《[What If] ▪ To Love Ru [Dropped]》[V1] - C.11 : The Mantis Stalks The Cicada, Unaware Of The Oriole Behind
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Time passes, soon it has been a month and a half since school started. As always, Rito is sitting in class, his small hands are holding a book. From outsiders' perspective, this book probably has an ominous vibe to it due to the seemingly old leather cover, though truth be told, this is only a normal novel.
Recently, Rito has found a new hobby. And that is reading novels. Not the cringy, written by amateur authors type that are often found on the internet, but the famous sci-fi and dectective type sold in the bookstore.
Just when he is reaching the exciting point of the novel, the part where they're about to find the murderer, an angry voice calls out, dragging him back to reality. "Yuuki-kun!" • Jarred back to his senses, Rito looks up to find a resentful face of his teacher staring back at him.
Despite her efforts, instead of scary, she just seems cute in his eyes, as if a puppy that had its food taken away by its owner. If she'd had dog ears, it'd have been pulled back. Of course, there's no way he would ever say these thoughts out loud, especially to her face. That is just asking for troubles.
"Y-Yes?" He quickly replies, his hands lower, holding his book against his abdomen while looking down at his feet as if ashamed, it's truly amazing how fast he gets into character, and it'd have been convincing too, if he hadn't used this same trick everytime he got into trouble, that is.
"Stop! That trick won't work on me anymore." It takes some time, but Megumi finally manages to steel herself and spit out these words, her voice firm and cold, leaving no room for agrument. It seems thourghout the time she teaches him, she has developed some kind of special resistance.
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After seeing this, Rito knows for sure he won't be able to use this trick anymore, though expecting it to work everytime is a bit far-stretched, he really thought it'd take her longer to realize he was faking it. That said, it doesn't really come as a surprise given his continuous violation of their previous agreements.
Putting down his book, Rito drops the act. A wry smile hangs across his face as he says, this time using a more mature tone. "Sensei, studying something I already know is very inefficient, and I'm not exactly distracting anyone so can't you just ignore me?"
Faced with the sudden changes, Megumi is stumped. She stares hard at Rito, as if he had grown a second head. Now that she thinks about it, what he said is true. His grades are already sky-high in the first place despite not studying much, and he doesn't talk to anyone either, granted, the sight of him reading is very distracting.
However, he can't be blamed for that, after all, it's not his fault that he was born good looking.
"Fine! But you can't talk to anyone and must ensure your grades. If you agree to these two conditions, I'll leave you alone. Deal?" Megumi asks, seemingly unsatisfied yet has no other way than to compromise. She is sure that even if she uses the rules to threaten him, he won't care anyway so why not choose a solution that helps them both?
With this, she can spend more time focusing on the other students, and if his grades drop, she'll have all the rights to punish him without being called petty. It's a win-win situation no matter what.
Hearing her words, Rito smiles, holding his hand fowards. "Deal." Megumi takes his hand, shakes it once and get back to her job while Rito returns to his book.
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•▪•▪•▪•
As Rito walks back home, a rare solemn look hangs on his face. The reason for his worries being the people who have been following him since he left school. They give off the same feeling as those two guys he crippled months ago in that alley so he is at least 70% sure they're people of the same organization. They're probably here to get revenge or some shit like that.
But this is good. The fact that they haven't acted yet means they aren't sure if he's really their target or not. And since this is the case, why not make his enemies fight each other instead? Thinking 'till this, a devious smile appears on his face. A smile that would give the Devil a run for his money.
At this very moment, JongSoo and Yuri who are tailing behind Rito feel a shiver running down their spine. While JongSoo seems to have his mind focused solely on the boy ahead of him, Yuri looks bored out of her mind.
"JongSoo-senpai... I'm bored! Why don't we just kill him? He's just a kid, I doubt he can resist us." She nags, preparing to take out the gun in her bag but is immediately stopped by JongSoo.
"Endure it. We don't know if he's really that person or not. If we kill an innocent kid, the higher-ups won't be happy. Beside, I never said I want to kill him. Think about it, if that person can beat up two trained veterans when he's only a kid, just how deadly he would be if he was given proper training?" JongSoo replies, seemingly irritated by the constant nagging. And yet even as he talks, his eyes remain on Rito's small figure as if he wanted to see through him.
"Geez... If you want to recruit the kid, just kidnap him and be done with it, it's not like he can do anything about it." Unsatisfied with his answers, Yuri mutters under her breath, annoyed that the great her has to follow a kid around all day.
Unfortunately, it seems she's not the only one with their patient wearing thin. Turning his head sideway, JongSoo stares at Yuri, the coldness in his eyes makes her involunteraly shiver. "If you can't follow orders then fuck off." With each word, his volume and the pressure JongSoo gives off increase several folds, to the point where it's hard for Yuri to even breath. Panic-stricken, Yuri lowers her head.
"I-I'm sorry JongSoo-senpai, I won't complain anymore." These words just come pouring out her mouth in a rush. Then the two continue whatever it is they were doing and follow Rito all the way 'till his home in silence. Unaware of the fact that he already knows about their existances.
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