Chapter Text
Saint was living his life on autopilot.
Ever since he broke his best friend’s leg and dropped out of school, everything was, almost, blurry.
He hadn’t spoken a word in the last three years and he wasn’t planning on it. He didn’t deserve to make conversation. Which meant no friends either. He deserved to be alone for the rest of his life. And if he was being honest, he didn’t even want to talk to anyone. It was way too much effort and he was too tired.
He had finally made his return to school last year and it was quite interesting, to say the least. He was put into Class 2, which was filled with the most disturbing of students. That was not so great news for Saint, but he couldn't do much about that.
He had no choice. He needed to go to school, get a diploma, and get a job to finally help his father out with the bills. So, he marched on.
Back when he wasn't in school, he only ever saw his father on a not so daily basis given his fathers tendencies to go on fishing trips. Even with his father though, Saint did not speak. Saint did, however, learn sign language. He tried to teach his father so that they could at least communicate a little, but that didn’t quite work out, so Saint gave up.
Some people tried to make conversation with him, like Eve. Others like Ken tried to provoke him, just to irritate him. It didn’t do much though. If Saint didn’t want to talk, he wouldn’t.
He walked into school, head down, backpack over one shoulder, dragging his feet the slightest bit. It was a new semester, and Saint was hoping for things to be a little calmer than usual. How wrong he was.
He walked into class and noticed some people he had never seen before sitting on top of some of the desks, chatting.
Then Saint realized. The rival campus was now gonna be studying at their school. Which was, of course, gonna cause more chaos then Saint would’ve wanted.
Great, Saint thought.
He looked around and found a seat next to the window, not in the front and not in the back. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He put his head on the table and crossed his arms to hide his face as much as possible. He then heard footsteps to his right, but didn’t bother to look up.
“Hey, Saint! How you doing today?” Eve practically beamed.
Saint only moved his head so his face was completely against the desk as a response.
“Tired as always, I see,” Eve said with a pout. She waited a moment to see if Saint would respond.
“Well, I gotta go now… Bye!” she said awkwardly before turning around and joining her friend again.
The bell rang and some people decided to sit down at their spots. Ken, Knot, Nate and the group of unknown people didn’t. The teacher then walked in with a paper in hand, Saint assuming it was for attendance.
“Hello class, my name is Ms. Jan and I will be your new teacher. Now I’ll be doing attendance,” Ms. Jan said before starting to list the names. Saint was half paying attention the whole time, only waiting for his own name to be called.
After a few moments of names and voices he didn’t care for much, one name stood out amongst them all.
“Naruebet Ittiwat,” Ms. Jan finally called out.
Saint immediately looked up from his crossed arms. His eyes were as wide as saucers and his brain felt like mush.
Shin? Saint thought.
“Shin is sick today, he isn’t coming to school,” One of the new strangers said.
“Ok,” Ms. Jan said before continuing her list of names.
Saint was shocked. He needed to get out of here. Out of this school. Out of his skin. He hadn’t seen Shin in years and now they were in the same fucking class. God must really hate him, he guessed.
The rest of the day passed by like a blur. More of a blur than usual that is. Saint just wanted to leave as fast as he could and sleep the night away and possibly never wake up.
When the final bell rang, he immediately got up and headed towards the school's exit, ignoring all the other students in the school doing the same.
He made it to his house at record speeds and immediately walked to his bedroom and flopped down onto his bed. He didn’t care that he hadn’t done anything productive, he just needed to escape this world, just for a moment.
***
The next day, he was really debating dropping out of school again, or just never showing up ever again. He couldn’t though. He just needed to avoid his ex-friend for the rest of the semester, that’s all.
It was raining outside today and, lucky for him, Saint found an umbrella neatly tied up next to the front door of his house. He took it with him and started his walk to school, getting his shoes wet in the process.
Once inside the campus, he noticed there weren't many people around.
This is actually really nice, Saint thought. But before his train of thought could get too far, he heard hurried footsteps coming closer and closer behind him.
Suddenly, his umbrella had another hand on it and was being angled so that Saint’s and the strangers' backs were now hidden to the public.
Saint looked to the side to see who had invaded his personal space and maybe to give them a nasty glare, just to find that his worst nightmare came true. None other than Shin was holding his umbrella, breathing heavy, with drops of water falling from his hair.
Saint’s breathing halted. He was staring directly at his former best friend just a few centimeters away from him. Shin hadn’t noticed it yet though, as he was still looking behind him for whomever was chasing him. They stayed like that for a few seconds.
“Thank you for helping me out there,” Shin said, still not noticing whose umbrella he was holding. Shin started to turn around and when Saint noticed the movement, he immediately let go of the umbrella, taking a big step back, getting soaked in the process.
Saint had half the mind to bolt right out of there, he really did. But it was too late, Shin had turned around now and was gawking at him. Shin’s expression turned from relief to pure anger.
Saint, now, with some barring on the world, finally ran out of there, leaving Shin with his umbrella in the rain, alone. He ran as fast as he could up the stairs and to the bathroom where he locked one of the stalls. He sat down on the dirty floor, not caring for the germs that may roam and put his head in his hands.
He was fully panicking now. Reliving all of their past memories together in the dingy bathroom. He debated going home now, but if he did, he might get questions from his father asking why he didn’t show up and he didn’t really have a good excuse. So, after calming himself down, he walked out of the bathroom and made his way to his classroom.
Opening the door, he found Shin, sitting in the seat right beside Saint's usual one and Saint didn’t know if life could get any worse. With his gaze trained on the floor he walked over to his seat, sat down and put his head on the desk, arms crossed once more. He was fully hiding away now, from the boy beside him.
“Hey Saint, you good? You’re wet like a dog! Didn’t you bring an umbrella?” Eve asked a very soggy looking Saint.
Using his usual response of turning his head away, he hoped Eve would get the hint and leave him alone.
“Why didn’t you bring an umbrella?” Eve asked, still not getting the hint. He heard a different set of footsteps approaching him which immediately made him want to sink further into his desk and disappear.
He was about to get up and leave before something was placed on his table. He looked up slightly, and saw his umbrella back on his desk. Shin, now, walking back to his own desk.
“What the fuck was that?” Eve said, obviously very confused. Saint was just as confused as Eve, but tried to play it off cool. He gave a shrug, trying to act indifferent and laid his head back on the desk, wanting to disappear completely. Eve finally got the hint and left Saint alone.
The rest of the day, Saint avoided Shin to the best of his abilities. It was kind of hard to do so, but Saint was gonna make it work. He kept his head firmly planted on his desk and turned away from the boy beside him. He could feel Shin’s eyes at the back of his head all day, but he couldn’t look at him. Not now, not ever.
When the final bell rang, he waited for everyone to file out of the classroom. He listened for footsteps, and when he heard none, he turned around and got up. However, God, again, must hate him, because there was indeed someone left in the classroom. And it was the last person he wanted to see.
Shin was standing at the front of the class, staring at Saint like he was expecting something from him. Saint didn’t know what to do, so he just looked back down at his feet and started gathering his stuff. He then heard footsteps coming closer to his desk and Saint’s heart dropped. With his eyes still cast down, he now didn’t only see his own shoes but also the shoes of his ex-best friend.
Shin slammed a hand against Saint’s desk, causing Saint to flinch.
“You’ve changed,” Shin said matter of factly. “You don’t talk as much.”
Of course Shin would notice. Shin always noticed when something was wrong with Saint.
Saint didn’t exactly know how to respond to that, so he just continued to pack up his things, not noticing the shift in energy coming from the person beside him.
“Can you talk?” Shin said with the most sincere voice Saint had heard from him all day. This stopped Saint in his tracks. He looked up to find Shin with the softest expression he had seen from him in years, concern very clear in his eyes.
With Saint being a very sensitive person, Shin's face almost made Saint cry. Shin, obviously noticing this and also realising what he just said, took a few steps back. Saint thought that that was the end of it when Shin started to turn around and leave, until he heard Shin say something under his breath, for only Saint to hear.
“I still hate you and I haven’t forgiven you. Nothing about this interaction has changed that,” Shin said, almost embarrassed Saint thought.
And with that, Shin walked out of the room leaving a very confused Saint behind.
What the fuck is happening today.