Chapter Text
Fuck the education system. Fuck these stupid projects, and fuck teachers who insisted on doing group projects.
What a waste of time.
It’s comical that his teammates genuinely expect him to do his part on researching Inazuma's history.
Like hell he’ll do that. He doesn’t care if his mother is quite literally the most powerful CEO in Inazuma and is well-rehearsed in its history. He doesn’t give a damn if he has access to books of Inazuma’s history.
He merely shrugs when they ask for his progress.
“I didn’t research anything.”
The looks on their faces almost sends him laughing into hysterics.
“Wha- But- It’s due in 2 days!” The brunette girl whose name he couldn’t bother to remember looked close to tears.
“I know. So?”
“Wanderer, c’mon–” a tall tanned guy chimed in. “You have to contribute, this isn’t an individual project–”
Wanderer scoffs, crossing his arms across his chest.
“You two didn’t think this through? I told you both beforehand that I’m not going to do shit.”
The fact he could see the tanned boy almost pop a blood vessel from rage and try to be mature is hilarious. Wanderer merely turns and waves them off.
“Listen, I don’t care about this project at all. Do yourselves a favour and stop bugging me.”
“Why you–”
“What’s going on?” the soft voice he had grown so used to hearing, stops them.
He tilts his head slightly to get a look. Lumine walks over and stands right between them. Clever. She single-handedly prevented him from landing a punch on Wanderer in any way.
“Lumine!” The girl took a step closer with a look of relief. “So, it’s kinda like this… Wanderer isn’t helping at all for our project and it’s due in 2 days!!”
“Yeah! We gave him a week to research Inazuma's history, but he didn’t do crap!”
They’re clearly not holding back at all , Wanderer smirked. Once his group mates opened their mouths to complain, they just kept going. And Lumine just keeps nodding along.
“I see…” Lumine mutters, rubbing the girl’s hand comfortingly. She gives them a comforting smile, which clearly eases their tension. “Don’t worry, let me talk to him.”
It’s quite astonishing how quickly Lumine can switch through emotions. The soft comforting smile on her face disappeared in an instant when she turns to Wanderer. Instead, it’s replaced with a glare.
“Wanderer.” Petite fingers wrap themselves around his wrist as he feels himself being dragged away. “A word, please.”
He scoffs, but doesn’t try to free himself. He lets her pull him out of the classroom. Once they’re out of the other students’ earshot, she points an accusatory finger into his chest.
“Listen, Wanderer.” she spits out. “On the occasion that this is an individual project, I would give you more free room.”
He raises a challenging eyebrow at her words. “So?”
“ So . This is a group project, so you, have, to, contribute.” With each word, she pushes her finger against his chest harder. “I am not letting you drag the grades of other students down along with you.”
He merely cocks his head in response, his lips starting to curve up into a faint smirk.
“Their grades will be fine ,” he rolls his eyes. “This project is graded individually too, y’know.”
“ Regardless, ” she grits her teeth. “Scoring is also still based on team effort.”
His fingers wrap themselves around her wrist as he stares into her furious eyes. For some odd reason, she doesn’t pull away.
“I’m not asking much, Wanderer. At least do your part in this project. I know you hate everyone in your class-”
He raises an eyebrow. “Everyone?”
“It’s not a big secret, everyone knows.” she huffs. “You treat everyone around you like garbage-”
His gaze hardens, his grip around her wrist tightening just slightly.
“Excuse me?”
“Wha–” She visibly falters, but quickly regains her composure. “You hate every-”
“You think I ‘hate’ everyone ?”
She pauses. An expression of pure confusion appears on her face.
“...Well–”
“That’s a very bold statement.” Wanderer sneers.
Lumine frowns, as if she’s trying to connect the very clear dots.
“You’re an exception, prez.” he leans in closer to her face, catching her off guard.
“...Huh?”
“I don’t hate you.” His lips brush close to her ear. “ I merely tolerate you. ”
From the corner of his eye, he smirks as he notices her widen her eyes and push his face away. With furrowed eyebrows and gritted teeth, her fingers found their way on his collar.
“Wanderer, you piece of-” she cuts off, glaring daggers at him.
He flashes a condescending smirk at the blonde. He can’t take her seriously like this, her trying so hard to be authoritative when she has to look up to meet his eyes.
(He’s aware there’s a small difference in their height, but regardless, he’s taller than her.)
“I don’t care for your feelings towards me, I’m telling you to at least contribute–”
“And I’m telling you, I don’t give a fuck about it.”
He watches her inhale, and exhale, trying to get ahold of her composure.
The two share a moment of silence, but neither of them tries to move away from the position they’re in. Wanderer merely waits for her fingers on his collar to loosen.
“You like tea.” she suddenly says, causing his eyebrow to quirk up in confusion. “Don’t you?”
“What nonsense are you saying?”
“You like bitter tea, specifically, right?”
She’s ignoring whatever he’s saying, it’s getting under his skin.
“How did you know? Are you a stalker or something?”
“Whenever it’s lunch, or break, I see you drinking tea.” Her fingers let go of his collar. “You drink a wide variety, but the brands you drink are mostly the really bitter stuff.”
He scoffs, preparing to return to the classroom. “So you’re a stalker.”
Wanderer hears her huffs. He makes a move to walk back to the classroom, but her next words stop him in his tracks.
“If you contribute to the group project, I’ll buy you the most exquisite and bitter tea in Sumeru for a month, on me.”
A scoff escapes his lips. He cocks his head back to glance at her.
“That’s not going to work on me.”
“Really?”
The silence he omitted may as well be an answer to her question, judging by the smirk on her lips. He can’t help it, he’s been dying to try it for a whole month.
“I’ll be checking to make sure you did contribute.”
And with that, she strides past him and into the classroom, leaving him dumbfounded.
Regaining his composure, he grumbles under his breath, before returning to the classroom. Guess he better get to work then…
The next time he catches sight of Lumine the next day, she has a shit-eating grin at the sight of him handing several sheets of papers to his group mates.
She raises a thumbs up and mouths the words ‘Good boy’. He couldn’t help but scoff and turn away, muttering curses under his breath.