By the time Sunny woke up, Nephis and Cassie were already ready. They were all still sleeping in the same room. Surprisingly, all the awkwardness was gone already. With this said, the rumors didn't stop; rather, they got worse. Not because they flared up, no, rather because Sunny and Nephis weren't targets anymore, leaving only Cassie to receive the brunt of them. While it should be common sense for them not to mess with her since she's friends with them, for some reason these students didn't care at all.
The days he spent in the combat class had already passed, and he had just left Professor Julius's class. In the hall, a gathering of students seemed to be taking place. Luckily, he could sneak in between them pretty easily. Then he saw it. It was Cassie in the middle, and the pretty boy he had bumped into some days ago. At first, he was about to leap in and see what was happening… that was until he realized that by the time he came, it seemed like the aftermath of an event—that event being Cassie smacking the boy across the face. The blindfold wasn't on her face; in fact, it was nowhere in sight. For the first time, he saw visible signs of anger etched onto her face.
"Don't ever talk to me again… no, rather, don't even come close to me again, you ugly bastard."
He almost felt proud. It was like looking into a mirror.
---
"So you're telling me your blindfold got stolen, and then that pretty boy, whatever his name is, offered to help. But rather than helping you find it, he gave it to you all shredded?"
"Yeah… I guess, pretty much…"
Cassie didn't really need a blindfold—it was more of a coping mechanism—but still. In the corner, he could see Nephis's calm expression, but her eyes were anything but calm. Rather, they were livid.
"Then what are we waiting for? The only way to put them in their place is to show them their place—below us."
If this was any other situation, he would be happy she said us rather than just her, but that didn't really matter now.
"I tried that last time, and it ended up only making Cassie more of a target. This time we're going to handle this differently."
Even before she could open her mouth, Sunny put his hand over Cassie's mouth, as if already predicting that she was going to deny their help. Well, he wouldn't be wrong, but still.
"Then do you have any suggestions? Can you think of anything better? In the end, it has been shown time and time again that they learn through violence. Maybe we just haven't used enough."
He could feel his blood pressure rising from this conversation. He couldn't fault her for her thinking at all, in honesty. To be honest, on most occasions his thoughts would align with hers. But there was just one problem.
"Did you forget that we already got warnings due to the fights so far? You from in the cafeteria, and me in the hallways."
He sighed, his lips pressing together, and closed his eyes before he relaxed his face once more.
"I'm sure we won't get expelled, but we definitely won't be able to challenge the First Nightmare early. We're lucky to have the chance in the first place. Most of the time, they would go at the nearest Winter Solace, but this time they are waiting for the Winter Solace after this upcoming one to go."
Cassie gave up resistance against his hand after a while, since Nephis wasn't going to bother helping her. Nephis looked at him, her eyes carrying the pride of a legacy.
"Then it's simple. We'll still crush them. But rather, we'll just crush them with an even bigger rumor that puts this one on the backboards."
---
The students in the hallway parted as they walked through. Hand in hand, Sunny and Nephis walked through the halls, making meaningless conversation. Their uniforms were now customized into seemingly matching ones. After they got closer to the point where they would part to their separate classes, Sunny intertwined his fingers with hers.
At lunch they fed each other. They even had pet names for each other and were so loud about it that it was obnoxious for the other students.
"Ah… the food tastes heavenly when it is fed to me by my Neph…"
Nephis brought another spoon to his mouth before taking a handkerchief out of somewhere and wiping his mouth.
"To see your lips part makes me… yearn for your tender touches… Sun Sun…"
Underneath the table, Cassie had his hand in a death grip. The reason for it could only be one… she was holding in her laughter.
"My love! You make me so impatient for the upcoming night! How long I have waited for this… despite it having only been one singular day, I already find myself craving it…"
Nephis buried her face in her hands—well, at least that's how everyone else saw it. He had a perfect view and could see her gritting her teeth and squeezing onto her face so much she could tear it off.
"Oh… Sun Sun… Shall we wait no longer and… run off now?"
She truly wasn't a good actor. Kicking her foot from under the table, she rested her cheek in her palm, leaning forward.
"Though I could just simply admire you for the rest of eternity… your decrepit—I mean pearl-like eyes… your joyous smile… your silky hair… oh, I could go on for ages…"
On second thought, maybe this would be quite enjoyable.
---
It's been some days since then, and the day for the First Nightmare is ever approaching. They set to leave in 4 days, in fact. Usually they would be training, but Sunny suggested that they take these last 4 days for mental reprise. After all, they hadn't missed a singular day and used the majority of the day as well. Since it was the weekend, students were free to go out during the day as long as they came back by curfew.
"Can I uh… get three chocolate ice creams, please?"
Cassie was in front of him, ordering something she wanted them to try. Well, Nephis knew what it was while he was oblivious. Once it arrived, he sat down, taking a bite, only for a chilling pain to shoot all across his body. He held in his scream and almost had to hold in tears. He would rather face the Tyrant again.
"You're supposed to lick it, you imbecile."
"Awww, thank you, Neph!"
He narrowly dodged the step on his foot. He could see that if it had landed, it genuinely might have broken.
"Is that any way to treat your lov—"
"I'll force you to bite into it once more."
"Sorry."
Taking a lick, he quite enjoyed it. It was a flavor he had never tasted before, though apparently some decades ago it was an entirely different flavor. This was entirely artificial, only used to mimic what once was. Looking up to his left, he saw a billboard for a band called Nightingale. He shivered, seeing how the main singer had red hair. He honestly had enough of red hair after having to begrudgingly see it every day for a year.
"So what do we do with its cup?"
"What do you mean, cup?"
"The brown triangular cup. This thing."
He pointed at the thing that held the ice cream after he completely finished it. Usually, he would just throw it away, but who knows if it had another use.
"You eat it…"
"Wait, wha—"
"Excuse me!"
A girl ran up to them. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was the girl they had saved from the Tyrant. In all honesty, she looked quite familiar.
"I knew it… I knew it! You were the ones there that night!"
She was huffing in and out. She must have run to catch them after seeing them from afar. Picking her head up, finally allowing her full appearance to show, Sunny's blood ran cold.
"Sorry… I forgot to introduce myself.
My name's Rain!"