Please Say No

Chapter Two: Jealousy and a choice

Shortly after Soran had sent the message, Aria’s phone had started vibrating uncontrollably. She heaved a huge sigh before checking the chat.

Lee-Chan: Who’s that?

RenRen: Aria’s future husband and soulmate.

University Senpai (Hannah): He’s really cute!

Mom 2: Future husband? Am I missing something? My baby’s too young to get married.

Dad 2: @Mom 2 I’ll fill you in later, babe

RenRen: Ew, you guys are so sweet, it’s so gross.

Bunny Boy: Guys, it’s 6AM why are you all up?

Sunflower Matt: How do you know that’s the guy, Soran?

Soran: He has a really nice leather jacket.

Sunflower Matt: -_-

RenRen: Where’s Aria???????? She has to confirm hot Asian guy!!

RenRen: I can see that you’re reading the messages, Aria!!

Aria sighed once again, seriously contemplating ignoring the situation. However, before she could reach a conclusion, her phone vibrated again, alerting her to June’s private text.

June I figured you’d be uncomfortable with the situation, so I stole Ren’s phone. He won’t bother you J

You: Thanks June

June Anytime!

June Enjoy your day! I’ll see you later!  

She smiled and set her phone on the bedside, and then bounced out of bed to her closet, finding something warm and comfortable to wear for the day. In the back of her closet, amongst the jackets and sweaters hung up, she spotted the black hoodie June had lent her a few weeks ago when they’d all gone to the arcade and she had forgotten her own jacket in a rush to get ready.

If I wear this today, I can give it back to him when I see him later, she rationalized, the subconscious part of her knowing full well that that was not the reason she wanted to wear it. She pulled out the hoodie, faint traces of cinnamon coming off of it, obviously the deodorant June had worn that night.

Boys’ deodorant is the strongest thing ever, it’s so unfair, she mused, setting her clothes out on the bed before heading to the bathroom to shower.

“Hey,” Hannah greeted when Aria climbed into the car.

“Hi,” she greeted back, smiling at her friend before pulling the scarf around her neck a little further up to warm her, now cold, nose.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Great! Apart from this weird dream with these red aliens and a dinosaur,” Aria shook her head, attempting to shake away the strange images that sprang to mind.

“I also had a dream about aliens!” Hannah chuckled.

“I don’t want to know,” Aria grimaced, “your dreams are always so scary.”

They laughed at that, before Hannah commented on the photo Soran had sent earlier.

“Is the guy in Soran’s picture the one you saw yesterday?”

“It is,” Hannah giggled, taking the momentary silence from Aria as confirmation, “I swear, only you have this kind of luck. Ren’s probably planning your meet-cute as we speak.”

“Ren needs to mind his own business sometimes,” Aria huffed, knowing full well that Ren would not mind his own business.

“He’s just being a good friend,” Hannah chuckled, attempting to appease her frustrated friend.

“I know,” Aria sighed, knowing she couldn’t really be upset with Ren, no matter how much he meddled.

“June was really quiet when we were speaking about your Asian guy,” Hannah commented offhandedly, glancing in Aria’s direction to gage her reaction. Aria had shrugged, not wanting to think about that statement too closely.

“Maybe he’s jealous?” Hannah urged.

“He’s not jealous, he was probably just really tired,” she huffed, knowing the direction this conversation would go. She’d had the same one with Sola, Lee-Anne, Soran and Hannah on multiple occasions.

“He looks at you with heart eyes, you can’t tell me that he doesn’t have the slightest bit of feelings for you,” Hannah scoffed.

“He looks at everything with heart eyes because he’s June Park and he’s the nicest person on the planet.”

“You’re so oblivious,” Hannah sighed.

“Could you turn the heater up? My fingers are freezing,” Aria asked, hoping to change the subject.

They didn’t have time to meet anyone else on campus with both of their classes starting so early, so they’d parted ways at the last possible moment, Aria  and Hannah both jogging to get to their lecture venues.

The lecture droned on, Aria  paying little attention to it. He mind raced, anxiety bubbling as she imagined what Ren would do. He would never do anything too drastic but he’d force her to meet the boy she had seen yesterday. She huffed, further burrowing her face into the hoodie she wore and hoped that the lecture would be a short one so she could go hide in the library.

Said library plan had fallen through when she’d received a text from June before her lecture had ended, explaining that he and Ren were on her campus with pizza.

“Damn this boy, knowing my weakness,” she muttered to herself as she packed her things and trudged her way to their usual table outside the Student Centre.

As she neared their table, she had almost turned around and sprinted away when she’d spotted four people at the table: June, Ren, Soran and cute leather jacket boy.

“God, please strike me down,” she muttered as Ren spotted her and waved her over.

She meekly made her way to the table, looking at the floor and hoping she wouldn’t trip over her own feet.

Maybe, if he sees you’re the most socially awkward person on the planet, he’ll never want to see you again and you won’t have to deal with this, she reasoned.

“Biscuit!” Ren beamed through a mouthful of pizza, flinging himself onto her again.

“Hi Ren,” she deadpanned, not finding it in herself to muster the energy to seem excited. Ren didn’t seem to mind, crushing her in one of his weirdly gentle bone-tight hugs.

If I just cling to him and hide my face, maybe he won’t introduce me to the guy, Aria plotted, evaluating how weak Ren was for cuddles.

“Hey, Aria, this is Cedric,” Ren grinned, pulling away from Aria and introducing her to cute leather jacket boy, who was apparently now Cedric.

“Um, Hi,” she waved sheepishly, “I’m Aria.”

“Nice to meet you,” he smiled back at her, “I’m in Soran’s law class.”

Aria  noted that he wore the same leather jacket from yesterday and tried not t scream or collapse. Leather jackets made her weak. Cute boys in leather jackets made her weaker.

“He always sits outside the venue watching YouTube videos like a sad loser so I asked him to come keep me company while I babysit you weirdos,” Soran explained, shooting her an apologetic smile when Cedric wasn’t looking.

“I would honestly rather watch Youtube videos than stay out here in the cold and have you all torment me,” Aria scoffed.

“He watches baking videos,” Soran deadpanned.

“Which ones?” Aria asked curiously.

“There’s this YouTuber who bakes these cool geek themed desserts, and she calls them Nerdy Nummies. Her name’s Rossana,” Cedric said bashfully, rubbing his neck and looking down at the table.

“I love her!” Aria beamed, “she makes the coolest looking desserts!”

“Definitely,” Cedric smiled.

It was then that Aria’s eyes shifted to June , who had been looking down at his phone for the few minutes that she’d been there.

“Hey, June,” she greeted, assuming he’d been playing some game on his phone and had been too engrossed to say hello.

“Hey,” he greeted and looked up a second later, “You’re wearing my hoodie!” he exclaimed, a smile breaking out.

“I figured I could give it to you today,” she said sheepishly, her face heating up, “it’s been in my cupboard for ages.”

“You look like you’re drowning in it,” Soran commented around a mouthful of pizza.

“June’s like a head taller than me, of course I’m drowning in it,” she scoffed.

“I think it looks good on her,” Ren said and both Aria and June looked down, flustered.

“Um, I’m gonna go get coffee,” Aria said, wanting to escape the situation for a few minutes

.

“I’ll go with you,” June said and got up from the table, “Hi, by the way,” he greeted as he pulled her into another warm hug.

I’m going to actually implode. I’ve blushed so many times today that I’m going to actually overheat and implode, Aria thought as she returned June’s hug.

They made their way into the building before June spoke up again.

“I’m sorry about that guy out there. I tried to stop Ren, but he got a hold of Kookie’s phone and called Soran, and then when we got here he gave Soran his puppy eyes and asked him to invite Sam over and Soran couldn’t say no.”

“His name’s Cedric not Sam, June ,” Aria  giggled, “It’s fine. I figured something like this would happen.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I bruised my hip trying to tackle Ren before he could call Soran.”

“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” she asked, her eyes widening.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” June chuckled, the tips of his ears turning pink.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Aria sighed, “but thank you for trying.”

When they returned to the table, Aria spotted Hannah and  Lucas sitting next to Cedric while they, along with Ren, seemed to be animatedly conversing about something. Soran sat alone on the other side of the bench, an amused smile on his face.

“Lucy is obviously the better woman,” Aria heard Ren say.

“I mean, they’re best friends as well and they’re really cute,” Lucas added.

“They danced together in wedding attire, it’s obviously canon,” Cedric commented.

“Cedric ships Lucy and Natsu!” Ren beamed as Aria and June  joined the group, sitting next to Soran.

“Because Cedric is obviously a sane human being,” Lucas said in all seriousness, munching down on the pizza slice in his hand. June and Lucas shared a look at that and  Lucas dropped his gaze, looking guilty.

“Lucy is one of my favourite characters, so obviously I’d be rooting for her,” Cedric grinned.

“ Best girl?” Ren asked.

“Erza, of course.”

“Aria’s gonna fight you on that one,” June  said, reaching into the pizza box and pulling out two slices for him and Aria , “Erza’s her bae.”

“He’s right,” Hannah added, “Aria gets extremely jealous when it comes to Erza.”

“Except with me,” June  added sweetly, smiling innocently.

“It was one Erza figure, she’s got another one exactly like it,” Ren rolled his eyes.

“But she got it for me first before getting one for herself,” June grinned.

“You passed your dance final and I wanted to get you something as a congratulations,” Aria  said, her face heating up again, “and I couldn’t find Levy anywhere.”

“You like Levy?” Cedric had asked June and Aria didn’t miss the wary eye Soran shot in June ’s direction.

“She’s my favourite,” June replied, “I think she’s really smart and cute.”

“She’s also really tiny and June has a thing for people shorter than him,” Ren added with a mischievous grin.

“June’s tall too, Ren,” Aria rolled her eyes.

“Everyone’s tall to you, Aria,” Hannah added cheekily. Aria sent her a mock betrayed look, hand over her heart as she feigned injury.

“You wound me.”

“You probably like it,” Ren said.

“Ew,” Aria grimaced, “you’re the one with a masochist kink, Ren, not me.”

“I don’t think we’re close enough yet that I should be knowing about your kinks,” Cedric laughed awkwardly.

“Sorry, they don’t know when to shut up,” Soran sighed.

The hour had passed by in mindless chatter as the group grew more comfortable with Cedric’s presence, him blending easily into their conversations and arguments. Soran and Lucas kept shooting June wary glances throughout, irritating June to no end. He wasn’t a child. He could play nice when he had to.

“I need to get to my next class,” Aria said, standing up and gathering her things.

“I’ll come with,” June offered, “I know you hate sitting in Communications alone.”

“Thank you,” she smiled shyly at him and he ducked his head, getting flustered for the nth time this morning.

“See you guys later,” June called to the group, easily lifting Aria’s bag from her grasp and flinging it onto his shoulder.

“You don’t have to carry that,” Aria protested, pout forming on her lips.

“Don’t argue, you know I’m going to carry it anyway,” June grinned down at her.

“Fine,” she huffed, “thank you.”

The class passed by in a monotonous blur, Aria doodling on June ’s arm to pass the time. She drew little flowers on his arm, naming one of them after him.

“I don’t look like a flower,” June protested in a whisper, “I’m manly as hell.”

“The manliest,” Aria giggled. June huffed but couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out onto his face. He played with the fingers on her left hand while she used the other to draw, interlacing them with his own.

“Your fingers are so small. How is that even possible?” he asked in wonder.

“Everything about me is tiny because I’m secretly part dwarf,” she answered.

“I definitely see a resemblance,” June  grinned and Aria lightly shoved him, hiding her blushing face behind her hair.

When the lecture had ended, they made their way to their usual tables, only to find Soran and Cedric sitting there, quietly conversing.

“Hannah took the kids to get donuts,” Soran explained.

“Those boys are always eating, I’m surprised they’re not blobs of food by now,” Aria chuckled.

“I’m basically a blob of food,” June huffed.

“Excuse me,” Soran scoffed, “your abs are so defined, I could wash clothes on them.”

“They’re not! I lost my abs after the final because Aria’s gran kept feeding me while she stayed with them!”

“That’s what happens in Indian homes. The grandmothers fatten up the friends so they can cook them for the Christmas family feast,” Aria explained.

“Then why haven’t you cooked me?” June shot back with a grin.

“My grandmother is weak for your smile,” Aria  rolled her eyes, “I’m pretty sure she’s planning to kill off my grandfather to become your sugar mommy.”

“I mean, I’m all up for a sugar mommy, but your grandfather is terrifying and I don’t want his ghost haunting me,” June  chuckled.

“Ah damn,” she sighed, “Guess I’ll just have to break her heart and tell her you’ve rejected her offer.”

They all burst out laughing a moment later, Cedric included. “You guys are really close,” he commented, a little breathless, “are you guys, you know, together?”

It took a few moments to register the implication in his tone and both Aria and June  awkwardly chuckled ducking their heads.

“We’re just really close,” Aria explained, voicing shaking, “he’s like one of my best friends.”

“They’re like Scooby and Shaggy, but tinier and they get a lot more flustered,” Soran explained.

“I would totally be Scooby,” Aria added.

“I’m definitely Daphne,” June countered, “have you seen my legs? I have sexy legs.”

“If you’re Daphne, does that make Aria, Fred?” Soran smirked and the two in question looked away from one another, faces heating up.

“I think she would be Velma,” Cedric said, “She’s got the sexy nerd thing going on.”

And Aria blushed so hard she could swear she was actually melting.

“I think Aria would be the perfect Levy,” June added softly, almost sadly.

“Uh no, Aria would be Ryuk,”  Lucas said, walking up to the table, donut box in hand, “from Death Note.”

“Don’t say that about my precious Hime-chan,” Hannah chastised, “no donuts for you.”

“I carried the box here,”  Lucas pouted.

“You carried one of the boxes,” Ren rolled his eyes, placing the second box onto the table.

After a while, Soran and Cedric stood up, gathering their things.

“Time for class,” Soran explained, “We’ll see you guys later.”

“We’re gonna meet up with Matt and Sola in a little bit. Apparently Kyle wanted to check out this anime store before he starts his finals and requested Lucas be there for advice,” Ren said, mouth covered in powdered sugar.

“Drinks later?” Soran asked, “We can go to that little bar near our apartment.”

“Yeah sure,” June nodded after he and Ren shared nods.

“Do you want to come too?” Ren asked, his question directed at Cedric.

There was a moment’s pause before Cedric smiled, “Yeah, sure. I’m not busy tonight.”

“Okay cool,” Ren beamed. Aria shot him a panicked look, anxiety coming back.

“I’m not going,” she said when Soran and Cedric had rounded the corner and she could be sure that he wasn’t in earshot.

“I don’t really want to go either,” June added, playing with his jacket sleeves.

“If June’s not going then I’m not going,” Aria finalized.

“Please, Biscuit?” Ren pleaded, puppy dog eyes increasing as he gazed at her, “I only invited the guy along for your benefit. He’s really cool and he seems super nice and he’s also really hot. You can do this.”

“If he’s so perfect, why don’t you date him?” June shot back, irritation lacing his tone.

“Because he needs to father Aria’s cute kids,” Ren rolled his eyes as though it was the most obvious answer.

“Ren, I’m serious,” Aria snapped, “I don’t want to go. It’ll be really awkward.”

“He’s really into you though,” Lucas commented, “he kept making sexy eyes at you.”

“It’s true,” Hannah added, “I saw it. He was totally checking Aria out.”

“You’re all unbelievable,” Aria sighed, hiding her face in her hands.

“If she doesn’t want to go, you guys shouldn’t force her to,” June snapped.

“Stop trying to kill my OTP June!” Ren pouted, “Aria will be fine as long as she doesn’t over-think things.”

“We’ll be there, and I’ll drive you home if you feel uncomfortable,” Hannah added.

“Urgh fine,” Aria sighed, “I’ll go if you guys will stop talking about it.”

“Would you mind giving Ren a ride home?” June asked, “I don’t really feel like going.”

“Please come,” Aria shot him a pleading look, “you’re the only sane one here. I’ll be all alone against these assholes if you don’t come.”

June sighed, looking at Aria’s expression for a moment before agreeing to join them.

The groups had left for the anime store a few minutes later, Hannah and Aria in one car and June , Ren and  Lucas in another.

“You’re literally the saltiest person ever,”  Lucas commented, “You couldn’t even pretend to like him?”

“Whatever,” June rolled his eyes.

“He’s really cool, stop acting so passive aggressive.”

“He’s so cocky, with his stupid leather jacket and his spiked up hair,” June scoffed, “I bet he owns a motorbike. And don’t even get me started on his name. What kind of pretentious, high-nosed kind of name is that? Is he some lord in a Victorian novel? Who names their child Cedric?”

“You’re being so childish,” Lucas rolled his eyes.

“It’s not his fault that you’re being a complete coward by not confessing to Aria,” Ren added.

“I’ve told you that I’m not going to ruin things with Aria because I have some stupid crush on her. And he’s not being innocent about his intentions either. Did you see the way he looked at her? I wanted to punch his teeth in. I don’t trust him.”

“No, you’re jealous of him. That’s what you’re feeling,” Ren sighed, “and you’re holding Aria back from being happy with someone else because you’re so goddamn petty about this situation. All you have to do is imply that you don’t like the guy and she’ll never talk to him again because she trusts you that much. But you won’t use this for her happiness because you’re being selfish.”

They fell into an uncomfortable silence after that, June looking down at his hands guiltily.

“I know I’m being harsh,” Ren said after a few minutes, his voice gentler than before, “but I just want her to be happy. You should want that, too.”

“I do,” June said, voice so soft it sounded like a whisper.

“Then help me help her.”

A beat of silence passed, “Fine.”