Suddenly, there was blood on my hands. Nevermind, it was ink.

My hands were shaking as I tried to set Axel’s pen down as quietly as possible, but then I realized his pen was broken.

Will he get mad at me for breaking his lucky pen, or for getting ink over his notes? I nervously looked at his red-stained notebook paper.

“I didn’t know Axel set traps on his stuff now,” Aria said, and I turned to look at her. 

She pointed at her face, and said, “Ink. You look like you got into a bloody fist fight.”

“Seriously?” I wiped my face with my handkerchief, muttering, “I just wanted to be nice and finish Axel’s note.”

“See, that’s the problem,” Aria fake-sighed in disappointment. “The world will stop spinning if Vincent Wyn Ryland is suddenly nice.” She pulled out a mirror from her bag and handed it to me. “Here, so you can see better.”

“Where’d you get that?” It was really hard to get mirrors nowadays, so I was surprised. It wasn’t like vanity was looked down upon, but you did get weird looks if you were seen ‘admiring yourself’. 

“Sharon lent it to me.”

“Of course,” I said, then took the mirror. I turned back to the front of the lecture hall, but I noticed Axel glancing at me.

What? I mouthed.

He looked at the paper, then at me, then inconspicuously directed his finger towards his face.

“Huh?” Does that mean he exploded the pen?

I lifted my hands to show him the red ink on them, and he subtly nodded. My eyes widened. 

It’s not like I’m the only one in class with that pen! Does that mean-

“Professor Erwin,” a girl’s voice called. “My pen exploded. Can I go to the washroom?”

“Just use your handkerchief,” he told her, busy looking through his emvos, probably.

“My pen exploded too,” another kid’s voice called. Other voices chimed in, saying similar words as the first two.

“How strange,” Erwin muttered. He looked up from his EmAble and set his hands on the paper, squinting his eyes. Then, he sharply looked at Axel and said, “Out of my classroom! To the office, now!”

Axel smiled nervously before saying, “Yes, Professor.”

“Take the other Ryland with you, too!” 

“Will do.” He walked up the stairs and glanced at me as he passed my row. I followed him, waving goodbye to Aria.

“Let’s do a review on how to cast cleaning spells on our handkerchiefs,” Professor Erwin gritted his teeth as we left.

Ohhh. Maybe I should’ve done that.