Noel

As the winter ended and the town of Westwood finally saw their first spring of that year, air of cheerfulness could be seen lingering in the surroundings, especially for the students of Saint Iriha University. Be it the first-year students or the final year students, they all have these strange similarities of liking to watch the floras bloom, as Saint Iriha have wide estate, and most of the land—including the track field, the football field and more—were covered in trees and flowers.

While the students were chirping about their day to their respective cliques, the cafeteria was bustling with life. In the background, or to be precise, displayed from the tall glass wall that separates the interior from the exterior, tress that bore soft pink flowers began to release the petals. It was truly a wonderful day.

In spite of the bustling happiness, unknowingly, there was a figure sitting at the most hidden spot of the cafeteria, mulling over something. 

Noel stared blankly at the gooey meatball spaghetti. As he scrunched his lips into a fine line, he reluctantly poked the hard yet strangely soggy meatballs while wandering what kind of sorcery the kitchen lady do to make it turn out like this.

Apparently, he ran out of luck, especially on his first day of enrolling in this university of Saint Iriha, the university that one of his folks recommend him to go. Starting from enrolling late—because some clerk didn't do their job well managing his enrolment documents—to some douche who already targeted him the first thing in the morning, and finally getting to the cafeteria late, leaving nothing but this soggy spaghetti on the menu. Noel was curious, plus hungry, so he had no choice but to opt for it.

He stared at the trash bin while having a mild inner conflict.

"Should I… throw it away?"

Noel flinched a bit when he saw the too-thick meatball sauce began to blow out some gas. The spaghetti was undoubtedly hot, and it might be steam, but the product of the movement—causing the formation of a horrendous looking face—greatly unsettled him.

The spaghetti looked like it could hurt him, both physically and mentally.

Determined, Noel stood up, swept the metal tray into his arms and casually trashed the meatballs into the trash bin. While being on his way to put the tray, Noel glanced at the entity that he left inside the bin. The meatballs looked like it almost mouthed a curse word at him.

Noel flinched, for the second time.

In his whole years of life, which, is way longer than any human could comprehend, he had never heard of or read about a talking meatball before. Though that gross entity creeps him out, it’s behaviour struck his curiosity in wanting to know about it more.

‘Guess I’ll look out for any keywords relating to talking meatballs later.’ The young man thought, now imagining all the books he has in his vault.

Noel stepped away from the bustling cafeteria and decided to head to the school library. Sauntering his way through the slightly empty hallway—with walls made with glass, Noel was admiring the beauty of architecture around the campus, whilst gawking at the immaculate exterior design—filled with floras—perfect enough to dispel stress in the eyes of people who sees them. As he was walking, his vision was suddenly blocked by an arm.

He stopped abruptly when someone stood in front of him. Before else, his eyes fluttered in confusion as his eyes gazed at the blocker’s chest.

This person is huge…

He thought, realizing the fact, as he was only the height of his chest. Noel calmly looked up to meet the person's eyes, while the person in front of him smiled.

"Hey, are you new here?" He spoke.

The person briefly stared down at Noel, before he said, “That’s some neat looking clothes you have there, must be expensive.”

…Oh.

Noel thought. He might be able to guess what the person in front of him would say next.

“Mind lending us some money?” He grinned, shamelessly.

There are a handful of guys backing him from behind. Seemingly, they all looked the same in Noel’s eyes. Only their sheer contempt was apparent in his view. He then looked around to see the other students just walked away, didn't want to get involved. Noel pondered a bit.

So, this is what it felt like to be cornered. He had read this scene countless of times in romance books where the heroine would be cornered by the hero and the heroine would start blushing and her heart skipped a beat.

Though, the difference between his condition and the scene in the books were that he's not a heroine and the person in front of him is someone he doesn't even know and have never met before. Oh wait, maybe he was that douche that targeted him in the morning?

Noel took a few moments to settle in his nerve, which, failed miserably. He scrunched his nose and covered his mouth, preventing himself from hurling.

Along with emitting the aura of malice—which Noel could see in his [OVERSEER] eyes—the douche also stank. Like, a lot. Does he not take a bath or anything?

“…Oof…” He then cleared his throat.

Noticing that Noel was showing an apparent disgusted expression, the douche scowled, feeling offended.

"Hey, give us your-"

"I'll give it to you. Wait a moment." He slowly heaved a sigh. In this particularly beautiful day, he really didn’t want to send anyone flying into unconsciousness, and he especially wouldn’t want to touch him, so he should just abide to what they want and they’ll probably leave him alone.

Noel fumbled inside his backpack as he wondered.

What should I give to these people?

Noel secretly formed a mischievous smirk, before taking out a pouch and handed it over to the douche. The douche snatched it away from Noel’s hands, gaining a small wince from him because of how violent his pull is. He then opened the pouch while still glaring at Noel. That hostile glare was then replaced with an empty expression, when he looked at the contents of the pouch, eyes widened in disbelief.

"T-This..."

His other followers who were curious of his reaction also took a look inside the pouch and their jaw dropped in surprise.

Inside the pouch, were shiny gold nuggets, all of them were medium sized.

"We... We're rich...." One guy said, amazed.

"No, this is mine!"

The douche snarled while hugging the pouch to his chest. Out of the blue, the supposedly peaceful hallway turned into a fighting ring, when the three of them started throwing punches among themselves.

Noel sneaked his way out of the increasing crowds, shrugging his shoulders towards those guys who mindlessly fought for a single pouch filled with gold, and threw their friendship away. He wouldn’t know whether they will reconcile or not, but he mocked them for their greed upon measly riches given to them.

“Aren’t you guys a little too old to be fighting so blatantly among yourselves?” A voice bellowed at a restraining tone. It was not too loud to fill up the entire hallway, but the student who were present there all stood frozen on their spot, as if in the presence of someone with authority.

In that moment, Noel felt a snap within him.