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“Lua, put down the phone.”
She ignored him, or tried to at least, the pipsqueak annoyed her to no end. “And if I don’t?” She replied cheekily, fixing her hair and re adding the lip gloss she had a boy buy for her from an expensive store downtown. “You’re gonna cancel me, is that it?”
Zio shrugged. “That only happened one time.” He smirked, reminiscing happily to that time he made half the school believe she wore a wig. “You’re all pretenses and falsehoods, can you really blame me if people believed it?” He sat on the same table as hers and kicked his leg over the other, almost pushing her off. “Just answer me one little thing, and I’ll be on my way~ You can do that, can’t you?”
Lua rolled her eyes before putting on a cutesy expression. “Lua doesn’t owe you anything, darling~” She tried to push him off, but Zio grabbed her arm and began doing the same. In a contest of physical strength… They’d both lose. So they called it a tie and decided to share the table for now. “Ugh, what do you want to know?”
“There we go! See? You can be helpful every once a while!” He praised her, making her want to puke and punch him. But she knew better than that. Zio hung his arm around her, pulling her close before looking down at her screen, indicating this was a question nobody else needed to hear. Lua quickly raised her hand and gestured for her squad to leave her alone. “Greatly appreciated.” Junbe, Shinwoo and Yun Jin didn’t think much about it.
“Out with it.” Lua pouted, showing him her screen. “This new cutie just transferred to this school last week, and I gots to know everything there is about him!” Zio analysed his features and shrugged again, caring little for the blue hair, though he had noticed him before and told her as such. “Oh! So you know his name, huh?” She hugged him and puckered her lips as if she genuinely offered him a smooch. “Won’t you tell little old Lua what it is? Lua will behave and answer all your questions if you do~ Scout’s honor, ehe~!”
Zio sighed. “This is why nobody who really knows you likes you.” He pushed her face away and took out his own phone, showing her the news article of the motorcycle crash from a few weeks ago. “...What bad luck, right?”
Lua looked at the article with wide innocent eyes. “Oh no? What do we have here?” She hid her lips behind her phone, but Zio could already envision a smile on her face. “Lua really hopes everyone’s okay…”
“So you know nothing about this?” Zio asked, to which she nodded innocently. “...That’s great! Ahahaha, I was already worried.” He added with an innocent laugh, thereafter moving an inch closer until he could feel her ear almost touch his lips. “Just remember my one rule… Leave Zahhak Senpai out of everything .”
Lua smiled back innocently and patted him on his shoulder. “Now why would Lua do that? He’s totally not my type!” She stuck out her tongue and jumped off her table. “Now that that’s settled, little Lua deserves a reward, no?” She turned on her phone again and showed him the familiar face. “His name. Now.”
Zio fiddled with the hair strand beside his face. “Now there’s a good question.” He formed his hand into a knuckle and knocked on his forehead a couple times, aloof and thinking aloud. “His name, oh his name.” He smirked, enjoying the cracks in Lua’s facade more than anything.
“Take.” She breathed. “Your.” She smiled, slamming the curling iron into the palm of her other hand more impatiently each minute. “Time… Ehe~”
“Maybe I’ll remember it by the end of today.” Zio told her. “I’ll ask around… To ensure the validity of the name I have in mind.” He grinned, adjusting his tie and respectfully bowing in front of her, as she was technically his senior. “I wouldn’t want you to be unprepared for your first time talking to him, Lua Sunbae.”
Just like that, before Lua could grab him by his shoulder, Zio waved towards the classroom entrance door, where the blue haired boy stood with Zahhak Senpai. “Seeing as you haven’t had a proper school grounds tour guide yet.” Zahhak said, readjusting his glasses and gesturing towards the small student with black hair. “Zio here will escort you. Please direct any and all questions towards him, and provide your criticisms and feedback to me at your earliest convenience.”
“Hello, friend.” Zio shook the boy’s hand and looked over his shoulder. “Don’t mind this classroom… It’s merely for…” He smirked at the increasingly more nervous Lua, who forced the best puppy pleading face she could, begging the best she could. “Private tutoring sessions after school.” He chose to answer in the end. The boy with blue hair glanced at Lua for a second, nodding politely, making her hold in a sigh of relief. “...Yeah, Lua Sunbae struggled with math, so she came to me for help. As you can tell it’s quite embarrassing for her, so try to keep it a secret, won’t you?”
Lua nearly dropped her phone and could only awkwardly laugh and pick up her bag as quickly as possible. “Funny as always, Zio-ya, ahaha!” She approached the two boys and made sure she looked as presentable as possible in front of… Him. “Little Lua here takes time out of her busy day to help you, and you repay her by making fun of her in front of a potential new friend?” She smiled, raising her hand. “Lua is Lua, just your little high school girl trying to make new friends. You are?”
“...Too busy to consider your proposal.” Zio snickered. He grabbed the boy’s hand and guided him towards the hall, gesturing for Zahhak to keep Lua busy so she couldn’t invade on his leverage over her. “Zahhak Senpai will help you out with your homework.”
“There's really no need! L-Let’s go have fun together instead, no? I know the perfect place! The owner always gives me a huuuge discoun-” Lua pleaded, but her suggestions fell on deaf ears as Zahhak gently patted her on her back as Zio disappeared from view with her dear future boyfriend…
Nevertheless… In the end, she learned his name; Taeyou.
Zio kept a careful watch over her, as a silent bystander, he wouldn't act until Lua would cross the one line he had set for her. He quickly realised that upon a certain new kid's arrival, things would get a lot more chaotic at Natalon Academy.
Upon Zahhak's graduation, he'd become the new student council president but until then he'd sit idly by and poke and prod every now and then to ensure Adin would be as much of a thorn in Lua's side as possible.
“Liar, liar; Someone’s reputation in the near future will end up quite dire…” Zio sang, his feet up on the table as he watched Lua walk on the main school grounds with Taeyou by her side. “Not your friend; not even your enemy. To him, you're less than nothing, can't you see?” He looked at Zahhak, who was engrossed in his book again, just like always. “You’ll feel regret only after everything is done… You’ll think; "This can’t be my legacy...”
Zahhak looked up from his book upon recognising the familiar quotes. “The Emperor of the Theranhad era and his advisor that created our world anew.” He answered, to which Zio nodded. “Is that the foundation of our relationship to you?”
“Would you blame me if I said yes?” Zio asked.
“The future of this school lies in your hands.” Zahhak answered. “All I can do is allow those who dream of a tomorrow a proper entry upon that path.” He put down his book and took off his glasses, revealing the deep blue eyes that were akin to that of the advisor of ancient history. “You won’t disappoint me, will you, Vice President Zio?”
Zio winked cheerfully, not an ounce of fear to be found on his face. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Then I’ll continue to monitor your actions as I have.” Zahhak told him. “And decide whether the burden of my role won’t be too much for you.” He paused for a second, and an air of mutual understanding filled the room. “Once you rid this school of Lua, I’ll be satisfied to know you’re capable of anything else the future has in store for you. Consider this a test of your own.”
“I was planning on doing that anyway.” Zio clicked his tongue in annoyance. “She lied to me. Everything points to her being responsible for that motorcycle accident.” He suddenly smiled, a feeling of impatient sadism overflowing from within him. “I eagerly await the day she’ll entertain me by drowning in her lies and misery in front of me, without me needing to lift a single finger.”
Zahhak didn’t respond. His emotions were unreadable.
“It’s only natural for trivial students to find themselves expelled, like they never even enrolled.”