Chapter Text
He hated those bullies to his guts. He wouldn't just let them get away with hurting his one and only lover.
Shin Higaku, the sub-leader of the occult club, somehow managed to catch the attention of this delinquent. It wasn't that difficult to follow Shin, since he mostly had a simple routine like most students at school. So it made it easier for Umeji to memorise his daily activities, except on the days when he would be surrounded by those five bullies, who thought they were better than anyone at school, even though they had their own dirty little secrets.
Around cleaning time, Umeji would always come up with some excuse to ditch his friends and check up on his man, who's not his man yet.
Oh god, how hard was it for him not to pull Shin to some corner and kiss those dry lips of his and be the only lubricant for his lips. But he has to sustain those desires; he doesn't want to scare Shin.
Umeji was aware of the type of reputation he had at school, but only a few knew of his actual backstory.
It wasn't until a few days later that Shin felt like he was constantly being followed by some kind of presence; it was as if he had managed to summon the demon that he had been trying to summon with his occult club members. Being the coward he is, he tried to ignore it while Umeji was dying and cursing at him to notice him at least once.
One day during his next following session, Umeji noticed those bullies, also known as "The popular girls", surrounding Shin's table and writing stuff like "die", "kill yourself", "worthless", "get lost". Since he was far from the table, he didn't really notice what they were writing there, but of course, he was sure that it was nothing sweet.
He waited until they all left the class. He had a very blank reaction; it wasn't like he wasn't expecting it, but seeing these on his lover's table angered him. He tried to clean the table before the class started, but got caught by Shiromi, one of the members of the student council. Since Umeji was an upper-class man, Shiromi questioned why he was here, but not wanting to say anything, she suspected him of writing those things on Shin's desk. He knew that he was about to get into trouble for this.
During lunch time, Shin was eating his lunch with his club members. Being the one to always finish his lunch first, he went to class to spend some alone time there.
One of the bullies, Kokoro, who walks around scrolling on her phone almost all the time, noticed Shin going to his class. Without wasting any time, she informed her friends. A few minutes later, all of the bullies were again surrounding Shin's desk, but this time, he was there, making the scene more exhilarating for them.
They bullied and tormented him more than the words they wrote on that desk. One of the girls even started messing with his hair and pulling his choker, which was a gift from his previous club leader. He was cherishing that choker because it was the symbol that he was trusted to be in the leader position, even though he was just a sub temporarily.
Like always, just "passing by" from there, Umeji noticed this scene and immediately interrupted them.
"I want you to leave him alone, or you will get hurt" Umeji warned.
Like everybody else, the bullies were scared of the delinquents too, so, not spending another moment in there, they left the room.
First time Shin and Umeji were alone.
"Thank you for that..." His voice came out low.
"Don't mention...You can come up to me if they try to approach you again, if you want, of course" He said, rather aggressively instead of softly like he intended to. He cursed at himself for sounding like.
"And I just hate those girls who keep picking on people because of who they are. Besides, you seem like a nice guy"
"Oh-I mean, thank you"
The room suddenly felt so awkward and silent. Shin, being him, was still intimidated by him.
"Anyways, I will get back to class now, take care."
Since that day, Shin felt gratitude towards Umeji; he was one of the few ones feeling that way.
Even though Umeji warned them, it was never accurate to guess what those bullies would be up to. They could just bully Shin without him noticing, so to not let that happen, Umeji warned his friends to keep a close eye on Shin and report to him immediately if something happens to him.
Like usual, Shin was on his cleaning duty like everybody else, well, except a few. Today he was cleaning around the garden, which is quite close to the incinerator area.
Didn't take him too long to notice who was coming his way. None other than the bullies, but this time only three of them.
"No one likes you and your little creep friends. Why don't you just go kill yo-" Musume ridiculed, surrounding him with Kashiko and Hoshiko.
"Leave me alone!" He protested.
"What's the problem? We are just having fun, aren't we?" Musume looked back at her friends.
Shin, already lost, was looking around for some kind of help from anyone.
As long as he wasn't in the attention of these bullies.
"Why are you not saying anything? Are you scared? Are you scared that we are going to tell everyone your secret?" Musume was on the verge of losing her patience because of how boring it was to bully Shin, but she had a gossip at her hand; she would never let something so precious go to waste.
"What secret? What are you talking about?" Shin talked back, completely confused about what he was even getting accused of.
"The secret of you having a secret relationship with the substitute teacher, Miss Mida"
"W-what...? What are you even talking about?!" He was on the verge of losing his composure.
"Don't act dumb, we know you are dating, though I wonder how you managed to pull her"
Kashiko, noticing Umeji and his friends gathering around the incinerator, bumped Musume's elbow.
"What?" Musume said, annoyed
"I think it's time for us to leave cause look who is there..." Kashiko added
Musume turned around to see what she was talking about, only to see Umeji and already afraid of the possible outcome.
"Stay alert, Shin, you just got lucky this time, next time, more people will know what kind of a psycho you are and on top of that, a weirdo too"
Musume and her friends left him alone there.
Noticing that Shin was alone, this time Umeji approached him.
"Hey...you alright?" He was worried yet happy to see him
"I-I am...I will get back inside" He didn't mean to stutter, but it just came out like that with the depth of the situation.
"Well, just let me know if something happens. See you later"
No matter how much Umeji didn't want to leave, he couldn't help but suddenly lose all his strength upon seeing Shin. It's like his whole body does an upside-down whenever he sees him, and on top of that, hearing that soft and pathetic voice of Shin, he loses his whole composure, though he tries his best not to make it obvious.