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Male students from Alton School and female students from Aster School sat in small groups, paired off across long tables, benches, and even on the floor.
It would have been more accurate to describe the scene as a massive arena for flirting disguised as heated discussion.
The 10th-grade curriculum for "Community Engagement," a mandatory social studies course, was conducted jointly by the two schools under the subject "Agent of Change."
In essence, it was a course designed to provide more specific and systematic school-level support for volunteer activities that could be used for college applications.
At the end of the 10th grade, students had to choose one of the non-profit organizations they had researched in class and volunteer there a certain number of times until graduation. During the selection process, some students with similar interests even formed their own new charities.
Of course, what happened far more often was the romantic pursuit between students of the two schools.
Hunter's eyes repeatedly flickered toward Jiyu, who was hunched over in a corner of the library, before returning to where he was.
'Where the hell is my other popsicle?'
As he scanned the library, he spotted Chloe chatting and fooling around with other kids. He frowned.
'Jewel Parker is all alone, so why is she over there?'
Everyone else had found a partner, but there was no one within a six-foot radius of Jiyu.
It seemed that what Rex had blabbed about during recess the other day was true.
Just before winter break, Rex had broken the nose of some brat who had been acting out and bullying the smaller kids. Technically, it was self-defense, but true to Alton School's reputation for severely punishing violent incidents, both of them had received short suspensions.
Hunter had felt that Rex was stepping on the gas without any brakes lately, and he'd figured the guy was bound to cause a major accident eventually.
'Stupid bastard. He should have done that outside of school.'
Rex's father, who was about a hundred times stricter than Alton School, had decided to send him to a boarding school somewhere in the rural East starting from the spring semester. Regardless, Hunter felt a sense of relief knowing he would no longer have to watch that bastard flirt with Jiyu.
Rex had acted smug, as if he were revealing some grand secret to him.
[Triple. I thought about stepping in myself, considering my ten-year friendship with Liv, but I'm telling you this because I wondered why I should be cleaning up the shit you made. Listen carefully. The situation is quite critical right now.]
The moment Jiyu's name left Rex's mouth, the image of the two of them hugging and kissing at the party flashed back. He had forgotten about it for a while. It was infuriating.
[Bullshit. You unlucky prick. Just get the hell out to boarding school.]
[Listen up, you muscle-brained son of a bitch. If it weren't for Liv, I wouldn't want to deal with you either. Do you even know that she's being bullied by the entire student body of Aster School right now?]
Hunter, who had been about to leave while ignoring Rex, paused.
[What kind of nonsense is that?]
[Everyone saw the news about her dad. There seems to be a lot of talk among the girls. Malicious rumors. I heard they're bullying and isolating her quite openly.]
Hunter suddenly remembered the day Jiyu had come over to his house and slept over.
He wondered if he had grown or if Jiyu had shrunk. He remembered thinking that she looked so small and fragile as she buried her face in his chest and cried. It was a bit shocking because he had never seen her that way.
Quiet, timid, shy, and incredibly soft.
Why the hell were they bullying a fool who just hides in a corner and reads books?
Throb.
Shit. Not again.
It seemed he had pushed himself too hard with exercise, putting a strain on his heart. These symptoms had been particularly frequent lately. Hunter pressed his fist against his chest and jerked his chin toward Rex.
[Tell me the details.]
[You have the biggest share in why Liv is being ostracized. The ringleaders are Sienna Reed and Beatrice Lincoln. If it weren't for you, it wouldn't have escalated like this.]
[What? What kind of bullshit is that? Speak plainly.]
Hunter spat the words through gritted teeth. Rex had a knack for provoking people. He fully understood why Rex's father got angry every time he saw him.
[Remember the 'Kiss and Slap'?]
Rex sneered. Hunter's face crumpled as he bolted upright.
[Stop it if you're just going to talk nonsense.]
[It's not nonsense. Haven't you heard that Sienna's clique has been bullying Liv quite a bit since that incident?]
He sat back down in his chair.
[What?]
[Sienna Reed's immortal crush, Hunter Hamilton. Surely you weren't unaware of that?]
Hunter flinched. With everyone talking about it so much, it was impossible not to know that Sienna liked him.
So what? What of it? There were plenty of girls like that.
Besides her, there were countless girls who suddenly confessed, asked him on a date, invited him to parties, or tried to get his number.
Regardless, this was the first time he'd heard that Sienna had been bullying Jiyu since the Spring Fling.
Fuck. She crossed the line.
[You kissed Liv right in front of her, so with her personality, do you think she'd just stay quiet? Hey, but after that, I actually thought you two would start dating. You even kissed; what the hell are you hesitating for?]
Hunter opened and closed his mouth. He felt like he was going to explode from the unfairness of it all. He could never admit that he had asked her to date and been flat-out rejected.
At that, Rex clicked his tongue.
[Tsk, because you're acting like such an idiot, a gentle and kind girl like Liv is suffering alone in a den of hyenas. Without a single person by her side to protect her. There's no way to verify the facts, but I heard Beatrice Lincoln's father was one of the victims of the Ponzi scheme. With Sienna's grudge added to it, the fire has really caught this time.]
[...Does it make sense to bully someone for that reason? It's not like her father was the mastermind of the Ponzi scheme. Even if he were, what is her crime?]
Hunter frowned and shook his head in disbelief. Seeing this, Rex mocked him.
[Listen, this is the most plausible thing my old man ever told me: don't try to understand women. You just have to accept the phenomenon as it is; if you try to understand it, you'll just break your head.]
Rex pressed the dazed, thoughtful Hunter.
[Anyway, I've told you. This is all your fault, so you fix it. She's already miserable enough from her tragedy; does she have to go through this because of you too?]
[Shut up.]
[Ugh, so frustrating. How long are you going to procrastinate? If you don't do it, I'll step in and spread the rumor that Liv is my girlfriend so people stop touching her—]
Hunter cut Rex off, spitting the words through his teeth.
[I'll take care of Jewel Parker, so just get the hell out to boarding school.]
The story Rex told him felt like a piece of indigestion stuck at the end of his esophagus, and after witnessing that it was true, the sight of Sienna's group chatting happily became nauseating.
The students surrounding him mumbled something and asked for his opinion, but he answered half-heartedly while checking on Jiyu again.
In any case, he planned to volunteer at one of the non-profit organizations supported by the Hamilton Group.
It was impossible to align his tournament schedule with a team-based schedule anyway. But if Jiyu really had no one to go with...
Just then, someone pulled up a chair and sat next to her. It was a face that looked vaguely familiar. He was a student who had transferred from another state during the September term last year.
An outsider and a nerd. Just like Jiyu.
The two of them exchanged a greeting, appearing to know each other, then opened their notebooks and began recording something with serious expressions.
Hunter's gaze lingered on the boy.
Asian, likely Korean, with a lanky, thin build. Messy hair that looked as if it had been poked with fingers, a sloppy uniform, and horn-rimmed glasses.
While other students were openly flirting and giggling, these two exuded a very academic atmosphere. It seemed there was no particular reason for him to be anxious.
He startled himself by instinctively reaching that conclusion.
'Why the hell would I be anxious?'
Hunter glanced at the two of them, who were diligently writing something with serious faces. Then, he snorted.
'Nerds suit each other.'
Lunch break followed immediately after the class. The Great Library, used jointly by both schools, was connected to Aster School. 10th graders had the 'privilege' of eating lunch in either school's cafeteria.
From the 11th grade, students could buy lunch outside of school, and 12th graders could wear civilian clothes every Friday; these were the representative grade-level privileges passed down as custom in both schools.
Therefore, as soon as this class ended, the 10th-grade boys from Alton School would swarm into the Aster School cafeteria like a pack of hungry dogs and deplete the food.
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