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No… there’s no way… Cirrus thought to himself. She said she had training today so she couldn’t possibly be here.
There was no way Ri-in would be at the school festival. She was busy with her training today, she had told him herself. Cirrus face still stung from the tedious process of getting off the tattoos and he placed his hands on his face to cool off as he walked back to his classroom through the school. Both students and unknown guests had gathered around the classrooms to see what kind of activities was going on inside. Around one classroom there was an extra large crowd. Not surprisingly, another Café.
“Cirrus!” a voice said and tapped him on the shoulder.
Cirrus stopped and turned around to find one of the girls from one of the parallel classes looking up at him. She was holding a sign with a menu and had a bright smile on her face. He couldn’t remember her name, but it didn’t matter really.
“Are you checking out our café?” she continued and pointed to café.
Cirrus smiled and tilted his head apologetically.
“I need to hurry back to our own classes booth. So I will check it out later if I have time.”
“You can stay just a little!” the girl giggled and dragged him inside the classroom. “I have a break right now so it’s okay!”
Oh no… not this… Cirrus sat down at one of the tables.
The classroom had been neatly decorated with table cloths and effectively covered the school desks that had been arranged in formations to imitate ordinary cafés. He guessed the cleanliness was part of why so many people wanted a table here. Cirrus had his excuse to leave this place ready.
“I’m sorry but I-” he begun but stopped in the middle of his sentence as he overheard a name he was familiar with from one of the tables.
“…Skylar I think his name was?”
“-I can stay a little bit I guess.” Cirrus continued but quickly explained. “I won’t buy anything though. I’m just checking out the vibe.”
The girl agreed and struck up a conversation about the preparation of the festival and Cirrus absentmindedly asked questions to keep her talking as he listened in to the conversation of the table behind him. Cirrus didn’t recognise them and guessed they had to have come from another school.
“It is a kinda unique name actually.” the girl with short hair replied.
“Yeah! I overheard the girl at the photo-booth call him that.” the black haired girl agreed. “Maybe I should go back later, get a photo haha.”
“Oh?” the short-haired one asked curiously. “You seem more interested in this ’Skylar’ guy than in buying the photos.”
“Well he was cute!”
Cirrus froze up a bit. The girl in front of him seemed to notice.
“Uhm… Cirrus?” she asked and tilted her head.
“Oh sorry, it was just a bit hard to understand. Can you tell me again?” Cirrus quickly replied.
The girl seemed eager to do so and continued to point on the different table set designs she had worked on during the preparation-phase. Cirrus mind was elsewhere though.
Cute?
“Let’s go back later and ask for his number then!” the short haired girl suggested, at the table behind him.
Cirrus almost laughed to himself. Skylar didn’t even like girls what he knew of, but then his mind went dark. That Skylar was gay was just an assumption on his part right? Although he doubted it, Skylar might have been bi too. The girl on front of him seemed to have noticed his frown.
“Did I take too much time?” she asked. “So sorry to interrupt you when you had things to do…”
Cirrus stood up. Today wasn’t a good day to do anything rash.
“It’s fine.” he said with a polite smile. “It was fun listening to the ideas you had.”
The girl smiled back and also stood up, picking up the papers she had spread on the table.
“If you have time later we can check out the festival toge-” she begun but Cirrus interrupted her.
“Oh I should really head back now. Have a nice day!” Cirrus said and waved goodbye as he walked out the classroom door.
The girl looked a little stunned but Cirrus didn’t feel like bothering with other people’s feelings right now. Skylar was the gloomy type so Cirrus hadn’t imagined someone taking an interest in him. He couldn’t help feeling dissatisfied. Those girls had been thinking he was cute, on top of that.
Cirrus pinched his nose as he walked back to the football club’s booth. It would at least be easier to get them away from him than it is to remove Chan-il, but I don’t have time for it…
Cirrus quietly opened the door to the football-club and quickly snuck up behind his friends.
“Hi.” he said and his friends jumped at his sudden appearance.
“Gah!” Yoochan shouted. “You’re back!”
“Did you not like the outfit we gave you?” one of the other guys laughed.
Cirrus glared at them.
“Why did you have to tie it so hard?” Cirrus scoffed. “It got ripped up, so now I can’t take revenge on you.”
Cirrus didn’t mention that he was the one who ripped it up and threw it in the trash.
“Oh shame.” the guy said, seemingly not thinking it was a shame.
“Oh and Chan-il and Skylar seemed to almost be finished.” Yoochan said as he looked at his phone. “Chan-il just sent us a message saying they will come here in a while.”
Why are they still together? Cirrus felt irritated, but wasn’t very intent on seeing them due to the embarrassment he had experienced earlier.
“How much longer until we finish?” Cirrus asked instead.
Maybe I can at least explain myself then.
One of the other guys took up his phone to check the time.
“We haven’t really had much guests in the latest hour so I think we will start cleaning now.” he answered and looked toward the rest of the team. “Let’s start cleaning up everyone!”
Great. So coming here was practically useless. I’m just cleaning help.
The guys in the football club gave out tasks to everyone and Cirrus got the nice job of picking up trash, apparently “punishment” for coming late.
A while later Cirrus noticed something red in the hallway as the door to the classroom slid up. In walked Chan-il and slightly behind him walked Skylar. Chan-il looked a bit flushed, like he had run over, and Skylar had a small smile on his face.
I sure hope nothing happened. Cirrus thought with a frown and ducked under a table.
“How’s it going for you?” Chan-il asked one of Cirrus teammates with a smile and noticed they were in the middle of packing everything away. “Ah let me help you!”
Chan-il was in the middle of picking up some of the things that were spread out as he noticed Cirrus. Cirrus covered his face a bit where he tried to hide behind a table.
“Cirrus!” Chan-il cheered. “We saw you before…”
“Don’t say it.” Cirrus interrupted and stood up.
He carefully glanced at Skylars face to make out some sort of reaction. Skylar seemed to have found it funny, since he had a mischievous smile on his face. Cirrus turned his attention to Chan-il again.
“These guys…” Cirrus said and pointed to the people in the classroom. “…made me wear it.”
Cirrus frowned and crossed his arms.
“Oh, don't worry. You looked good in it.” Chan-il said supportingly.
“Yeah. You looked very cute.” Skylar agreed sarcastically.
Even though Cirrus knew it was just because Skylar thought it had looked funny, Cirrus felt a sense of achievement at Skylar’s comment and Cirrus observed him.
“Uhm.” Skylar said and looked away from Cirrus gaze and Cirrus looked at Chan-il again.
“Well let’s forget about that and continue with the cleaning.” Cirrus said to Chan-il and then turned back to Skylar. “By the way, Skylar, did you meet anyone from another school on your way here?”
“No?” Skylar answered, clearly confused. “Only when we were at the booth.”
So those girls couldn’t find him again then. He hadn’t even had had to do anything to get them to stay away. The problem had been solved without him lifting a finger.
“Okay.” Cirrus said and patted Skylar lightly on the shoulder.
Cirrus smiled at him and Skylar suspiciously glanced at him before turning away. Cirrus took up the bag he had been stuffing the trash in and looked at Skylar again as he begun helping the other team-mates.
I will just need to not let him get too close to any of them. Cirrus glanced at Chan-il who joked with his teammates. But I’m gonna have to do something about him.