And if this student hadn’t left the class to find him… then where did he sneak off to?

The man scanned each student’s particular facial features. Sure enough, he realized who specifically among them, was missing.

It could only be that little brown-haired boy, whose face he could not locate. Mr. Reeds deeply remembered that boy’s face, too. His pained face over the word killer, the troubled and complicated expression the kid wore was something the man had never seen before in a student. Only in former civilians that turned towards villainy after feeling pushed into a corner.

But for a child to wear that face…

Anyways, this boy was currently missing, so he could only ask around.

...Who knew that his question would inadvertently lead to another revelation and an uproar following that discovery…

Mr. Reeds: “Students where is classmate Noel? I don’t see him around, did I just miss him on my way back? Does anyone know?”

Aly: “You mean… you didn’t even spot him outside? Here I still had hope that he might’ve gone to a different floor for the bathroom, or that he might have ran past you after seeing you were finished with it. Then… (Did he really leave? I was only trying to scare them into shutting up cause it was getting annoying that they were all wasting this study period to stare at some grad-skipper. Leave the kid alone guys, sheesh.)”

Elijah: “We haven’t seen him either. None of us even knew when he left – in fact, we were just discussing that very topic right before you showed up. Almost right after we noticed your presence in the hallway, we kind of assumed, or most of us did anyway, that he was with you, or that he went past you into bathroom. The only thing I noticed that was odd was the door being left open after I clearly watched you close it.”

Mr. Reeds: “So nobody noticed him leave? How strange…

(...Could he have been… abducted? That isn’t possible, right?)”

Rise: “Huuu~ Ahahahahahaha!”

Oliviera: “… What the plubbing plub are you laughing at? It better not be at my prince! Elijah didn’t SAY or DO anything embarrassing!”

Li Shun: “…Maybe he’s broken already. That essay must have really short circuited his brain or something because he’s clearly going off the deep end!”

Ophelia: “...*Still thinking about Alyandrea’s earlier comment*

(Alyandrea is wrong. Noel isn’t that weak. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. He would be more likely to believe that all of our opinions combined can’t hold a candle to his own capabilities, and that the rest of us are blind with jealousy. I can’t picture him running away just because of a couple of stares or negative opinions.)”

Aria: “May-Maybe Rise just thought of a really funny joke? I don’t think he would be that mean. I have faith that he’s not a bad person!”

Rise: “Hahahahaha~ You fucking idiots! Oh, excuse my language teach! Now, where was I… oh, right. You people… ahahahahaha! Do NONE of you find it strange that Noel, that guy- he waited until everybody HAPPENED to stop staring at him… SIMULTANEOUSLY no less, before acting? That he, somehow, managed to utilize an actual blind spot moment where Mr. Reeds left to go to the bathroom, when Elijah had turned away, when Ian had turned away, where Brennan turned his head away and decided against asking for help, when Wayne turned his head away, when LEOS turned away from him as well as when I… stopped paying attention to him… I also saw Ophelia looking over in direction!

(He managed to slip away without alerting my senses to his movements… how did he do that? Dammit, damn… that stupid little shrimp… I really have to investigate you…!)

You’re telling me that he managed to slip past every single one of us without anybody noticing… especially Elijah and Ian that sit on either side of him in the first row? That he somehow left the EXACT moment all eight people turned away from him? All eight at the same time… or seven… since Mr. Reeds was probably already gone before we stopped looking. THIS doesn’t sound like a coincidence. I dunno about the rest of you fools, but I think this was planned.”

…

His final words were ignored by everyone present because at this point, the gears within their heads each started to spin and accurately piece the situation together.

The twelve year old boy in the center of everything, the various gazes coming at him from each direction, the blind moment when everybody looked away. The instance he took advantage of in order to make his escape and the door hastily left open, most likely out of haste…

isn’t this clearly pointing to Alyandrea’s claimed runaway story? This was becoming an inner conclusion for most, except Mr. Reeds who never heard about it, Leos that doesn’t believe Noel would do that and Ophelia who disbelieves even more so than Leos.

Alyandrea: “See… You SEE?! Y’all starin’ at anybody like they was some sort of monster that finished their essay too quickly and forced them to run away… a 7th grader too! Shame on you people!”

Mr. Reeds: “Hmm, runaway you say? That isn’t possible. Not with Mr. Abrams monitoring the entire building right now. His vision completely surpasses mine in every way, I would be flabbergasted to find out that your classmate got around his gaze somehow… Hoho~ I will give him a quick call, just to be safe.”

Ophelia: “He didn’t run away. Noel isn’t like that. He challenged the ENTIRE school for looking down on him and booing him off the stage. He wasn’t intimidated in the slightest by the KINGS that came for visitation and wound up butting heads with a few of them, including the ones that harmed Elijah; Rage Queen Nilia and Gravity Queen Savannah, who aren’t even KINGS just yet. He regularly argues with Rise, which also leads me to question if Rise is making these claims out of spite for the kid that regularly bothers him. But that’s besides the point.”

Rise: “Hmph! I call it as I see it! You’re all free to believe in, or disbelieve in my words. I ain’t forcing anyone to accept them!”

Ophelia: “…My point is, if he isn’t afraid of doing all these things against people with CLEAR malicious intent against him, then why would he suddenly stop standing up to adversity and suddenly show fear for seven or eight… random gazes… that aren’t even fully malicious or evil-intended like those other ones from back at the assembly were? It just… doesn’t make any… sort of sense. Not to me, at least. He already finished his homework, so maybe he just… left? I mean, after this we go home, right? Maybe he went back to the dorms or something…? I just don’t believe he would run away, after the movements Noel has already pulled against other freshman this semester.”

Alyandrea: “…”

Ian: “…”

Aria: “...I… kinda…”

Brennan: “Yeah. He’s so argumentative that It’s sort of hard to picture him running away cause of some stares.”

Li Shun: “Kinda a groundless statement to believe anyways, right? Heheh.”

Aly: “…I said it was a POSSIBILITY! And it still is! Don’t forget all of the crazy stuff happening that revolved around him and the fact that he’s 1 and a half to two years younger than all of us! He’s a lot more vulnerable than us!”

Wayne: “…After hearing Ophelia’s point, I don’t feel like he could have left out of fear though, Alyandrea. Sorry.”

Alyandrea: “What? Why apologize to me for? If he didn’t leave out of fear, then that’s a good thing. We should all be happy, not act immature like gloating over who’s right or wrong.”

Elijah: “Anyways we’ll soon know where he is, right Mr. Reeds? After all, Mr. Abrams was monitoring the entire building, somehow. Like Mr. Reeds said, it would be hard for anyone to get past such intense vision. Let’s just see how things play out.”

*Riiing*

*Riiing*

Mr. Reeds: “Hello? Houdini? How are things? Anything strange on your end? Because I seem to have suffered from a runaway student when I left for the bathroom. That student Noel, the one related to killing.”

Mr. Abrams: “HM?! Where did that come from? (It’s a good thing my phone is enchanted so only I can hear its contents. This kid probably has heightened hearing, considering his body’s been ‘enhanced’ way past ordinary humans.)”

Mr. Reeds: “Hohohohoh~ Do you take me to be an individual who lacks experience? Even after I’ve lost everything, experience is the one thing that I managed to retain. That boy has shown a complicated expression before towards another student. I won’t go into details right now, since I’m using a time-limited silencer phone application to block our conversation from the other students’ hearing range for 30 seconds. Besides, hohoh~ he doesn’t look like the type who want to actively kill. But where is he? I can’t for the life of me find any clues from our other students.”

Mr. Abrams: “Haaah.

(What a troublesome brat, not even bothering to leave a note for Mr. Reeds.)

As far as his background is concerned, it’s on a need to know basis. If you ever need to know, I’ll tell you. Otherwise, it’s best not to get involved. just know that I already confirmed his intentions and he apparently… wants to……’change’ for the better. Regardless, he’s alright now. It turns out that he left in order to seek me out. I’ll be assigning him a special research task, along with the other two that finished their school work. So have Elijah and Ian prepare themselves and meet me in the lobby within 5 minutes.”

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