:03 P.M. — Three minutes into lunchtime.
Noele bit his lip as the feeling inside of him continued to grow. The feeling of discomfort.
He quietly snuck a peek towards Vinny...
'--! Why's she still looking at me? Is this a new way of bullying?'
He tried to ignore her glare. 'Whatever, today's Friday... I won't meet her for two days after this.'
Felum arrived by his side. He was already used to Noele giving him a lunchbox.
Noele took out two lunchboxes and gave one to Felum.
"Thanks, honey~" Felum gracefully received the lunchbox.
As Noele bopped Felum's idiotic head, a familiar sight entered the latter's vision.
"Here she comes..."
Noele looked behind him to see Vinny approaching. Her appearance threw Noele off at first, but he recovered soon after.
He reverted his gaze back to his table, refusing to face Vinny. "...What do you want?"
"Come with me. To the rooftop."
Felum flinched before he abruptly stood up. "You...--! "
Before he could say anything, his mouth was filled with air, blocking his ability to utter another word.
After that, his body began floating out the window.
The scene of Felum getting subdued with ease made Noele shiver in fright. He was even more hesitant to go with Vinny to the rooftop now.
Meanwhile, Felum peacefully landed on the grass outside the school. Two students stood there waiting for him.
"You bastards! Wanna fight?! I'll fight!!"
Felum snapped his fingers, creating a spark. With that, his whole body was engulfed in flames.
Carra widened her eyes and hurriedly sprinkled Felum with a minimal amount of water.
"You think you can beat me with that small amount of water? Think again!"
This time, Felum was about to go all out. Heat spread long before any fire appeared, distorting the vision of both the girls.
"Ha... ha...! Haaaa!! HaaaaAAAA!!!"
With each scream, Felum's whole body began to burn brighter and brighter, blinding everyone in sight.
The loud sounds startled the birds in the trees, the leaves rustling wildly.
His feet covered in fire quickly scorched the grass that he stepped on as the fire started to spread.
"Holy crap, calm down! You wanna start a wildfire?! There's a forest right beside us!" Carra hurriedly put out everything that Felum was setting on fire.
"Calm down? You want me to calm down when you're the one who brought me here forcefully?"
Felly and Carra lowered their heads in both shame and fear.
"I'm sorry. I was the one who thought of doing that." Felly raised her hand.
"I don't care about who did it! What are you planning to do with Noele, getting rid of me first?"
"That's, erm..."
Felly and Carra pushed each other. "You say it." "No, you say it." "It's kinda embarrassing though..."
"Hurry up!" Felum's patience was wearing thin.
"That's...! Well, Vinny wanted to... say sorry to Noele." In the end, Carra ended up saying it.
"Huh. So I was right after all." Felum retracted all of his flames and his expression eased up. "But why'd you need to get rid of me?"
"Well, Vinny said you'd make things more awkward than they had to," Felly said. Carra punched her arm.
"Ow, why'd you do that...?" "Did you need to say that to Felum..."
Felum sighed with relief. The situation wasn't as scary as he thought it was. He headed back to the classroom peacefully.
Carra and Felly widened their eyes. "W-wait!"
"Don't worry. I won't interfere with their conversation." In Felum's mind, all was well. Soon enough, the images of Noele's food hurriedly surged through his brain and flooded out everything else.