Chapter Text
Some actions left you without even the understanding of you.
It wasn't even Saturday and yet the wheels of your wooden board vibrated your eardrums as they moved toward the direction of Armin's house.
You pushed and pushed. Now that you were growing up, it took more pushes to keep you moving than it did before. The coolness of the vague night wiped itself all over you as you swallowed back tears.
You were extremely aware of how dramatic you were being at this moment. The backpack hanging loosely on your back thudded against your body in a constant, irritable motion. And despite knowing the answer, you found yourself wondering when the hell is that house going to appear?!
You were punishing your stupid family—specifically your sister by running away in the middle of the night after she had told your parents about the struggles you regretted uttering to her.
Whatever..
There it finally was. You stood in front of the familiar purple-roof house like you did countless times. Your eyes naturally settled on the only lit up window in the second floor as you caught your breath.
You cupped your hands around your mouth, creating a natural microphone before clearing your throat and calling, "Octo-min! Let me in!"
It took you multiple tries before that big head of his appeared to stare back at you.
"Y/N?"
A couple days ago. Specifically on a cold Monday morning.
You were walking down the school hallway, keeping a neutral expression as your tongue battled inside your mouth to fish a stuck husk out your gums.
This was what you got for having popcorn for breakfast. You groaned.
Your eyes spotted a familiar blond-haired character making his way to class after grabbing stuff from his locker.
You strode toward him, greeting him with a playful shove to his side.
Surprise and amusement battled across his expression as he made way for you to walk. "Look who finally decided to show up."
"Not even a 'welcome back'?" you joked back and he snorted. You had been skipping school behind your parents' backs for the past few days after deciding the stress was too much for you to handle.
The two of you passed a black haired girl who's eyes lingered on you a second too long before she finally stopped you.
"Hey! Terribly sorry to disturb you... but um... are you two like... you know? Dating?"
"Nope. Just friends." you sighed and turned to keep walking only to get stopped again.
"But you're like... very pretty. Are you single?" she asked, checking you out and smiling.
Your brows furrowed. It was your first time speaking to that person and she was already butting in your love life.
This girl was a year above you. Her name was... shit, you couldn't even remember her name. But you remembered that she was an extremely popular girl in your secondary school.
"No I'm not..." You mirrored her unnecessary giggling, acting all flustered as you twirled a strand of hair around your finger. "I'm actually seeing someone right now. He's super cute!"
You watched as her face twisted into an expression you couldn't read. Certainly not a glad one though.
"Excuse us." You slipped out before she could drag the conversation any further, grabbing Armin by the sleeve and rushing toward the rest of your friends as soon as you saw them.
After you'd caught up with them. It looked like she reunited with her friends at last. They were all standing around her, comforting her as she froze--furious with eyes set ablaze.
You forced yourself to look away. But the slight discomfort lingered within you like an unfinished sentence.
⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖
The footsteps of running students echoed in the halls in their usual tempo as the scent of food lingered in the school.
'Meet me outside during lunch xx -Mina'
A note fell out your locker after recess had started.
You read it over and over again but it the text remained the same. Mina wanted to meet you now.
"What the hell is that about?" you asked, showing Sasha the letter as she casually leaned on the locker next to you.
She snatched it from your hand and eyed it with an open mouth before turning to you and jumping in excitement.
"You got yourself a love confession! And it's from THE Mina Carolina!" She gasped, "Don't be late to her! Poor girl might be waiting for you with baked heart-shaped chocolates!"
Picturing Sasha's words caused heat to creep up your face and colour the apples of your cheeks. You fidgeted with your sleeves as you responded, "I really doub—"
"Just go meet her!" She cut you off with a shove. "I'll be cheering you on!"
"Okay! Okay. Jeez..."
You left after the pressure crushed you to meet Mina.
It confused you how you told her you were seeing someone earlier today and she still sent you a note to meet her at recess.
But it's whatever. You just wanted to get this over with and return to your group.
The red falling leaves gave you the slightest mood lift as you left the indoor building. You could almost instantly spot Mina with her flashy hot-pink outfit and her three friends.
You didn't stop to question why her friends were with her during a time like this. Her face immediately lit up as she saw you and began sweetly waving.
You quickened your steps as you looked down, avoiding all the eyes that turned to you after she waved.
These popular girls had actual superpowers--you don't see someone controlling a bunch of other gazes with a wave of their hand very often.
One of her three friends backed off and took out her phone to raise it up at you while the other stood in place.
And before you could realise what kind of position you were in. Your hands were already tied to your back as a crowd began to form around you.
"Fight! Fight!"
Your heart dropped as you heard those words bubbling from it.
Your arms already growing numb from struggling to break free. That bitch really picked her strongest friend to tie you back as she grinned.
"Fucking slut." Mina grunted before kicking you in the stomach.
You doubled over, bending your knees inward as your breathing fastened. Her words somehow hurting you more than the kick itself.
With a frown, you raised your head at her. "What slut? Slut."
Another kick met your side. You could only defend yourself with words. Though--they didn't seem to do you any good in your situation.
"You wanna repeat that?!" one of her minions threatened.
You glimpsed at the growing crowd. A stupid thought popped into your head as you panicked, watching the insane number only increasing by each passing second.
A caramel popcorn stand would be convenient in a place as exciting as this.
You wondered where Reiner and Bertholdt are at a time like this. So now they were going to miss a fight?
With the hope of looking good in front of the phones and not having your hair grabbed by any of them, you sighed before yelling.
"Slut. Slut. Slut."
You shut your eyes and felt your arms being twisted like screws by the taller girl behind you. It hurt more than you wanted to admit.
You attempted a reckless kick toward Mina, but it looked like you over-estimated the distance between you two as your failing foot fell to the ground.
Defeated, you gave the crowd one last desperate look only for your eyes to meet Connie's.
Before you could even smile in relief, he ran deeper into the crowd, completely disappearing to leave you with these rumour-spreading wild animals.
You gave taking a step closer to Mina your all. Then, you violently bashed her head with yours.
She took two steps back, holding her reddened forehead in pain as she glared at you.
The successful move returned your confidence. So you took one step further from the girl holding you back and kicked her with your heel as you continued to face forward.
In surprise, her hands let go of yours. Giving you the perfect chance to either run or give the third girl a piece of your mind.
The only mistake you made was forget that there was still a team of three giants against you, so you were immediately held back before you could seize either opportunities.
She wasn't as strong as the first girl. But there was still a big difference between your strengths.
You panted, struggling as beads of sweat began forming on your forehead. You focused your all on getting away from their grip.
"What's going on here?!"
You dropped onto the ground, finally free from their trap.
You quickly clutched your aching hands close to you before anyone else could grab them as the three of them froze.
Headteacher Erwin managed to split the crowd in half and have everyone shove their phones away as they ran to abandon the scene.
"Carolina. Rheinberger. Brzenska. I'm expecting you three in my office."
You looked up as Connie stood before you, offering you a hand to get up.
You dropped your gaze, silently refusing his offer and got up on your own as you mumbled, "Thanks, man."
The rest of the week passed in a hazy blur, you had skipped half of it to avoid others. And in the other half, your own friends seemed to distance themselves from you. Especially Sasha and Armin.
You didn't exactly have a chance to properly talk to them, there weren't any group hangouts that week—not that you knew of at least. And on top of that, Armin cancelled Saturday's sleepover for an anonymous reason.
And after watching the fight video on Jean's phone, you didn't look nearly as good as you hoped. Which you concluded as the possible reason behind all the weird looks you earned.
Mina's looks were especially strange, they switched to more pitiful ones all of a sudden. Maybe she finally understood you weren't a slut.
Drained was the best word to describe you during that time. You'd often spend the afternoons and nights sulking and lying on the heart shaped carpet as you ignored your pesky sister's questioning.
"Where's Armin? Is he not coming today." she asked with a smirk that you didn't need to look up to hear.
You ignored her as you pretended to be asleep but she simply wouldn't back off until you've told her what's wrong.
And so you did, you told her everything to happen this week. Not leaving out how your parents refused to pick you up from school last week. Or any of the dirty glances thrown in your way. Or even your insufferable loneliness and constant feeling of being unwanted.
But little did you know trusting her that time would lead to you climbing into Armin's bedroom from his window the very next day.
"You know we have a door."
You grabbed a pillow from his bed and threw him with it angrily after he'd helped you up.
He picked up the pillow and set it back on his bed wordlessly—his quivering lips pressing against each other as if making sure no words escape them.
His room was slightly fuller than usual. The collection of sylvanian families gifted by his wealthy relative rested between his books as usual. His orange bass was positioned thoughtfully on the wall behind him as well as a few posters decorating his wall.
After an eternity of silence, he finally spoke again. "What are you doing here, Y/N?"
His eyes avoided yours and you scowled, throwing the same pillow at him again.
"Quit calling me by my name damn it!" you grabbed another pillow and raised your hand to aim. "Why are you being like this, Armin?"
"What are you doing here at this hour? Does he know about this?" he whisper-yelled.
"He?" The question stopped your attack. Catching you in surprise, you let your confused expression do most of the talking. "Who's he?"
"Your... boyfriend...?" he responded, mirroring your confusion like it confused him how clueless you were.
"What...?"
He sighed before looking at you with guilt-filled eyes as he apologized.
"Listen, I'm sorry. Y/N I really didn't mean for this to happen."
"What did you do?"
"I told Mina that I was your boyfriend so she could back off. But listen I rea—"
"Huh?!"
"Would you please listen?" He dodged another feathery-attack of yours and calmly leaned on the wall.
"Mina thought you were seeing her boyfriend. She was shown a 'proof' footage of someone who looks like you. That was why she fought you. When I found out she wasn't planning to end the fight there... I... I told her that me and you were... you know..."
Your brows furrowed as he continued, "I'll understand if you don't forgive me. It was very disrespectful of me to—"
"I don't have a boyfriend you crazy octopus!"
You laughed, throwing yourself onto his bed as you ran a hand through your hair and caught your breath. "That's it? You scared me to bits man!"
"So... we're good now?" he asked.
"Yeah. But damn you and Sasha worried me this entire week!" You turned to face him as he stood near the corner of the room. "What's her deal? is she scared of disrespecting him too?"
"She just really feels bad about 'getting you in this situation'." He rubbed the back of his neck as his light reflecting glasses hid heated rosy cheeks behind them.
"Tell her I'm over it." You flipped again, laying on your stomach on his peach-colored yellow-dotted blanket.
Armin kicked his foot lightly against the floor. The sound of the soft thudding filling the stretched silence while his parents dozed off downstairs.
He was wearing a slightly oversized light-blue lined pyjama set that hung loosely off his figure and a pair of white fuzzy slippers. The dim light of the room softly grasping the edges of his hair as he continued to gaze down.
"Mate... you're like my best friend in the whole world." You giggled, "You really think I'd date someone without telling you?"
"No... but you would show up through my window in the middle of the night without telling me why." he joked.