The sound of knocking permeated throughout the club room when I was almost finished writing the speech.

Who was it now?

I glanced over at the opening door, noticing that Aria wasn't particularly concerned, to see who was coming in.

This time, it was the last member of the Human Nature Research Club: Lisa.

The first thing one would notice about her was the youthful and lively aura that appeared whenever she came into a room. It made her seem approachable and friendly, to the point where even I would consider initiating a conversation with her.

Of course, a consideration is a consideration, and it would break the Law of Loners if I were to do such a thing.

Lisa wasn't a particularly beautiful or cute girl, but she was pretty. She had more of an artistic charm, where the more one looked at her, the more attractive she appeared.

Her wavy shoulder-length hair was a lot messier than that of Aria's when she first arrived, indicating that she had run quite the distance. Despite that, her breathing was still even, displaying her athletic prowess.

"Hey, sorry for being late. Was there any trouble with the survey results?" Lisa got straight to the point, without a moment’s delay.

As per usual in the club, the question wasn’t directed at me, but to Aria. Even so, Lisa didn’t even spare a single glance towards me.

“Outside of the results being missing for the whole day, there are no problems at all. In fact, I’ve just finished inputting everything.” Aria stood up and went off to the side, indicating Lisa to browse through and check for any errors.

That was quick; it hasn’t even been 10 minutes. There was quite the number of results in there, but I guess that’s expected of the future student president.

Lisa did just that and quickly skimmed through all the survey results while Aria watched on.

“Hmm… Looks good! Oh, did Ben arrive here before me? I was looking for him on the way back, but I couldn’t find him.” Lisa said urgently as if she couldn’t wait to hear the answer.

Aria gave her a meaningful smile, “No, I haven’t seen him; if I did I would surely inform you. Since I’ve finished inputting the results, there isn’t much else to do. The next thing should be for us to tidy up a little, I can see you’re a little disheveled up from searching.”

“Look who’s talking,” Lisa said, letting out pleasant laughter, before grabbing Aria’s arm and walking towards the entrance, “Let’s go together, you’re probably looking even worse than I am right now.”

“Oh?”, Aria’s eyebrows were raised in disbelief, “Is that so? I’m glad you told me, else I would have embarrassed myself as much as you have walking around the school.”

With that, a fight started, adding to the countless number of clashes between the girls of the club since the start of the school year. And as per usual, I blocked out the fight while I continued to finish the speech.

Seriously, it hasn’t even been 10 seconds since she walked in and they’re already fighting. Ben would usually be the one who appeases them, but he’s with Stella right now.

Come to think of it, what is taking them so long…

I took a considerable detour before coming to the club room, so it would only make sense if they got here before me. Was Ben hurt bad enough not to be able to get to the club room? He did get away from the bullies, so he shouldn’t be injured too severely.

Oh, wouldn’t Lisa be glad if I told her where Ben was?

I took a quick glance at the girls, before quickly removing my gaze as I realized their faces starting to become increasingly distorted as insults and passive-aggressive retorts were being thrown back and forth. I began to get a little scared, especially as I watched Aria’s smile grow wider, a sure sign that someone was about to die. Source: Every serial killer movie ever.

I had lost any modicum of courage I had to my name after witnessing that, choosing to stay silent as a lamb and putting all my attention on finishing the speech quickly so I could depart even a second earlier.

I might even start praying to that stupid Geroth guy that my father keeps tricking people with, for the girls to stop fighting before Aria kills someone (and if not possible, then preferably not me) or for Ben to come sooner to calm them down.

Seriously, why couldn’t I have chosen a better club? And what’s with that stupid rule that says you can’t change clubs in freshman year?! If I could turn back time, I would have chosen to go to the Literature Club. I heard they had cute girls too, only they have members that bring cupcakes every day to the club meetings and shared poems they had written every day; it sounds like a loner’s paradise, one filled with peace, quiet, lots of books, and cute girls. Maybe I could ask their club leader if I could join next year.

What was their name again…? I think it was Moni—

Out of the blue, I started feeling a slight burning sensation. The feeling of pain interrupted my thoughts, sending me to wonder what the heck was going on with me. Did Aria poison me? Maybe she stabbed me without me noticing? Perhaps she was prepared to murder Lisa and didn’t want to leave any witnesses!

I started to wildly look for the cause of the sensation, patting my body, looking for any clues of a weapon stabbed in somewhere. After a frantic moment of searching and a new addition of black history, I located the feeling in my chest area where a very noticeable hot temperature was being emitted.

I unbuttoned the top of my blazer and stuck my hand inside, groping around to find the hidden weapon. While I couldn’t see a weapon, I did manage to find the source of the burning sensation: It was a small golden pendant that was shaped like a goblet with a symbol eye on it.

It was something that my father had given to me when I was five years old, after an incident that I still don’t remember to this day, after telling me that I was never to take it off. Thinking about it, I don’t remember much from back then. Guess that happens naturally as one grows up.

I’ve thought about what the heck the pendant was on separate occasions, and I’ve concluded not long after I received it: cult merch. I mean, what better way to advertise a cult’s merchandise than to put it on the cult leader’s son? It gets people curious, and they’ll want to get it too. I’ve seen quite the number of identical pendants, except I’m pretty sure my pendant is actual gold. Glad to know my father didn’t skimp on me when advertising.

I had taken off the pendant once when I was an 8-year-old because I was going to swimming at a classmate’s birthday party and didn’t want to show them the pendant. My father had forbidden me from going to the birthday party without the pendant and even detained me with middle-aged men from the cult meetings if I didn’t put it back on.

Have you ever been detained by regretful middle-aged men? It’s incredibly disgusting, and especially so as an eight-year-old. It was even worse when I heard them mutter about how nice being young was, and how much they wished they could go swimming at a birthday party. In the end, I didn’t attend because I didn’t want to show off the pendant.

I could probably go on as far to say that it's their fault that I became a loner because between the choices of showing off cult merchandise to classmates and staying home whenever presented the decision, I had always chosen to stay home. It wasn’t worth the hassle anyway.

The way my father handles things is a little crazy… like where did he even get people to detain me? Did he ask for volunteers and those people just spring up? Or maybe he carefully handpicked people who could mildly traumatize me like them? It’s a little scary when I think of it like that because it means he’s been slowly developing me the way he’s always wanted. Like turkeys being fattened up for Thanksgiving! But people do that with the end goal of slaughtering them after a period. I just need to find out why my father wants to slay me then…

Ending the trail of thought before it got somewhere dangerous, I pulled out the pendant to get a better look at it, if only to find traces of the burning pain. As I carefully searched goblet, I saw a sight that I had seen a countless number of times; it was my name intricately carved into the bottom: Victor Proel.

I meticulously searched the goblet a couple more times after that, but instead of finding the source, the pain only got steadily worse. The increase wasn’t too much, almost imperceptible, but I could feel it growing bit by bit.

Say, is this a bomb? I can’t think of anything else it could be…

…and it does sound like something my father would give me. A bomb disguised as cult merchandise, how original.

I contemplated throwing the pendant out the window but was worried that if it was a bomb and it exploded, I would be branded as a terrorist. It did seem like security was pretty tight around this time, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to get very far before one of those buff mafia looking security guards took me down.

On the other hand, if I didn’t throw it out the window, and the pendant was a bomb, then I would be injured when it exploded in my hands.

With that thought, I had come to a very swift decision. The window was still draped in heavy curtains, which would make a considerable racket if I hurriedly threw it open. I was cursing my father while trying to discern if attracting the attention of the fighting girls was worth it.

Seriously, Father makes these sorts of dangerous pranks too much. I can’t believe it was a bomb this time! Especially one that had been in my hands since I was five…

The blast radius shouldn’t be too big; it doesn’t seem very reactive or why else would it have been dormant for ten years? I wonder what set it off now…

I’ll need to teach him a lesson the next time I get back home. I wish he were right in front of me so I could throw this right at h—

A louder knocking reverberated throughout the room before the turning of the knob sounded, putting a stop to Aria and Lisa’s squabble and my thoughts. Aria and Lisa suddenly turned away from each other as if they were afraid that someone was going to see signs of their fight, ruining their image.

If I put it like that, wouldn’t that mean they don’t care what I think?

I looked through my memories for a split second, skimming through memories of our past interactions.

…hmm I guess they never did. How depressing.

While I was putting myself down, the girls quickly tidied themselves up as if someone famous was arriving.

Maybe it was a teacher that was coming through to check if anyone was staying behind before the presentations? Ah, it was probably Ben and Stella! Aria and Lisa wanted to look at their best for Ben, how envy-inducing! Or at least it would be if Aria didn’t want to murder Ben, ha-ha.

No that wasn’t funny at all.

They’re going to flip out when they realize Ben is with Stella…

And predictably, the moment the door started to swing open, barely showing Ben peeking out from the gap, Aria and Lisa had already begun greeting him.

“I’m glad you’re finally here Ben, Lisa couldn’t wait until you arrived! What took you so lo—"

“Ben, I was looking for you all over the place! Where were y—”

Aria and Lisa both rushed up to Ben, about to bombard him with a multitude of questions but were shocked silent by Ben’s condition once the door was completely open.

Even I was surprised. I didn’t get a good look at either Ben nor Stella when I saw them in the alleyway, but they did look very weird at present, especially Ben. It even made me forget about the pain coming from my hand for a moment.

His blazer was missing presumably taken off because it was too dirty after the scuffle. The button-up shirt underneath had a couple of buttons removed from it, exposing his stomach, and it had some tears around the right shoulder area revealing the skin beneath.

His pants weren’t spared either: his entire left pant leg was torn off from underneath his knee, showing off a white sock that went midway up his shin. His right pant leg looked fine, making his outfit look like an avant-garde fashion attempt that went wrong.

Why the hell did the bullies try to pull apart his clothes? Does it even make sense to do that in an alleyway?!

It’s a surprise he even got to the club room without getting caught because of his clothes!

But there is something off…

Then it hit me.

His clothes weren’t the weirdest part about him; the most bizarre thing was that there wasn’t a single sign that he had been in any fight. There weren’t any bruises on him; there wasn’t even a scratch! It was as if the fight never happened. The only thing different thing about him was that his dark hair was extremely disheveled.

He looked utterly healthy with an embarrassed smile on his face when he saw the two girls gaping at him, but if one looked carefully, you could see that his face was a little pale.

It looked like he was trying to surprise the girls as if removing the tension from the presentation by trying to prank them and injecting some humor. A touching act! Or at least it would be if Stella didn’t come into view while clinging to his left arm.

Stella was an extraordinarily charming girl at any point in time. Anyone would have said the same thing if you asked them, but she looked particularly sexy and alluring hanging off Ben’s arm.

Her usually elaborate hair was let loose and was uncharacteristically untidy as it spilled down her shoulders, with individual strands stuck to her flushed face because of sweat. Her head was angled down as if she was embarrassed to show her face to anyone else.

Her pointed eyebrows were scrunched up as if she was in pain, and her celestial nose, was beating hard, and even from the other side of the room I could tell hear the huffing loud and clear. She had a flushed complexion as if she had just done a vigorous activity or something that took up a lot of physical strength…

If I didn’t know what happened in the alleyway, I would think that Ben had a ripped clothes fetish and came into the club room after doing Stella, as if inviting the other girls to join in. Or maybe he did do Stella, and that’s why they took so long? What’s with that embarrassed look on both of your faces!

No, they probably went to the infirmary, that’s why Ben’s all fine and dandy now. Wait no! The infirmary would never be able to fix him up that fast, at most they would just be able to reduce the swelling a bit. And they would never let him roam around campus with that attire on; it would just shame Setro Academy!

And what’s with Stella? Walking over from the alleyway to the club room should have taken less than 5 minutes just walking at a slow pace! It makes no sense that only yelling someone’s name would get you that worked up. Well, I guess if Ben did do her, then it could have happened…

Thoughts popped up, both speculating and refuting, at a rapid pace in my head, and it was still doing so when Aria and Lisa acted.

Aria reached Ben, who was still foolishly smiling, and grabbed his right arm—the free arm—and reached over to gently pry off Stella from Ben’s left arm before starting to back up with Ben in tow. While she did so, Lisa came over and supported Stella, making sure she wasn’t about to fall and started pulling her the opposite direction of Ben.

It was incredibly smooth; seemingly impossible to have done so without prior practice. Even my father would have complimented them for their seamless act. It was awe-inspiring, especially as it took less than a second to do.

It’s like they’ve known each other for years, not at all like what they were doing a second ago.

I was surprised because this was the first time that the girls had ever treated each other so nicely.

“Ben, what happened to you! There’s no way you can go off to present like this! Here, take a seat. I’ll go grab an extra uniform for you to wear.” Aria forced Ben into a seat and gave him a sweet smile, filled with charm.

At the sight of that beautiful smile, I knew that my most significant trouble wasn’t going to be some pendant bomb my father implanted on me.

Ben as oblivious as always, sheepishly smiling back at her, “Thanks for the consideration, but you don’t have to do so much for me. I can get a uniform myself, so don’t worry.”

“And a-as for what happened to my clothes…,” Ben looked away not daring to maintain eyesight with Aria, taking a deep breath before exclaiming: “Erm, I-I got stuck in a r-rose bush or s-something!”

…a rose bush or something? What the hell? Even I could tell that was a shitty excuse.

Actually no, that was much worse than a shitty excuse, that was just pathetic. In fact, it was so pathetic that even Aria is looking at you like you’re trash. You might as well have not said anything.

Amber eyes filled with disdain locked onto Ben reprimanding him, “Uh-huh, are you sure you got stuck in a rose bush? If you did get stuck in a rose bush, why do you not have any scratches from the thorns? Especially with your clothes being this badly damaged, you must have been incredibly stuck in that rose bush. So stuck you must have gotten lost in there.”

Wow, she is really tearing at him. The look in her eyes… I bet he wants to hide in a ditch. I would probably start doing the same as well if the same happened to me.

I sat as still as possible, not daring to move lest Aria directed a smidgen of her anger towards me, at which point I might start kneeling on the ground and begging for forgiveness. I had lost my chance to throw the increasingly hot pendant out the window; but between facing an angry Aria or a bomb exploding in my hand, I would pick the bomb every single time.

“Do you know what the Setro Academy uniform is made from? It doesn’t get stuck, even if you get stuck. If you don’t want to say what happened than just say that it isn’t something you wish to disclose. Haven’t you ever heard of the saying that a bad excuse is worse than none? You’re enrolled in Setro, so of course, you have, yet you still give me such a terrible excuse! Do you have no pride as…” The remarks continued on and on, while Ben was sitting there dumbly lowering his head further and further as it kept coming at him.

Ben started to look so sorry that I couldn’t bear to continue watching. I closed my eyes for a second, trying to block out the of the scathing words coming from that beautiful girl, before opening them again, this time looking towards Lisa and Stella.

It didn’t look like anything special was going on that side, it was just a great view of two gorgeous girls talking. Stella was supporting herself on the wall facing Lisa, while Lisa had her back turned towards me, facing Stella in turn. It looked like an engaging conversation; Lisa seemed like she was getting pretty into it, especially with all that gesturing and swaying she was doing. Stella was even recovering her noble princess look, complete with a regal aura, as her face became less flushed and became more cold and aloof looking. I had no clue to what they were saying, as it was drowned out by Aria’s angry ‘speaking.’

There’s the regular Stella. I didn’t know that Lisa and Stella close enough to help each other, I always thought they had a lousy relationship mainly because they’re the ones that fight the most. I guess even the worst enemies are kind to one another sometimes...

“You shameless slut!”

*Slap*

I spoke too soon…

A crisp and loud sound attracted the attention of everyone else in the room. I could see Ben and Aria’s heads jerk over to the source of the noise. I knew when I saw what happened that Aria’s tirade was child’s play compared to what they had been conversing about.

Stella was laid out on the floor, an almost crimson hand mark appearing on her flawless white cheek, while she held her hands against the area in pain.

Lisa, the perpetrator, had her right hand in front of her, clearly showing that she had slapped Stella to the ground. She was breathing heavily in anger, which indicated that her rage still controlled her.

Ben stood up immediately and rushed towards Stella as if his life depended on it. Aria was just looking at the scene with apparent schadenfreude in her eyes yet had a concerned look on her face to keep up her façade, despite nearly blowing it by lecturing Ben.

Once Lisa had realized what she had done, she quickly glanced at the other members (of course, excluding me) in disbelief before sputtering out, “I-I didn’t mean to! She j-just wouldn’t sa—”

“That’s enough Lisa. I’m disappointed in you. In all the years we’ve been together, this is the first time I’ve felt so let down.” The previous embarrassed Ben was replaced with a cold stranger in an instant, with a harshness beyond what I usually thought Ben could pull off.

Lisa’s emerald eyes were filled with tears, “B-But it was her fault! Sh-She obviously did something to you; there is no way that you would have do—"

“I have done nothing to her. I have already said I had gotten stuck in a rose bush, why do you believe otherwise?” Ben abruptly interrupted her, pausing a second as if trying to hear an answer to his question while he gently caressed the area of the slap on Stella’s face.

The only sounds that could be heard where from Lisa, who had started to burst into tears once she witnessed the sight of Ben touching Stella’s face.

“Why haven’t you apologized for hitting Stella yet? We’re right before one of the biggest events in our lives and look what you did! How is she supposed to present like this? The very least that you could do is apologize.” Ben didn’t plan to let Lisa off just yet, still pressing for a mature response.

Lisa cried for a good moment or two, before sending a reproachful gaze at Stella, who was held tightly in Ben’s arms. She was about to apologize, and one could even see her trembling jaw, showing her reluctance to doing so…

But suddenly, the door to the club flung wide open.

”THE SKY! THE SKY! LOOK AT THE SKY!” A loud cry came from a round figure that had barged in.

It was that annoying classmate of mine, Holtan.

He probably had thought he would come into a peaceful room seizing all the attention like the attention hog he was, but upon seeing the scene of a pretty girl bawling her eyes out, a gorgeous girl in the arms of a boy dressed in rags, and the beautiful freshman representative watching on, Holtan had effectively frozen up.

“O-Oh, sorry for bothering you guys. But really, look at the sky!” Holtan stammered out rather pathetically, before decisively leaving just as quick as he had come.

What the hell is this idiot even doing in this school! He made the room incredibly awkward, at least fifty times as uncomfortable as it was before.

And what about the sky? The curtains are still blocking the windows, so I’ll need to brush them off to the side to see anything, but the atmosphere right now…

The club room was so silent; one could hear a pin drop. It was as if the awkwardness and tension had a tangible effect, making us not dare to form a single peep.

Suddenly, Lisa stood up and pointed at Ben, shouting: “Idiot! Pervert! You can be with Stella for all I care!”

Then she ran straight out the club room, as fast as she could.

“…”

“…”

“…”

What is even happening…

An even more awkward moment passed by (if that was even possible) before Ben picked up Stella, who had her eyes closed in pain and put her in a chair next to me, during which I caught a snippet of Ben murmuring to himself, “… I didn’t want to do that to you. I’ve spoiled you too much over the years; I hope you don’t take that to heart. I just want you to know and acknowledge what you did wrong. I’m not going to be with you forever you know…”

Whether he was speaking to himself, or to Lisa who had long left, was something only he would know.

He turned to me, his soft brown eyes twinkling, “I’m going to go after Lisa, look after Stella for me would you Vincent?”

Damn you and your popularity. You’re the one who started calling me Vincent and everyone else followed suit. I might as well change my name from Victor to Vincent…

He didn’t bother checking me for my response and directly went to the exit of the club room.

But before he reached it, a pleasant voice sounded out. “Looks like I’ll have to use my presidential favors early. I’ll talk to the Headmaster and ask him if he can make an exception for us. It’ll be bad if my entire club is absent or roughed up during the presentation anyway.”

Ben just continued as if he didn’t hear the voice, but as he left the room, a voice wafted inwards: “Thanks, Aria, I’ll be in your debt this time. Just tell me what you need whenever, and I’ll do my best to get it fulfilled no matter what the cost.”

Only the fading sound of hurried footsteps could be heard a short while after.

Aria chuckled softly, before leaving the room as well.

Then it was just Stella and me alone in the club room.

Well, that was like a scene from some 3rd rate drama…

It’s the perfect time to throw the bomb out the window. Maybe it would hit Ben and end all my troubles all at once! Ha-ha, I wish…

I reached out for the window curtains, coincidentally reaching out over Stella’s head. With strangely impeccable timing, just as my hand was about to pull back the curtain, her eyes snapped open.

My gaze intercepted the intense blue eyes and continued to do so for a good moment or two. Stella then stood up naturally, without any signs of trouble, then brushed dust off of her uniform. She put a hand to the area of the slap, making me unsure if she was checking the feeling of pain or she was checking where Ben had been touching her face.

“Hand me your phone. Mine is dead.” The demand came out of nowhere, surprising me. Yet I didn’t do anything to refute such an unreasonable command and did as Stella asked, placing my smartphone into her outstretched hand. I was weak to pretty girls, bite me.

She inputted a number into my phone and made a call, and all I could tell was that the owner of the voice was a man. Stella also spoke quietly, but I could make out some parts of the conversations: “No need to search for the survey results, we’ve found it,” “…head back and report…,” “…invite him to birthday party…,” “…stop him from leaving.”

It seemed like a trivial conversation, and it was disrespectful to listen to other's phone calls, so I tried my best not to overhear.

Look at me being a gentleman, with a bomb in my hand.

After a minute, she turned to look at me, with a noble and elegant aura exuding from her. It seemed like she was perfectly fine. The slap didn’t appear to affect her at all, the red mark just adding a factor of mysteriousness to her already overflowing charm.

“I’ll be heading out now.” Then she left the club without consulting me. As she exited, a phone came hurtling towards me. I fumbled for a couple of seconds as it landed in my arms before successfully catching the phone with my free hand.

Slipping the phone into my pocket, I went back to facing the windows.

As I thought, it’s as if I don’t exist. Do I smell or something? Is there a reason why everyone just found half-assed excuses to leave the club?

Well, at least I can throw the bomb out the window now without worrying about others…

The heat from the pendant had been slowly increasing throughout that whole ordeal, now at a temperature hot enough to burn me. I hurriedly reached for the curtains with my free hand and pulled wide open with all my strength.

The sight that greeted me was one that gave me a sense of déjà vu and filled me with confusion.

The sun was gone from the sky, yet it was still bright as day. The atmosphere was clear; no clouds, no birds, yet there was a starry sky in broad daylight. Most importantly, the sky was turned from its beautiful blue color into one of dark green. All were unusual points, but they didn’t make a single ripple in my mindset.

That was because something even more astonishing was happening.

Holy shit, my hands are on fire!