The Bottle 

By the time he reached the castle, Noah was exhausted again. It was easy from the north-side of the castle to spot the botanical gardens and for him to fumble inside. He didn't speak to anyone that looked at him even for a moment as he went out into the hallway and towards the foyer, his eyes easily found Mi Na and Hanna as they stood at the top of them, they talked with two other girls.

There were a lot of students in the foyer that went every-which-way and Noah wanted to avoid them all. He went back the way he came, ducked into a different and emptier hallway and settled down. His head and heart were hammering with such violence he wanted nothing more than to lie down on the first bench he found and sleep. Maybe he could get back to his dorm, he thought before the thought slowly died at the idea of getting his third penalty from Ms. Rae if she caught him.

Before Noah could think further, the sound of bells began to ring over his head. Noah looked at the ceiling and around, he saw the students go by him in their yellow ties and into different classrooms, the hum of them all slowly vanished as the bells sounded. He tried to think if he had heard them the day before, he could hardly remember it had all gone by so quickly. 

"When classes change is a good time to get lost."

Mi Na's voice startled Noah from down the hall. He had thought she hadn't seen him watch her. Mi Na had her arms over her chest, she rocked a bit in her loafers as she looked beyond him to the window before she moved down the hall and sat on the bench across from him.

"Should we get to class then?" Noah asked.

"We don't have class," Mi Na reminded him.

Noah gave a long and tired sigh before he dropped his elbows on his knees and held his face in his hands.

"Long first two days?" Mi Na asked.

Noah nodded.

There was a long pause and Noah could hear that Mi Na was making some kind of noise, it got to the point that he looked up and saw her nervously picking at her teeth, her eyes turned away, fixated on the bust that was partially illuminated by the sun. Even Noah knew that her posture held something that she wanted to say, that thoughts ran ramped in her mind. 

"What?" Noah asked.

Mi Na dropped her hand and resumed her normal posture, Noah thought for a moment that he had surprised her.

"Just, uh, you know," Mi Na rolled her hand, before she sighed heavily and dropped her head. "Sorry," she said, her voice more forceful than it needed to be.

"Sorry?" Noah asked.

"For what happened at breakfast."

"Oh."

"Hannil ever catch up with you?" Mi Na asked.

Noah wished that she hadn't asked, he felt his shoulders slump before he could catch them. He could feel the ticket that had fallen beside him without touching it, he didn't want to look at it.

"I might have, um," Noah wiped his palms that had suddenly become sweaty on his thighs as he looked away from her.

"What?" Mi Na asked.

"Well, it was his fault!" Noah defended.

"What?" Her tone was different this time, she looked puzzled and Noah wished he could walk away from people. He wished he could his entire life, he never felt he had the strength to tell people to go away when he needed them to do just that. 

Noah nervously moved in his seat, his stammering started when he tried to think of a way to explain what had happened. He didn't know where to begin or really what even happened, he remembered his anger and his rage, the surprised look on Hannil's face.

"I might have yelled at him." Noah finally squeaked out a coherent sentence.

To his surprise, Mi Na burst into laughter. It was to the point that her proper-posture broke and she held her stomach as she doubled-over, she clapped one hand to her mouth before she began to laugh again.

After a minute, she composed herself, her smile still on her lips, tears in her eyes.

"You gotta tell me what you said," she said.

Noah's ears burned at the memory. "Ms. Rae she...well," he stammered again.

"Okay," Mi Na said, "I get it, Ms. Rae yelled at you and got mad at you and you got your second penalty—but what did you yell at Hannil Sinclair?"

He shifted nervously in his seat, a bit glad that Mi Na had pieced together the basic story from his stammerings. 

"I yelled at him for getting me sentenced to yard work." He said. 

"But what did you say?"

"What does it matter?!" Noah pleaded.

"Because you're probably the first person ever to straight-up yell at Hannil Sinclair." Mi Na said before she clearly tried to hold back her laughter, yet it still bubbled up into a snickering fit.

He stared at her for a long while.

"I, um," he started again when she clearly wasn't going to move past the subject. "I told him to stay away from me."

Mi Na nodded.

"That he was mean."

She seemed to want to hold back her laughter.

"I might have called him a 'son of a bitch'." Noah quietly spoke, unable to shake the memory that he said it.

Mi Na began to clap and laugh at the same time, she seemed to enjoy the memory despite how Noah dropped back into his hands and held his face as he thought back over the memory. He felt his hands already shaking, Hannil lived across the hall from him, Hannil had shouted at Ms. Rae, Hannil was so close to him and painted to beautifully and Noah had yelled at him. Let his anxieties out in fumes of anger.

"That is the greatest news of my life!" Mi Na said.

"Why?" Noah asked.

"'Cause it's fucking hysterical, that's why."

"But—why? He is clearly a good person! No one's yelled at him before!"

"People yell at good people all the time," Mi Na replied, "That's part of what makes them so good. People don't yell at Hannil Sinclair because he's Hannil Sinclair."

Noah paused for a moment or two. "I don't know what you're getting at."

Mi Na arched a brow before she tilted her head to one side. "I guess you wouldn't, would you?"

Noah shook his head.

"His family is really, really important to the entire world. Pretty famous too."

Noah stared at her for a long moment. "He is?" 

"He's like...modern-royalty," Mi Na shrugged, "No one yells at the royals."

"Wait, wait, wait," Noah chuckled nervously as he leaned back, "Why is that so funny? I mean, I get that he's rich and important, but aren't you?" 

Mi Na shook her head, "Not as rich and important as Hannil Sinclair! He thinks this place is small! He grew up in a castle! I'm talking like thirty-six rooms are all his or some shit." 

"What the hell is he doing here?" Noah asked. 

"Ask him that yourself." She replied. 

"I'm not going to do that," He shook his head.

His panic had settled in more and more the more he realized how serious she was. That she wasn't laughing that he believed her. That she wasn't going to flip on her statement. Noah knew his mother social-climbing ways, that having Hannil across the hall would enthrall his mother. Noah knew that his mother probably knew who he was and would be mortified by the way Noah had yelled at someone so important. 

"As I said," Mi Na continued, "He's not, like, going to be King of England or something, so," she shrugged once more instead of speaking as if to say that Noah should let it go. 

Noah began to chuckle nervously again, his palms sweaty and his heart hammered. He cursed his own anger, his own anxiety. He was set to a school where there was "modern-royalty" across the hall from him? Where there was a hawk-like woman storming around ready to throw him out at any moment? Where surely half of the school by now knew of his sexuality that he had kept secret all his life? Noah felt as though he were soon to faint.

"I need to call my parents," Noah began to pat down his pockets. He might as well be the one to tell his mother before the Sinclair Family somehow squashes his family home. Noah heaved a heavy sigh after he found his pockets empty, he slumped once again, frustration bubbled to his surface.

"What's wrong?" Mi Na asked.

"Ms. Rae," Noah said, "She has my phone." He rubbed his face again, "My parents are going to kill me. I'm so dead!"

"She took your phone?" She asked, confused was heavy in her voice. 

"You can't have a phone here," Noah said before he looked squarely at Mi Na.

"The Headmaster took mine," she quickly explained.

Noah took in a deep breath. "Do you think that I can sneak back to my dorm?" 

Mi Na shrugged, "Why not?" 

Noah quietly nodded and pushed himself off of the bench. Despite how tired he was, the idea of a nap was far more intriguing than the idea of the castle where he might run into Hannil Sinclair or Ms. Rae. 

"Not against the rules?" Noah asked. 

"Uh, not really," Mi Na replied, she seemed curious but Noah felt if he explained any more, she would only laugh again. 

Noah waved lazily at her before he left through the halls and went into the courtyard. He had only arrived the day before, yet it felt like a week. As he walked back to his dorm, he wished he had gone to boarding school all his life. Things were bad, but at least no one was there to yell at him in his room. 

Noah took off his loafers and set them near his dresser before he took off his blazer and belt, carefully hung each before he turned to his bed. On his bed was a square bottle of amber liquid that had German writing on it and the image of a small town in black and white ink. Noah knew alcohol when he saw it, but he had never touched a bottle before. It was heavier than he expected and he was even more surprised to find a small note tucked beneath the bottle that had several lines scratched vigorously out before one that read: 

You're right. I'm sorry. 

It was such beautiful, neat cursive-handwriting that Noah might have known where it came from even if the context had been lost to him. He peered back at his door, knowing that if he opened it he could see Hannil Sinclair's door. Noah set the bottle down next to his bed and tucked the piece of paper underneath his handbook on his desk. He wished he was tired, but the guilt of yelling at Hannil weighed so heavily that Noah only sighed heavily after he finally made his bed and sat atop of it and looked at the half-open window that showed the sunny, autumn day it had become. 

Noah closed his eyes, a single thought came to him: I'm an idiot.

[ A/N: thank you so much for reading! all the support and everything really makes me happy! if you like this chapter, feel free to vote and/or comment!]