Whistle in the Woods | Teen Fic ✔️

5 : Unstoppable

Not even the Principal knew where the key was other than the fact that he'd entrusted it to his associate. So when Meldei rushed to the director's office a foreign teacher in there instead told her that the director wasn't likely coming back for the rest of the day due to an important meeting. She wanted to search for it herself, but even the document shelf over there was locked last time she came looking for some spare papers.

Sighing her exasperation, she finally walked to class.

"You can get it tomorrow morning," Nika assured, now back to her airy self. "It'll be still there. Don't worry so much."

She wasn't wrong. The door was locked and the metalwork of the building's window was narrow enough that you couldn't prod your head in. But the advanced English classes only functioned on weekdays.

"I've only seen him a few times on Saturday," Meldei murmured.

"There's always Monday." Nika hit her arm gently. "Relax. Nobody goes back there anyway."

"What if it breaks?" she said. "That's what I'm worried about. What am I supposed to do if it breaks? I don't know how or where to fix it."

"I didn't even throw it that hard. Look, if it did, I'll take responsibility and talk to your mother."

It was her grandmother that worried Meldei. Hopefully, she wouldn't talk about anything that would touch on the project tonight. If she did then Meldei would have to lie. She hated lying.

About ten minutes into class, Mr. Foster began calling out the attendance.

Lea still hadn't shown up. Meldei forgot for a minute that Lea always had late extra classes on Fridays.

Had Lea gotten used to coming late alone, she wondered. Only weeks before, Youhei would be behind her back as they came in together, and then Lea's face would be red from her friends' teasing. Now there was neither. Not even Silika, the girl whom Lea was most attached to. The same girl who barely acknowledged her existence now.

When Meldei told her she didn't need to force herself to fit in with her new group members, Lea merely shook her head.

"I need this," she'd said. So Meldei was left to cope with her absence.

She squeezed her arm. "Stay strong." But Noleak barely noticed it.

"It wouldn't matter," she muttered. "Go to your group, Meldei."

That moment, if Lea was Nika, Meldei wondered how easily she would've hugged her and told her the opposite truth—that she mattered. If Lea was Nika, she would have believed it.

"Meldei?" Mr. Foster called.

"Present," she said, setting an overstuffed pencil case down. A couple more students came through the door. Lea wasn't among them.

Caspian sat behind her alone when she glanced back. A thought came just as quick; this time, she held on to it.

Meldei rotated round her seat until she was directly looking at the blond boy. As usual, Caspian was staring below his desk, at his phone, texting.

"Do you have to text now?" His girlfriend shared Nika's class just three rooms away. "Have you even researched for our project?"

"One second," Caspian said, typing with both hands now. He finally looked up when Meldei blocked his view with a book.

"That's five," she said.

He sighed, putting the phone away. "All right. What's up?"

"What's up? Really?" Honestly, she didn't know what else to expect. "You're the one who wanted teamwork for the project. So text your girlfriend later and help research!"

"Wait until Jack comes," he groaned. "He probably already has done a ton anyway. We can just ask him later."

Jack was Youhei's nickname in class. Her eyes slid to the empty seat. "Where is he, by the way?"

Right then, she felt his desk vibrate. "He just said he's on his way," Caspian told her after reading.

She had to be quick.

"You're both close. Right?" she began, to which Caspian nodded. "So...does that mean he tells you pretty much everything?"

"More or less. Why?"

She hesitated for a brief second. "Does he talk to you about Lea?"

Caspian didn't pause as he read another message. "Not really."

Ugh. "Liar."

"I'm not lying," he said, looking up, and his voice shook with laughter that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"You said you two were close. How could he not have said anything to you?"

"How—" He suddenly broke off. Then Caspian sat back in the chair, regarding her for a bit. "No offense, Meldei, but we're guys," he let out. "We don't discuss breakups in groups in the hallway. If it happens, it happens." He shrugged. "I don't complain to him about my girlfriend. Neither does he. We don't talk about girls all day despite general hearsay, you know."

She was offended, even if it was for Lea's sake. But she shoved it aside. "Even so, he would've at least talked to you about how he felt. How he feels now—about her. You're always with him, surely you'd know."

She didn't mind if he thought her to be gossiping. But, really, if he was Caspian, he wouldn't think of her as anything at all.

"I think he's moved on," was all he said. He leaned against the desk, watching her inquiringly. "Why ask though? What's all this about?"

Right then, the door swung open. Lea stepped in.

Meldei tried to keep what Caspian just said well off her face and waved at Lea. But she hardly spoke a word before Noleak headed straight to the back, to her teammates and new friends.

Caspian poked her arm, waiting. "Is it Noleak?" he said.

Meldei pulled her arm away. "Figure it out yourself."

Attempting to see the other side of Lea's story through a shortcut clearly wasn't helping much. She couldn't stop a chilly feeling at the bottom of her stomach, however.

Caspian was probably his closest friend in the school, but even he couldn't clarify Youhei's thoughts. If his closest friend didn’t know, who else knew…besides himself?

For the next restless moments, Meldei tried to immerse herself in their project. Soon enough, the strange calm caused by learning eventually showered her thoughts. She was curiously studying how Alice crossed into the looking-glass world when the door opened again.

Youhei looked a bit disheveled as he came in as if he'd been running. She figured he probably did. Tendrils of his hair were tossed back and his face was a little flushed. She used to wonder if the color of his hair came from dyeing until Lea assured her it was natural.

She went back to her paper as he took his seat, talking quietly to Caspian. But she couldn't focus. The uncomfortable feeling was creeping back up.

Teammates weren't friends. Even if they'd somehow progressed to exchanging more than a few words in class, he was still as much of a stranger as when he first walked into summer class. It didn't strike her as a comforting thought to be prying a stranger for their personal views. She ought to stop.

But then Noleak's face flashed in her head. The way she looked for him in the hallway, the longing in her eyes when she saw him and how it became withdrawn when she remembered she could only watch from afar.

Meldei stared at her pen. She ought to stop.

"Can I sit here?"

She started—and turned. Youhei was standing at the edge of her bench, looking at her. Part of his hair was damp.

"What?"

He gestured to Lea's seat. "Can I sit?"

She was confused—did she miss out on something? "What's wrong with your seat?"

"Nothing. Just there's something I want to discuss with you. It'll be easier if I just sit here."

Mr. Foster sighed. "Why are you standing, Jack? Sit down, man."

Their teacher wasn't in a good mood. Youhei stepped closer and was about to sit there when Meldei held her hands out. "No—wait."

He stared, back to standing.

She suddenly didn't know what to say. "Do you think Lea would mind?"

She meant it sincerely, but Youhei's expression scarcely changed as he nodded before going back to sit on his chair behind her.

He then set the book he was holding just now between them and pointed to a section. "This."

He did it again. Whenever she came close to unraveling something he'd simply walked around it like Lea was ashes in the air.

Resisting the urge to glare, she looked at where he pointed—and frowned. The text read:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"’

There were more. He must've gotten it from Through the Looking-Glass, but she was starting to doubt the novel's language.

"This is all in English, right?" She glanced up slowly. "I think I only understand the conjunctions."

His mouth twitched for a split second. "I also can't pronounce half of the words."

"Then how am I supposed to know this?" She had a fair share of embarrassing moments with speaking English, but he spoke with confidence.

Youhei seemed anything but convinced as he took her frown. He pointed below the desk, at the book she read that morning. "You always read. A lot."

How would he know she read a lot?

"I don't read because I want to," she said defensively.

"No?"

"No! Because there's nothing better to do in class without getting scolded."

"So, you don't like reading?" he asked, tilting his head slightly. Meldei immediately was reminded of the sparrow he caught that day, the curious way it c****d its head at her before flying away.

She quickly disperses the thought. "Not—even a hobby," she said. "The poem—"

"What's your hobby then?" he interrupted. He was leaning against the desk as if they were really discussing the project. She faltered.

Nika would know. But even Nika didn't know the extent of it. Meldei never showed her.

She shrugged, feeling her legs tingle. "Trying not to get scolded?" she said. She then faced Caspian who had long been on his phone. "Hey, tell—"

"I don't know what the poem means. I'm only half British." Caspian flashed them a smile, then said more seriously, "No, I really don't know."

Glaring, Meldei turned forward and reached into her bag for her phone. A reminder notification flashed on the lock-screen, telling her what to get before heading home.

"Is that from an anime?" Youhei said. She turned in surprise.

"How did you know?"

"I think I've seen it somewhere," he said, gaze not leaving her phone's background picture.

It was an image of two dolls, one boy and one girl, who were characters in a story called Chavvot. Meldei used to search for a reference and found that it had been allegedly based on a Russian legend.

"I didn't know you watch anime," Youhei added in an afterthought.

"I don't," she said. "I was just obsessed with this one a long time ago."

"What's the name?"

"Death parade."

He said thoughtfully, "Doesn't sound very cheerful."

"But it's beautiful."

"Beautiful?" Meldei nodded. "How so?"

A few of her favorite scenes surfaced in her head, but if she had to choose one, it would be when the girl danced to the enchanting music.

She was about to tell him so when, far back on the edge of the seats, she saw Noleak silently watching them both.