3 Thank you? What for?

Kenneth almost smacked his own face when he realizes that he's been smiling for a while now but he stopped himself when he heard a familiar voice from behind, panting heavily.

"Damien? Why are you sweating so much, have you been running?" Kenneth thought it was weird because that was the first time Damien panted trying to look for Kenneth inside the cafeteria. Kenneth showed a look of concern when Damien tried to grab both of Kenneth's shoulders while trying to say something between his breaths.

"Wo....women are cra...crazy.." Kenneth raised his brows in frustration and tried to calm his friend down. He searched his eyes to look for a free seat and invited Damien over.

When they were finally seated, he let Damien calm himself down before asking him any questions. After a few minutes, Leonardo finally showed up wondering why they haven't bought their food yet and saw Damien trying to breathe.

When Damien felt like it's already time for him to talk, he opened his mouth to say the same thing. He looked directly into the eyes of both of his friends.

"Women are crazy" He said for the second time but calmer and more serious.

"I heard ya the first time, but why?" Kenneth asked and in curiosity, didn't realize that both him and Leo were already closing in the gap between Damien and the both of them. Obviously eager to know why Damien's behavior was so strange.

"There's this new transferee, a guy, from Class A..."

"Is that allowed? I thought transferees are only allowed in Class B to F?" Leo asked, which was also the question Kenneth wanted to ask. But Damien showed an expression that he too also didn't know.

"That's the thing, maybe the dude scored so high that the school had no choice but to place him in Class A"

"But Class A students are monsters!" Kenneth couldn't hold himself back in disbelief and bowed his head apologizing to the students near their seats. Kenneth didn't mean to say that they're literal monsters, Class A students are just too smart that almost everyone who graduated from Class A are now successful professionals with very high ranks from their respective fields. In other words, if you're from class A then you'd have high chances of being the CEO of the next biggest company in the country.

"I heard he's not only smart but rich too, the girls were talking about him so loudly in the snack section that I had to run away" Somehow, Kenneth felt it was weird so his brows met slightly in confusion.

"Why would you runaway from few girls chatting? And it's not like you were their topic too." Leo was just as curious as Kenneth so he came closer this time, anticipating the answer.

"Because they're loud and attracted attention from other class as well, saying things like he's got everything! Riches and wits, heck—I even heard he's got beauty too!" Damien cried in exasperation. Which the whole gang understood completely.

They lived off their whole life not having anything like that guy. They haven't got any beauty in them, nor riches nor wits. They were the normalest of the normal gang. Though they were content, of course they couldn't help feeling envious from time to time.

"You ran away 'cause they were loud?" Kenneth couldn't stop himself from asking

"No, because they were itching so much for information that I was almost squeezed, you know how embarrassing it is to be squeezed by girls! And they weren't even fawning for me, they were fawning over such a mysterious guy!"

The three of them sighed all at the same time and laughed when they realized they were all feeling the same thing.

"Now that I think about it, where'd you get the time to go to the vending machine, Kenneth?" Damien asked, pertaining to the orange juice Kenneth has been holding for a while now. Leo too, wondered for he knew that he took his time with his call but not enough time for Kenneth to go to the vending machine located at the back of the gymnasium which was like, 2 buildings away.

"...I didn't go to the vending machine, some guy gave it to me" Kenneth felt hungry so he stood up, followed by Damien and Leo. The three of them started walking off to a stand to buy themselves snacks for their packed lunches upstairs.

Damien continued to ask Kenneth for questions because he was still curious and felt like that answer wasn't enough. Of course it wasn't enough.

"What? Who? You have other friends now? " Damien couldn't help but laugh at the idea of Kenneth having friends other than him and Leo.

"That's harsh, you know? But yeah you're right, I don't even know who gave me this, it has a note at the back saying thank you but...what did I do to receive a 'Thank you' for?" Leo and Damien nodded in agreement but the three of them were still confused as to who gave him an orange juice.

"You sure that's a thank you gift though? Remember how Freyr got poisoned in the 'Forsaken God' series? You might want to throw that away" Leo said, trying to warn Kenneth. Though, he doesn't have any intention of bashing the person who gave his friend a juice, he just lets his imagination run wild.

"Poisoning me in broad daylight? and not to mention, he gave it to me inside the cafeteria where all of the students could be looking? You've been watching too much anime Leo " Strangely, Kenneth felt the need to defend the guy who gave him orange juice. He didn't like the idea of talking crap about that shy guy. Although Kenneth himself knew that that wasn't Leo's intention at all.

He suddenly remembered what he looked like and how he lowered his head because, Kenneth assumed, he was shy. Kenneth couldn't resist the urge to smile but tried to keep it minimal, his friends might ask him strange questions why he was smiling.

He thought that strange guy was cute but immediately brushed off the idea. If that guy were to ever find out about Kenneth, thinking that he was cute, he'd be totally disgusted. Who would want to be complimented as cute?

He also remembered that, that guy was in a hurry running away from him but Kenneth felt like it wasn't him that the guy was running away from. Even after facing the other direction, that guy kept his head down. Some of the people were staring as he strode off. What was that guy's name, he wonders.

Come to think of it, Kenneth should've chased after the guy to ask him why he gave him an orange juice and thank him for whatever reason that is.

"Strange guy..." Damien suddenly said quietly. He was now a few steps ahead of the two so Kenneth couldn't look at the expression Damien was making.

"You're right" Kenneth said and Leo only nodded in agreement. Damien kept his hands inside his pocket and went for a snack stall Kenneth always go to. After buying their snacks, the three of them decided to go back to their classroom but when they turned to a corner, they suddenly heard voices of girls screaming with giggles.

This made them stop from their tracks. Confused, they look at each other questioningly.

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