"Whoops, my bad, uh, everyone have a good day!"
Arthur Roma slowly backed away and closed the door to a classroom that he did not belong in. Only attending class for the second time, it was a bit embarrassing to admit that he still had yet to know just which classroom he was to attend.
And though he had little intention of mentioning it to anyone, it was even more embarrassing considering that that classroom was now the fourth that he had incorrectly guessed he was in.
'The hell?..' He huffed to himself, sticking his hands into his pockets while he strolled through the barren hallways lazily, eyes constantly darting for any landmarks that at least implied that he was getting close. 'It's already been a shit morning, and this ain't helpin' it at all…'
~
Roma groggily opened his eyes to see his new roommate standing at her dresser. Thanks to the sleet and other deterrents to his vision, all he could really see was her taking some sort of medication through blurred eyes.
He had forgotten all about setting an alarm, so despite her getting prepared for class, he closed his own eyes, and was going to cling to all the sleep that he could get.
…that is, until an item struck him directly in the face.
From across the room, Rena Koboko took and chucked a plastic bottle of perfume, accurately hitting him dead in the face with it.
"FUUUCK!!" Roma cried out, immediately grabbing his nose in pain. Rena closed her eyes, tying her long black hair into the ponytail that she had worn for the majority of yesterday.
"Get up, or you'll be late." She stated bluntly.
Roma slowly retracted his hands from his reddened nose, sticking out his tongue towards the woman. The outside world was too cold right now. She was being a total annoyance right now. He couldn't deal with all of that at once right now.
Alas, he pulled the sheets up and covered himself from head to toe again- all he wanted to do was fucking sleep.
But Rena responded accordingly. She stepped to the dresser, and picked up a second bottle of perfume, this one carrying the scent that she currently had.
"The glass bottle is next." She warned him, tossing it up and down a few times, "You have five seconds."
"I'm on base, you can't hit me."
On the fourth second, Roma peeked his head out, glancing over towards her, just to see if she was putting on a front… and to his fear, she actually wasn't. Despite his looking in her direction to avoid getting a concussion, his gaze lingered for a bit.
Rena had been dressed in the school's uniform, like yesterday, and now that he had a chance to actually admire it, it fit her quite well. Not only that, but her use of eye shadow and liner made her already gorgeous golden eyes look all the more enticing.
The brunette felt his own face grow warm, and he couldn't help but comment on it, "You look really pr-"
"Get up. You will be late." Rena cut off his words, though in her defense, Roma spoke so quietly that she likely didn't hear whatever he had to say anyway. She sat down on her bed and crossed her arms, closing her eyes as she awaited Roma to do something useful.
"I'm taking the day off."
"You idiot." Rena came to her feet, now glaring at the boy, "You don't even know your schedule, and this class is important. Even I'm going."
At the mention that she herself - someone who he learned was notorious for skipping class - was going, the seriousness of the situation had finally dawned on Roma. With an annoyed huff, he sat up, hesitant to throw the sheets from off of his waist.
"F-Fine. But go ahead… I'll just be a little late today." He told her. Rena didn't need that to be said twice though. With a huff, she stepped out of the room and swiftly made her way to the classroom, leaving Roma to his lonesome for a bit.
'...she's mad gorgeous…'
~
"Oh yes, Koboko-san wanted me to mention to you that nothing about today is important, and that she lied."
Roma's jaw practically hit the floor as he stood in the doorway, receiving that information from the instructor who wasn't keen on Roma's tardiness."In any case," He continued, motioning towards the class who was already quite active amongst themselves, "Your assignment is to group up and bake me a cake fit for a king."
Roma felt a rage build within himself. He was nothing short of pissed, and his veins became visible all along his body. He was trying his hardest not to snap, though that was growing harder by the seco-
"Arthur!"
Called out a familiar voice. There stood Itsuki, currently in the midst of operating the mixer, beating the egg whites until stiff peaks formed, "We have space for one more!" He assured his newfound friend. "Right?" he continued, glancing over to his partner who had been dealing with the batter.
Though, his partner had stared at Roma from the moment he entered the classroom. His eyes were black to almost a lifeless extent, and his dark hair seemed to have been purple in the light- or at least, that was the case for his single, long ahoge.
Roma noticed the longing stare, and met it with one of his own. He didn't have a verbal reply, and his expression was predominantly blank, but if they were going to have an impromptu staring contest, then he wasn't going to lose it- that's for sure.
That's when the student unknown to Roma turned away, closing his eyes and exhaling, "I'm assuming you know how to pipe icing, correct?"
Roma hesitated before answering, but gave a nod after the moment passed, "I've got to make strides on having a steadier hand, but yes."
The student glanced towards Roma, and then at Itsuki, who was a little unsure as to why there was a sudden hostility around the table. "Why are you being so awkward, Yuuta?"
"I simply want to get this done without complication, Itsuki Saito-san." 'Yuuta' replied, finally turning back to Roma. "We have icing in the walk-in, and we've already finished the first layer of the cake. I'm currently working on the final layer, and Itsuki Saito on the last half of the icing." He nudged his head in the direction of the bottom layer of the simple vanilla cake on the table, "Go ahead and frost that one for us. I assume you won't need assistance, right, Arthur Roma-san?"
It felt as if 'Yuuta' was trying to mock him with that question. Roma's brows furrowed, but instead of out of anger, they did so with confidence.
"You bet your ass I won't."
As they conversated, alone in her station in the very back of the room was Rena… but she was clearly not in the correct mindset. Her stoic expression broke for a moment, and right after it, she went pinching at her arm, 'No… no… no…'
Her breathing grew heavy, but no matter how many times she pinched the skin on her forearm, she couldn't shake the heavy feeling. It was overwhelming, and she couldn't handle the fashion in which sounds started to mix together. Her vision grew blurry, and she felt her body start to sway a bit… but that's when she remembered exactly what this feeling was…
This was exhaustion.
Rena dropped the whisk she held, making several of the room's eyes dart directly towards the back of the classroom, including the trio of Roma, Itsuki, and Yuuta.
'Five is usually enough.. But I need… more…' Without any prior warning, Rena stepped back and away from her station, before starting to slog her way to the front door, past all of the concerned looks from her classmates, past the incoherent ranting of her teacher, past the possibility of getting the top spot within the class.
The group worked in the front corner of the classroom, which meant that Roma was the last student that Rena saw before she exited, but she didn't say a word, and didn't exactly care for the distressed look on his face. She simply stepped past him, weakly opened the door, and exited, leaving everyone left in the room in a state of relative shock.
"..." Roma stared towards the floor, and Itsuki also seemed to have been discouraged after that major turn of events.
"Focus." It was the third member of their party that had started up his mixer again, finishing the batter he was working on, "The job isn't anywhere near complete, so concentrate."
Yuuta's words felt inconsiderate, given the situation that had just occurred, but past their initial urges to reject his words, they knew he was right.
Both of them.
Roma glanced up towards the clock above, hoping that she would still be… for lack of a better word, alive by the time they concluded with their cake and their class.
And whether it was due to the stress of the situation, or negative karma starting to strike the young chef back, that time flew by. In fact, when it came time to plate their layered cake, Roma looked towards his two partners, and bowed his head,
"G-Guys, do you think you could wrap things up from here?"
Again, Itsuki and Yuuta glanced at one another, and then back at their third member in relative confusion,
"I mean, sure, but why?" Itsuki asked, at least willing to try and be considerate towards Roma. And as for Roma, he didn't really know a non-embarrassing way to say that he needed to return to his dorm and check up on his roommate.
The chef sighed and scratched the back of his head, "There's something I need to see… don't worry about the ending stages, I could totally just come by and see the results later!"
His words made Yuuta raise an eyebrow, "And if we failed due to your absence?"
Roma gave him a look, "If you need me that badly, then just say that."
His rebuttal made Yuuta pause before speaking again. After a moment of thought, he crossed his arms and gently snickered to himself, "You talk so big, you must not know who you're dealing with…" Following his words, he nodded Roma off, who immediately got the hint.
He gave Yuuta a gentle nod in response, clearly respectful and somewhat grateful for his allowing to exit. The teacher went on another mini-rant, but by this time, Yuuta and Itsuki were on the final stages, and with one less man, it was time to finish the job that they were tasked with.
As they tied up their own loose ends, Roma rushed back to his shared dorm room with Rena. The fact that the dormitories were a building over had never served to be anything of note until now. The brunette brushed past a number of students as he scurried away, though when he turned a corner and bumped into a student in a large white dress, his momentum stopped.
"S-Sorry!" He called out, though rather than helping the woman to her feet, he never broke his gaze from what was ahead of him, continuing the rush to his home.
"..." The student, paler than many, slowly sat up, and placed a heeled boot onto the floor, using a nearby locker to help herself stand again. After coming to her feet, she brushed off her dress and her tied back, long, silky, silver hair.
Once she was okay, she glared in the direction that Roma had dashed off in, making sure that she absolutely remembered his face.
~
"Don't close your eyes… Don't fall asleep… Don't close… Don't close…"
Rena Koboko lied on the large bedroom floor of her shared dormitory. The medicine that she had earlier was within her hand, and as if they were pieces of candy, she continuously took pill after pill, hoping that they'd help, that they'd keep her awake.
She was reaching the bottom of the bottle before they were suddenly ripped from her grip.
"..?!"
Rena weakly glanced up to see Roma standing over her, obviously being the one to take the pills from her. She didn't hear him come in, and going by the fact that he had a phone to his ear, she didn't hear the conversation he was having on the phone either, save for the opening line:
"911, what's your emergency?"