Death will tremble to take us


Chapter 3: My best friend is in love with a psycho


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"Natsume is going to tutor you?!" Sumire whispered furiously to her.

"Why do you look so angry?" Inoko whispered back.

The two of them were hunched over the same book. Sumire had benevolently offered to share her book when she had noticed that Inoko had come to class with nothing except her uniform – Narumi had popped up in her room this morning without any warning and hadn't allowed her to stop at the dormitory to take her things.

Inoko wasn't even sure that she was really allowed to be back in class – even the Head nurse had looked surprised at Narumi' sudden appearance. While Inoko had been putting on her uniform after Narumi had rudely woken her up, she had heard the Head Nurse argue with Narumi at whisper-level. The two adults had left her door slightly open just in case something went wrong with her Alice, allowing her to hear what was going on in the corridor.

"Do you have the permission of the Primary School Principal?"

"Don't worry. He's aware of what I'm doing".

"It doesn't answer my question, Narumi. Did the principal give you his permission?"

"He did, Head Nurse." Narumi sighed. "Really, don't you think that his guards would have arrested me already if he hadn't?" Narumi drawled sarcastically. Inoko was surprised; he never spoke like that in front of her. "Instead they're just being obedient minions."

"Don't speak like that." The Head Nurse snapped back. "If it reaches his ears –"

"I know, Head Nurse. I've been here for more than twenty years."

"And in twenty years you've never learned to keep quiet." The Head Nurse hissed.

"It makes me charming, doesn't it?"

Inoko heard a gasp then silence. She didn't need to take a look to know that Narumi must have sent one of his dazzling grins the Head Nurse's way. His grin never failed to make adults speechless. Inoko had the time to notice that in the past three months because every time he would appear, all the nurses would be left in a daze. Even the Head Nurse who looked a century old to Inoko was affected. But, unlike the nurses who giggled or fanned themselves at Narumi's charismatic nature, the Head Nurse just turned bright red and then started screaming at Narumi to stop being "a disrespectful brat, damn it!".

"STUPID DIRSRESPECTFUL BRAT, TAKE YOUR BRAT AND DON'T COME BACK!"

The Head Nurse had stomped away and then a grinning Narumi had appeared at her door.

"You're ready to go?"

She had taken his hand without a word.

Now, Inoko was only centimeters away from Sumire's head. They didn't want to attract Misaki-sensei's attention. They were supposed to read chapter fourteen of the biology book and not gossip.

It was thrilling for Inoko to be back in the classroom. She had missed the mayhem and chaos of her classmates. After having spent months in silence, so much noise and liveliness were giving her the beginning of a headache but she didn't care. She had missed having people her age to talk to. She had missed her friends. Getting a visit from them every two Sundays had not been enough. Even now, she felt like there was a gap between her and Sumire.

Inoko had just told Sumire that Narumi-sensei had decided to give her Natsume Hyuuga as a tutor and, instead of gasping at the unfairness of having to spend time with a boy, Sumire looked angry. So, Inoko asked her why.

Sumire pursed her lips. She looked like she was trying to hold back. Sumire had never been one to not say immediately what was on her mind. Inoko frowned.

"Is there something wrong?" Inoko asked, looking attentively at Sumire's face.

Finally, after a few seconds of waiting, Sumire blurted out the truth.

"I'm in love with him."

Inoko was startled back.

"What?" She gaped.

"I'm in love, okay?" Sumire hissed back, her voice so low that Inoko had to lean towards her to understand what she had just said.

Sumire sneaked a look behind them.

Inoko didn't need to follow her friend's stare. She knew exactly who was behind them. Since she had sat down on the bench two hours ago, she hadn't managed to relax because he was sitting right behind her. Inoko didn't have an Alice that allowed her to have a radar for other Alice users but Natsume Hyuuga was such a powerful Alice that it felt like there was a fire raging burning behind her back. He never seemed to calm down either. He felt so irate all the time. Even when he was supposedly sleeping it didn't stop.

Inoko wasn't sure that she would ever manage to feel completely at ease in the classroom ever again. First, there were those bloody windows and then there was this pyromaniac who had burned her just two days ago.

She could feel the ghost of her pain on her arms.

"Natsume Hyuuga. I want him." Sumire told her after she had finished admiring the boy who was reading his manga without a care in the world even though Misaki-sensei had already told him off once. Sumire's cheeks had taken a rosy color and there was a shine in her eyes that Inoko had never seen before.

Was it how someone in love looked?

"I thought that you had a crush on the blond one." Inoko didn't understand. She clearly remembered Sumire going on about golden locks and sapphire blue eyes the last time she visited her in the hospital. She never talked about an angry dark haired boy whose crimson eyes looked like he could set you on fire just with the power of his glare.

Sumire sighed tiredly, resting her cheek on her hand. She looked melancholic and Inoko was feeling more and more confused at this new aspect of her friend. Six months earlier, Sumire had raged to her about how boys were all stupid and had sworn to her that she would never ever date one – Koko had blurted out her little accident regarding her lack of control over her bladder during the night and Inoko had really feared for Koko's life. Thankfully, Koko had a best friend who could fly away with him. If it weren't for Kitsuneme's quick reflexes, Inoko wasn't sure that Koko would still be alive after Sumire's many attempts on his life.

Now in November, Sumire had seemingly fallen in love and not with one but two boys.

"I can't decide between the two of them. They are too perfect, you know?"

No, she didn't know.

In fact, she would say that Natsume Hyuuga was far from perfect. She had only known the boy for two days and had spent a little more than two hours in his presence and she could already tell that there was something seriously wrong with him.

Not the kind of wrong of Koko who had no awareness of people's privacy or Mitsugane's issue of using his telekinesis to break something when he was angry. No, he was wrong in the sense that he could have killed her and Narumi just because Narumi had told him to behave like any other adult would.

On top of that, there was the fact that he was straight up mean. She had never spoken to him prior to Narumi's introductions and the guy had called her a cry-baby. Even two hours ago, he had been aggressive again even though she had made sure to not acknowledge him. She didn't know what his problem was but, if it weren't for Narumi's interference, she would have never spoken to him again.

Now he was her "tutor" and Sumire was apparently in love with him.


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"Do pages thirty-seven to forty for next Tuesday." Jinno-sensei told her.

The man was glaring down at her from under his glasses. Even though he was ordering her to do what she was sure was more than twenty exercises of math, Inoko nodded dutifully. No one was stupid enough to complain right to Jinno-sensei's face. He was the most frightening man Inoko knew. She only had to look at Jinno's infamous stick to remind her of the consequences if she dared to contradict him.

"Hyuuga. You're apparently Kiso's tutor. Make sure she gets every answer right. Otherwise…"

Jinno-sensei was frightening. Inoko gulped down. To her left, Sumire was shivering in fear at the sight of Jinno tapping threateningly his stick against his thigh as he glared at Natsume Hyuuga.

A muscle on Jinno's jaw ticked and Inoko did not dare take a breath in case he would turn his death stare her way.

Stupid disrespectful brat! She was sure that Natsume was glaring right back at Jinno. There was seriously something wrong with him. Did he want to get struck by a bold of lightning? Had his Alice-restraining-jewelry messed up with his head?

"Hyuuga– " Jinno-sensei growled and Inoko knew she had to do something to diffuse the situation.

She had broken up Sumire and Koko's fights for years. What difference would it make to calm down her math teacher?

"I will get every answer right, Jinno-sensei. Natsume won't even have to help me."

If looks could kill, she would have already been buried underground. She didn't know how Natsume could find the strength to face head-on a pissed off Jinno-sensei. As for herself, she barely managed to hold her stare. She had never been one for confrontations. Take for example every time the boy whose butt she had just saved had taken a dig at her. Her voice had gotten stuck in her throat and she had stared at her fingers, feeling like a sad potato.

Jinno-sensei glared at her for what felt like an eternity.

"I promise." Inoko blurted out to fill in the silence, barely managing to not fidget on the spot.

Jinno-sensei sneered at her like she was as disgusting as the pieces of gum that Koko stuck under his desk.

She felt like she was one.

"Don't disappoint me." He threatened her before continuing his prowling around the classroom to check that everyone was working on his or her math exercises.

Inoko breathed out and slumped over her desk. She didn't care that she was crumpling her notes. She just needed a few seconds to realize that Jinno-sensei's Alice had not baked her like a cake.

"What were you thinking?!" Sumire harshly whispered to her after having made sure that Jinno was far enough. "Talking back to Jinno-sensei? Have you gone mad? I know you were in the hospital for a long time but that's not a reason to act so crazy!"

"I know." Inoko groaned in her arms. "I don't know what came over me."

Sumire scoffed mockingly. "A possession Alice?"

"It's not funny." Inoko whined. "Maybe I truly have gone mad."

"I hope you've suddenly become a math genius because I'm not helping you."

"What?" Inoko gasped, raising her head up to look disbelievingly at Sumire. "You're not going to give me your notes?" She asked incredulously.

Sumire winced. "Don't be an idiot. I will give you my notes but not the exercises' correction. Jinno-sensei will know if you cheated."

"How do you want him to know? You truly think he will ask Selena-sensei to keep tabs on me with her crystal ball? For one week?" Inoko added. "They both have better things to do in their free time."

Sumire winced but did not answer back.

"Seriously? You truly believe that he'll watch me for one week?"

"Jinno-sensei is not normal teacher." Sumire defended herself.

Inoko gaped at her stubbornness but she knew she could not make Sumire see reason. Maybe it was because Sumire was still traumatized of the time Jinno-sensei had grilled her for having dared to eat a chocolate bar in the classroom during the morning break. Jinno-sensei had not been in the classroom at the time but he still knew what Sumire had dared to do. Still to this day, Sumire swore that Jinno-sensei had a second Alice that allowed him to see through walls or something silly like that. Inoko had tried to tell her that it was only because of the melted chocolate still on her lip and the plastic wrapper lying on the ground that Jinno-sensei had deducted her misdeed but Sumire never believed her.

"Fine." Inoko sighed when she realized that Sumire wouldn't change mind. "I'll just do it myself, I guess." She mumbled irritably, underlining the date she had written on the piece of paper that Sumire had lent her just to have something to do.

She jumped.

She had crossed off the title of the lesson without meaning to.

Feeling dread sinking in her stomach, she slowly turned around to face the one who had violently kicked the bench she shared with Sumire.

He wasn't happy. Judging by his furrowed brows and the scowl on his face, she would even say he was annoyed.

"Don't you dare to make the slightest mistake or I'll make you pay."

She couldn't help it – she stared at him.

She had trouble understanding how a kid almost her age could be so angry all the time.

"What." Natsume snarled. "Are you deaf?"

"No, I'm not." She blurted out and, feeling out of place, she turned back.

Natsume kicked her bench again. She tucked her shoulders in. Normally, she could have counted on Sumire to scream at the boy to piss of, but Sumire was in love now, so her friend was just blushing madly and admiring the psychopath.

Inoko wasn't one for confrontations. She never was. She wasn't an angry person either, so she let out an anxious breath and asked quietly without turning around for fear of further angering him.

"Yes?"

"Don't act so high and mighty." He warned her in a threatening whisper – Jinno-sensei was coming closer to the back of the classroom where they were sitting.

"Okay." Inoko said. She even nodded to make sure he knew she was giving her assent, but he kicked her bench again and she tried to make herself as small as possible.

Surely, Sumire was getting angry now. It was his third kick. And he hadn't been gentle with his kick. The sharpness of his kick against the wooden bench had made a thundering noise.

"Hyuuga!" Jinno-sensei barked. "Eyes on your desk! You'll have time to stare at girls after this lesson."

Inoko felt herself blush at Jinno's scolding. She knew that no one would believe that Natsume Hyuuga would be caught admiring her – after two months in the same classroom, she hoped her classmates were smart enough to understand what type of psycho this boy was – but she still felt mortified that Jinno would imply that.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Sumire scowl darkly – or jealously, wasn't it?

She gave up.

She would gladly let Sumire become the subject of Natsume Hyuuga's bullying. She hadn't done anything to him! She had even helped him out earlier!

On an impulse, Inoko tore off the corner of her paper and started to write a small message on it. After having made sure that Jinno had turned his back to her, Inoko quickly turned around to drop off her crumbled piece of paper and turned back again. She hadn't even taken a look at Natsume's face.

Her shoulders almost up to her ears, she waited anxiously for his reaction.

Sorry. I won't bother or talk to you again.

But he never responded – be it with a kick, a written answer or a verbal answer.

When Natsume Hyuga left the room at the end of the lesson, Inoko openly stared at him as he walked by her but he ignored her. Luca Nogi glanced her way before following his friend.

Boys were so confusing.

"You sure about having him as your first love?" Inoko asked Sumire who turned her nose up.

"Of course!" Sumire assured her with arrogance.

Inoko held back a mean comment.

Fortunately of unfortunately for her, she didn't have time to start an argument with Sumire – she had changed so much in just three months – because Narumi had appeared at the door. Anna and Nonoko happily greeted him as they went out the door and he sent a wave their way. Like he could feel Inoko's eyes on him, he then turned his eyes towards her and smirked.

She felt a warmth in her chest at the sight of him but she couldn't fully appreciate his presence. He was taking her back there.

"Narumi. What are you doing here?" Jinno-sensei's sharp voice asked, still halfway turned towards the blackboard he had been cleaning.

"Just making sure our Inoko doesn't make a quick escape." Narumi quipped back.

Jinno-sensei frowned and the sharp glance he sent Inoko's way made her freeze, the notes she had taken during the day clutched tightly to her chest.

"Make sure you do. We wouldn't want to displease our headmaster," Jinno muttered, too quietly for Inoko to hear him properly but Narumi did and his smirked tightened.

After saying goodbye to Sumire ("What? You're not coming to the dormitory?! We were supposed to do a sleepover!"), Inoko finally joined Narumi, unaware that a boy that had climbed on a tree to skip his detention followed with a disdainful look the duo as they walked down the main alley.

What kind of special treatment did she get to have Narumi follow her every step? Natsume asked himself.

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End note: Well, it can't be easy to be best friend with a girl in love with a psychopath, lmao.

Thank you to mikan26 and Cinammonroll13 for their reviews! Keep them going, haha.