Chapter XX – Troublemaker Returns

“Ugh, I need to catch up on my studies,” Sophie complained to Arthur as the two walked into school.

“Honestly, so do I. . .”

“You’ve been slacking off way too much. I haven’t seen you study once. The last time I saw a book in your hand was when you were returning to school. Aren’t you afraid of failing midterms?”

“Not really. I’ve already learned everything I needed, but even my memory has its limits. If I don’t refresh it now and then I’m bound to forget. School is just a bit too slow. . .”

“Yeah right. . .”

Arthur wasn’t lying as he proved previously to Nabi and Don, but he did worry about forgetting. It was a studying technique taught to him by one of his oldest friends, an archmage who spent his entire life learning complex magic patterns and other scientific subjects.

Mages were required to memorize spells that were many pages long. They were impossible to remember long term, at least not if they are stronger than a lowest tier spell, so they came up with many techniques that would aid them in storing the knowledge short term. The short term was up to a few weeks before they’d have to refresh their memory. Realistically, one wouldn’t go using all the knowledge they prepared since magic in nature is quite destructive.

Same could be said about subjects in school. The wide variety of knowledge the school offered had a lot of useless information that would long term prove a waste of time. Instead of bothering to learn it by heart, which would take probably many months for Arthur to memorize, same as everyone else, he instead learned it until he felt like he could discard it.

While he did believe that all the knowledge he soaked was equally important to humanity's progress, it just served him no purpose. Arthur recognized that the reason why schools teach such broad subjects was so that one could find what they enjoy and choose to specialize in it. Colleges would then narrow it down to only the subjects one could use in their profession. This wasn’t a hard concept to grasp.

However, what Arthur didn’t count on was the fact that schools would also demand of them to learn all of it as if they had chosen to be masters of the subject in the future. Due to the significantly slow progression during class, the stuff he did memorize was slowly being rendered useless.

If anyone asked Arthur what he found interesting or what does he wish to continue studying later in life, he wouldn’t have a proper answer. Nothing struck him as interesting. He hoped that the ability to speak any language had indeed stayed with him even in this life, but it seemed not to be the case. Due to the accident, Arthur did indeed lose all of his memories due to permanent amnesia. Had the damage not been so severe, he might have retained former memories as well. He tested this out by utilizing the internet to find videos in different languages.

It seemed that Arthur was quite good at a variety of languages, probably a natural talent of his before the accident. English and Korean were highly proficient, this was probably due to playing games and reading so many books. Other than that, he also knew Mandarin and Japanese well enough to hold proper conversations.

Art class was fun, but he had no talent whatsoever when it came to drawing. All he knew was that college was going to be a pain to choose.

Arthur sighed as he escorted Sophie to class. Hana didn’t make trouble for them the past few days so the tension has been lifted.

Entering the classroom, he sat down and sighed.

“Hey Arthur,” Don spoke up, while Nabi and Max were nowhere to be seen.

“Hey.”

“Why are you looking so down?”

Before he could answer, a burning pain surged up his back as he got slapped from behind.

Grunting, he turned around ready to see who the idiot was that hit him. It was Max who walked alongside Nabi.

“It’s probably because he missed his best friend. Isn’t that right?” he asked smugly.

“I don’t remember ever accepting a moron like you as my best friend,” Arthur teased with a grin, still annoyed at the hit Max got in.

“Rejected yet again. Must not be your day,” Nabi told Max, unable to hold back a chuckle.

“Again?” Don asked.

“I thought you said you weren’t gonna tell. . .” Max gazed at her.

“You’re gonna keep secrets from your best friend?” Nabi teased him.

“Fine, fine. . . Whatever. I got rejected by a girl, and Nabi has been a thorn in my ass all day cuz of it.”

Before anyone could comment, the front doors of the classroom slammed open. Entering inside was a student that Arthur had never seen before. Wearing the typical school uniform but with a school jacket tied around his waist instead of a vest that Arthur preferred. His long red hair was tied into a ponytail, and skin appeared tanned which strangely went well with his dark brown eyes.

Though his style was already different than most, the thing that made him stand out was the way he walked. Very outgoing and cocky, as if the world belonged to him but at the same time a wide smile on his face which felt friendly.

Nabi walked past Max and approached the incoming student. With her arms crossed and an annoyed face, she gazed at him disapprovingly. His friendly expression turned into fear as he just froze in place.

“Tae-Hyun. . .” she said coldly.

Arthur never heard her talk with such a tone.

“Nabi. . .” he responded while trying to force himself to smile.

“Where is my notebook?”

“I ugh. . .”

“You wouldn’t dare tell me you forgot?” she asked threateningly, the tip of her foot tapping repeatedly against the ground.

“Sorry?” he whispered appealingly.

She sighed slowly approaching him dropping her hands down. Foolishly, he let his guard down believing she had already forgiven him, making himself open for her to punch him in the stomach. The technique of which was surprisingly not bad, proven by the fact that he bent over in pain.

“Fuck. . .” he whispered wheezily.

“Midterms are coming up. I have no notes to look at, and to top it off you’ve missed almost three weeks of school. Do you even care for your grades?”

“What’s their relationship?” Arthur whispered to Max.

“Ah, yeah. . . The two are childhood friends. He's a bit of a troublemaker.”

“Troublemaker? He seems like an OK guy.”

“Never said he wasn’t. He’s just a bit special. . . During class, he can be impossible to handle, and often finds himself fighting outside of school.”

“He likes to fight?”

“Well he says he doesn’t, but he fights so often with other schools that you gotta take it with a grain of salt.”

“Why didn’t the school do anything about that?”

“I think they tried. I don’t know what happened thou.”

Looking back at the two, Arthur chuckled as he watched the two fight. It was obvious who was winning the argument. A few minutes later, the two finally stopped as Nabi returned to her seat. The class was soon to start, but before that, the new guy approached Arthur.

“Hey, Arthur. Good to see you’re doing better,” his words seemed genuine.

“Thanks.”

“Is it true you lost your memories?”

As soon as he asked that, he felt a chill down his spine. The cause of it was nothing short of a death gaze beaming him from Nabi’s seat.

“I mean-” he tried to change the subject.

“Yeah, it is,” Arthur interrupted. “Haven’t seen you around class. You skipping?”

“I was. . . Sick! Yes, sick,” he uttered an obvious lie. “To think that my best friend would not even remember me. . .”

“Best friend?” Arthur questioned doubtfully.

“You two were never even friends. . .” Max spoke up.

“We could have been though!”

Arthur chuckled before extending his hand for a handshake.

“I’m sure we still could?”

“Don’t do it Art, he isn’t worth the effort,” Nabi commented from the back, averting her gaze.

“Name is Tjay, let’s be friends!” he returned Arthur’s handshake.

“I warned you. . .”

Max couldn't help but laugh.

“Why is it always the women we love that are the meanest towards us?” Tjay asked, shrugging his shoulders while occupying the seat next to Arthur that was usually taken by another student.

“Love? What nonsense are you spouting now dumbass?” Nabi yelled angrily. “And can't you see that seat is taken, idiot.”

“Of course it is, my love. I've taken it,” he explained.

“First of all, don’t call me that. Second, that’s not what I meant!”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Who’d mind allowing two future best friends to sit next to one another?”

The class soon began. The student whose seat Tjay occupied never commented on it. His reputation for fighting would cause most to give up on complaining to him. It was only Nabi who’d constantly harass him. Arthur wasn’t sure if it was due to their long friendship, or if he truly was speaking the truth when he professed his love for her. Regardless, it had nothing to do with him, until it finally did.

Tjay was impossible throughout every class. From the way, he sat, to the fact that he’d constantly tap his foot, and even kept on clicking his pen out of boredom. All these things were equally annoying to Arthur.

Finally, the lunch break arrived. The group of friends which now consisted of Max, Nabi, Don, Tjay, and Arthur all sat at the same table. Ari and Sophie would in the future join them on some occasions, but they had their classmates to hang out with as well.

“Guess now he has another reason to be glued to us. . .” Nabi complained, indicating that Arthur was at fault.

“Eh, the more the merrier,” Max said.

“I got a question,” Tjay spoke up pointing a finger at Don. “Who the heck are you?”

“I. . .” Don mumbled fearfully. “I am. . .”

“Moron!” Nabi yelled out slapping Tjay on the head. “How do you not know your classmates?”

“I mean I was sick for so long,” he tried explaining.

“You weren’t sick, stop lying. You're terrible at it. . . Besides, we are second year!”

“I’m Dang Dong-Sun!” Don yelled out surprising everyone at the table.

It took a lot, but he managed to muster up the courage.

“Ah! That’s a cool name. Easy to remember too.”

Don couldn’t help but smile at the compliment.

“From now on I shall call you Double D if you don’t mind?”

“Just call him Don like everyone else,” Nabi interrupted.

“No, no. It’s fine. I like it,” Don explained.

“See! Double D is cool with it, so why aren’t you? Do you have something against cool nicknames N A B I,” he spelled out slowly.

“Good, at least you still know how to spell still,” she mocked him back which made the rest of the table chuckle.

Arthur observed Tjay for a bit before noticing something of interest.

“Tjay, you usually wear piercings, don’t you?”

“Good eye,” he commented proudly. “Yeah, I do.”

He moved his hair back a bit only to reveal multiple holes on his ear and a smaller hole on his bottom lip which was difficult to notice because of a small mole he had above the left side of his upper lip.

“I have 9 piercings total, and a cool tattoo pattern.”

“Oh, care to show me?” Arthur asked intrigued.

“I know we are going to be best friends, but to think you’d ask me to strip down to my underwear in school. The things we do for friendship. . .” he said while grabbing onto his shirt to unbutton it.

Max hastily grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“How about no? Besides, if a teacher saw you having tattoos you’d get in trouble.”

“Are tattoos forbidden?” Arthur asked curiously.

“Umm. . . Eh. . . Sort of, but not really. You'll get in trouble for them, lets keep it at that. . .”

“I see. . .”

“Sorry Arthur. Maybe next time.”

“It’s alright.”

A few minutes passed as the group enjoyed their food. Finishing up his lunch, Tjay came up with an idea he wished to share with the others.

“So, how about we go to an arcade now?”

“We are not skipping classes, and neither are you,” Nabi shut him down instantly.

“Boring. . .” Tjay mumbled with his mouth full.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Arthur warned him.

“Why? I ain’t going to choke on it.”

“It’s annoying,” he explained.

“Oh come on, don’t act like her.”

“You’ll regret it. . .” Arthur warned him one last time.

“Oh yeah?” Tjay said before taking another large bite. “How?”

Arthur placed both his hands on the table. This was the first time someone other than Nabi spoke back to him threateningly. While he had no intention of fighting Arthur, he did want to see what he’d do. With a grin on Arthur’s face, he simply tilted his head slightly which made Tjay realize he made a huge mistake.

“Nabi,” Arthur said honeyed.

Before Tjay knew it, he felt a tugging sensation on the roots of his hair above the ear as Nabi punished him in Arthur’s stead.

Swallowing his food he quickly yelled out, “I yield!”

The group laughed at Tjay’s surrender for a bit before returning to class.

Another day at school, and another friend made. Arthur wondered what other interesting people he’d meet in the future.

Chapter End.

Thank you for reading.