Chapter Text
“Hey, are your leaders dating or something?”
The question came so suddenly that Ayyur didn't understand it at first. After all, who expected to get questionned about their dorm leaders while playing video games in the courtyard?
“I said– ah, get your head in the game dude, we're losing!”
“That's your fault!”
If his friend hasn't said that, he wouldn't have stopped tapping away on his phone. Grumbling about it, he looked back at his screen to find he'd been killed in the few seconds he'd glanced away from it. With a sigh, he watched as his teammates got shredded to pieces by an enemy team – his friends on the bench next to him all swore and one threw his phone on the ground. Luckily for him (and because he was prone to bouts of anger during their gaming sessions), it'd been enchanted so it'd just bounce off without breaking. Ayyur shuddered at the thought of how many phones he'd have to buy otherwise. Still, they ended up ranking third in that match, not so bad when their best asset (himself) had lost his focus.
“We almost had it! We were so close to winning!”
“That's because you distracted me.”
“I didn't? I just asked you a question.”
“A question that distracted me!”
“Yeah, I'm with Ayyur on that one. I didn't expect that.”
“Thank you. Like what if I asked you if your dorm leaders were dating?”
“Ugh, shut up, I don't want to think about that… I'm not even sure Rosehearts can love someone…”
“He'd soooo kill you for that.”
“Head off and everything.”
“I can imagine it clearly.”
“Stop saying that!”
The four students burst in laughter, ignoring the annoyed gazes of the people relaxing next to them.
“Nah, but seriously, I was wondering that for real, Ayyur.”
After retrieving his phone from a few meters away, his other friend sheepishly followed up. “You know what? Me too actually.”
“Me three!”
Ayyur had spent enough time in NRC to know nothing about it was straightforward curiosity. If he remembered right – which he probably did because his memory was pretty good – two of his friends present here shared an elective class with Viper and Kalim which meant… Well, he was about to think they'd have been subjected to whatever these two were always doing, but that'd be wrong, wasn't it? Even people not sharing their class with them knew about that. Perhaps they were really just annoyed by these two.
“Maybe?” He decided to answer after dwelling on it. “Or maybe not.”
“My brother in the Great Seven, that's not an answer,” complained the Heartslabyul student. “Don't give us some philosophical bullshit.”
“I'm serious! I don't know. I think they aren't dating.”
“Then why are they like that?”
“Well, you see…”
With three pairs of eyes staring intently at him, Ayyur was cornered but he just shrugged. What could he say truly? They may not be dating. Other Scarabia students thought they were, but he didn't and for a good reason – he'd observed them for a while, wondering about the rumors too, and, in the end, wasn't sure about anything. But explaining that to people who weren't his girlfriend would only make him seem like a weirdo with stalkerish tendencies. And, despite his daily log of interactions between his dorm leaders – he'd stopped doing that, okay? It was just a phase, he'd settled on texting his girlfriend whenever they were being weird together instead –, Ayyur wasn't a stalker. He was genuinely just curious.
But what could he tell his friends? That whatever was going on between his dorm leaders would require a numbered list and a board not unlike the ones the worst conspiracy theorist (some Ignihyde students would have something like that if he was being one hundred percent honest) would create? No, he couldn't decently waste their after-school hours to give them a one (at least) hour presentation on how to approach Viper and Kalim's relationship… Yet that was tempting. They'd never ask anything of him if he ever did that and that thought alone made him consider the idea. Because he couldn't just tell them “I don't think they're dating, but they're totally dating in a way most people wouldn't caution maybe, possibly, hey do you want to know how I came to that conclusion?”. This was a situation that required too many explanations to truly be understood, but who would willingly sit through that?
His girlfriend would. He should do a proper write-up, print pretty pictures he didn't take of them in secret, and make a whole presentation just for her pretty eyes. She'd like it. He'll clean his bedroom back home, prepare snacks and drinks and let her sit on his bed while he talks.
Great home date idea, Ayyur, go for it.
Unfortunately, his girlfriend wasn't here and his friends were still staring at him, looking more and more annoyed with every second that passed. One of them nudged Ayyur's leg with his foot.
“Come ooooon, say something. Yes or no? Dating or not?”
No, he really couldn't explain anything to them, he decided. “Not dating.”
“Boo!”
“Why do they flirt in public then?!”
“So they're just annoying? We already have tons of guys like that in NRC.”
“Not dating but,” Ayyur said, to quell their disappointment. “In a very complicated situationship.”
His friends all grimaced at that declaration.
“Break them up, Ayyur.”
“I already have a girlfriend!”
“Break up with her and then break them up so we don't have to see them flirting in class ever again.”
“Speaking of, which would you go for? Viper or Al-Asim?”
“No one…? I won't do anything with either of them.”
“I'd go for Viper. He's good at cooking, right? If we were dating, I'd ask him to make me lunch instead of eating at the cafeteria every day and make all of you jealous of me.”
“He'd totally say no,” one of his friends laughed. “I'd go for Al-Asim, I think. He's cute and rich, that's enough for me.”
“Get higher standards, dude. Viper’s handsome at least.”
“No, that's enough. Right?”
“Leave me out of that, I don't want to know anything about which of my dorm leaders you'd fuck…” Ayyur sighed. “Do you want me to ask you to choose between Rosehearts and–”
“Stop putting Rosehearts in those scenarios!”
The conversation died down after that and their attentions turned to their phones as they queued for another game. And, as the loadscreen appeared, Ayyur thought Viper should be extra nice to him and stop staring at him for just being in Kalim's vicinity – sure, he spied on them, but he was in Kalim's class, obviously they'd be paired up sometimes! – because he was being incredibly kind by not contributing to rumors about their relationships.