Confusion Within

5 years ago

"I'm sorry Miss Romanoff...p-please don't hurt m-me."

"You think a pathetic apology is going to give us a higher grade?"

"N-no?"

Melanie lit her right hand in flames showing an orange color with hints of blue in it, since her Esper power level was D grade at the time. But despite the D grade, the flames coming out of her hand then attaching itself towards her whip caused the victim to shiver uncontrollably.

"That's enough Melanie."

A cold emotionless voice resounded near them causing everyone to turn their head towards the source revealing a teenage boy with reddish brown color and piercing blue eyes hidden behind thick glasses.

"Yelling at a team member for their failure...is something I can accept, but threatening is another thing."

The group of 5 people were all Esper students of Omega Academy, and were on their first group assignment together in the training area for Intro to Combat class. The class itself was mandatory for first and second years only as students needed to know how to defend themselves and work in groups regardless if they choose to work in the civilian or military sector.

As for why Melanie was berating and threatening a team member, well that particular individual messed up their formation since he was still a beginner. Despite being a practice run and given full marks regardless before the real test at the end of this semester, Melanie was in a foul mood and it was because she was paired with a certain boy who is wearing thick glasses.

"Oh the peasant boy dares to call me by my first name?"

Melanie walked over to her group leader, Dean, who was chosen because the rest of the group picked him. Even though Melanie glared at them to vote for her, they still picked him since as long as they didn't touch her or harass her openly then she couldn't harm them. While Dean was mostly quiet, he was a competent leader giving out orders when needed but kept his mouth shut most of the time when they were fighting against training bots. 

Remembering the past hour of having to follow Dean's order, despite them being reasonable, irks Melanie's ego as she stopped right in front of Dean.

She was a couple inches taller giving her a slight feeling of superiority as she glared at Dean's piercing blue eyes.

"What are you going to do if I decided to punish him for incompetence?", her soft angelic voice turned venomous as she asked that question and the air around them was slowly getting hotter because of Melanie's pyrokinesis.

Dean though remained unfazed as he continue staring into Melanie's almost glowing violet eyes then he replied calmly.

"If you do that then I'll be in the right to stop you which in turn would tarnish your family's reputation and might put you in hot water depending on how severe this will get, Melanie Asato-Romanoff."

He pushed his glasses up as he finished saying her family name clearly and concisely as if he practiced saying it in preparation for something like this.

Melanie, in turn, backed off with a slight shock on her face to Dean's bravado and how easily he pronounced it her family name. And he also knew the fact that nobles can't openly harm UHA future assets over petty reasons or else the Royal Inquisitors will be involved. This fact was an unspoken rule, the reason it was unspoken was because the higher nobles wanted to keep intimidating the 'commoners'....if necessary. But Melanie's thoughts were....

'Mark couldn't pronounce it correctly to this day despite being engaged to me for 10 years'

The thought came up but quickly vanish as Melanie walked away to prevent herself from going overboard in her rage. She was gritting her perfect teeth as she hated losing, but as Dean pointed out, Melanie couldn't harm them without plausible cause. 

'How did that fucking peasant know that?'

Jen, her assigned paxian guardian, was also keeping an eye on her so that she doesn't embarrass her family name. And speaking of Jen, the goth AI girl was fiercely typing a fan fic after witnessing the strange tension between Melanie and Dean....her work was an enemies to lovers trope.

.

.

.

"Umm...thanks McLov-I mean Dean for that save, b-but.....are nobles really restricted from harming us regular folks?", the verbally abused boy asked innocently.

"No, it's something I made up, but I suggest you don't provoke her further. And work on staying calm and keeping in formation next time. I'll help out if needed so contact me."

Dean lied as he pushed as glasses up again out of habit. Granny Judy revealed that secret to him but strongly told him to not abuse that unspoken rule as a cornered animal would only strike back harder. He then walked away since their class period was over and Dean had to go to the next class....where he'd be sitting next to Melanie.

He sighed quietly, because this was their first confrontation in what would feel like the first of many arguments.

'Hopefully she keeps things verbally...'

***

Present Time

'Why am I remembering that time?'

It was a mundane memory of his first group assignment and also his first of many arguments with Melanie until those fights withered to being extremely rare in the 2nd year and onward. Dean pondered if it was because of Kat's constant pestering of Melanie that he started to think about her more.

They could almost be called friends, but he didn't have her contact info saved on his watch. The duo only met on pre-scheduled times set during class or whenever they ran into each other. Most of the meetings were purely school related, but sometimes Melanie would invite him for coffee...or ice creams. Though he previously assumed all of those meetings were because she was lonely or just increasing her rapport with him since he could be another potential asset under her.

Now, Dean was confused, as Melanie was beautiful meaning she could have any suitors she wanted and toss them aside without batting an eye, but she wasn't like that or at least that's what he thought of her over the years during their brief interactions. Sometimes she would have a sad expression...sometimes she would have a joyful expression, all of their interactions since their 2nd year were brief but memorable in some capacity.

Though he quickly put those thoughts away as he needed to focus on the matter at hand.

Who knows how long they have before Ha-eun or something worse comes barging in on them unprepared.

"Alright...I'm ready to hear what happen overnight."

Bob finished tinkering with the Memoria and got it to do its magic. Then he faced Dean with a rare smile as he enjoys seeing his gadgets working after fixing them up.

"Excellent, now where should I start....I right when-"

"mmmm....Jacob why do you sound more manly all of the sudden?"

.

.

.

A soft sleepy voice resounded in the small hidden room.

"Huh, forgot that the more recent the memory, the faster this device works."

**********

A/N: The flashback is split into two as I realized the word count for just the first half alone. So second half will be like a few chapters later...when I find the right place to include it.