It felt like the junior end party had happened just yesterday, but the senior end party was coming in full speed. Graduation was right after the party, so students were rumored to party until they passed out at the party. Unlike the junior end party, the senior end party was massive.
Moreover, the senior end party was considerably more relaxed compared to the junior party. Even if you threw down all manners and made a mess, it was okay if everyone had fun.
Yves invited me as his partner to the senior end party two years ago. That had been a ruckus. Strangely, one of the waiters at the time had raised hell and chaos had erupted.
It felt weird that my senior end party was coming ahead. I wasn't excited for it–I just felt strange.
I took one of the pamphlets of the senior end party on the bulletin board and stuffed it into my file. There was the time and date of the party and a picture of a man and a woman dancing together.
"Who's Swan going with….."
It was just a question that had popped up in my head. I was just curious.
Hestia had a high chance of inviting Harun, Cory had his younger sister so he could take her, and Hylli had a generally decent social life so he probably wouldn't have much issues finding a partner. But Swan….who knows.
I stared down as my mind mulled over this. I stared down at my neat black school shoes. I squinted a bit as my shoes glinted under the sunlight.
I sighed deeply as I roughed up my hair.
I was doing things that I usually didn't do. That made me feel anxious.
I stopped by a makeup store while I was in town. Every single product had an incredibly high price tag, so I decided to grab the cheapest, on-sale items that I could find and put them in my bag.
The senior end party was coming up, so I decided to try and doll myself up during the final days of my school life. I woke up early to try and make myself look pretty. Even though I had no idea why I was trying to look pretty to begin with.
If Hazel was still here, then I would've asked for her help, but she had already graduated and had already moved out, so I was using the room by myself.
"Aaaaaaah, Shushu? What's wrong with your face?!"
Hestia, who had stopped by my room before school started, stretched her hands towards my face and wrapped her hands around it. I wrestled her hands away from my face in fear that my makeup would wipe off. I ran away when she came running at me with a wet wipe.
"If Hazel unni sees this, she's going to be so sad. What is thiiiiis? Why did you put on makeup like this?! Your neck is white and your face is all tan."
"This is my actual face though."
I tried to rebel. I lied my teeth off as I kept my makeup on.
Hestia tried to wipe off my makeup before giving up. She had seen the pamphlet of the senior end party on my desk. She muttered, "Oh, did she purposely put this on to throw off all of the idiots….." I left the room before she could completely erase my makeup off.
I had my pretty face of makeup as I stood outside of the blue class. My feet just guided me there.
The blue class students saw me roaming around the room and muttered, "Is this some kind of punishment?" and "She must've lost a game." I had taken my sweet time to put on makeup but nobody could see my efforts. I got angry as I reapplied some lipstick. I just learned this, but the lipstick I had put on was neon yellow. Man, whatever.
When a few swordsmanship students from the blue class that I knew snickered and asked me what was going on, I told them I didn't know either.
The classes were all moving back to their classrooms.
When I waited for a bit longer, I could see a familiar shock of silver hair. He was walking slowly with thick books resting on his hips. His gaze was pinned on the flowers blooming in the flower field.
His skin glowed even brighter under the sunlight. I dimly thought that his jewel-colored eyes shined like crystals.
When I just stared intently at him, Swan looked up as he acknowledge my gaze. Swan's eyes were wide as he looked at me.
"Swan."
"....?"
When our eyes met, I swept up my bangs that cxovered my foreheahd slightly.
I pressed a kiss onto my palm, smack.
".....fuu."
I stretched open my palm and blew the kiss onto Swan. People told me that I had a dreamy face, so I made sure to make sure my expression reflected that.
Was this good enough of an appeal? It was hard to look so sexy. It felt like I was trying to swim on a board.
I was a little bit scared to see his reaction, so I immediately turned around to leave.
I heard someone fall onto the ground from behind me, but I rushed out.
"What am I doing? Why did I do that right now?"
I was confused by my own actions, so I muttered to myself.
When I turned around as I ran, I could see my reflection in the mirror. The others told me that I looked like a clown, but I wasn't embarrassed. I had put in my best efforts into this, after all. It wasn't bad in my eyes.
I stood up straighter and walked quickly.
I tried to walk proudly as I thought about it from Swan's perspective. First, I thought that I was done for. Singing aside, I guess I sucked at makeup too.
I'd just take Karim with me. I laughed hollowly.
Each student had one mailbox on the first floor of the dorms. Most of the time, my letters were embossed with the West family crest and were from my mother, father, or the maids.
But today, with one week left before the senior end party, I received a letter from someone who wasn't family or working for my family.
It was a clean letter without any decorations. On one corner of the letter was a neatly written, 'Yvnes Lunaasha'.
I wondered who it was–it turned out that it was Yves, who had already graduated from the academy.
[Shushu, I'm going to visit the academy the day after tomorrow. Is there anything you want to eat?]
I immediately responded.
With the end party in sight, it meant that swordsmanship classes were almost at an end. The students were even louder as the end neared. Even as other students began to relax and fool around, Hylli continued to train me in my barehanded self-defense.
After almost seven years of training with Hylli, we were mostly well-trained in the various sword styles in the empire. Because of that, Hylli and I learned of different swordsmanship styles from foreign empires or continents and shared it with each other. We were almost done with the southern empire's sword style. Recently, Hylli had brought over an interesting sword style from another continent, so we were training with that.
In order to utilize the style well, we needed to train in barehanded self-defense first. Because of that, we were focusing on that for a while. Hylli, who had learned the style using his incredible connections as the royal prince, told me how excited he was to be able to teach me.
"One, then back. One, two. Switch your foot."
Hylli brought over a large board and shoved it forwards quickly. I used my breathing to count out when I needed to punch the board and kick the board. When he raised the board and swung it towards me, I ducked to avoid it or blocked it with the back of my hand.
The attacks needed to be constant so I was quickly out of breath, but Hylli continued to throw his attacks so I attacked back.
Then, I counted the seconds before quickly pouring a torrent of attacks onto Hylli. No matter how much strength I put into my hits, the strength all leveled out as I received it, so there wasn't too much damage amongst the two of us. Hylli had learned this as he experienced being my punching bag. He had skill when it came to being hit.
Once I finished my torrent of attacks as I yelled, I ran a lap around the training hall at full speed. At the end of it all, I was a sweaty mess from head to toe.
"Here, now, your, turn. Hand me the board."
My breath caught between my words.
After a full lap, I grabbed the board now and Hylli attacked. But I had magic, so I didn't become his punching bag for no reason. I made a Hylli-use duel doll and made it fight him instead.
Hylli trained against the device I made with incredible skill. I watched his sweaty form train from my position on the ground. Hylli gently tapped the board to prevent it from breaking, but I could still feel the power behind it.
My neck was parched, so I gulped down some water. I stared at the others around us for a moment as I caught my breath, then listened to a few students chat.
"You're going to ask Rebecca to be your partner, huh? You're gonna get dumped."
"Look who's talking. Isabel said that she was getting sick of you, aren't you gonna get dumped when you ask her out?"
I sprayed the rest of the water onto my face. My sweaty face felt cool thanks to the water. I wiped off the water with my towel and stared up at the sky.
Listening to the others, I was suddenly reminded of the time I wore makeup and acted rashly near the blue class. I had tried to throw bait but had ended up throwing a bomb.
"Shuraina, did you choose a partner?"
After his brief duel, Hylli walked towards me and took a seat. He placed the towel above his head to shield his face from the hot sun. His red eyes seemed to glow under the towel.
I turned my head towards the sky and threw a single rock.
"Hahaha."
I just laughed out loud instead of responding.
Hylli just stared at my quiet self before standing up. Then, he placed a towel I had brought onto my face and patted it down to help my face get some moisture.
"I guess not yet, based on your response."
I quietly laid there as the rest of the water in his water bottle landed on my face.
"If you don't have anyone you're thinking of, can't you be mine?"
"Hylli, your partner?"
Hylli as my partner? That did sound like it would be a fun and comfortable party.
I sighed deeply.
"Poor royal prince."
"What is it now? Why are you saying that?"
Hylli narrowed his eyes as if I was suspicious.
"Think about it seriously, and if you really don't have anyone you want to go with, then ask again. We can go together then."
"I just want to go with you though."
Hylli tilted his head in confusion. I shook my head.
"You really have to be careful. You're not as unpopular as you think. It's only once, Hylli. The senior party only comes once."
I said, poking him with a nearby tree branch. He nodded.
"Then when others request you to be their partner and you think about it, then think that it's a bit too much, then come to me. Aren't I the most comfortable partner for you?"
You're the royal prince, Hylli. I suddenly felt a bit sad for him. Well, that was his charm though.