Kizhashi's POV

I was waiting for the last period to get over, but it felt like an eternity. It just wouldn't get over. My anxiety was increasing with each passing second. I was getting more and more restless. Reina noticed this and asked me, "Koi-san, are you feeling sick? Are you okay?"

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I could tell by the genuine concern in her voice, but this was something that I just couldn't afford to share with her. This is the only thing which I've kept lying about times and times again. I felt bad for lying to her, but that was something I had to do to survive.

"I'm okay, don't worry." I chuckled and shook my left hand as a gesture that it wasn't anything serious. She kept staring at me for a few seconds and then returned her gaze towards the whiteboard with a slight nod.

I looked at the clock, and unfortunately there were still ten minutes left for the period to end. I slightly turned around to look over my shoulder towards Sakamaki and was staring at the board with a blank expression on his face. I mean, his face was always like that.

Running different scenarios in mind, from the best to worst, I was deep in my thoughts. Before I could know, the bell rang indicating the end of the period. We all stood up to bow to our teacher, and they left the classroom.

I sat down, but my heart started beating faster. I was nervous. I still wasn't ready to face what was there for me. My hands were chilly from sweating. I started putting the notebook and other stuff inside my bag.

The sound of Reina zipping her bag turned my attention towards her. I looked at her as she stood up with a confused look on her face while staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You are not going to leave?" She asked me suspiciously.

"Ah, actually you can go ahead of me." I said.

"Why so?"

"I have business I've to attend to."

"With whom? What business? If it's not long then I can wait for you." She fired rapid questions at me, and by her tone I could tell that she was serious.

"Reina-san, stop acting like my mom." I chuckled.

"Koi-san…" She took a slight pause looking at me in the eyes and continued, "If something is bothering you then free to tell me."

"Ah, of course I'll tell you about these things first. But don't worry." I smiled. Looking at her expression, she wasn't satisfied by my answer, so I decided to add something. "Ah, please tell Gai-kun too that I'll be late so he doesn't have to wait for me or anything."

"Alright…" She narrowed her eyes and nodded. Before walking away, she turned around and said, "I swear to god, if I find out that something was indeed bothering you, I'm going to make you suffer and then take care of that thing." With that, she left the class.

She has always been like that. Putting her friends, or should I say close ones, before herself. I liked this side of her. I liked how she genuinely cared about me, but I didn't like that the Koi she knew was an imposter. I didn't like the fact that I was lying to her. Our friendship was the biggest mark of my lie.

I noticed as the class was slowly getting instead. Many of my classmates were leaving while saying 'bye' to me. The chatter around me was slowly fading, too.

I slowly turned around to look at what Sakamaki was doing, but to my surprise, he wasn't there. I looked carefully and noticed that his bag was gone too. Did he just leave? Then why did he tell me to meet him after everyone left? Did he play a prank on me? Well, if he did, then this is quite a horrible one.

I was sitting alone in the class with nothing but the sound of my own heavy breathing and the wall clock ticking by. The class was covered in the flaming colour of the setting sun that was entering through the window.

Was the idea of not telling Gaisen a terrible choice? I mean, Gaisen and he are close friends so I'm sure that something might have come up from that. But the problem is that I know Gaisen is a nice guy but I don't know much about Sakamaki. As far as I know, he is quite the piece of shit.

Telling anyone about my bullying would only increase the chance of that mews getting spread among students. And in high school, these things spread faster than wildfire. I can't let what happened in my past happen again to me.

I know for a fact that those three girls won't ever tell anyone about them bullying me. Though they might have spread rumours about me if I didn't let them bully me. I'm glad it was a one-time deal, and it's over. If anything else, I can depend on Gaisen for that.

But my major concern was how did he even manage to get that picture? It wasn't like he was just walking and stumbled upon three girls bullying someone. They chose quite a secure place to assault me so that no one would know about that.

Does that mean he knew everything from the start?

But how?

Did Gaisen tell him? That's the most probable thing that could've happened but why would he tell Sakamaki about this?

I was slowly getting impatient now. When the heck is he going to come? Did he seriously abandon me like this? After sending that picture? God I hate this.

I picked up my bag and headed towards the door. I reached my right hand towards the door handle to open it but it slid open from the other side and the figure of Sakamaki stood in front of it. He walked in carrying his usual blank expression and looked me in the eye. I stepped back a few steps and increased the distance between him and me.

"Hello, Kizhashi-san." He said in an indifferent tone. I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

I didn't say anything and kept staring at him. I couldn't form the correct words to reply to him. Facing him up front is a lot different from what I imagined in the scenarios. There was silence between us, and he was also staring at me.

"Won't you greet me back?" He said. Was he being sarcastic right now? Seriously?

"Wh… why should I? I'm under no obligation to do that." I said.

"How interesting." He chuckled while staring at me. His cold gaze felt like it saw through me.