he was partially (fully) to blame. Not that his in denial self would ever come to acknowledge that though.

sigh. Amid his deep pondering, he too had involuntarily laid the side of his head on the table. Facing the direction where the back of Maribel's head was, his gaze was invaded with the white of her hood and with the heaviness that clawed his eyelids. With each passing seconds, his lashes softly fluttered close, remaining barely open to be aware of his surroundings.

A moment had passed through serenity and he could hear the rustling of clothes and paper alike. Kaiser paused with bated breath as Maribel turned her head to face him, perhaps with the intent to retrieve some stationary that was out of reach. Though it didn't take very long for her to immediately turn back without retrieving her needed item. His face no longer in her sight, nor at proximity.

"....." Kaiser clenched his fist beneath the table perplexed, does she find my face that repulsive...? A lump clawed discomfortingly in his throat as he recalled the way her silhouette briefly flinched when she turned to face him. But why...? Why the fuck does it... peeve me this much?

Kaiser straightened his posture, now no longer leaning on the desk. "Raconteuse..?" He grimaced at his previous thoughts.

At the call of the nickname, Maribel's writing came to an abrupt pause before returning to its original, swift strokes. She only hummed and raised her brow in response, not bothering to face him.

"Why does.." he started reluctantly before exhaling in agitation, nothing would come out of beating around the bush. "Why does your face always twitch whenever I'm near you?" Do I smell or something..?

"...." Now if Kaiser didn't have Maribel's attention before, he certainly had it now. She got up from her laying position, was he asking out of boredom, she turned to face him, or because he genuinely doesn't know..? "How am I supposed to keep a straight face when there's a piece of shit infested with parasites in front of me?"

Kaiser only stared back at her in silence before turning to look around him confused, then pointing at himself with a raised brow when there was no one within the vicinity. "Me? My handsome self?"

"..." Maribel's face involuntarily twitched again as her mouth fell into a scowl, "I can't stand your ass."

"Then kneel." He replied all too quickly, leaning back on his chair and casually waving his hand about. Upon seeing her souring expression, he continued with an entertained grin, "don't look at me like that, I'd think you kidnapped kids with that dumb fa—"

Maribel had suddenly jerked back, startling Kaiser. She comically pushed her chair back and sat on the one beside it. Now much further away from Kaiser as she pinched her nose and scrunched her face in disgust. "Don't," she shook her head with a hand out. "Don't speak too much, you're breath has a foul odour attached to it." That was obviously a lie, Maribel had smelt Kaiser's breath and it was anything but foul.

Kaiser's smile strained as he shut his eyes at her childishness before nodding sarcastically. "Your mouth's just too close to your nose."

Maribel gasped, her glare intensifying as she processed his words. "You're saying that as if you don't have fucking faeces flaking up your arse crack!" Intending to have the last word in this petty argument, Maribel continued, leaving no room for Kaiser to refute her claims by changing the subject. "Anyways, here."

She aggressively shoved the piece of paper in his face before resting her chin on her hand and avoiding his gaze, the fear he may be displeased with her work briefly crawling up her throat. "I've come up with a few topics we could do it about... pick one you prefer."

Kaiser raised a brow at her words before glancing down at the messy notes he was somehow, miraculously, able to read. "You're penmanship is atrocious."

"It's cursive." Maribel retorted confidently.

"...." more like curse on paper, Kaiser remained unusually silent and kept his comment to himself as he read through the contents. "Hm, 'link back to Hitler's personality disorder, specifically counteractive narcism'..." he mumbled before turning the face the anticipating girl. "What provoked the thought?" Kaiser queried curiously.

Although it seemed out of placed for national importance, it could link quite well if explained properly, he supposed. This was what separated her way of thinking from us, huh? "You dislike them or something?"

Maribel stared at him blankly before shrugging like it was common sense. Which sane person liked narcissists? "I guess.."

"Oh," he paused, before grinning large and mischievously. "So does that mean you dislike yourself too?"

"...." she blinked, involuntarily clenching her fist, "huh?"

"I sai—"

"No, I heard." It just... came out of nowhere. His words took a while to load and when his stupid smirk enlarged to its highest degree, Maribel sensed her patience snap thin. "I'm not a narcissist." Her voice was firm as her gaze hardened.

"Hmm?" Kaiser taunted, entertained by the situation. "Really? Even after asking me to contribute by choosing a topic from the list you made."

"They were only suggestions." She corrected him with haste.

"Suggestions?" He jeered, "don't make me laugh, you sincerely thought that any other topic, excluding yours, would've been crass, right? That if you prepared this whole project by yourself, we would've gotten a high grade. Didn't you?"

"I..." —didn't... Maribel frowned, the limited confidence in herself gone completely with the truth behind his words. "No, I—" she shook her head to refute when the words she wanted to voice out refused to make themselves known.

Upon noting her hesitance, he muttered reassuringly, "not that there's anything wrong with it though..." it was quiet, perhaps more so to himself and Maribel completely failed to catch it. Too distracted racking her brain to refute his claim and defend herself.

"...."

Kaiser pursed his lips, unsure of whether to continue but he chose to despite his conscience's reluctance. "In that sense, you should be able to understand that you and I are the same."

"Huh?" Now confused, she observed his face for any undertones of humour and gulped when there was none. He was being serious. "No, we're not." He's spouting some scary stuff all of sudden..

"We are." He affirmed persistently.

"We're not." Maribel clenched her teeth as a vein grew beside her neck, "so go fuck yourself."

"I'd fuck me too so that's hardly an insult." He teased sultrily, rolling his tongue against the inside of his cheek.

"See!" Maribel pointed at him accusingly, "you're the one that's the stupid, self-centered, egoistic narcissist!" She spat with all the hatred her kindness could muster.

"So you dislike me?"

"Yeah, I dislike narcissists like you."

"Oh yeah?" he murmured sweetly, patronisingly. "Look at that, you almost got my name right." He whispered, a wicked grin overtaking his bewitching features as a lone dimple made its appearance on his left cheek. "Almost..."

"I really, really don't like you." Maribel repeated impulsively. Her tone came out slowly, a veiled threat. So why the hell would I be the same as you?!

"Aww~," he cooed, a deep sound resonated from the back of his throat. "How cute. you're in denial." His sapphire hues coming in direct contact with her sepia ones. "You're also in denial of our similarities."

"We're not the same!" Maribel repeated for the nth time. "You're white and I'm brown." She clarified pointing at herself and Kaiser respectively. "I wash my arse after a shit and you don't."

"Um, actually—" he pointed out, an obnoxious, nerdy tone gracing his voice as he aimed to deny her false assert.

"You two again!" All,the librarians that had kicked them out on each respective day had begun conspiring together against the two and kicked them out.

It was safe to say that was their last and final deportation because now, the two of them were kicked out for the rest of the year. Not just the day, but the entire year.

"....." boring... Maribel scratched the side of her head in irritation. Piss taking piece of parasite infested shit. Her face soured significantly with the recollection of the earlier events. Can't even be somewhat fucking useful like cow shit.

Maribel awaited for what felt like an eternity, it was really five minutes, to go home and nap out the agitation pervading through her system. It was the last lesson of the day, science, and after being officially banned from the library, it was safe to say the girl was beyond pissed.

Upon her deep rumination, she didn't seem to notice the dark pair of eyes staring at her, or more precisely, the doodle on her book.

"Is that a bear?" The monotonous tone snapped her out of reverie, startling her momentarily as she stared at the finger pointing at her doodle. Her gaze moved from his finger and travelled up until she was met with the face of the guy standing before her. It was only then did she notice his lanky ass height that surpassed everyone she's seen up till now.

Her presence grew smaller with each passing second as he stared back at her with emotion void, pitch black eyes. "...panda." Maribel's voice was small, just as how she felt when near this giant.

At her correction, the guy paused in confusion and stared at the drawing again. "No, it's a bear."

"Oh... um," Maribel was at a lost for words, if she disagreed with his words, is this guy gonna beat the shit out of me?! The back of her neck warmed up uncomfortably.

At the strange interaction, the shorter guy beside the tall guy too seemed puzzled. Now that Maribel took another glance at the creepy guy's face, he kind of had the panda scheme going on himself. His sunken, dark circles and dual, white and black toned hair.

"Gagamaru— you can't just..." the shorter, dark haired guy fretted like some angsty teenager, trying to settle down the awkward air.

"But it's clearly a bear, not a panda."

Maribel gulped, what if he mistook me saying it was a panda as me calling him the panda?! Shit!

"Hmm," another voice from beside her invaded. Somewhat sweet but in a counterfeit manner. "Why do you keep insisting her that it's a bear, when its clearly a panda?" His meticulously phrased words, a direct contrast to his messily tousled brown hair. With his abrupt intrusion into the conversation, the shorter guy grimaced with aversion. "Aren't you curious too, yoichi~?"

"....." huh?

𝚃𝚘 𝙱𝚎 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎𝚍 ➪

@𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘄𝗶𝗳𝗲

𝗩𝗼𝘁𝗲, 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲.

HEYAYAYA I HOPE U LIKE HIS CHAOYRT CUZ THISN IS ONE OG MY FAVS SO FAR

more canon characters introduced, i hope i did well portraying their personalities

also ness ur a bitch.

i felt rlly bad for hating him bc of his backstory, he was such a cutie pie and when he was petting that cat 😭 bless him oml

but still idk why he would ruin kaisers trim like that like mf looked so majestic with his normal blond hair ☹️

anywayssss THIS IS THE LAST CHAOTER OF ARC ONE WOOHOO 🥳🎉

i most likely won't take a break but i might i'm not sure, next update is either gonna be on the 18th of december cuz i have to revise for my chem n maths test 🤪✌️