Chapter 33
Vita and Carlisle.
Lately, the two of them had practically been in a cold war.
To the students around them, they had seemed lovey-dovey, but lately, the atmosphere between them definitely felt different.
“Hey, Bianca.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Did you two have a fight…?”
Vita immediately understood what her deskmate Shasha meant. Of course, she had no intention of agreeing, so she immediately shook her head.
“No, not really.”
“…You definitely had a fight.”
“No, really.”
Vita wasn't even sure why she was honestly explaining herself over this.
‘Even if I'd fought with that guy, what would it matter?’
It really wouldn't.
Fortunately, when Vita repeated herself, her deskmate Shasha didn't press any further,
so Vita let out a short, inaudible sigh.
‘Even the other kids have noticed…’
It wasn't something to worry about. Strictly speaking, they hadn't even fought, and even if they had, it wouldn't matter.
‘That Carlisle guy.’
In the first place, they were merely rivals, and before Vita became a woman, they hadn't even been close.
So no matter what happened between Vita and that guy, it shouldn't matter.
It definitely shouldn't.
Vita bit his lip.
‘…What's wrong with me?’
A very subtle feeling kept creeping up.
Irritation, confusion, and even frustration.
Vita didn't know why he felt so stifled, either. For some reason, his chest just kept feeling tight.
Several days had already passed since things had become like this—since he'd grown distant from Carlisle.
Just this stifled feeling.
‘I definitely did make a mistake back then.’
Vita fell into thought.
[Yeah, I hate it.]
[Why do you assume I'll like it just because you want me to?]
He had made a mistake, after all. He could admit that much.
It felt as though his competitiveness had taken over his head and made him snap. He hadn't needed to go that far, but he'd reacted strangely.
But even so.
That didn't mean he understood Carlisle's attitude now—how it had changed in an instant.
‘What a petty guy, for a man.’
Carlisle treated him coldly,
as though they were strangers,
and that made Vita feel absurdly bothered and conscious of him.
‘I mean, what… didn't he say he liked me before?’
It probably hadn't been sincere in the first place. Well, even so, that didn't make him a strange guy.
That was just Carlisle Schultz.
He'd always been the sort of guy who dated lots of girls.
His feelings could catch fire quickly and then cool off just as quickly; there was nothing strange about that.
That was definitely all it was.
Besides, there had been some good news lately.
[Ah, Vita! About that matter we discussed last time…]
The doctor he'd met before had contacted him.
[R-really?]
It was tremendous news for Vita. Apparently, the results of the advanced drug trial were positive.
[Once this trial is over, we'll be able to give you the medicine.]
A chance to return to his original state.
If he truly wished to return to being a man—if his will was strong enough—it might become possible.
It was unquestionably excellent news.
So Vita should have been happy. He should have been floating on air.
But why? Why on earth was he feeling this way?
Could it be because his biggest worry had been resolved?
Right now, Vita felt only stifled. For some reason, he also felt a little uneasy. He had no idea why.
Since they were in the same classroom, there was no way they wouldn't occasionally run into each other.
Just now, on his way back from the bathroom, they'd briefly crossed paths in the hallway, but Carlisle walked right past him without a glance.
For an instant, Vita felt as if he'd been pricked by a sharp thorn. He stopped short.
Normally, Carlisle would have tried to make a move with some of his uniquely ridiculous nonsense,
but since he didn't do that at all and had suddenly become a different person, Vita became all the more conscious of him.
Carlisle Schultz had changed.
“……”
Vita clenched his fist tightly.
‘What am I supposed to do about that?’
His pride was incredibly strong, so he had no intention of backing down when the other person acted like that.
It was the same after class.
“Basketball after school today?”
“Sure, why not?”
Even after their gazes met, Carlisle passed Vita by yet again, chatting idly with his friends.
The awkward air from a moment ago, the confused feeling—
Vita curled his fist and stopped again for a moment.
“Are you okay, Your Highness?”
“Why, Shasha?”
“Your expression looks awful… That bastard Carlisle Schultz!”
His deskmate Shasha was angry on his behalf. But Vita really didn't want to admit it.
If things had been as usual, he would have apologized first, but the other guy was acting like that.
“…No, it's nothing like that.”
What did that guy matter, anyway? Vita kept telling himself it wasn't anything to worry about.
Really.
***
Several days passed after Carlisle became class president and Vita became vice president.
“All right, enjoy your lunch. Next week we have the athletic festival and midterms, so let's start preparing little by little whenever you have time.”
“Yes, teacher.”
“Oh, and Carlisle and Bianca, could you come with me for a moment?”
The two of them were summoned after morning classes ended.
It wasn't anything major.
“The thing is, I have something I need you two to help with. Normally, I should do it myself, but I'm a little busy right now.”
As he spoke, the teacher pointed to a stack of documents on one side of his desk.
“Well, as you can see, I'm on the exam committee of all things… so I'm afraid I'll have to ask you.”
Vita waved a hand at their apologetic homeroom teacher.
“It's okay, sir. Just tell me what needs doing!”
It was a good chance to earn some points with their homeroom teacher, after all.
And having Carlisle beside him was awkward enough as it was.
Vita had reacted a little too enthusiastically. The startled teacher soon smiled.
“It's good to see such enthusiasm. I'm really grateful. As for what I need you to do… our class happens to be in charge of organizing supplies this semester.”
To sum it up:
They needed to prepare in advance for next week's athletic festival by checking whether all the supplies were in order.
“The first-aid supplies in particular have to be counted exactly. The athletic festival schedule ends around evening that day.”
Late autumn would be here soon.
The weather had been chilly lately, and it got cold at night.
“So how do we check the quantity of the supplies?”
At Carlisle's question, the teacher slapped his forehead.
“Ah, what was I thinking? I wrote it down on paper in advance in case you didn't know, didn't I?”
There were roughly five hundred items.
“I'll check them again myself when I get a chance later, so just sort and organize them.”
“Yes, sir.”
And after replying, the two of them left the staff room together again.
Not a word was exchanged as they walked down the hall.
It was so awkward.
‘…How did things end up like this?’
Vita bit his lip uncomfortably, but didn't say anything. He still had a shred of pride left, after all.
Ring-ring- ring-ring-
Lunchtime had arrived.
The funny thing was, even though things had become like this between them, the two still ate lunch together. It felt like this was their absolute limit.
If either one of them suggested stopping, it seemed like that was what would happen,
but neither of them had said it aloud yet.
Anyway, including Emily Swan, the three of them had been spending very uncomfortable, awkward lunches together from time to time lately.
But today was a little different. When Vita went to find Emily, she spoke to him with an apologetic expression.
“Sorry, Bianca! I'm eating with some other friends today…”
“Ah, I see…”
Vita was slightly flustered.
‘Emily's dropping out here?’
They weren't even talking to Carlisle at all as it was. It was disconcerting.
“I'll message you later!”
“O-okay…!”
“Oh, wait.”
Emily suddenly approached again, as if she'd thought of something.
“By the way, Bianca. You and Carlisle still…?”
“Why Carlisle?”
When Vita pretended not to know what she meant, Emily looked apologetic.
“You still haven't made up. Because of the question I asked…”
When Vita kept silent, Emily spoke with a smile.
“Hey, Bianca. Since it'll just be the two of you today, you have to make up.”
Maybe Emily had deliberately stepped aside?
After leaving those words behind, she waved and was soon surrounded by her friends.
‘Emily has always been pretty popular, after all.’
It wasn't strange.
Anyway, the important thing right now was that the two of them were going to eat together, but it was still incredibly awkward.
In fact, Vita felt like he could die of embarrassment just going up to the rooftop in Carlisle's arms.
The fact that they still ate lunch together was at least like an unspoken agreement.
It was a promise they'd made, at any rate.
Carlisle was quiet, and Vita was no different.
Why hadn't Emily come? She was eating with the other kids.
That one exchange each was literally the entirety of their conversation.
“……”
“……”
A fairly awkward silence continued for quite some time.
Vita bit his lip. It was bothering him, after all.
‘No, why?’
There was no need to care, was there? It was obviously strange for him to watch his step just because that guy was making the atmosphere awkward.
On the other hand, yes, he was a little resentful.
‘Why are you acting like this, seriously…?’
Carlisle had never exactly been warm with other people, but hadn't he at least spouted nonsense at Vita often enough?
Hadn't he been slick? Shameless, even?
So, just once.
‘Just once, like before…’
If Carlisle would pretend nothing was wrong and approach him first, Vita would gladly apologize and meet him halfway.
The atmosphere was too awkward. It felt suffocating.
He regretted acting out of childish spite on the day he'd lost the class president election.
It had been childish to openly rebuke the guy who'd been smiling at him just because Vita had lost a mere election.
But Vita couldn't bring himself to apologize.
Because of his paltry pride, and because he wasn't used to apologizing.
His fist clenched tight, and his chest felt painfully tight.
His lips were parched, and although he was intensely conscious of Carlisle,
he ended up doing nothing but agonizing until he let another opportunity pass him by.
Ring-ring- ring-ring-
The afternoon bell rang out.
Vita's vision gradually darkened as he wondered what he should do.
But, honestly, he really didn't want things to keep going like this with Carlisle.
***
And that afternoon.
Vita and Carlisle had come to organize the supplies as their homeroom teacher had asked that morning.
The athletic festival was coming up, followed by midterms.
Vita's goal was to come in first in both, so he couldn't waste his after-school time.
For now, the two stayed behind in the classroom after homeroom.
“All right, I'll leave it to you. It will take a while, but I'll make sure you both get extra credit in return.”
“E-extra credit?!”
“I've already gotten approval.”
Vita's eyes lit up, and he continued chatting with the teacher, while Carlisle said goodbye and headed into the hall first.
“I'll do my best, sir!”
Carlisle went on ahead.
Vita followed right behind him.
The storage room was in the annex. In other words, if they left the main building and crossed the grounds, the building that soon came into view was the academy's annex.
“Um, well…”
Vita, who had been hesitating the whole time, finally opened his mouth.
“I need the list, too…”
They did need the list, after all.
It had been inconvenient that the teacher had given it only to Carlisle, since he was the class president.
“Then look at it.”
After his dry reply, Carlisle held the list out toward Vita.
“Then what about you?”
“I've mostly memorized it already.”
What a show-off.
No wonder he did well in school with a brain like that.
The world was so unfair.
Vita accepted the list, pouting slightly at Carlisle's words.
‘Ah…’
The realization brought him a little relief.
He'd been worried about how unbearably awkward it would be to organize the storage room together.
‘I was really worried…’
Still, this was the longest conversation they'd had in several days.
So, for some reason, it really reassured him.
Vita didn't even notice it himself.
The fact that just talking with Carlisle a little had made him feel better.
Anyway, the two began organizing the supplies in the storage room. Though, in truth, it was closer to checking than organizing.
When they pushed open the large metal door, a familiar smell reached them.
The distinctive smell of the gym storage room.
Faint sunlight illuminated the interior through gaps in the windows.
A dusty vaulting horse, basketballs wrapped in nets, hula hoops of various sizes, and folded mats.
Of course, all they had to do was check the supplies, so they got started right away.
They closed the storage-room door and continued their dry conversation.
“There, twenty?”
“That's right, twenty.”
They checked every item on the first-aid supply list without missing anything. Since their homeroom teacher said he'd check it once more, they also sorted everything to make it easy for him to verify later.
The storage room was quite large, and given the nature of the job, it took a long time.
‘But we're getting extra credit.’
Besides, Vita was rather meticulous about things like this, and he didn't like doing a sloppy job when someone had trusted him with it.
If he was going to do something anyway, he preferred to do it perfectly in one go.
That was simply his personality, so he did clash with his vice presidents whenever he served as class president.
[Vita. You know. Let's just do enough and go.]
[Do we really have to go this far?]
Those sorts of complaints.
The thing about competitiveness was that sometimes it culminated in perfectionism.
But Carlisle wasn't saying anything in particular now, so Vita felt quite comfortable.
Since Carlisle was silently putting up with it, their awkward situation seemed to help, at least while they worked.
Or perhaps—
Vita had no idea whether Carlisle simply wasn't thinking much about it.
“Phew- We're done.”
Anyway, because of that, neither of them realized
that the sun had already begun to sink from its zenith.
Clank- clank-
‘Huh, what is it…?’
Then a problem arose.
Vita tilted his head slightly as he tried to open the door.
Even when he tried again, wondering if he'd imagined it, it didn't budge at all.
“The door won't open.”
Carlisle, who had been standing behind him, approached Vita's side.
“Move aside for a moment.”
Clank- clank-
The two were left speechless.
This couldn't be…
“…Looks like we're trapped.”
Of all places, in the gym storage room after school!