“Do I look okay?”

“You look fine. It’s just uni.”

“Baaaabe! I’ve gotta leave a good impression!”

I put my arms around Nircoel as they checked themselves in the mirror for the third time. “You look perfect to me.”

Their eye roll was perfectly reflected in the mirror. “I’m reminded why I shouldn’t ask for your opinion.”

“Love you too. Now, come on. We’ll be late if you change again.”

I let go, him reluctantly taking my hand and walking to the car with me.

Noticing his depressed face as we drove, I said, “Hey, it’s okay! You’re gonna have fun and learn, and make new friends…and I sound like a parent dropping their kid off for their first day of school.”

He laughed at that, making me smile. “Thanks, Esi. Do you have friends at uni?”

“I have three friends total. You can guess who they are.”

After a moment of thinking, he said. “That’s not very reassuring.”

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

A brief silence transpired before Nircoel asked, “Are you gay or straight if you’re dating me?”

“...Shouldn’t I be the one asking that?”

“Wait, you don’t know if you’re gay or straight?”

“I don’t know! I’ve never liked anyone before!”

“Are you demi?”

“That doesn’t apply to the previous question…”

“But being demi would mean that you would have never known if you were gay or straight!”

I sighed, pulling into the university’s parking lot. “Let’s just say I’m straight. What about you?”

“Uh…I vote straight too?”

“So…if people ask about our relationship…”

“Why don’t we let them say what they want? I mean, none of it is technically wrong whichever way you look at it.”

“You really want to be introduced as my significant other.”

“Is that so wrong?” he asked, his familiar teasing tone creeping through.

“I suppose not, my love,” I replied, and we shared a kiss before getting out of the car.

~.~

I’d rather not recall the struggles it took to find our classrooms, especially since the assembly and class tour was yesterday, something we had forgotten. Once Nircoel found their classroom, I had to find mine myself, yet managing to barely make it in time.

~.~

Nircoel’s POV

Yes, I hated it here.

After waving Ezyn goodbye, I found a seat in the back, hoping to keep to myself.

Luckily, the few students in the room didn’t pay me any mind.

Students began pouring in after a few minutes. Then the bell rang and the professor walked in, signaling the start of class. 

“All right, class. Since most of you are transfers, I don’t want to waste time calling you up here. When I call your name, stand and state it along with something interesting about yourself -- none of that ‘my favorite color is blue’ crap.” She pointed to herself. “My name is Miss Carissa Menedez. I don’t tolerate disrespect. Your turn, Alex Cooper.”

“Ah, yes, Ma’am. My name is Alex Cooper, and I like skiing.”

Professor Menedez went through the list of all twenty-six students, finally coming to me.

“Nircoel Agaras.”

I stood and, as confidently as I could in a room full of stares, said, “Hi, my name is Nircoel Agaras. I mostly hate being called by nicknames.”

It wasn’t a lie. Ezyn just got special privileges. I’d hoped they would make fun of my “interesting fact” and not focus on anything else.

“Agaras? Isn’t that an old word for purity?”

People suck.

Before long, the name Agaras had spread throughout the room, and I was sure there were a hundred tall tales about me already. I almost settled for staring out the window, but it seemed like something a main character would do, so I settled for doodling in my notebook instead.

“Oi, the twenty-three of you talking about his last name,” Professor Menedez called, sounding quite irritated.

Exactly twenty-three guilty heads turned toward her.

“Shut up. And with that, class, let’s move on to the first lesson.”

I smiled as I scribbled. I was pretty sure Professor Menedez would be a good teacher this year.

~.~

The other teachers…

Not so much.

I had always been a top student, but then the other students called me a suck-up, a teacher’s pet…but usually worse things than that. And these professors…I could tell they weren’t gonna waste time on me.

Once again, I felt I was going to be ostracized…just because of my last name?

It’s not like I chose it.

I sat in the cafeteria, skipping the line because my stomach hurt from anxiety.

“Babe, you okay?”

“Oh!” Startled, I looked to my left, where my boyfriend sat. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You want any of my food?”

The food on his tray made my mouth water, so without answering, I just started eating.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

“...You had a bad day, didn’t you?”

“So what if I did? How was yours?”

He sighed. “Well, you see…”

~.~

Ezyn’s POV

“Am I on time?” I muttered to myself, sliding open the door.

“Welcome, Ezryn Reich. We were just about to start the class.”

“Glad I’m not late, sorry I’m not early.” I took a seat in the middle, feeling bad for whoever was behind me. I would have sat in the back, but all the chairs were filled. I did my best to crouch my tall figure down some, but that wouldn’t help much.

“Geez, why’d I have to be stuck behind some tall guy. Hey, wait! You’re that guy from the store, right? The rude one?”

Briefly, I wondered what I had done to deserve this. The one sitting behind me was Drew, which meant that Liliph probably attended this university as well.

“Drew Frojen, please stop disturbing your classmate and the class.”

“Yes, sir.”

I could hear the eye roll in his voice.

“Drew Frojen, see me after school.” The professor -- Professor Shenaska -- turned to the chalkboard. “Today, class…”

“Hey, tall guy -- I mean, Ezryn -- where’s your friend? Does he even go here? He looked, like, fifteen. You aren’t doing anything suspicious with him, are ya? Wait, do I need to call the CPS?”

I ignored his whispered assumptions and tried to focus on the professor.

“Drew Frojen, I’ll make sure to give you some extra homework for you to turn in by tomorrow. And detention. I was going to tell you after class, but since you like to publicly disrupt my class, I will publicly punish you.”

“Man, now I can’t go home with Liliph,” he whined loudly.

Between the prince and the lime, I could tell the true delinquent.

Class continued, and my next classes were chill. Not like I was listening since I was just thinking about Nircoel.

I went to the cafeteria at lunch, and spotted Nircoel sitting alone. They hadn’t gotten any food, so I grabbed extra and made my way to their table.

“Babe, you okay?” I whispered, startling them.

~.~

“Okay, you didn’t have to recount up to that,” they groaned, blushing slightly.

“Course I did. Hey, you didn’t happen to see that green-haired dude from the store, did you?”

“No…Actually, yeah, he’s in my first class.”

“Ugh, the blond’s in mine. Guess those two really do go to our --”

“Yo, Ezryn!”

Nircoel raised a questioning eyebrow regarding my name.

“Just go with it.”

The prince and the lime sat across from us, while Nircoel, irritated by the new people, grumpily ate my chicken nuggets. I subconsciously put my arm around his waist and pulled him slightly closer. He was unfazed, but Drew and Liliph just stared at us.

“Are you two together?” Drew asked.

“Yeah, why?” I replied, taking a bite of my salad.

“No reason. Uh, what’s your name?“

“Nircoel.”

Ignoring the salt in Nircoel’s voice, Drew said, “That’s a nice name. How’d you two meet?”

“We work together,” I answered.

“Ohh, a cute coworkers-to-lovers trope. Just warn us if you’re gonna do some PDA.”

Feeling the heat rushing to my cheeks, I quickly dissuaded him. “Ah, we’re not that kind of couple.”

“Darn it, I was hoping to get some shots…”

This idiot was going to film us? 

“All that aside, I’m Drew and this is Liliph,” he said, pointing to himself and his friend respectively.

“...I apologize…for his future behavior,” The lime said, Nircoel and I nodding to show it wasn’t his fault.

“Hey!” Drew exclaimed, annoyed.

~.~

After lunch, I quietly took Nircoel aside, giving him our usual post-lunch kiss.

“Can you handle the rest of the day?” I asked, stroking his cheek.

“Mmm…I think I’ll need another kiss.”

I kissed him once more.

Snap.

Our eyes both widened, and I glared at the intruder.

It was Drew, using his phone to unashamedly take a picture of us.

“What? It’s quality! If you want I can send it to you.”

Lilith came running behind him.

“I’m…sorry…He duped me…”

Nircoel and I sighed simultaneously.

This would be a long semester.