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Everything and everyone is pissing me off.
Scara roughly picked up his backpack, not caring about the stuff he shoved in there messily. His group mates looked up at him with fear. One of them tried to hold him back and grabbed his wrist.
Scara glanced at the guy with long blonde hair holding his wrist with a sharp gaze, made the other person pulled his hand back in an instant.
"W-we're sorry ... we didn't mean to—"
"I don't need your apology. Just do it all on your own, I'm not working with you all anymore."
Without further ado, Scara walked away from the desk with loud steps, showing his anger.
They were doing a group project and Scaramouche is a relatively new student in this class. He joined the class two weeks late because of change of thoughts and he started to regret everything about taking this class. His group didn't help to make it better either.
Everytime Scara spoke about his idea, they would just stare at him and somehow saying things to make fun of his idea, but they never actually discussing about relevant topics. It was getting into Scara's nerves. So he started to forcefully made them agree to the topic he chose, delegate people to do the work, and he did it all by himself. He's done discussing with them.
Today is the peak of it all. Scara decided to join the group meeting at the campus lounge, but when he got there, everyone wasn't doing their job at all. They were busy talking nonsense and when Scara asked about something nobody really listened to him and they just said, "Just look it up on the internet bro."
Now his face is deep red. He tried to control his breath and stopped in front of a vending machine to grab some canned drink.
Without warning, something cold pressed against his neck.
Scara almost threw a punch immediately, before another palm caught his fist.
A guy who is slightly taller with long brown braided hair and white highlights blocked the sunlight from Scara's sight.
Scaramouche felt like he could explode right here and then.
"What the fuck do you want?" he asked, staring at that green eyes and annoying smile. "Let go of my hand."
The other guy moved the cold can to rub Scara's cheek, "What if I don't want to?"
"Don't mess with me right now. I'm not in the mood to deal with your nonsense," he tried to snap Sethos' hands out of him, but the guy was insistent.
"I'm being kind enough to bought you your favorite drink," Sethos shook the can gently in front of Scara's face. It's a canned green tea with less sugar label on it. The exact same product Scara would always buy.
"What the hell?" he lifted his right eyebrow. "How did you even be everywhere? Don't you have anything better to do? Are you that jobless?"
Scara's taunting words only made Sethos smiled wider.
"Got into a fight with your group mates?" Sethos looked at Scara with mocking gaze.
"What...? How—"
"I always know," he finally let go of Scara's left wrist and moved his lips closer to whisper into Scara's right ear. "Take this. My treat."
"You're a fucking creep, has anyone ever told you that?" Scaramouche sneered. "You must be planning something atrocious to be this kind. I know you're not a genuine person."
Sethos examined Scara's face intently until he caught Scara's red ears that he covered with his blue beanie hat in a hurry. He pulled the beanie off Scara's head.
"Hey, give it back—"
"Why did you try to cover up the fact that you're blushing?" Sethos tried so hard to hold back his smirk. "You're so cute."
"Ugh don't you see that I'm very very pissed off right now?! Do you want a taste of my kick?" Scara threw the canned tea to the ground. "What the fuck do you want?"
"Go out with me. Be my boyfriend. Not hard isn't it?" He tilted Scara's chin with his index finger.
Scara's face got even redder than he already was, "Fuck off. Give me back my hat you bastard!"
Scara tried to took back his hat that Sethos put high in the air with his left hand. Too consumed by his accumulated anger since this morning, Scara lost the balance on his stance and tripped forward.
His vision started to flashed, but before his face managed to touch the ground, he felt an arm pulled his body so firmly.
The next second, he felt a hand coiled around his body and his cheek touched fluffy brown hair.
Sethos embraced him.
Realizing that fact, Scara pushed Sethos away in an instant, the other guy almost fell back if he didn't crash to the vending machine.
"PERVERT! I will report you! I- I will—" Scara's whole complexion is beet red right now.
Sethos laughed out loud at that.
"You really are so cute," he said calmly, in contrast of Scara's rapid heartbeat.
"Asshole! Bastard! You will pay for this— You — AARGH!" Scara turned his body so his back facing the annoying guy and shouted out his frustration out loud.
Sethos picked up the abandoned canned tea on the ground and gave it back to Scara.
"Please accept this. I was just kidding. But if you actually want to be my boyfriend I will be more than happy to—"
"SHUT UP!" Scara shouted, snatched the can from the other's hand harshly. He gulped down the content furiously until the last drop and threw it back to Sethos' torso.
Then he stomped his feet to walk away from Sethos.
"Feeling better aren't you?" Sethos talked to himself. "He really is so cute."
Then he looked at the handmade soft blue beanie hat on his hand gently. He smiled.
"Thank you," Scara slightly bowed.
He worked night shift on his part time job in a cafe at Sumeru City every weekend. He actually still in training here, only been working for a month. He looked at his watch, 9.27 pm.
He gave a sign to his coworker to prepare for closing, until the bell rang again. He tried his best to hold his sigh.
"Welcome to Puspa Cafe, what would you like to order today?" He said with his tired voice until his eyes widen at the sight of that wavy brown hair who he had been seeing way too often these past few months. "What the — Why are you here!?"
Scara's coworker looked at him, flabbergasted at how Scara spoke to a customer.
"Why? Am I not allowed to come?" that guy tilted his head and looked at Scara with a tiny smirk.
"AHH why am I the one who have to go through all this," he whispered to himself, massaged his nose bridge.
"Scara!" his coworker exclaimed. "I'm very sorry, he's still a new part time worker here and is still in training. He had issue with his temper sometimes but I promise he's usually very reliable!"
Sethos smiled, "It's alright. I know the fact that he is."
Scaramouche looked at him with a fiery eyes.
He exhaled deeply before going back to his cafe-staff demeanor, "So, your order?"
"I would like a cup of caramel latte," he said.
"It will be 500 mora," Scara typed something in the cashier screen and the bill printed out.
Sethos handed him that exact amount of mora.
"Please wait, your order will immediately be prepared."
Scara's coworker helped with the coffee making and Scara heard Sethos whispered, "Don't you think you lost something?"
Scara pretended that he didn't hear anything and busied himself with tidying up the desk.
"This will be mine, then," Sethos played with a fluffy fabric in his hand. Scara stole a glance to his side and his eyes widened.
"Give it back you bastard," he snarled.
"Oh, so you still need this?"
"Give it—"
"The coffee is ready," their bickering got cut off by Scara's coworker's voice. He handed the coffee over to Sethos' hands.
"Thank you for the order, hope you enjoy the coffee," Scara said that with a flat intonation and face full of furiosity.
Sethos bowed politely and wore the beanie hat while whispering, "Meet me in the Vahumana Library on monday at 12 pm if you want this back."
Scaramouche raised his middle finger while his coworker looked away and finally Sethos walked out of the cafe.
Scaramouche took off his apron furiously and threw it to the cashier desk.
He's a fucking creep.
He steadied his breath before helping the other staff to clean up.
Scaramouche actually didn't want anything to do with that Sethos guy anymore, unless he couldn't because they were literally in the same department.
He didn't take Sethos' word at their last meeting seriously and thought that he didn't need that beanie that much anyway, so he would just let it go.
He didn't have class after 11 am at monday, so he would spend his time preparing for his bachelor thesis at the library.
He was swallowed in his own world, gathering all sorts of journals and books he could get from the internet, looking for physical copies available in the library, and started to type out his idea for the thesis topics.
He would say he never really thought about getting into college back then due to financial (and family conflicts) issues until his guardian recommended him to a scholarship program and he magically got accepted to the Akademiya. So might as well just get out of here quickly.
Two hours into intense work, drowsiness took over. He let his wired earphone played the musics, accompany his — supposedly only 20 minutes — power nap.
Scara woke up with a shock and he immediately checked on his phone screen to look at the time.
He overslept for 3 hours! Three hours is crazy!!
He looked at his surroundings. The three other people who was sitting next to him already gone, the sun outside slightly turned orange already.
He rubbed his eyes and did some stretches before deciding that he would just go home.
"Sleep well, Princess?"
Scaramouche almost jumped out of his seat when he heard the much too familiar voice in his ears.
"Archons above — how are you everywhere? How could you always follow me around?!" Scara talked with full hostility towards Sethos.
"Why? Am I not allowed to hang out in my own department's library? I paid my tuition too you know," Sethos moved his face closer to Scara's. "Other than that ... I remember that I was the first one to plan this meeting. You really came."
"I was not coming because of you. Don't you see that I'm busy?"
"If you're so busy you wouldn't sleep for a whole three hours with that poor posture. What are you? Sleeping Beauty?"
Scaramouche growled at the guy in front of him.
"Here. I'm a man of my word," Sethos said, put a blue beanie hat on the table.
"I don't need that, just throw it out. I'm not touching anything you have kept for more than 24 hours," he replied, closing his laptop and shoving all the papers and books on the table into his backpack.
"Well that would be my pleasure then but no," Sethos insisted.
Scara looked at him with his piercing gaze, "You're so annoying."
"I'll take it as a compliment."
After contemplating for a while, Scara decided to took back his hat so this annoying guy wouldn't have another reason to keep showing up in front of him.
"I know you've been following me around for a whole four months since last semester considering the intensity of our encounter these past months, but now let's just pretend we don't know each other. Stop bothering me, stop talking to me, and stop acting all friendly with me. I'm not—"
"Hey look at that," Sethos cut off Scara's long speech about how he wanted to push Sethos away from him.
Scara rolled his eyes, but still followed Sethos' finger.
He then saw the pair of gray and blonde haired men Sethos seemed to be so obsessed over. They talked with the librarians and looking all friendly, especially the blonde guy, but apparently the one who had the business was actually the gray haired guy.
Scara tried to remember — is it three, four, five? He thought it's eight times. Eight times that Sethos always talking about that damn couple.
"Do you think they're married?"
"Why would I care? How many times should I tell you that I don't care about them?" He said, wrote down all the books he wanted to borrow for the next period to support his bachelor thesis on his phone.
"If we're married I think we will look pretty much like that," Sethos said it as if it was nothing.
The words hovering in the air around Scaramouche and he started to feel nauseous and hyperventilated.
"Cute isn't it?" Sethos still looking at them with a smile on his face. "Please go out with me."
Scaramouche looking at the other guy with disbelief. Why is this guy so insistent!?
"I told you, let's just pretend we don't know each other. Stop showing yourself in front of me, stop talking to me, and stop acting friendly with me. We're not friends, I'm not happy that you're following me around and forcing me to all your nonsense. I hate you, you're really annoying. Let's just not talking to each other at all from now on. That's it and good bye," Scaramouche lifted his backpack and walked out of the library.
Sethos looked at Scara's back that was slowly disappeared from his sight.
"He really is stubborn isn't he?" Sethos shifted his gaze to the sun light that turned even more orange out there. "That's all there is to it, then."
He sat there for a few minutes afterwards, until one of the staff approached him and informed him that it's almost closing time.
Sethos looked at his phone, reading his schedule for tomorrow.
He bowed to the librarian and walked out of the library.
The next day after their encounter in the library, Sethos actually stopped showed up around Scaramouche.
It made him relieved at first, but even after a month, Sethos never showed up ever again. Not even his silhouette, not even the slightest flashes of his green iris. Scaramouche started to wonder, what was that guy up to? Why was he suddenly disappeared?
It couldn't be ... because of Scaramouche, right?
Did his words hurt him that much? Was he overdoing it?
"Why would I care?" Scaramouche thought to himself.
But he couldn't lie to his mind any longer.
That guy didn't do anything stupid didn't he?
One semester passed without Sethos' presence at all.
They only intensely met each other for four months. Not even that much time to feel attached at all.
But Scaramouche was not going to lie, he missed the annoying — but comforting somehow — presence of that emerald eyes. The way he was always showing up around whenever Scaramouche was swallowed in fury, brought him anything that Scara actually liked, the way Scara forgot about what was he being so mad about because he overlayed it with his own anger towards Sethos.
It felt weirdly silent and empty after Sethos disappeared without notice and Scaramouche didn't know how to get rid of that emptiness. He hated that he felt this way. He hated that deep in his subconsciousness he wanted Sethos to bought him the same bitter green tea whenever he felt like beating up everyone.
Scaramouche didn't know what to do, guess he would just wish that this feeling would go away.
He finally started his final year as college student, the 7th semester.
He wished that he could finish his thesis on time.
He walked into the library with his headphone and logged his visit into the library computer. He walked to his usual space — the very same place where Sethos last showed up in his scope of sight.
Another person already sat there. An uncannily familiar shade of brown and white highlights and braids.
"What the hell ..." he whispered to himself.
Sensing another person approaching, that brown haired person turned his head.
Scaramouche almost dropped the laptop he carried on his hand.
That damn same green eyes he long time not see.
"What the fuck ...? You—"
That other person smiled gently, made all blood rushing to Scaramouche's cheeks.
"Hey."
Scara changed his plan to work on his thesis.
Sethos took him to the department backyard where there are not much people passing by — there were barely anyone there.
"You still look as cute as the last time I saw you. Did you let your hair grow?" He tried to reminisce Scaramouche's face from his memories.
"What the fuck — Where the fuck did you disappear to? For a whole 5 months? Motherfucker," Scaramouche actually felt tears welled up on his eye sockets for the reason he didn't even know.
"Uhh I was actually attending a student exchange program ...." he answered. "It's one semester period and was planned since a very long time ago."
Scaramouche almost laughed to himself.
On one side, he felt relieved that Sethos didn't disappear for stupid reason — his mean words towards him, but he also felt ridiculous. Why was he actually so happy that he was able to meet Sethos again?
"You hang around me for that much time, you could at least told me about it," he said.
Sethos seemed flustered. He examined Scara's face. The bright and flawless complexion, the long lashes, the dim blue-purple eyes.
"I thought you wouldn't care. So I just thought that it would mean nothing if I told you."
Scara almost laughed at himself.
Of course.
His 5-months-ago self would think like that.
"Well, I'm back. I'm sorry for bothering you so much back then. I thought ... I thought I will regret it if I didn't give it a shot — the go out with me things .... But forget it, our last meeting was enough to give me clear answer," his gaze wandered to the blue sky up there.
Scaramouche felt like he choked on the air.
"What did you say?"
"Hm? I said I will stop pursuing you. You told me that yourself."
Scaramouche shifted from his seat and reflexively moved his body to be looming over Sethos' body that is leaning against a tree trunk.
Sethos' eyes widened by the surprise.
"Say it again."
"Uhh I will stop—"
"Not that one. The one that you told me everyday five months ago. Go. Say it."
"Uhh I—"
"Say it," Scaramouche tightened the grip on Sethos' shoulders.
"Uhh I like you. Please go out with me—"
"Yes."
"What?"
"Yes," Scaramouche repeated. "I will go out with you, so stop thinking about anything stupid."
"What? Why now?"
"You don't want to?"
"No it's not like that, but ... you were so insistent on rejecting me back then."
"Well not anymore," Scaramouche pulled back his body to go back to his initial position, but sethos put his palm on his back so he couldn't move any further.
"Let go—"
Sethos stared intently at the dark eyes only 30 centimeters away from his face.
"Are you serious? Why?"
"Do I really need to explain? Because I want to you bastard. Let go," Scaramouche tried to move away, but Sethos just wrapped his arms around Scara's body even tighter.
"Can I kiss you?" He asked.
"No, what the f—"
Looking at the sparkling emerald eyes under him, Scaramouche clicked his tongue, then closed their distance himself.
Sethos gripped Scara's nape and let himself be pushed further against the tree trunk. Scara's trembling hands moved to grab at Sethos' fluffly hair.
After a while, they finally pulled away from each other, short of breath.
"You know, sometimes merely a can of tea can remind me of you," he said. "I grew to love the bitter taste because I always drink that when I was in Liyue because ... it reminds me of you."
"Cringe," Scaramouche held back his giggles.
"Not so much compared to someone who suddenly begged me to confess my feeling all over again," Sethos returned his words.
Scaramouche surprisingly grew very fond of this annoying guy. Perhaps his presence meant to be a menace in Scaramouche's life.