Chapter 70 - A Real Friend : Part 3

"Fuck off." Aster glowered at his supposed to be friends. The blond stretched his right hand protectively, covering the Vergessene boy on the ground as he stood there, facing the two 'minions'.

"Aster, my dude!" One of them showed a sign of confusion on his face but still tried to be friendly. "We're just teaching him a lesson like we used to do."

The Edelweiss boy kept his cold gaze at the two. His eyes melted with anger, like lava that could burn. Axel stared confusedly at Aster, still lying on the ground after being beaten up.

"What's wrong, bro?" The other chimed in while having the audacity to smile and show a concerned face.

The blond's face twitched at the question. "What's wrong?" Aster repeated the word with venom lacing in his voice. "I'll tell you what's wrong."

"You are a bunch of fucking parasites in my life that I stupidly enough let you two stay." He gritted his teeth at them, spitting words like poison.

"So there's no 'like we used to do' between us." Aster grabbed the guy's collars and made them closed enough to feel the Edelweiss boy's breath. The other person just froze in his place as he watched the two face off each other.

"You leave this loser alone because he ain't got no shit with you," Aster commanded tightly and tightened his grip that almost choked the guy.

"If anyone should bully him. It's me." He paused as he threw the guy to the floor harshly. "And you two are nothing without me."

The other guy quickly came to his friend's aid, staring at Aster with disbelief and a hint of fear.

The blond turned his back on them and coldly stared down at Axel. "Let's go, loser." He stated as he made a movement with his head to follow him.

Aster shoved both of his hands inside his pocket as he walked away. Axel looked at the two minions once more before staggering his way to the blond and trying to keep the same pace with him.

"Yo bro, what the fuck was that?!" One of them yelled at Aster, but the Edelweiss did not even stop or even look back for a second.

"Hey, Aster!" They yelled again and sounded angrier this time. "You fucking Edelweiss!"

Aster already turned around the corner with the Vergessene boy to hear any of those two's useless words.

There was an etching silence despite the students' loud chatters adorning both of them. The Edelweiss and Vergessene walked side by side, not knowing what to do in the awkward situation they were in right now.

They arrived at the lockers as Aster made his way to his. The blond opened his locker and took a medkit that Valerian yelled at him to always keep inside the locker for emergencies.

"You know, you're way stronger than this, loser," Aster muttered with a sigh before slamming the door shut.

Aster shoved the medkit to Aster's chest, causing the Vergessene to look at him with quizzical blue eyes.

"Here." Said the blond.

Axel diverted their staring contest and quickly opened the medkit for the bruise on his wrist that was caused by one of the guys earlier.

Aster stared at him, waiting. He looked at Axel from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. The blond could see how the sight of the Vergessene boy flashed into the mute murderer for a god second and went back to the original Axel.

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When Aster turned around, achingly slow in his vision as he tried to stop Valerian from getting close to the mute murderer, he could not believe his own vision.

There sat Axel on his bed, wearing the exact same clothes as the mute murderer just with no mask, gloves, and white cap.

His brain tried so hard to take the information as his eyes were blown wide, and his heart thumped loudly for no reason.

It made sense—the hair, the blue eyes, the same necklace that they wore.

Aster could not help but realize that the silver arrow necklace was back. Rune probably fixed it for him.

But the boy refused to believe the truth like he always did. He shoved the logic down as he went into self-defence and tried to connect all the impossible possibilities that Axel was not the mute murderer.

But he was. The boy he bullied was a deadly murderer that could kill him in a second if he wanted to.

He was playing with a grim reaper— bullying a grim reaper.

And then he could feel the time fastened again just as Valerian left his room and left him in the room with Axel together.

Weirdly enough, he was glad that the mute murderer was the Vergessene boy. There was fear, excitement, and confusion within him. But the fear was vague. He was more... intrigued.

But he was too scared to accept the truth that he asked a dumb question.

"Wait- where's the mute murderer?"

But in the end, just when Axel left with the white cap, the blond fell onto his bed and drowned with his own thoughts. His blond locks fell onto his face as he stared at the ceiling.

He was still Axel, no matter what, right? Just more... bloody and probably deadly.

Yeah, that was a way to word it.

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"What? You keep staring at me. Is there something on my face?" Axel broke Aster out of his daze.

The Edelweiss boy quickly shook his head slightly and blinked. He went back to reality and put on his usual annoying face.

"Yeah, disappointment." Aster grinned mockingly at his frie- classmate.

"Hey!" Axel yelled defensively, pushing his bottom lip forward as an expression of petulant annoyance for the blond.

"Hey, stop bothering Axel!" A voice yelled from afar as footsteps loudly stomped their way at the two.

Aster sighed and rolled his eyes. "Here comes the white knight." The blond muttered and turned around to greet the said white knight.

"Sup, Rune." He waved nonchalantly, followed by Axel's little waves.

Rune stopped right in front of the Edelweiss boy. Her red ponytail wiggled a little before stopping with the girl. Her hazel eyes fiercely stared at the pair of uninterested green eyes etched with a taunting gaze.

"You stay away from him." She gritted and pointed her finger at Aster.

The blond raised both of his hands in the air in defeat. "You know, technically your prince is a monster too since-"

Someone tugged his shirt hard, causing Aster to stop talking and look over to the person. His forest eyes caught the weary blue eyes and the Vergessene's hand, which was gripping his shirt like his life was depending on it.

Axel shook his head with two ocean eyes that begged to be understood.

"Oh." Aster might be dumb, but he understood what Axel was trying to say.

He turned his head over at the red-haired girl again and smirked. "I mean, he is a monster too since he's a loser, that is."

The tug on his shirt loosened after he said that.

Rune shoved his shoulders with hers as she walked past the Edelweiss. The girl snatched Axel's hand and dragged him away from Aster.

She looked back at the blond with fire in her eyes. "Get lost." Right after she said that the red-haired left with Axel.

"Tch, rude," Aster mumbled and put his hands back in his pockets as he followed them.

Rune was obviously getting irritated as second passed by the fact that Aster was tailing both of them all the way to the cafeteria.

As the pair of best friends took a seat, Aster sat on the table too, irritating the red-haired girl even more.

"Dude, what's your problem?" Rune spat, completely trying to shoo the boy away.

"What's your problem?" Aster asked her back and taunted her with two raised eyebrows. "Mind your own business, miss first lady."

"No- like," Rune put a 'tired with this shit' hand in front of her mouth and pointed it at Aster. "-why the hell are you following us all the time."

"I am not following you two. I was just walking." The Edelweiss shrugged as he snatched a soda from a person who was passing their table. "-and now I'm sitting."

He looked at the person whose soda he had snatched and dared her to protest with his two pointed green eyes. She quickly turned away and ran farther from the boy.

"And now I'm drinking." He opened the soda and drank it in one go.

"You know what, do what you want." Rune raised her hands and signed a defeat for the boy. Axel worriedly exchanged glances to the two, wondering what he should do in this situation.

"Been doing it since birth," Aster answered back, earning a grunt from the red-haired girl.

"Shut up." Rune clicked her tongue as she went to actually buy some drinks and foods and not snatching them the way Aster did.

Axel sighed tiredly and brushed his face with his hand.