Jessica walked into the room after unlocking the door to find Claudia on her bed with a blue blanket covering her body and she was quite surprised to see her.
"Claudia?"
"Oh, hey, Jess," Claudia responded, feigning a smile.
That smile looked quite uncomfortable at first glance but she was able to quickly cover it up before her roommate could notice.
"I wasn't expecting you to be back here so fast after everything that happened outside." She said, moving closer to her.
"Well, Vice Principal Claire just released me so I decided that I would come up here and rest for a bit," Claudia replied, still keeping up that smile.
"Rest for a bit? What the heck did she make you do?"
She was about to get on her bed at that moment but Claudia quickly raised both of her arms to stop her from getting any closer.
"She didn't make us do anything, we just have to handle the first years' orientation tomorrow, that's why she called us." She explained abruptly.
"The first years' orientation? You mean you and Arsha Logan are going to be handling it?"
"Yeah, that's why she called," Claudia responded with a nod.
Getting that answer, Jessica was silent for a while as she took a step back with her left hand on her chin.
"I don't like it."
"Huh?"
"I don't like that you're getting dragged into a task with that Devil." She stated bluntly.
"Well, the guy has a whole encyclopedia of Demon beasts in his head and a lot of other stuff so I don't think it can be helped." Claudia chuckled but even Jessica could tell that was fake.
"An encyclopedia of Demon beasts?" Jessica uttered with a dumbstruck look on her face. "He can't possibly…."
"Yes, he does Jessica." She cut him off. "He knows everything there is to know about every Demon beast that has been recorded from the first day they started appearing till date. Their evolution pattern, their diet, life span, abilities, and even combat abilities."
Now Jessica's face had just evolved from dumbstruck to terrified.
"I don't know if that's impressive or actually scary." She uttered before she began to make her way to her bed. "Anyway, that guy is nothing but bad luck so try to keep your distance even though you'll be working together, you haven't forgotten what happened during the beast invasion have you?"
"I wasn't even present that day so there's nothing there to forget." Claudia retorted.
"True, but the testimonies should be enough for you," Jessica responded immediately. "Just stay safe, Claudia."
Claudia was quiet for a few seconds before letting out a sigh.
"Okay, I will."
'I despise him anyway, so…..I don't even understand why I'm in this situation.'
Just after getting that response, Jessica smiled at her before she began to strip.
"I was about to take a shower before that Demon showed up and after that heat, my body feels more irritated." She said as she tucked in her towel to hold it in place around her chest.
"Oh, I see." Claudia drawled.
That response seemed a bit weird to Jessica so she turned to her roommate to see that her face was slowly turning red.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah, absolutely, there's nothing for you to worry about." She responded abruptly.
That wasn't convincing in the slightest but Jessica decided not to pursue the matter any further.
"If you say so." She said before making her way to the door leading to the bathroom.
Just before opening the door, she turned to Claudia one last time but this time she was looking at the lower part of the part covering her blanket.
"Hmmm."
Just after that, she opened the door and walked into the bathroom before shutting the door behind her.
Now that she was out of the room, Claudia quickly flung her blanket open to reveal Arsha who was lying beside her the whole time.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" She asked with a whispering tone.
Her face was completely red now and she had to crawl away from him to the farthest end of her bed.
"I didn't do anything, you were the one who moved and pushed my hand down there," Arsha responded bluntly.
"Hey, you don't have to phrase it like that." She snapped.
She expected him to be as messed up as she was right now or at least show a little bit of it but Arsha looked calm with a straight face like nothing had happened at all.
"You can move now, right? Just get out." She ordered.
Arsha didn't respond to that; rather, he proceeded to lean closer to her.
"Yeah, I'll be leaving soon." He said as he continued to get his face closer to hers.
"Hey, what are you doing?" She sounded panicked but just before she could do anything, Arsha whispered something into her ears.
The next thing she knew, he was out through the window and now she was left alone on her bed with her hand on her left ear.
"This was stupid." She muttered.
_______ ________
The next day, everything went back to normal, they went about their daily activities as normal and had their classes.
It was break time now and just as always, Arsha was spending his away from the cafeteria.
There was a small garden at the back of the academic block that rarely got visited by anyone, especially during lunch break so it was a good place for him to be away from everyone.
There were a couple of steps leading up to the small building where the tools meant for taking care of the garden were kept and he was sitting on them at the moment with a canned drink in his hand.
"This is enough to keep me away from that nauseous feeling of the sun." He muttered to himself before proceeding to open the canned drink.
Well, he was about to open it when a blast of water suddenly came flying toward him from the side.
The blast was about him when he quickly raised his hand to block it.
Well, that's what anyone not paying close attention would think but to block the blast he actually produced a blast of his own to counter it just before it could make contact with his hand.
"What do you want, Aqua?" He sighed.
A little chuckle was heard before Aqua revealed herself, her watch had the number four boldly displayed on its screen as she made her way to him and instead of looking at her, that was where Arsha had his gaze.
"Don't play dumb, you know exactly why I'm here." She said just after stopping in front of him.
He slowly scanned her from head to toe at that moment before proceeding to open his drink.
"You came to remind me that you're number four in our class and I'm not in your league." He uttered nonchalantly.
That rubbed Aqua the wrong way and she just couldn't hide the furious look on her face at the moment.
"Are you mocking me?" She snarled.
"If that's how you chose to interpret it, then be my guest." He responded with a straight face.
She was literally shooting him daggers with her eyes at the moment but he couldn't care less, it was obvious what would happen if she tried anything careless.
He didn't have any trouble dealing with Claudia who was ranked higher than her so she didn't bother him in the slightest.
"Um….. am I interrupting something?"
Aqua quickly turned back at that moment to see a red-haired girl standing there with a lunch box in her hand, Arsha had already noticed her before she even came into view.
Her uniform had red outlines so it was obvious that she was a second-year student just like them.
"Oh, hey, Maya."
While Aqua was greeting her, Arsha had his gaze on her hair and he didn't like the feeling he was getting from just looking at it.
'And I thought I would be able to hide from her here.'