Airi turned her gaze towards Mina. "And senior Mina, I can clearly see how terrified you are of senior Lloyd, thanks to your trembling hands. And the way others are just sitting there, doing nothing, that makes every one of you stand in the same position as him. If you think you are being oppressed, then shouldn't it be voiced out?" Hearing Airi's question, they had nothing to reply to.
Airi let out a sigh before adding, "I hope the friendship and bonding between you wouldn't be a tool to keep you under someone's thumb. Well then, I would take my leave. Have a nice day." Airi gave a little bow to her seniors and left the library.
When they were sure Airi wasn't in the library anymore, one of the boys suddenly spoke up, "She sure sounds rude. I mean who talks to their seniors like that? Lloyd was right about her, right Carter?" He looked at the boy who was keeping his eyes on the book the whole time. In response, the boy raised his eyes from the books. He pushed up his square-framed glasses a bit close to his eyes using his index. His long hair resting on his forehead created a shade in front of his eyes, and that made him look like some kind of sharp-witted person. "And you wanna Lloyd is treating us right? Are you trynna say we second years and the third years ain't getting pressured by this sicko pair of President and Secretary?" He returned his gaze to his books again. "And that girl, she was right. All we behave around them like some dead sh*t or don't care about them at all. She was modest enough to give you all proper respect. If it were me, I wouldn't even bother to greet you, let alone talk." With that saying, the guy continued reading his book.
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"Now I have done it!" Airi walked towards her classroom, pulling her hair in frustration with both of her hands. "I was supposed to be in the good eyes of them, and here I am, went ahead and angered them. There is no way they will like me anymore, gaaah!" Airi let out an exasperated sigh thinking about the encounter she had with her seniors in the library. Entering the classroom, she slumped on her desk. Seeing Airi back, Maria rushed towards her. "Hey, you are early, the self-study isn't over yet… Woah, dude, you look gross right now." Maria noticed the sullen look hanging down Airi's face. "What's wrong, that didn't go well?"
"Lloyd was there." Airi blankly replied.
"Sh*t, now I can guess what happened there. That f*cking manservant of hers. Tell me whatever happened."
Airi slowly depicted everything she faced there and did there. Hearing all of it, Maria felt like she could die out of frustration. "DUDE! I just asked you to be on good terms with them. You announced a war there literally. Why did you talk back like that?!"
"And you know what? This is the problem you guys have got. All you know is to submit yourself against the one who has the authority that's all. No courage whatsoever to fight or talk back. And if you think I would just choose to stay quiet there like a pathetic little scaredy-cat, then would that make me worthy of someone you chose to follow like a wagging tail?" Airi was already feeling frustrated enough, and Maria's nagging made her more furious that by now she felt acute pain in her head. "So don't you dare talk back like you got any better ways to deal with things."
"Yes yes, okay. Calm down now. Just let that go, I'm sure you will figure out something." Maria tried to appease her to curb her anger. Just then, there was a loud knock on the door, and despite the classroom being noisy enough as everyone was busy gossiping in the classroom, the knock made everyone alert on their position. Even Airi and Maria looked up to see who it was. And to see someone Airi least expected right now, sure made her confused.
"Hey! May I talk to you, if that's okay?" Carter was standing by the door, looking at Airi. Airi was stunned seeing Carter standing there. "Wasn't he in the library with others just now?" Airi muttered in a low voice, but somehow Maria caught on to that. "He was?" Maria asked her back, just to affirm the words she heard. And in response, Airi nodded lightly. "Then why is he… answer back to him."
Airi stood up on her seat and lightly nodded her head towards Carter. Having permission, Carter went inside the classroom towards her. "I'm just gonna take this seat, 'kay?" Carter pushed a chair and sat on it.
Airi carefully looked at the person sitting in front of her. She was still a bit in doubt if he was really there or not. But the hairstyle and glasses he had on him were surely what she had seen there. And if she recalls correctly, he had his eyes fixed on his books the entire time there, and didn't even bother to look at her or greet her back. Now that he was in front of her without any books or paper shoved up to his face, she could see him clearly. He had smooth hair, which was a bit on the longer side, but had a nice volume to it. So it was creating a nice wave, framing his face. Some of his hair was resting on his forehead, which cast a shade over his face. She noticed how tall he was while he was walking towards her, and now that he was seated in front of her, she could see he was someone of a nice build too, which was contradicting his nerdy look.
"He is pretty somehow…", Airi murmured under her breath. And when he flipped his hair from his forehead with his hands, and those smoothly slid on both sides of his face, parting in middle, "way too pretty…" Airi blurted out without even realizing it.
"Huh? Didn't catch ya." Carter cocked his head to the left while looking at her through his square glasses.
Realizing the slip off Airi made, she soon composed herself. "It's nothing. Yes, how can I help you, senior…"
"Carter Klein."
"I'm sorry, senior Carter. I never had the chance to know your…"
Carter interrupted Airi again before she could finish her words, "No needta' be sorry. You ain't supposta' talk to everyone, or know their name. What use would that be to you?"
"O... okay." Airi got in an awkward position by the reply of Carter. "So, how may I help you?"
"No, nothing that sort of. It's just, back there you were kinda cool. And well, I liked how you dealt with it and stated the truth without sugarcoating anything. So, I wanted to say to you 'good job' for it, and also," Carter stood up from his seat and bent his head down in front of her, "apologies for whatever happened. I'll be cheering on you. All the best for the election."
With all that stated in a breath, he turned around and went out of the classroom, without even wasting a second to look back at the girl he just talked to. If he did, he could see how much dumbfounded she was.
"AIRI! What else did you do there, tell me everything!" Maria shouted her lungs out, startling Airi as she was still looking at the way Carter walked by, while various things were going on in her head.
"Um… I did nothing…"
"Then why did he come all the way here just to say sorry? And you never told me that he was there. Tell me everything right now!"
"Ugh, shut up. You are noisy! I did tell you everything. I didn't tell you about him because there was nothing to mention about. NOTHING!"
Maria had a puzzled look on her face hearing Airi's response. "Then why did he…"
"I don't know, girl! He didn't even make any impression back there. Well, scratch that, he didn't even raise his up from his damn book the entire time. Didn't you see I didn't even know his name?"
Maria thoughtfully nodded her head. "Yah, truly he doesn't even bother to breathe if not necessary. Always stuck up with those books and comics of his, making a weird invisible barrier around him."
"Seems so. But if that is the case, then can you tell me why in the world these girls are grilling me with their eyes?" Airi looked around her to find some death stares pointed towards her. If those could kill, Airi would have been dead long ago.
"Hahah, Lord! If I hadn't any benefit or motive of being with you. Trust me, I would've been the same." Maria snorted in response to Airi.
"What do you mean?"
"Seriously? You can be this dense or everyone is a squid in front of you? Let me tell you then."