Chapter Text
"Please go out with me." The girl said, holding a letter in her arms.
Flux has never met this girl, not that he has a great memory of all the students taking the same classes as him, anyway. He takes one glance at her letter, and promptly looks the other way. Flux knows exactly where that would be going later— the recycling bin.
"Not interested." Flux says and turns, walking towards the other way. He isn't a stranger to getting letters, maybe a little too used to it even.
He has completely lost his interest in getting to his locker, with this lady blocking his path. Who needs to get books anyway?
The girl then suddenly grabs his arm with her hand, forcing Flux to look at her. Her grip is burning, sharp nails digging through his skin.
Surprised by the sudden touch, Flux struggles to pry her hand off. "Get off me!" Flux grits out.
"I gathered all my courage to confess and you're being rude to me!" Flux manages to free himself as she yells out.
"I owe you nothing, lady." Flux says, rubbing his sore arm. This girl has one strong grip, alright.
The girl's face contorted to rage, her features warping into something horrible.
"Why don't you like me back? Is it because I'm ugly?" The girl cries out, and clearly, she needs to be in therapy rather than in highschool. Sure, therapy sucks, coming from first hand experience, but surely, being in jail would be worse.
"Yeah." Flux does not care about entertaining her feelings in the slightest. He notes to file for harassment later, but grimaces thinking of what a hassle that would be. As always, the system isn't quite fit for victims, shutting it down as a mere issue of harmless affection.
"I don't believe it! You like me, you're lying!" The delusional girl shakes her head, sounding worse by the minute.
Flux sighs. He turns back the other way, swiftly this time, ready to bolt out of here.
"No? Is it because you have a girlfriend? I heard from the club that you— it— it must be true!" Insane mutterings poured out like rapid fire.
Girlfriend. Flux stops in his tracks. Where did they get that nonsense?
Flux has a fan club, which he tried to put a stop to, multiple times throughout the year. Not all of them are bad, some opting to admire Flux in silence. Last he heard, the club is experiencing some internal conflicts between those who believes that Flux needs to be admired from afar and those who believe the opposite.
(Or that's what he heard from Thomas, anyway. Somehow, he had connections within the club, which is why he had insider information.)
He tried to hire bodyguards to school for the crazier ones, but administration did not let him.
Just a few more months. He only needed a few more months to graduate out of this hellhole.
It's merely unfortunate timing that Flux is alone actually, making up for the lack of bodyguards, are his friends, guarding him away from these creeps. They all had their own schedules right now, and with the club's level of obsession, surely, at least one of them knew about it.
"So you do have a girlfriend."
Flux paused for a little too long, causing her to jump towards a conclusion. The most incorrect one, actually.
"No, I do not." Flux says, almost defensively. As much as he wanted to limit their interaction, he did not want this rumor to spread farther than it already is.
"Who's the lucky girl? We're just gonna have a nice talk."
Yeah, that talk is not going to be nice in the slightest.
"I don't have a girfriend."
"Yeah, try to deny it all you want, I saw your hesistation."
Yeah, because he's clearly gay! Ish, fix their gaydars, will you!?
"I don't."
"Ha. Wait till the rest hears about this. She's gonna be dead meat."
Flux, in particular, is not having a good day. He spent an all nighter studying for his math exam, just to flunk it because he completely missed an important topic. Now he can't get books for his next class, with this crazy bitch guarding his shit.
Flux sighs, feeling a throbbing pain in the back of his skull. What is his next class again? Chemistry? Who even decided that chemistry is a requirement for all? He's going to architecture, for Ish's sake, he doesn't need stoichiometry!
"I have a boyfriend, got it? Not a girlfriend. Now, leave me be." Flux spits out, tired of everything.
He's definitely sleeping the next two subjects off. Grades be damned.
Flux darts away, not even bothering to spare a glance at the crazy girl.
He messed up.
"Ughhhh," Flux groans, slumping in the cafeteria table. His four friends look at him with worry.
"You okay there?" Snowbird raises his eyebrow. Beside him, Rotation bites loudly through an apple.
It has been almost a day after he snapped at the creep, and oh boy, news spreads fast. With the stares of some people as he walked to school this morning, it could only mean one thing.
"Yup. Totally." Flux says, face buried into his arms, hunched over himself, his voice echoing through the little space he hid himself in.
He flamed the flames himself. Now, probably his entire fan club thinks that he has a mystery boyfriend. It wouldn't be long till people out of that cursed fanclub would hear about it, probably already happening as of the moment, actually.
"Mkay, eat your lunch then." Seraphim says, voice muffled by her chewing. "Lunch ends in 20 minutes."
"Yeah, yeah, I will. Just. Let me have a moment. Will you!?" Flux sighs.
20 minutes is plenty of time. He's done plenty of minecraft speedrunning before and that's basically Ranked PB. Lunch has nothing on bastion split. Those pigs are a menace, I tell you.
"Okay, drama queen," Gotoga drawls out, the roll in his voice obvious, "what's gotten in you now?"
Flux slowly fixes his posture, dragging the lunch tray he pushed aside minutes ago, closer. It's a sad plate of dry-looking mashed potatoes and meatballs.
"Nothing you need to be concerned about," Flux digs a fork in his meatball, grimacing at the pink-looking meat. He takes a small portion, swallowing it to test. Yep. Definitely not cooked.
"Yeah, not buying that. If Thomas was here, I bet that you'll tell him." Gotoga replies, pointing with his fork.
"Never bet against bro." Rotation snickers. He giggles something along the lines of "All in on Thomflux."
Flux does not pay him any attention, with whatever nonsense he's spitting now, instead, Flux takes another forkful of meatball. Yuck. He tries not to gag at its unseasoned glory.
"They need to test this school for health code violations." Flux says bluntly, pushing aside the disgusting meat to the side of his plate. It's now the disgraced zone. He doesn't know how this friends managed to eat such a radioactive thing.
"Pretty sure they did, a while back. Definitely bribed the inspector." Seraphim replies, "I swear I saw rats in their kitchen once."
Ew. This school needs a class action lawsuit. He's slowly losing his appetite to eat.
"…Where is Thomas, anyway?" Rotation asks, "We all know NK hates afternoon classes, but Thomas? Skipping lunch?"
"Weird, isn't it?" Snowbird comments, putting his tray aside, "Thomas would never pass up a chance to spend time with us." Snowbird adds, strangely looking directly at Flux.
Flux digs in his mashed potatoes instead of digging further. He swallows a bite, waiting for the horrors to happen. But surprisingly, they're not as bad as the meatballs, a little dry, but better than it looks.
"Thomas has his own life, outside of Flux." Seraphim shrugs, "Ever think of that?"
There was no need for the shout-out, really. "She's right." Flux says in between chews. "He might be on an extra credit class right now, just forgot to tell us."
"You mean, tell you." Rotation snarks, earning him a shove from Gotoga, "What? I'm right!"
Flux rolls his eyes at his friends' antics, finishing up his plate quickly. The bell rings as he eats the last of his mashed potato.
Putting their trays aside, they all walked and chattered towards the exit of the lunch hall, where they were greeted with a running NewKids, who stopped infront of their group.
He's red and slightly sweaty, knees buckling as if he'd ran from the other side of the school.
"NK? I thought you've gone home." Flux raises an eyebrow.
"I—" NewKids breathes out, still struggling for air, "ran," another inhale, "…wait." NewKids puts a hand up, trying to catch his breath.
"…Okay, take your time bro." Rotation says, glancing at the others, shrugging.
"I… overheard something on the way out." NewKids exhales, regaining his voice, straightening his posture— well, as straight as his usual, anyway, which is slightly crooked.
"And how important is it for you to run from Ish-knows-where?" Seraphim crosses her arms, a curious expression on her face.
"Yeah bro, there's a whole groupchat and everything." Rotation nods.
NewKids' gaze switches from them to Flux. His stare sharp.
Uh-oh. Flux prays that this isn't what he thinks it would be.
"Flux," NewKids starts.
Flux takes a step back, causing concerned gazes from NewKids to turn towards him. NewKids' expression turns absolute, his hesitation vanishing at the sight of Flux's guilty expression.
"Since when did you have a boyfriend?"
Fuck.
"Boyfriend?"
"Who?"
"Is it—"
"No, it must be—"
Noise erupts at the question, various guesses and inquiries flies through the air.
No, no, no.
This can't be happening.
Flux's mouth tightens, eyes darting wildly, not even registering who's speaking anymore. His heartbeat flutters erratically, panic clouding his thoughts.
A million responses comes to his mind,
No, it isn't real.
What are you talking about?
Probably just being crazy fans as usual.
A boyfriend? Pfft. No way.
But faced with their stares, a suffocating feeling of being cornered—
Flux does what he does best.
Flux swallows his words and runs.
Flux wants to scream his heart out.
Why did he run away?
Pacing around his dorm, something he'd gotten for the year as his house is a city away, and he'd rather not go through all of that trouble, he tries to think of something, something that would get him out of this mess.
Wracking his brains for a solution, he tries to think of various ways that would not only trick the entire school, but also his closest friends.
A loud thump echoes through the room as he falls on his bed, rolling around, thinking.
Flux, you do know that you can just talk to your friends, right? They'll understand. The suspiciously Saps-sounding voice in his head says.
Like that's ever easy. Flux scoffs at the thought.
Literally. Just talk. Saps replies back.
…
…Wait, maybe that's it?
He opens his phone, ignoring the messages from the conspiracy members, and starts chatting. What he sends is a simple, short text, perfect for what he needs.
[ SAPARATA ]
need a fake date reply ASAP <
Although…
Saps has never been the type to answer quickly, often forgetting to read messages, he is quick to apologize for doing so, and Flux just got used to his behavior.
But in this situation where his entire reputation depends on it?
Well.
Flux exits their chat and decides to message Thomas, sending the exact same message that he sent to Saps.
Thomas always replies immediately to his messages, an exception only in some special occasions such as being too focused studying. But when that happens, Thomas usually lets him know first.
It's now a race against time.
Flux decided whoever responds first is the one he'll pick. He's basically an expert at deleting messages anyway. His decision lies on current circumstances and luck.
This was his first mistake.
Flux's phone dings with notifications. Both from different numbers.
[ SAPARATA ]
> I'M DOWN
> I'M SOO DOWN
> DO YOU NEED A KISS NOW OR
> Cmere bbg 😍😘
[ THOMAS ]
> sure ?????
> what are you scheming lmao
They both replied at the same time.
Flux stares at his phone, going back and forth between the two chats. Both sent at the exact same time. 1:47pm.
Both had agreed to Flux's scheme.
…A fake dating scheme.
Flux rolls over onto his stomach. His fingers hover his keyboard.
This is such a stupid plan!
It started to dawn on Flux how horribly he planned this out, an impulsive decision, not once thinking of the consequences.
Well, it's too late to back out.
With trembling fingers, and a thumping heart, Flux replies to the two.
[ SAPARATA ]
no i dotm need akiss u weirdo <
> U sure?? Cuz I'm like not busy rn we could practice or somthin
> I heard thats what fake couples do haha
no <
starting to regret this offer <
> ☹️
[ THOMAS ]
notjhing jsut need an excuse <
fanclub is getting out of hand <
> okay i understand
> what do you need me to do ?
Since they both replied yes, at the same time, if he were to delete any of his messages now, it would spoil the plan to the other.
This was a horrible idea. Absolutely reckless.
So, of course Flux didn't back out. As if Flux could say no to the two of them. Digging his grave is practically his hobby at this point.
Saps and Thomas are Flux's two very dear bestfriends. It's horribly sappy, but they are the two people he trusts with his life. They are part of the reason why Flux refuses to transfer schools, too attached to two anchors grounding him.
No one is more important than the other, they both are different in their own way. You could say that they are pretty much, equally the same in Flux's eyes.
Flux looks at the text message bubbles once more, then to the ceiling of his dorm.
Flux chucks his phone to the other side of the room as he closes his eyes, muffles himself with a pillow and screams out all his frustration.
A fake dating scheme. With two of his bestfriends. Unaware of the other.
...
…How wrong could all of this go?