At this moment, a knock came over from the door.
"Come in."
Bruce called out casually. But the knock continued with no intention of stopping, making him mildly infuriated.
"I said, come in! F**k!"
"The door is locked, you bastard!"
Comma's voice shouted loudly from the other side, similarly infuriated.
Hearing that, Bruce realized he had indeed locked the door earlier to prevent anyone from disturbing him.
He stood up, annoyed. Then he went to the door and unlocked it by twisting the doorknob.
Kachak!
"Took you long enough! Sorry, didn't mean to call you a bastard."
Comma's mouth twitched as he looked at Bruce with an apologetic smile. Behind him, Fredo stood with excited eyes.
Bruce raised his brows, shrugging it off. "No, it's fine. I don't care, as long as you know it's your fault."
'Wait, aren't you supposed to acknowledge that you shouted first...?' Comma was astounded by his shamelessness!
"What's with that look on your face?" Bruce furrowed his brows. "Oh, by the way, my plate is on the desk. I'll wash it later, but if you want, you can wash it in my stead."
"Why the hell would I want to wash your plate?!" Comma was exasperated. "You know what, nevermind, me and Fredo just want to talk to you about something..."
"Huh?" Bruce looked at both of them in confusion.
Comma and Fredo were his roommates, the three of them had known each other for a couple of weeks now.
However, there was no deep friendship between them or anything of the sort. They were just roommates who tolerated each other's existence.
The former Bruce Ryker was too much of a pitiful and hopeless kid to make friends.
"Come in then," Bruce took a step back, letting them enter the room. He casually at at the swivel chair beside the table. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Oh, it's nothing, me and Fredo," Comma gestured to the excited man behind him. "were wondering if you really rejected Natasha."
"Yeah, yeah!" Fredo's eyes shone, giving him a thumbs up. "Is it true? That's Natasha Raven! One of the academy's impossible beauties and the daughter of the vice-dean to boot!"
Natasha, I guess that's her name... Bruce raised his brows. "Yeah, is there a problem?"
But, internally, he was already feeling annoyed. It seems like he rejected someone very important, the girl wouldn't exact revenge on him, would she?
Not to mention, what's with these terms "academy's impossible beauties"... what a mouthful. It sounded like something one would see in a third-rate urban nationalist novel...
"Nothing!" Fredo cheered, giving him a thumbs up. "Awesome, brother! I can't believe I'm roommates with someone who dares to reject the daughter of the vice-dean!"
"Uh... yeah, about that," Bruce turned the swivel chair around. "Can you tell me more about this Natasha girl?"
At that moment, Comma and Fredo turned silent. They looked at Bruce with a speechless expression on their face.
After a while, Comma finally broke the silence.
"... Don't tell me you didn't know who she was?"
"Of course I knew!" Bruce slammed the table with a righteous expression on his face. "She's one of the academy's impossible beauties and the daughter of the vice-dean himself!"
Fredo nodded. "That's right!"
Comma had a deadpan expression on his face. He shook his head and didn't expose the fact the man just repeated what Fredo said.
"Natasha is one of the most popular students in the academy. Not just because of her beauty, but also because of her talent. She awakened at the age of 14 and trained with her dad, Dean Raven for a few years..."
"If it wasn't for this year's freshmen being more amazing than usual, she could've been the strongest freshman of the year."
So fierce? Bruce had a stunned expression, wondering if he heard wrong. It was certainly a stark contrast from the girl he rejected.
'...Are you sure you're describing the same girl who ran away just because I looked at her?'
"When a rumor floated around that Natasha was going to confess to you, everyone almost freaked out." Comma mused. "Me and Fredo saw you with a girl earlier but we didn't know it was Natasha... until we remembered about that rumor."
Hearing that, Bruce's eyes widened. "So that means only the two of you know, right?"
"Well, I don't think a girl would go on spreading the fact she had been rejected," Comma shrugged. "I think so. We didn't dare tell anyone about it before confirming it from you. If the Dean caught wind of it, well..."
Gulp!
Something about Comma and Fredo's audible gulp made him imagine that the outcome wouldn't be so pretty.
"Now that you know, don't you dare tell anyone about it, alright?" Bruce turned the swivel chair, staring at them sharply.
Comma nodded. "Of course, I wouldn't want to see you ten feet under the grave the next day. You're still my roommate, what if you haunt us?"
"Comma, you must be exaggerating things," Bruce chuckled. "It's just a confession, it can't be that bad..."
At this moment, both Comma and Fredo turned silent. He felt an ominous premonition erupt within him.
"...Dean Raven is an overbearing father who treasures his daughter very much, and mind if I tell you about her sister in the academy—"
"She has a sister?!"
"—a super genius in her own right, but also a publicly known siscon. If both of them found out that you made their precious Natasha cry, well..."
Bruce turned silent as looked up at the ceiling. Just what the hell did his predecessor do to attract such a landmine...?
He went over his memories again, checking if missed anything important. But after a while, he didn't find anything important at all.
However he had met the girl a few times before in the academy , and the girl always looked too pitiful, so he sometimes helped her out.
'...Wait. It can't be?'
Ah, Bruce realized. Did the girl fall in love with his predecessor just because of his face and some little kindness?