"W-What do you mean?" Melodie stuttered.
He'd never seen Aslan looking so vicious before. This was coming from him who had witnessed Aslan roughing up fellow Espers and wreaking havoc for the fun of it.
But he had never seen Aslan so evilly delighted to do harm.
"You were the one who caused the higher-ups to send us to the dungeon in the first place," Aslan said as he closed the distance between the two of them and grabbed a fistful of Melodie's collars with his free hand, lifting him from the ground.
"No, no, no. It wasn't me! I swear!" Melodie lied without blinking.
"Save it," Aslan snapped. "I don't know your relationship with Instructor Jay, but I know you must have told him something that night that made him come for us in the morning. And for that reason…" Aslan set his flaming fist to punch Melodie's face.
"Ahhhh! Not the face!" Melodie screamed in terror, squinting his eyes shut before the impact.
Not even a second later, he heard a soft chuckle, then came the words, "What's this? Bullying underclassmen again?"
"Fuck you," Aslan spat before he loosened his grip on Melodie's collar and let him drop to the ground.
"Ow!" Melodie's butt suffered from the fall, and he slowly opened his eyes to see the reason why one side of his face didn't become pancake.
Standing next to Aslan was a guy of equal height with chestnut-brown hair and electric blue eyes. There were dozens of piercings on both of his ears, and a single lip piercing on his plump lips that bore a lazy smile.
"But why'd you bring him to our joint?" The guy questioned, gracefully sliding a lighter out of his pocket and pulling out a cigar stick from nowhere.
"No reason," Aslan responded with a gruff tone.
He narrowed his eyes at Aslan, then placed the stick in between his lips. Before he got a chance to use his lighter, Aslan flicked a flame at the end of his stick.
"Thanks, bro," the guy smiled.
Melodie could bet that he was partially saved now. The guy with the multiple piercings was Callum O'Hare, Aslan's close friend of a sort.
The two were always involved in terrorizing others and wreaking blissful havoc hand-in-hand. However, though Aslan was a prodigy from a family of Espers, Callum was a B-Class street thug.
The only way two people from such different worlds were able to become such close friends was because they shared the same temperament and dislike for other human beings.
"Hey, kid. What'd you do to get him upset?" Callum settled his lazy eyes on Melodie with a mischievous glint in that metallic shade of blue. He sucked in air from the stick and puffed out a cloud of dense smoke.
Melodie gulped down on his saliva, afraid of being the object of Callum's interest. For good reason, too. The guy gave the word, 'psychopath', a new meaning.
"I bumped into him…?" Melodie's words came out hinted like a question.
Callum barked a laugh, clutching his stomach in amusement.
"Ah, where'd you find such a cute kid?" He glanced at Aslan.
"Nowhere. Let's go. I'm bored now." Aslan said, looking as though he had suddenly lost all interest in Melodie.
"So soon? The kid seems quite interesting. What's your name?" Callum directed his question at him.
"Melodie…" he responded after a beat.
"What? That's such a girly name," Callum cooed.
Melodie instinctively frowned. If there was one thing he didn't like, it would be people making fun of his name because it sounded girly.
It wasn't his fault, okay?! His father had wanted a girl. And he had looked like a girl when he was younger. The name, 'Melodie', which was supposed to be 'Melody', got changed because with the 'ie', it'd seem a little less girly.
So having people make fun of his name always reminded Melodie that he was not his father's first choice. And that was most annoying.
"You crying cause I said you had a girly name?" Callum stepped in front of Melodie.
This made the latter realize that his eyes must have been glossy with tears which was why his vision was a bit blurred. But this time, he refused to let the tears fall down.
"I'm not crying!" he bit out boldly.
"Hey, what are you doing? Let's get out of here," Aslan latched his palm onto the back of Callum's neck, like he could sense an impending disaster.
Melodie, too. He hadn't controlled his tone properly. He had sounded like he was yelling at Callum, which was akin to a death wish since the guy didn't take well to any slightest hint of disrespect.
Maybe it was unconscious or indirect, but Aslan trying to pull Callum away was saving Melodie.
Callum's metallic blue eyes pierced through Melodie's soul with his intrigued gaze. But it only lasted for a second before he turned around and slapped Aslan's hand away from his neck.
"Let's go get some food." He casually spoke as he sucked in his cigar, easily disregarding Melodie.
As quick as he was to gain interest, he lost interest too. A very nice attention span for a violent psycho.
Melodie almost let out a sigh of relief as he saw Callum and Aslan going away. But that sigh hung in his mouth when Aslan turned his head and quietly mouthed the words, "This isn't over."
What wasn't over? Things felt completely over to Melodie as it seemed.
When Aslan and Callum completely disappeared from Melodie's line of vision, he got back to his feet and dusted his bum. He took off his glasses and hearing aid, then stored them in his personal pocket dimension.
His entire body hurt. All thanks to Aslan's pulling and dragging. Why was his male god so physical?
Melodie's thoughts were still scrambled and hadn't settled properly as he weakly returned to his dorm building. He stayed in the Guides' dorm cause there wasn't a specific living area for people without abilities.
It took him almost fifteen minutes to see the tall building. At the foot of it, seated on the green lawn without a care, writing on a book was Helena.
Almost like she could sense Melodie's arrival, she lifted her head. Her bright blue eyes went narrow at the sight of him before she closed the book in her lap and stood up to jog over to him.
Melodie really didn't have the strength to smile at Helena or make jokes when she stopped in front of him, so he had not expected her to violently flick his head and say:
"Idiot! Where have you been all day!?"