“The water is dirty, I’ll go fetch some from outside.” Seeing the water in the bucket completely soiled, the short-haired girl seized the opportunity to propose this to the other girl.
“Alright, Zoe, you go ahead.” The other girl, seeing Zoe take the initiative, dismissed her own thoughts of changing the water and leaned against the wall in the president’s office.
Zoe carried the bucket out of the president’s office, careful not to disturb Mirexia working inside, and closed the door behind her.
She looked around, ensuring no one was in the hallway, then made her way to the corner near the staircase. Her hand slipped into the pleats of her student skirt, fingers seemingly clutching something.
“President?!” Just then, a startled cry came from the president’s office not far away, suggesting something had happened to Mirexia.
Seeing this, Zoe’s brow relaxed slightly. Just as she was about to pull her hand out of her skirt pocket, she suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder from behind.
“?!” Zoe was startled and quickly turned around.
“Hey hey, Zoe, don’t be nervous, it’s me, don’t you recognize me?”
“You??” Zoe, overly tense, looked at the somewhat familiar blue-haired young man behind her, her teeth clenched.
“It’s me, Zoe, we met outside the student council president’s office the other day, remember? Like today, you were all flustered for some reason, and I happened to run into you bringing tea to the president, remember?” Vinny said with a grin.
“...Not really.” Seeing Vinny’s cheeky smile, Zoe felt inexplicably nervous, especially since he seemed to deliberately bring up that day’s events, making her feel guilty, yet she had to feign calmness.
“Yo, still pretending not to know me, you’ve forgotten your old buddy after making it big, huh?” Vinny, hands in his pockets, casually leaned in.
“I don’t know you.” Zoe tried to maintain a cold demeanor to keep her distance, hoping to deter him.
This blue-haired young man, a fellow student she’d rarely seen, was suddenly acting so familiar today that it made her instinctively uneasy.
Right now, she just wanted to quickly change the water, finish today’s work, and return to her dorm as if nothing had happened.
“How can you not know me? We’re old buddies from the same year in the student council, we should look out for each other, not pretend not to know each other, right?” Vinny pouted, not backing down despite Zoe’s obvious resistance.
“Don’t come closer, we’re not close.” Seeing Vinny step forward, Zoe felt increasingly nervous.
“Hey hey, don’t be like that, Zoe. Speaking of which, it’s your turn to clean the president’s office today, right? You’re going to change the water, aren’t you? Who else would carry a dirty water bucket around?” Vinny crossed his arms, looking curious.
“But then again, this doesn’t seem like the way to the bathroom, does it? The bathroom is down the hall, why are you heading towards the staircase? Going the long way, huh? Zoe, do you like to exercise this way? Interesting hobby, I must say.”
“By the way, I saw you putting your hand in your pocket earlier, as if you were grabbing something, but you didn’t pull it out—what’s that about?”
“That’s none of your business.” Zoe’s brow furrowed. “Student, I’m not familiar with you, and this is the student council. If you continue like this, I’ll have to...”