Terres looked over his shoulder but didn't saw Meru.

"...!"

His cheek swole instantly, as he pouted angrily, the violet-eyed boy wanted Meru to come running after him, but the black-hair boy didn't do that!

Honestly, all that tea-party lost its purpose for Terres if Meru wasn't with him!
There wasn't any important event at the tea-party anyway! Hmph! Meru you big dummy! Why aren't you coming after me?! Uuu... does he really came here for Horianna and not because I asked him...?

Terres was so deep in his dark thoughts that he didn't even noticed Horianna, the host of the party, who approached him, and he simply ghosted her making her pretty face distort into an ugly grimace of anger.

But as it was said, Terres didn't notice that at all. He also didn't notice another person who up until now was leaning against the wall with a bored expression.

But that person noticed Terres and instantly rushed towards him, bee-lining towards him, pushing other guests aside as if they were pebbles on the side of the road.
As soon as the person was right next to Terres, they reached towards the boy and grabbed him into a headlock.

"Kyah!"

Terres sqeaked like a toy and stretched his neck to have a look at his opponent.

"Hey there, you cheeky bugger!"

The red-haired Jaftie smiled at him and nuzzled his fist against Terres'shead.

"H-hey, Jaftie...! I didn't see you."

Terresresponded, giving up on escaping.

Other people moved away from them thinking that it was the beginning of a fight but to tell the truth, Jaftie's actions only looked rough.

Afterall the red-haired boy became Terres and Meru's friend and knew about Terres's weak physique so he was extremely gentle with the feeble girly boy.

"You reckon you could let me go, big-guy? We're getting a lot of strange looks you know..."

Terresmumbled, his left-cheek squished against Jafties abdomen.

"Hmmm...I don't know, I kind of like having you in a submissive position."

Jaftiegrinned teasingly and poked Terres's stomach.

"Oh my, how soft, the cafeteria food is doing someone's good, eh?"

His grin became even wider and Terres blushed and covered his stomach with his hand.

"I haven't gained any weight! I just can't grow any muscles!"

Terres complained and Jafite laughed at that response.

"Yeah, right, I bet your butt is even softer!"

Jafitemocked him.

"Wh-what that has to do with anything...?! Come on, Jaftie, don't be a jerk, let me go or I'll get angry at you...!"

Terres cried and his eyes dampened.

Seeing that Jaftie instantly released him and instead put his arm over his shoulder.

"Say, Terry..."

The red-haired boy leaned towards Terres conspicuously and whispered with a mischievous expression.

"This party is a total flop, I came here half an hour ago and already almost died out of boredom..."

"And...?"

Hearing Jaftie's intro Terres could already guess that the delinquent was up to no good again.

Asif to confirm Terres's suspicion, Jafite looked around in a very suspicious way and leaned even closer to the weak boy while pulling something out of his shirt's inner pocket.

A flat bottle shone briefly in Jafite's hand and the red-haired delinquent smiled triumphantly.

"I just thought that a little drink would help me deal with the atmosphere... And since I'm such a generous guy I might even share it with you if you ask me nicely."

Jafite seemed a little bit too excited and made Terres raise his brow in suspicion.

"You\ve already had some before I came here, didn't you..."

Terres squinted his eyes at Jafite and the bad-boy looked away with a cheeky smile.

"This may or may not be a second bottle from my praised stash."

He giggled with fake innocence and made Terres sigh.

"You dimwit, we can't drink at school, remember?"

Now he was looking around and pushed the bottle in Jaftie's hand towards his torso.

"No, no, no, my adorable little bugger."

Jaftie laughed and pulled Terres closer.

"Indeed there's a rule against the drinking but it only covers drinking during classes and in the dorm, there's absolutely no rule about drinking at social gatherings after classes. Have a sip, come on, doit for me?"

Jafite made a proud expression and forced the bottle in Terres's hands.

"Guuuh..."

Terres groaned an rolled his eyes.

"Geez, Jafite, I seriously don't wa..."

He was about to refuse but then a commotion by the entrance made him stop mid-sentence.

Senior Golger and Meru entered the room together, even though they seemed to be quarreling Terres's heart got pricked with the thorn of jealousy.

He prefers to talk to senior than to spend time with me...?!

His gip on the bottle tightened and his expression darkened.

Without an ounce of hesitation, The violet-eyed boy downed the whole content in few big gulps.

"Whoa! We have a drinker here! And here I wanted you to leave me some."

Jaftiegrinned at Terres but the short's boy eyes became sharper and he glared at the red-haired boy.

"You have more?"

He asked as his face started growing redder by the second.

"I do but..."

Jaftie hesitated but the next moment Terres pulled him down by the collar of his shirt and started walking towards the table with food and drinks pulling Jaftie with him.

"Ghoodh.Ghimme!"

Terres demanded and without even looking at Jaftie, he reached his hand towards him expectantly.

"The hell you think you're going? We're not done talking you stinking gold-hungry bastard!"

Angry Meru was right behind Victisso and was relentlessly growling at the platinum-haired senior.

Victisso himself wasn't paying the black-haired youth any mind and was looking around in search of Terres instead.

"Tch! Shit... This may be bad..."

He clicked his tongue and cursed under his breath, but since Meru was so close, he heard him.

"What's going on? What may be bad?"

He asked confused and also started looking around but he was slightly shorter than the senior in front of him and could see past the other people gathered.

"Terresis with Jaftie."

Victisso explained shortly.

"Just that? Jaftie's not going to do anything, as you said yourself, he doesn't realize his own feelings yet. Though I'll better go join them, you go greet the hostess or something."

Meru tried to shoo him away but Victisso only sighed disappointed.

"Jaftie's not a trouble, true, but since his reputation is mostly correct, I wouldn't be surprised if he had some alcohol on him..."

"Huh? Nah, he's not so stupid, students can't have alcohol in the academy, remember, mister student council president?"

Meru mocked Victisso's words making the young Golger shake his head.

"Actually that rule doesn't say anything about drinking at social gatherings after lessons so it's technically allowed. Also, both of them look a bit flushed... I think we're already too late..."

Victisso made a worried face.

But that reaction wasn't even comparable to Meru's.

The black-haired boy paled as if all of his blood drained from his face and his eyes became fierce.

Without further ado he pushed Victisso to the side and rushed in the direction that the senior pointed at before.

"Oh well, I might as well enjoy the show... It's not like Terry-pie would hurt himself anyway."

Victisso shrugged his shoulders and then smiled at the approaching Horianna while keeping an eye on Terres.

And there was a lot to keep an eye on!

Merusaw something flying at him and dodged instinctively.

A high boot flew past his head and fell between the confused people.

The black haired-youth saw the other boot flying in a different direction and hit some poor chap who was enjoying a conversation with a blushed lady, that guy didn't have Meru's reflexes or training and the boot hit him square in the face.

As one would expect, the victim started fuming and making a fuss over such disgraceful event and started waving the boot around loudly asking who attacked him but Meru was already there and took the boot right out of his hand with a grim expression.

Incidentor not the guy who got hit was one of the Terres's bullies who got beaten up by Meru, so his anger cooled down instantly under the cold gaze of black eyes.

Meru haven't done that out of the kindness of his heart or because he didn't want the tea-party to be spoiled.

No.

He simply recognized the boots as Terres's.

What the hell did Jaftie talk Terres into?! Or is he being bullied?! Damn it!

Meru ground his teeth and hastened his peace towards where he expected to find Terres.

He pushed through the people and finally arrived at the spot.

"Terry, that's enough, I said it was okay to take off your shoes, but that's enough already!"

"Meru didn't compliment me for my attire so what's the point in clothes?!"

And what he witnessed left him speechless.

The barefooted Terres was struggling with Jaftie, his white knee-high stosckings, so popular these days amongst the young vain noblemen, were lying on the floor on both sides of Terres's chair.

Terres was trying very hard to unbutton his shirt while Jafie was trying extremly hard not to harm Terres while also stopping him from undressing any further.

"What'sgoing on?"

Meru asked with a strict expression and both of the struggling boys flinched and looked at him.

Jaftie with a bit of fear and Terres with anger.

Since Jaftie was responsible for giving Terres the alcohol which was most likely the reason that the boy started acting like this, the red-haired bully let go of the smaller boy and vacuated promptly.

On the other hand Terres pouted and put his legs on the chair and hugged his knees and started glaring at Meru from ever them, he saw his high boots in Meru's hand but instead of getting embarrassed he pouted even more and raised his shoulders defensively.

"...So you like when I call you pretty after all, huh?"

Merusighed and took Jaftie's seat next to Terres.

"Hmph!"

Terres's cheeks swole even more as he pouted again and looked away.

"Terres, have you forgotten that you didn't like it when I called you pretty?"

Merutilted his head and asked.

In response, Terres's hugged his knees tighter.

"StupidMeru, not even listening properly to what I say to him. Muscle-head.Bully. I hate you."

He grumbled while avoiding the eye-contact.

His comment left Meru wide-eyed.

"Hey, isn't it a bit rough?"

He asked and reached his hand towards Terres but his hand was instantly kicked away.

Although has Trispi appeared right away and started dancing around Terres's foot that became red and started swelling it was clear who got hurt more because of the action.

Merutook his hand back because it looked like Terres was going to kick his hand again if he tries touching him again.

"Stupiddummy. Muscle-head. I said I don't want to look pretty, I want tool look cool. I've never said I don't want you to compliment me!"

"...?"

Merutilted his head in confusion but that only made Terres angrier.