Cory generally tried to soften his expression whenever someone looked discomfited by his face, but he didn't try at all for Eric. Cory wasn't the type to try to look gentle for strangers, so he probably wasn't doing this just because it was Eric.
"Do you want to go to our afternoon class together?"
Eric said, glancing at Cory to gauge his reaction. Cory was just staring at him, but Eric flinched, scared. His pride seemed to have been scarred. He walked towards me with a slightly stiff expression on his face.
Eric had definitely come to our club room to head over to our afternoon class together. That made me happy, so I hurriedly stood up and hurriedly walked over to him.
Cory stared at my smiling face as I ran towards him with a shocked expression on his face. Then, he sat up straight when he saw Eric open his arms wide and when he hugged me.
I, who had on some tight rose-colored glasses when it came to Eric, was happy that he had come to see me. It was embarrassing, but I hugged him back.
Eric asked me a question as we left the room. There was a loud crashing sound as soon as we got out.
What happened, did Cory trip or something?
"Cory DuBois, why was he glaring at me like that?"
"He was just staring at you. He has sharp eyes, so he always gets misunderstood because of that."
"….Mm, I can see that."
With that conversation, Eric continued to walk, staring in front of him.
On our way to the training hall, Eric began to walk faster. I had to almost break into a run to catch up to him. I didn't know if he was just a fast walker or if he didn't want to match his steps with mine, but I walked faster to walk next to him.
As the two of us walked together to the training hall, there was an awkward air between us.
The sounds of our steps were the only noise around us. I wanted to become close, boyfriend and dating whatnot, but there were no opportunities for us to be close.
I don't think I'd ever approached anyone because I wanted to become close to them. Relationships just naturally happened as I'd lived life, so this was something that I hadn't really worried about. I had always been busy trying to live out my life instead of forming relationships or friendships.
I disliked the awkward air between Eric, my boyfriend, and I. I wracked my brain for a topic to talk about.
"Wow, the day is so long. I'm exhausted."
"….."
"You're probably having a harder time because you transferred, right? Are your classes okay?"
"Yeah."
Eric said halfheartedly. Even when I attempted conversations, he didn't seem to want to respond. This wasn't just today–it was usually how it was when we were alone. When there were people around us, he always spoke kindly to me and treated me well.
I never had a long conversation with Eric. Eric seemed to be a boy with low self-esteem but a huge sense of pride. He always loved to talk about his own experiences but didn't like listening to others'.
I always had to find the topics that he enjoyed speaking about. Most of those topics were the ones that allowed him to brag about himself.
I just told myself that he was like this because he was young, and just let him talk about whatever he wanted. I wanted to get closer to him, even if it was like this. Even if I would've cut them off in an instant if he was anybody else.
Eric had to have things that he didn't like about me and was holding back on. My ideal romance was one where the other person understood and tried to work with the other person, but when I was him, it felt like I was the only one caring about this.
Ugh, I didn't know. Relationships were complicated.
Eric suddenly said that we needed to stop by the red class and dragged me to his class.
I had definitely told him that I didn't want our relationship to be told to a lot of people, and he had told me that he understood.
But on that day, he put me in front of his friends, put his hand around my waist, and started bragging about how we were toing out.
On our way back to the training hall, I told him that this made me angry. He didn't listen.
It was okay, but there really didn't seem to be a right answer when it came to this.
Eric got ahold of a camera that had pictures of the junior year end party and looked at it in front of me.
He looked surprised at a picture of me dressed up in a dress and spoke.
"What, you can look pretty when you're dressed up too?"
Then, he demanded for me to doll myself up like I did that day, so I immediately refused. First, I was in swordsmanship, and I also did magic. I was busy all the time, so any kind of makeup was soon ruined.
Moreover, I was always busy working on requests before school. If I tried to put on makeup, it would make a huge dent in my daily schedule. I didn't even attempt to do so.
At my explanation, Eric said that I should put my daily activities on the back burner and make some time for him.
He wouldn't even listen to whatever I said, and he would always cut me off if I tried to say something. I didn't want to fight, so I haphazardly agreed and came out three minutes later wearing makeup. The two of us ended up fighting.
But, strangely, he was always kind and gentle during swordsmanship class. Especially in front of Swanhaden and Hylli. He had been kinder to Cory, as well. It seemed like he was nicer to my friends than to me.
Eric didn't seem to care that I hung around with boys. It felt like I was the one that cared more.
Because of that, I always dueled with Hylli during swordsmanship, just as usual. Swanhaden didn't have any energy these days, so he didn't care if it was class or what–he was always just splayed on the ground near a tree, as if he was dead.
Hylli couldn't seem to concentrate on the duel. He just kept glancing at me before finally opening his mouth to speak.
"The rumors are making the rounds, but are you really going out with that kid named Eric?"
"...…yeah."
"Wow, you're lying."
I had always planned to join the royal knights in advance and always tried to speak formally to Hylli, but I couldn't control my emotions at the moment and just ended up speaking casually. Hylli didn't really care how I spoke to him, so this wasn't really a problem.
Actually, he responded just as casually when I spoke to him casually.
When I agreed, Hylli's expression stiffened as he muttered something quietly.
"I never thought you would like anybody."
Hylli seemed genuinely intrigued at the fact that I was dating someone.
"But are you really going out with them? You're not just imagining the whole thing?"
He didn't seem to believe that I was actually going out with someone as he cracked a joke, but I couldn't laugh along. At Hylli's joke, I quietly muttered to myself.
"....maybe, that might be the case."
I was the one that was confessed to. But after that, I was the only one in the relationship. Hylli's expression darkened when he saw mine darken as well.
We were dueling, but Hylli noticed that I couldn't concentrate at all and put his sword away. At his request for a short break, I nodded and flopped to the ground, right where I stood. Hylli handed me a bottle of cold water.
I drank a few sips when Hylli, who had been staring at me the entire time, spoke up.
"What's wrong."
I was a bit grateful for Hylli's worried tone. My mood lightened slightly.
"I just had a small fight with him."
"About what?"
"Just something small."
He asked me what kind of small thing it was, but I didn't respond. Even if it was something miniscule, if I vented my anger about what happened between the two of us, I would end up speaking from my perspective, and they might misunderstand Eric.
I always believed that it was better for the involved parties to fix the problem instead of getting a third party involved, so I kept my mouth shut. He didn't listen to what I said at all, but I wanted to find a way to get Eric to listen to my perspective.
Hylli just stared at me gulping down my water without another word, before smiling, saying, "That's just like you."
"I want you to break up with him."
"Why?"
"My sharp senses are tingling. It feel like you're just accumulating your own shameful history right now."
Hylli said this in a casual tone, but I felt like those words were genuine. I had an ominous feeling that my future self would deeply regret what my current self was doing. Moreover, Hylli was a walking, talking piece of shameful history. His senses were usually pretty sharp.
I laid down on the ground and stared at the sky, and Hylli, who also seemed tired, laid down near me and stared at the sky.
"If I was him, I'd purposely lose against you if it wasn't a huge issue."
"What?"
We had been quiet for a while before he spoke. He had seemingly put a lot of thought into this.
I had been thinking back to everything that had happened with Eric before, so I didn't pay attention to his words. So when I gave him a short reply, Hylli's expression stiffened as he frowned.
"I feel like I just said something really weird earlier. You can't misunderstand, okay?!"
Hylli tilted his head as if he said something weird and got angry at me. Then, as if he was making an excuse, he continued to speak.
"I was talking about when I had someone I like! Mm? Wait. What is this."
"What'd you say earlier?"
"It's nothing. I'm just talking to myself. I, I thought of something really weird earlier."
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't know."
Hylli scrunched his eyebrows and stared at my face before shaking his head. Hylli and I met eyes during his strange actions. He avoided my gaze immediately before smiling awkwardly. Meanwhile, Hylli still seemed to be confused.
"Anyway, why is Swanhaden like that nowadays?"
Hylli had gotten really weird, so I changed the subject to look at Swanhaden. Swanhaden had covered his face with his jacket and was lying on the ground like a corpse.
He usually played hooky like that all the time, but now he had a depressed aura around him. The wooden Swan had been holding was splintered into pieces around him.
"I don't know. I was curious too so I asked him, but he just kept throwing sharp objects at me. Maybe he's just sensitive these days."
Hylli also seemed confused as to why Swanhaden was like this nowadays.
"He doesn't come out of his room after school, he doesn't eat, and he's reading a weird book titled, 'The Virtue of Finding Peace Even When You Want to Kill Someone'. Anyway, be careful. I'm being careful too."
I shouldn't think that way, but I couldn't help but become nervous. I was reminded of dream Swanhaden. Seeing him suddenly become dark and gloomy like this made me worry about him–I couldn't help but be reminded of dream Swanhaden because of it. Swan was someone who couldn't become twisted. The safety of the people relied on it.
When I turned my head to stare at Swanhaden, I ended up meeting his gaze.
I gave him a small wave. We hadn't met eyes in a while.
Swan responded to my greeting. Although he didn't greet me back, he made a large heart with his arms. I wondered why he suddenly made a heart and frowned.
Swanhaden dropped his arms onto the ground, turned his body, and flopped back onto the ground.
"No.....It's too late."
"It's over...…."
"Murder isn't an option, Swanhaden."
Swanhaden seemed to grow more emotional as soon as he saw my face. He muttered quietly to himself. Seeing how he was using the third person to describe himself, it seemed like Swan really wasn't in his right mind.