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“Ooh… Aidios… Why am I stuck here at this hour…?”
A sigh escaped Musse’s lips as she stamped yet another paper before she put it on top of the stack of papers on her side. From the window on the corner of the room, she could see that the sun was starting to set, further emphasizing the gravity of her protest.
“Yeah, yeah, you don’t hear me complaining about this,” Ash’s idle, matter-of-fact tone came from the other side of the table as he focused his eyes on the paper that he was holding in his hand while his other arm was used as a resting spot for his head to lean on. “The less whining you do, the faster we got this stuff finished.”
“...Uuugh…” the green haired female groaned, a tone that she had rarely used. “I suppose I should really thank you for picking me as your second-in-command, Mr. President.”
Oh, the sarcasm. Ash liked it when she came at her with that kind of tone. He grinned as he put his signature on the paper as he moved to pick the next stuff that he, as the student council president of the branch campus, ought to do. “Anytime, vice-president. Thank you for helping and giving me your anonymous vote as the president for the rest of the year.”
“Were I realized that it’d be this way, I would have said Kurt instead,” Musse continued, making a pout as she finished a piece of paper from her share. “I had to resign from my club thanks to the amount of paperwork we’ve been getting everyday.”
“What can I say?” Ash shrugged nonchalantly. “That damn Randolph leave early these days cos he’s engaged now, Miss Towa always got grabbed by Crow and his friends to hang with them every time the bell rang, and our favorite Rean Schwarzer is still busy with whatever he’s doing, and I refuse to comment on the other faculty members.” Ash finished his explanation as he finished signing another paper. “Sucks to be you though, Tatiana’s keeping the sofa clean for me while I am here.”
Another grumble escaped Musse’s lips, but that was the last response as she fell silent to finish the job that she were assigned.
Once again, the small student council room fell silent. Like it had always been.
Surprisingly, despite how much they bickered around and enjoyed laughing at the same thing, Ash and Musse had never been the best at starting conversation. Usually, it just came from something that happened earlier in the school, but unless the topic was really interesting (like teasing Juna about her relationship with Kurt or how the aforementioned blue haired student looked really good in girl’s costume, for instance), they would drop the topic after two or three replies coming from their ends respectively. But when there was nothing very interesting, they both would just opt to stay quiet and enjoyed the harmonic tranquility between them. Right now, there were nothing noteworthy to gossip about.
Well, except that one, Musse guessed?
“So, Tatiana, hmm?” Musse hummed back, her tone return to her usual tone. “Does someone like her, let’s say, strike your pin bowls?”
Ash stopped his work momentarily to glance back at his VP. His eyes blinked once before they rolled to the side. “This again, huh?” To be fair, this was not the first time Musse pulled this, uh, ‘shipping’ stuff that revolve around Ash and his clubmate. He was already too used to this. He’d humor her in this one cos she sounded really bored earlier though. “She’s a well-mannered girl, I’ll give you that at most.”
“Aww~ Someone’s being shy today…”
“Give it up, girl. I ain’t Juna or her prince charming. You won’t get that kind of reaction from me.”
“Come on, you’re taking the fun out from this.”
“I’m taking out YOUR fun, yeah.”
They both knew that that kind of teasing was just all in a good fun as both erupted into small laughters in unison, pausing them of their paperworks that were still stacking unceremoniously beside them.
“But for real though,” Ash started just when their combined snicker died down. “How about you? Still trying to go big or go home with that Rean? Pretty sure you got some hard competition there though.”
To that question, Musse froze in her spot. The fascinated lights that were reflected in her eyes immediately dulled out and instead, they reflected some weird radiance that even Ash could barely read (and he was sure he was always pretty good at that kind of stuff). For what it was worth from his guess however, it seemed like Musse’s brain had stopped working at the question.
Which was not entirely untrue of what was happening.
Musse opened her mouth wide, trying to form a sensible word, but failed miserably and instead she swallowed whatever she had in mind. It was not until she let out a sigh and leaned back on the chair that she could finally let out comprehensive reply.
“A competition? It was my race to lose, Ash,” she replied with a rather dejected voice as she turned to face him again. “A race for a lot of girls not named Alisa Reinford to lose, to be more precise.”
He… couldn’t really disagree over there. It had been very obvious that Rean had been very infatuated with Alisa to the point that he was the one chasing rather than the one being chased by the female partner. It was only a matter of when they would stop beating around the bush and making it official.
Normally, he would be really happy to be able to get this kind of reaction from Musse, but with that kind tone she was using… Now Ash kinda feel bad for even questioning that.
“...Sorry, shouldn’t have asked that.”
“Don’t be,” Musse immediately responded. Some heartbreak still could be heard from her tone. “Juna was once in that race too, you know? But she moved on pretty fast. Well, Kurt did a good job at being there when she needed him the most. That helped to seal her deal too.”
“Smooth as always. That’s our young master for you,” Ash laughed, but he tried to be very subtle about that one as he noticed her unusual tone.
“Well, to be fair, I think he’s like… the clear winner for her race when instructor Rean's out of the equation,” Musse spoke again, her tone starting to revert to her original voice. “The only other candidate for her affection that I could think of is her senior Lloyd, but I don’t think he sees her like that.”
“Agreed,” the student council president replied back, crossing his arms behind his head as if he was trying to get into a more relaxing mood. “Didn't he got this lady with big titties with him? Elie, wasn’t it?”
“I do agree that she does have a big pair of breasts, but do you really need to remember her from her figure instead of her face, Ash?”
“I am a growing boy who swings that way,” he grinned as he returned with his usual quip. “Don’t blame me for taking interest in something like that.”
“I suppose I can’t blame you,” Musse put her hand over her lips as she giggled back, her expression returned to the usual Musse Egret that the whole Class VII knew and loved so much. “I am more of a facial type rather than the other body parts type, but I can understand where you’re coming from.”
“Whoa, phrasing, Miss Vice President of mine. Phrasing,” came Ash’s reply. Now, considering that her tone had reverted to her original one, he guessed it was a good time to ask the important question. “So who’s the lucky guy, huh?”
“Excuse me?”
“You know, the next candidate thingie like Juna to Kurt.”
“Oh, no one.”
The fact that she could answer that almost immediately perked Ash’s interest again as he raised an eyebrow inquisitively. “No freaking one? You’re still hung up on him?”
“Positive,” she smiled at Ash. Whether that was an actual smile or just another kind of cover to hide her inner feeling, Ash couldn’t tell at this point. “There’s no rule that said that I should stop loving instructor Rean even though he doesn’t return it, no?”
Ash really couldn’t tell her at times. This one being one of them.
“...I think I said this before but I’ll say this again, you’re one dangerous woman. ”
“Why, thank you,” she bowed her head, playing along with the fun farce before she raised a finger up as if to make a statement. “Oh, and before you got the wrong idea that I am a single-target sexuality-type of a person, I am perfectly capable of moving on. In fact, let me just put it like this-”
The sound of chair legs sliding against the floor erupted as Musse moved to stand up to demonstrate what she had in mind. The green haired student raised her arm way up to her side, as if she was a mime putting up an invisible platform above her.
“So let’s say this is the finish line to win my affection and everyone started on the bottom…” she clenched her arms safe for her index finger which was pointing to the top spot of the imaginary platform. “You should really already know who’s on the top of the platform, no?”
Yeah, it was very obvious. Ash just made a grin to play along with the game. After all, Musse looked like she was about to put some effort to make this more fun.
“I actually don’t know. Name and shame.”
He never thought that her answer would be something alongside of this kind of line.
“Obviously, instructor Rean would be at the top of the pyramid over here. Then there would be a big, big power gap,” Musse’s arm moved slowly from the top of the imaginary platform, stopping around her collar as she tapped her index finger against her neck. “Then you would be over here, Ash, and then we moved to Kurt who’s around here after another big power gap,” her hand moved again before it stopped around the hem of her skirt. “Then the rest of the male society just right waaaaay below that. Probably around my foot.”
Frankly, Ash didn’t really pay any attention of Musse finishing her weird ass gesture. Hell, he didn’t even catch that she had mentioned their favorite Vander chewtoy at all. He was too focused on trying to make sure he didn’t catch what she had just said wrong. Ash blinked in confusion as he stared in some sort of disbelief at Musse’s direction.
...Did...
...Did she just say what he think she just said?
“-Got you~♥”
Ash was about to say something with his somewhat-already-wide open lips from the surprise confession from Musse before things dawned on him. He once again blinked his eyes at her before he noticed her playful wink. Oh, dammit-!
“...You clever son of a bi-”
“Whoa, phrasing, Mr. President of mine. Phrasing~” Musse giggled in return as she tried to mimic Ash’s tone from earlier when he had said the exact sentence. “That was quite an emotion you just showed there, Ash. I think I just found my favorite expression of yours now.”
There was a veeeeeery small tint of blush of embarrassment surfacing on the blonde’s cheeks, but he immediately overwrite it with a scowl and a grunt. Still wouldn’t hide the fact that she got him on that one regardless.
“Alright, alright… I’ll give you a point for that one,” Ash grumbled as he scratched the back of his head in small frustration. “That was quite a cheap shot.”
Instead of responding back via the Musse Egret Way however, she had decided to fire another surprising statement.
“Well, how about on your end, hmm?” Musse tilted her head to side as she clapped her hands together cutely, as if she was expecting some sort of good answer. “Have you ever considered me somewhere in your list of potential partner?”
Here she was again with that sorta question without giving him any sign whether she was being serious or not.
Damn, she came at him really THAT prepared, huh? He really needed to up his ante as well. Ash shifted around to put his arms in a thinking pose. Now then… The sort of counterattack that he could fire back at her would be…
“I have, actually,” Ash glanced back at Musse, who showed a tinge of interest at his answer. “I mean, I gotta say, you have a pair of ample-sized breasts, kissable lips, and very breedable hips. If you just ask me whether I would date you? Well, I freaking would in a heart beat, milady. Hell, I’d do you right away, actually.”
This time, it was Musse’s time to blink in amazement at him. Well, of course he would pick such strong, if not dirty, choice of words. With faint blushes on her cheeks, Musse awkwardly let out a short-lived laugh before she put a hand over her mouth as she flashed her teasing eyes at Ash’s direction, who was grinning like a madman back at her.
“Oh my, how vulgar!”
“Tell me something I don’t know about myself or zip it, vice president.”
Once again, they let out a pair of united laughters. However, while it still effectively sounded like their usual combined laughter, there were some sort of awkwardness just underlying them that both Ash and Musse refused to acknowledge. They were more than content to just let it die alongside the said combined laughters as well.
The moment they fell into silence again, before long, Musse decided to sit down again.
“Guess that’s it for the jokes. We should get back to checking the paperworks again, shouldn’t we?”
Ash returned the gesture by moving his position so that he was seated in the correct position again. Logically speaking, that’d be the wisest course of action. After all, he didn’t want to linger in the student council room longer than necessary.
“As much as I hated to do this shit, we really should,” the only man between the two answered as he grabbed the pen from the table. “By the way, Egret?”
“Yes?”
“That conversation never happened.”
“What conversation?” Musse hummed back almost instantly as she grabbed the stamp that was mean as a sign of approval from her pencil case. “Our last topic was about you saying something alongside you never complained about being chosen as the student council president, no?”
Ash made a single glance at Musse, who was smiling innocently from ear to ear, before it prompted him to make a smirk that was aimed to both of them. He then flicked his middle finger against his thumb as he made a finger gun pose at her as if he was saying ‘atta girl!’ before he returned to his own work.
It was nice to have her as his vice president, he got to admit. She knew his kind of game pretty well. At least with her presence around, this student body thingy wouldn’t be as boring as it had supposed to be.
“Oh, by the way,”
Musse’s voice interrupted the deafening silence that had been ensuing for a while. Ash kept on doing his work while only sparing a glance at his partner-in-crime, who had her own eyes fixated on her share of paper.
“I was only half-joking about what I said about you.”
There was no response coming.
Not until two minutes after where Ash’s voice could be heard from his side of the table.
“That’s good because so was I.”
As their conversation stopped entirely, both of them made a hidden smile (well, more of a satisfied smirk on Ash’s side) that was intended to no one in particular but themselves.
This was their status quo, after all. Closer than what they thought and wanted, yet farther than they thought and wanted at the same time. No simple words could describe their relationship. They were just THAT complicated.
…
…
…
Surprisingly, they didn’t notice that the door had already been creaked open since forever, and three pair of eyes that had been spying of them now slipped out of the small gap as they seemingly retreated at the same cue. Beyond the door, there was some sort of frantic thrashing from a girl with pink strand who seemed to try her best to not to scream a "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" as the smaller girl in silver hair in her side tried her best to clam the mouth of the said pink-haired girl before a taller guy in light blue hair commented some thing that his two female companions could easily agreed on.
“...I feel like we just heard something that we really shouldn’t have.”