“Senpai, I made too much food. Do you want some of my lunch?”

“Senpai, how did you do on that test? I…I could tutor you if you want.”

“Senpai, your hair is getting long. Maybe I could cut it for you?”

“Senpai, you seem tense. Do you need a massage?”

David Senpai was a beautiful man. There wasn’t a woman alive, or man for that matter, who could resist his charms. However, there can always be too much of a good thing. This was something David learned during his high school debut. The child who had lived behind his bangs suddenly got a makeover and became the most popular boy in school. He enjoyed the attention for a while, but then his admirers got more serious. Fights broke out daily over who would walk with him between classes or sit next to him at lunch. These disturbances ultimately lead to his sudden transfer to a new high school.

At this point, any normal person would have hidden their face and returned to obscurity. But David refused to do this. His conviction wasn’t the result of courage or a desire to change. Like everyone else, David was simply enamored by his appearance. He couldn’t bear to hide it.

What he needed was a foil. Someone who, through popularity or quirkiness, attracted so much attention that he could safely stand by their side. David had serious doubts about finding such a person, but if they existed, then he resolved to stick to them like glue.

“How did that compare to your fall from heaven? My angel~”

Upon hearing those words, David felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time. The countless eyes that were normally focused on him suddenly changed targets. Meanwhile, David’s own eyes were locked in place. He stared upwards at the girl who caught his fall. Like a newborn duckling, David began to burn that face into his memory. He immediately regretted this decision as Belle’s playboy smile suddenly vanished. A terrifying snarl was etched into his memory instead. Belle pulled David closer and spoke in a low tone that didn’t carry past his ears.

“Play along or you’re dead.”

“-That’s what he said to me this morning.” Belle announced in a dull monotone. “He randomly grabbed my hand and said a cringey line like that.”

The pink-haired girl released David’s shoulders and let him fall to his knees. For a moment, David simply knelt there in shock. Then he raised his head and observed his classmate’s reactions. The blonde-haired boy found over a dozen blank stares that mirrored his own. It seemed that no one knew what to think of Belle’s accusation. David shot a furtive glance at the cause of this scene, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Belle wasn’t prompting him to corroborate her story, so maybe he could just deny it?

“I…I did say something like that.” David admitted sheepishly. “I’m sorry if it offended you.”

If her deadly expression hadn’t been burned into his psyche, David might have considered rebelling. But it was, and so he couldn’t. David closed his eyes and sighed. He’d been saved from being seen as a klutz, but being a playboy was arguably a lot worse.

David brought a hand to his chin.

However, he reflected, making a bad impression might actually be a good thing. If he could dampen his classmate’s expectations, then it might help offset his good looks.

The entire class silently watched him brood. No one dared utter a world to break his concentration. Fifteen minutes into the first period and class was all but forgotten. Everyone waited patiently as David gracefully stroked his chin.

“After hearing this…” David eagerly addressed the class. “What do you think?”

The female response was unanimous, save for one.

“We’re jealous!”

“…Huh?” David slumped his shoulders.

“Say something like that to us too, Senpai!”

“B-But I…”

The girls rushed out of their desks and formed a line. Their puppy-dog faces melted the boy’s resistance. Thirty minutes after the bell, David wished he would never hear the word angel again.

“Are you jealous, Belle?” A random student asked.

David perked up as he noticed the pink-haired girl turn to respond.

Belle opened her mouth and then immediately closed it. She glanced away, the worry clearly written on her furrowed brow. After some internal debate, Belle finally turned back.

“I-It’s not like I’m jealous, or anything. Senpai can talk to whoever he wants.” Came her blushing reply.

Is this girl bipolar or something!? David screamed internally.

- - -

After first period ended, David resolved to learn more about Belle. Even if she was crazy, that girl was the only one to ever tear a crowd’s focus away from him. Belle might even be the foil that he’d hoped to find during his transfer. It was hard to believe that anyone had enough charisma to smother his own, but David was all but convinced that Belle could fill the role.

Fortunately for him, Belle wasn’t difficult to find. In fact, it was almost impossible to get away from her.

“Waah!” David screamed for the second time that day.

Belle had missed a step while everyone was moving up to the second floor. This small mistake somehow caused her to tumble back into David. After releasing their respective screams, the pair was safely delivered to the bottom of the stairs in a tangled heap. Belle was the first to get up and her response was nowhere near an apology.

“D-Did you see up my skirt?” The speaker’s voice quavered with sincere concern. It was as if Belle truly believed that her underwear’s sanctity took priority over anything else.

“Um, no I-”

*Slam*

David barely had a chance to respond before Belle threw her face into the nearest wall. The pink-haired girl slammed into the wall a couple extra times for good measure. Then, she stood up and began to climb the stairs without another word.

David quickly decided that asking Belle about herself would be pointless.

“Can anyone tell me about the pink-haired girl in our grade?” David asked his posse at lunch.

The crowd of eager girls tilted their heads in unison. None of them could offer much information beyond she’s quiet or Belle’s hard to talk to.

“You, like, want to learn about Belle?” A tan girl spoke up as she muscled her way to the front of the pack.

“You’re her friend?”

“Yea, I’d like to think so.” She nodded. “My name is Tammy, by the way.”

“I’m David, but most people call me Senpai.”

David extended his hand and Tammy blushed.

“Like, I already know. You’re the talk of the school.”

Tammy shook his hand. David did not miss the deluge of jealous glares that fell on her as she did so. He resolved to triple his efforts towards finding a foil.

“So, what is she like normally?”

“Quiet.” Tammy reported. “She, like, usually tries to avoid attention.”

“Is that it?”

“No…I don’t really know how to put it, but there’s more to Belle than meets the eye. And recently I think she’s been opening up more. Like, she’s coming out of her shell.”

That last phrase made David pause. As a former ghost of his class, the blond Adonis certainly understood the feeling of coming out of one’s shell. Belle was, he concluded, someone with the potential to take the spotlight. Now he just had to bring that side of her out into the open.

“Behind that deadpan glare…” Tammy continued happily. “Lies a very calm and confident person.”

David blinked. Confident, maybe, but calm? Belle had seemed agitated from the moment he met her. David shook his head. That didn’t mean Tammy was wrong. His appearance certainly had the power to make people act abnormally.

David lowered his chin and let it rest on his knuckles. The entire lunchroom sat in silent reverence as he thought.

If, he reasoned, Belle was acting strangely, then he was definitely the cause. As for why, David only knew one possible answer. Belle had fallen in love with him. It was so obvious now that he thought about it. If he needed her to stay by his side, then there was only one thing to do.

David stood up with a resolute expression. The lunchroom was filled with a thunderous applause as people cheered for his unknown epiphany.

- - -

David approached Belle after their final class ended. To David’s surprise, the pink-haired girl ran away the moment he stepped towards her. He chased her into an empty classroom and froze when he heard the door click behind him. David jiggled the handle but it wouldn’t budge. He considered calling for a teacher, but decided against it. Getting locked in here might have been a stroke of luck. Now they could talk in private.

Belle turned towards him. It seemed that she had come to the same conclusion. Slowly and delicately, David approached her like a naturist to a fawn. Belle backed into a wall and David leaned forward, placing one hand beside her head. The pink-haired girl’s cheeks turned red as she looked away. David waited patiently while she slowly raised her eyes to meet his gaze.

“S-Senpai…I…I…”

David flashed a charming smile. “Say whatever you want. I’ll listen.”

*Slam*

In a series of fluid movements that were too fast for David to follow, Belle suddenly reversed their positions. David found himself pressed against the wall while Belle held his arms like a policeman making an arrest. He could have sworn Belle had said something while throwing him into the wall, but it was inaudible.

“Ok…” Came a chilling voice that he’d only heard once before. “Got that out of the way.”

David craned his neck back and shuddered as he saw Belle’s face. A calm and confident glare forced him to avert his eyes. The blond boy tried to struggle but Belle’s hands held him like a vice.

“So, David. What do you know about these blue boxes?”

David felt her glare burning into the back of his skull.

“W-What are you talking about!?”

“Don’t even think about lying.”

Belle grabbed David by the neck and pulled him backwards. After some futile resistance, David had no choice but to look into her eyes. He froze under the pressure like a mouse in the jaws of a snake.

“When did you become popular? Did anything strange happen around that time?”

“I…I really don’t know what you mean. A-All I did was cut my hair!”

Belle stared him down, but David could only cower under her grip.

“Ok, listen. There’s something on your person that’s exhibiting a form of mind control. I need you to…”

Belle’s eyes glazed over as she trailed off. Her grip relaxed and David fell to the floor in a heap. By the time he collected himself, Belle was already at the door. She turned back with a blank expression.

“School’s over. I need to go home, Senpai.”

Then she opened the door as if it had never been locked and stepped outside. David left soon after that. He didn’t spend much time pondering his strange encounter. In fact, he forgot about it as soon as he left the room.

*Crash*

While David was wandering around in a daze, a loud noise snapped him back to reality. He traced its source back to a different classroom. The door was unlocked, and so David decided to investigate.

“Is everything ok? I heard a…” David trailed off as he observed the scene before him.

There were four people in what should have been an empty classroom. The source of the crashing noise was obvious as they lay piled on top of one another. How or why they’d fallen over was far from the first question in David’s mind. He was much more concerned with their appearances.

At the bottom of the pile lay a well-endowed blonde girl. She seemed to be panting happily, even under the weight of three others. Sandwiched above her was a handsome boy with striking blue hair. A short brunette squirmed in vain under the weight of the fourth member of the pile. The queen of the hill shared the boy’s unnatural blue hair and panted just as heavily as the blonde. However, the first thing David noticed about her was the copious amount of sweat clinging to her body.

“Look, I promise this isn’t what it looks like.” The blue-haired boy whispered. “So, can you just turn around and forget you saw this?”

David managed a light nod before he walked out of the room and shut the door.

Once again, David wiped a strange encounter from his memory. But this time, it was of his own volition.