“I hate you.”

I stood there, watching xe leave before my eyes.

I heaved a sigh.

That was intense. I didn’t know rejecting someone was this brutal, my heart hurts.

I turned to the park bench and saw the drink I bought still sitting there, untouched.

Damn it.

Why does it feel so wrong?

I’m Shin, I’m Avner.

Avner loves Pu’er; Shin does not.

Who the hell am I?

I’m so confused.

There’s so much more I wanted to tell hir.

About hirs past with Shin.

About my identity as a person from another world.

Whatever. At least xe got the message clearly.

I can’t accept hirs feelings.

Xe will have to bear through the pain. It’ll sting for some time. Eventually xe’ll realize that it’s not such a big deal to be rejected. We’re only high school students. There’s still a long way to go in life.

I don’t get it, why do I feel like a third person advising Shin and Avner? I’m clearly their combined average, aren’t I?

“Novelle, I’ll make sure you’ll pay for this.”

I rejected someone for your sake.

===

“Avner, Lia, you’ve probably heard about the move we’re considering,” my father started, “I want your opinion on it.”

“We’ve decided to move you two to a private school over there. You’ll have to get used to the new language and make new friends.”

“I need your input. Your grandmother is sick and needs someone to take care of her.”

My mother’s mother is suffering from cancer.

I’m not sure what cancer she’s suffering from. So I can't draw any predictions on whether or not the type can be treated using the current technology.

My biggest concern here is, what if next year, Novelle was among the characters in Saint High? If I went to Rwiel, I would miss my chance to meet her.

On the other hand, what if Novelle wasn’t among the characters of Saint High?

There’s only one best option here.

“Is it alright if I stay here? I actually don’t want to move.”

“See, it’s not so easy.”

“I understand it’s not easy for the children to move, but they have to learn eventually, right?”

“How about I stay back? I can take care of them while you two stay there to take care of mother-in-law.”

Father made a troubled expression at aether’s suggestion. He doesn’t want to part with hir.

“Avner, just go?”

Lia tugged at my shirt.

I shook my head.

I’ll be stubborn, I’ll be obstinate.

For Novelle.

“I have another suggestion, maybe I can leave him to my mother’s place,” father said.

“Then how about Lia?”

“Lia, do you want to join us? Or do you want to stay?”

Lia looked between our parents and me. Xe’s eyebrows were scrunched.

“Avner, why do you not want to leave?”

“I don’t want to.”

“It’s probably your elfriend.”

“That elf again.”

Aether and mom sighed at the same time.

“We understand, we understand.”

You do know that I broke up with Pu’er right? I did it just this afternoon, the aftertaste isn’t pleasant, I’ll tell you.

“Big bro, don’t you want to explore other countries? I thought you said you rejected hir already?”

“I did.”

“Huh? So why?”

“I don’t want to trouble myself by going to other schools. The language barrier is going to be a big issue. I'm sorry.”

Besides this common English, I don’t recognize most other languages. There are a few familiar ones like Korean and Chinese. Languages like Thai, Japanese, Indonesian, German, and Russian don't exist, replaced by some alien language.

For a story like , the nonexistence of the Japanese language is just weird.

“The private school uses English as the main language, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

How did the original Avner from even convince them? Did he throw a tantrum?

“Sorry. I don’t want to.”

Everyone was in agreement with the move except me. I was causing a problem to the family.

“Then how about we just leave Avner to your parents as you suggest dear. He should be grown up enough to be responsible for himself, right?”

“What do you think?”

“If he’s fine with it.”

“Big bro..”

“Thank you aether, thank you father, thank you mom. I’ll take up that suggestion. I don’t mind living with grandma and grandoa,” I lowered my head.

“What kind of country are you even living in, bowing like that.”

“I’m only trying to be sincere.”

Okay. That’s relieving.

By some luck or fate, my wish was granted. Looks like I’ll be moving to grandma and grandoa’s apartment.

Just as in the original story.

Probably.

===

This would mark the final week of school. There wasn’t anything left to do besides fooling around. I could’ve joined the 25 percent of my class and go AWOL. But because my etler still had class, not going to school was not an option.

I spent the majority of the time working on my art portfolio. I’ve already received the money from my previous commission. Around a thousand dollars.

It’s calming to not have anything to do except draw.

“Hey.”

“Morning Ares, what’s up?”

And sometimes I would have to attend to my friends.

Shin is a loner, a true loner who only did work. I’m sure that habit of his is crossing over into the me of this life.

He wasn’t the kind of person particularly attentive of his surroundings. If anything, the only people he knew were those from his family and Novelle’s.

Correction: only Novelle’s family.

And it was also why I covet Novelle so much. She’s as much a part of Shin’s life as mine.

“Did you seriously just reject hir?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you..”

“I rejected hir Ares, that’s all there is to it. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

Perhaps things might change when Avner regains his memories.

If somehow there’s a secret memory vault of Avner’s life with Pu’er, I might just regret my decision. I don’t know.

“Why?”

“Why?”

“No, I mean.. why did you reject hir?” Ares glanced towards Pu’er who was opening up to the other classmates which xe usually didn’t.

Pu’er was doing well.

Faking the fact that xe was doing well.

“I don’t like hir.”

“What? You told me very clearly at the beginning of this year that you liked hir? What happened man?!”

“Things changed. Ares. Things change.”

I’m sorry for being insensitive. I can’t possibly accept a role I can’t manage.

You don’t just accept a girl, in this case, an elf, just because xe’s cute and kind. In love, there are many other factors which one would have to take into consideration.

That was what Novelle told me, told Shin, at least.

===

dotturndot: Y’ouch. Pu’er’s got it hard. Anyone hating Avner yet?