(fanfic) APH-Lovely Maid Yao- Chapter 19

Chapter 19

 

After leaving the cafeteria, the three cousins were in complete silence as they were walking to their lockers. Even if Kiku and Yong appeared quite puzzled and curious about the recent conversation between Ivan and Yao, Both didn’t ask for any information concerning it. And Yao was very grateful for that! 

The older Asian was certain that his cousins were bothered when they saw him having a casual private talk with someone odd like Ivan. The Chinese truly appreciated the fact that they decided to respect his decision of not talking about it. 

 “Aniki! Why are you recently always hanging out with that strange Russian who always wears a scarf?”

Or maybe Yao assumed things too fast…

“Hanging? I-I don’t hang out with him! We just see each other sometimes! That’s all aru.” Said the person who just agreed to have a date with Ivan.

“But you are always talking to him every day and each time you see him!”Yong pointed out. To him, this was not the definition of “sometimes”. In the recent days, the Russian didn’t stop calling for his Chinese cousin every time he saw him, and even though Yao seemed embarrassed once in a while, he was always open to talk to him nonetheless. In addition, his cousin’s comportment always appeared to be cheerful when they talked together. 

 “You are talking to him too much often da-zee!” The Korean added, while frowning. He did not like this level of friendliness between Yao and this odd guy; it was too much bizarre.

“W-well there is nothing wrong with talking to someone aru.”Yao replied, not understanding why his younger cousin was upset about that. 

“But you said you were only helping him with some school work and that you were only in a class with him. So why are you two so friendly? And why does he act like he knows you so well? ”

“…”                                         

                                                                              

The Chinese simply gave a blank stare to the youngest one; he definitely didn’t expect this question and now he wondered what he should say. He had to admit that this situation might seem a little weird to the others.

“W-we started to get along and quickly become friends aru.”Yao answered. In fact, it wasn’t a lie; it was very true that they started to get along pretty fast. He was only hoping that this answer was enough for Yong to stop with his questions.

On the other hand, the Korean gave a confused glare to Yao; rare was the occasion when his older cousin would rapidly be friendly with someone as strange and eerie as Ivan. Unfortunately for the Chinese, this recent answer only raised more questions for Yong. 

Meanwhile, Kiku stood silent and quietly listened to the conversation. The Japanese wasn’t as oblivious as Yong; therefore he knew that Yao was hiding something from them. However, he wasn’t sure of what exactly it was. During the recent days, he did hear some rumours concerning Yao and the mysterious relation this one had with the Russian. Though, he definitely didn’t know if he should believe these rumours…unlike the rest of the school who apparently did. But he had to admit that Yao’s comportment was only confirming the doubts he had about believing the rumours. After all, his older cousin wasn’t really good at hiding things…

Kiku was simply surprised that Yong didn’t seem to know about the rumours, so he decided to remain quiet about the subject since it would probably worsened Yong’s worries.

After a long moment of silence, though, the Korean was already starting to assume some ideas…

“You know aniki…no matter how I look at the situation; I can’t help to think that…”

“We are not a couple!”The Chinese quickly snapped certain that this was what Yong was about to say.

“Ivan already bullied you so that you accept to help him with his school work!” The Korean announced instead, which completely bewildered the older one.

Well, this was the last accusation that Yao would think of!

 “W-what?”

“That’s why you are acting suspicious and weird recently, isn’t it aniki? And you try to hide it by pretending to be friendly with him.”

Yao seriously couldn’t understand where in the world Yong would get these weird conclusions from.

Maybe he saw too much Korean dramas? Or simply too much television in general? These were indeed one of the times where Yao truly didn’t know what to say to the other.

“Don’t worry Aniki! You can tell us the truth; we are your family da-zee!”

 “Aiyaa! W-why? How? What is this…”The Chinese questioned, rubbing his forehead in exasperation.

“Yao, were you about to say something before that? Something about ‘being a couple’?” Kiku suddenly inquired, remembering the odd and harsh reply Yao gave just a moment ago.

“W-what! N-no, I didn’t say any of that!”The Chinese quickly lied, starting to feel truly 

uncomfortable with all these questions. If it continues like this, he would have to tell the truth about Ivan and him, but this was still something he wanted to keep a secret from his cousins. If these two would know, they wouldn’t stop meddling in what was obviously not their business. Yong was already panicking with only knowing that Ivan spoke to him often at school. He definitely didn’t wanted to experience the situation where Yong knew everything; from Ivan’s stalking to their meetings at work.

“Couple? Don’t be silly Kiku. Why in the world would Aniki date such a creepy person?”Yong said, laughing about Kiku’s suggestion instead of realising the wary expression the Chinese had. 

“Aiyaa! He has very nice qualities aru.”Yao retorted quietly to himself. For some reason, he didn’t really appreciate Yong’s mocking. Ivan was adorable, kind, pleasant and always had a cute sweet smile; he was far from being a “creepy person”… even if sometimes Yao had to admit that the Russian had pretty weird tendencies.  Yao could think of many other qualities the Russian had, but now wasn’t the time for that because his cousins were strangely looking at him. 

“What did you say?”Kiku inquired, once again noting that the older one was truly acting out of the ordinary.

“N-nothing! It’s nothing important.”Yao sighed, very tired of the situation. “Anyway, I can’t believe you are still suspecting Ivan of doing such things! I told you so many times that he doesn’t bully me! Plus, if he would be troubling me, I wouldn’t let him bully me! I can perfectly defend myself aru.”

 Yao wondered why everyone seemed to forget about the fact that he was extremely good in martial arts?! He didn’t take those classes for nothing! It made him a little bitter to know that so many of his entourage thought that he would get bullied this easily. 

“You seem to trust him a lot…”Kiku quietly remarked.

“W-what does that mean aru?!”

“Nothing…it’s just that it seems that you care a lot for him…” The Japanese calmly said. 

“W-what? N-no, I don’t. You guys are seriously imagining things aru.” Yao responded rapidly. It didn’t take much long for his cheeks to turn slightly red. “W-where are you getting this from?!”

“You act very suspiciously!” Both of them stated at the same time.

 “No, I do not!”                                                     

The Chinese was thankful that his cousins were worried about him, but he thought that it was really unnecessary. Ivan would not cause him any troubles. He didn’t know how to explain why, but he was certain of it.

*** 

Meanwhile, still at the cafeteria, Ivan and his friends were peacefully finishing their meals. While Ivan was completely daydreaming about his future date with his Yao-Yao, the three others were simply happy that things were cheerful today. Actually, things couldn’t be greater, as the small group was having a causal discussion, they were all secretly grateful for such a positive atmosphere. In fact, if they knew that Ivan could be this nice when he was in such a good mood, they would have helped him seduce Yao a long time ago! 

“I think someone owes me five dollar!” Toris suddenly mentioned with a joyful expression to the Estonian.

“Why couldn’t you forget about it?”Eduard sighed sadly, taking five dollars from his wallet.

“Five dollars?”Ivan asked a little confused.

“They made a bet…But I-It has nothing to do with you or Yao!”Ravis quickly replied, not realising that his answer was more strange than actually helpful.  

“Ravis!!!”

“W-what?”Ivan asked again, still puzzled.

“N-nothing. It was just a plain bet between Toris and I.”Eduard explained, hoping that it would eliminate the Russian’s curiosity. 

“I see.”Ivan said with a small laugh. He didn’t understood what these odd answers were all about, but he didn’t really care that much. For now, he only wanted to daydream about what Yao and he should do during their upcoming date. He was so excited and couldn’t wait for it; but then he remembered something truly important that he almost forgot about!

“Oh, I have something important to say…” He started. The others all nodded and looked at him patiently; for some reason, they were all convinced that Ivan was going to talk about his new relationship with Yao. 

 “…I need more money.”

However, they were all completely wrong!

“WHAT?!!!”They all shouted at the same time.

“…Why are you all surprised like this da?”Ivan inquired. In all honesty, he wasn’t expecting such shocked expressions coming from his friends.

“You asked us money only a few days ago!”

“You asked us ten dollars each! How did you spend all this money in only a few days?!”

“By the way, didn’t you got I trouble because you took money from us last time?”

The three started talking about one thing and another, and in a matter of seconds, it started to frustrate Ivan. He truly didn’t appreciate the way they were talking to him. It reminded him of how his father scolded him about the fact that he spent money so easily recently and he really didn’t like that!

“I never took money from you da? I only asked you kindly to give me money.” Ivan corrected very bitterly. He was still having a smile on his face, but with the drastic change of atmosphere, it was certain that this smile wouldn’t stay for much longer.

“So what happens if we don’t give you any?”The youngest one questioned extremely quietly, fearing to anger the Russian.

Ivan simply gave a rather intimidating glance at the trio; in the end, it seemed like they didn’t wanted to help him…

 “Kolkolkolkolkol~ I need more money for my date with Yao”

“W-why? Do you have to pay him to date you?”Ravis asked without thinking. Immediately after noticing the petrified expression of his other two friends, he realised the meaning of what he just said and gasped. He definitely felt like he was going to get murdered. 

“RAVIS!!!”

“I-I’m s-so s-sorry! I-it’s not w-what I meant, I just—“

“Kolkolkolkolkolkol!” Now Ivan seemed even more anger, if that was even possible.

 “HAAAAAA!!!”They all screamed with a slightly high pitched voice.

 “I-Ivan, w-wait, I am sure we can arrange a deal here.”Eduard rapidly proposed.

“A deal?”

“Y-yeah…somehow.” He definitely didn’t thought this through, but he was surprised that it worked, and that Ivan seemed a little calmer. Now he didn’t have the choice but to go with it and save his friends.

“I-I’m sorry Ivan, but you see…sadly, we really don’t have any more money…”He admitted slowly.  It didn’t take much longer for the tall one to frown; for Ivan, this definitely did not seem like a good way to start a deal.

“We all had to spend money for various things, and we gave you some at the beginning of the week. Unfortunately, we can’t really help you right now…”

No! This definitely wasn’t a good way to start a deal!

“However, I promise that next week, we might be able to help you.”

“We?” Both Toris and Ravis repeated with worry. Eduard wasn’t saving them; he was only sparing their lives at short-term. They really couldn’t offer money to Ivan each week for the rest of their lives; that was something impossible for them to agree with.

“But I need money for tomorrow! My date is tomorrow!” The Russian whined. He will not tolerate to postpone the date with Yao that he longed so much for. But at the same time, if he didn’t have enough money for his date, it would eliminate some of the things he planned to do with his crush.

“Yeah…your idea doesn’t really make sense Eduard.”Toris commented with a playful tone, hoping that his friend would get the hint that this was a horrible idea! Unfortunately, Eduard didn’t seem content with this comment. 

“Well you know what Ivan? I just remembered that unlike us, Toris still has some money. I just gave him the rest that I had because I lost the bet.” The Estonian remarked.

It didn’t take long for everyone at the table to suddenly look at Toris.

“Well I have to go. See you guys later.”Eduard said, leaving the table with a little grin.

“W-wait for me Eduard!”Ravis rapidly stuttered. He absolutely didn’t want to miss the only chance he had to get away from this problem.

“Nice way to be a friend Eduard...” Toris muttered to himself bitterly. Now, Eduard’s first plan didn’t seem that horrible to him. He sincerely regretted complaining about it. 

“Toris, you will loan some money to me da?”The Russian asked.

“B-but I don’t really have any…”

“LIAR! You have a five dollar bill in your hand! Kolkolkolkolkol!”

“B-But…that’s only five dollars…”The Lithuanian said, not understanding why Ivan absolutely wanted such a small amount of money. On the other hand…if he just wanted five dollars, he could simply give it to him and get rid of this problem. Could it be this simple?

“W-wait! If I give you the five dollar will it be enough for your date?”

“Da!”The blond answered like if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Seriously? But it’s just five dollars. How does it make such a big difference to you?”

“My sisters and father didn’t want to give me any more. So I take what I can get to make Yao happy!”The Russian explained.

“W-what? So your family doesn’t support your relation with Yao? That’s sad.”The Lithuanian questioned, understanding this situation. The parents of Feliks also didn’t support their relationships…he could empathise that it wasn’t easy.

 “What?” Ivan completely didn’t understand what Toris was talking about. But if by support he meant the fact that his family didn’t give him more money to impress Yao; well in this case, no, his family didn’t support it. And Toris was right, it was sad! He did give money to Ukatarina when she needed sometimes; it was a little bit mean of her to not do the same for him!

“Okay, I will give you what I have, but you have to promise to stop asking money from us for a very very long time, okay?”

“Yes, sure. I promise.”Ivan rapidly said. He didn’t know what was Toris’ definition of a “very very long time”, but as long as he got the money, he didn’t really care about the details.

Well, Toris could conclude that it looked like a good deal. He was happy to see that he could think of a better solution than Eduard. Sadly, this problem was far from being solved, since the Russian didn’t even have the chance to have the money for more than ten seconds before being interrupted.

“Yay! Thank—“

“Hey! What do you think you are doing?!”A slightly familiar voice loudly interrupted.

“?!”

It didn’t take long for Ivan to turn his head and see a familiar green-eyed Pole who didn’t seem happy at all.

“What are you doing taking Toris’ money?!”The blond asked harshly to the Russian, rudely accusing him.

“It’s my money now!”Ivan replied resentfully. Unfortunately, this answer made the Pole even more anger.

“You jerk! Give him his money back!”

“F-Feliks n-no!”The Lithuanian quickly approached the green-eyed student with a panic tone. If it carries on like this, it will end badly for everyone and he wasn’t looking forward to this. “Just let him have the five dollar. There is no need to make a scene.”The brunet tried to explain, but with the lack of details Feliks automatically assumed the worse.

“What?! No! I won’t let you get bullied like that!”He shouted

“I wasn’t being bullied!”The other stated before the situation could deteriorate even more.

“Toris, you can’t, like, lie to me! I heard your high pitched scream from the other side of the cafeteria!”Feliks pointed out casually.

“I don’t scream high pitched! It’s Ravis! Ravis!!”The other replied a little embarrassed with this statement.

“He gave the money to me.”Ivan remarked. He was starting to feel extremely frustrated by all these accusations. 

Finally, someone agreed to loan him money so that he could have a great date with Yao, and now, from out of nowhere, Feliks had to come and accuse him for no reason. 

 “Yeah! After you, like, bullied him to do so! Stop robbing people, you big nosed thief!”

“I am not a thief! Kolkolkolkolkolkol~” 

Now, Ivan was completely irritated and the atmosphere began to be very gloomy.

“F-Feliks, p-please stop.”Toris begged his boyfriend; he was really starting to be scared of what could happen to their safety. Now he definitely regretted no agreeing with Eduard’s first plan. Unfortunately for Toris, his boyfriend didn’t listen to him.

“I know that you, like, totally took money from Toris and the others Monday too!” 

“F-Feliks!!!”

“Kolkolkolkolkol~ I didn’t take money from them!”

Why people always accused him of doing bad things? It wasn’t like he wanted to cause problems; he simply wanted people to help him. And if he wanted people to do so, he had to force them in one way or another, because if he didn’t, not even his friends would help. He felt so anger with all this. Right now, he only wanted to take his metal pipe and beat out Feliks, and anyone who was against him for that matter.

“What? You want to, like, fight me?!” Feliks snapped, not showing a sign of fear at the other.

“Feliks!!! NO!” Having the complete opposite feeling of  his boyfriend, Toris was completely panicking of fear. The last thing he wanted was to see Feliks get hurt!

 “Okay, okay! What is going on here?”The voice of M. Vargas stopped the conflict that was starting to attract everyone’s attention at the cafeteria.

“He is bullying people and he takes money from them!”

“What? Didn’t I tell you to stay out of trouble?”The teacher complained looking at Ivan.

“I am not doing anything!”

*** 

In one way or another, Ivan ended up in detention again. No matter what he said to defend himself, holding a metal pipe and giving murderous glares to others did not help his innocence. It didn’t take long for the teacher to give him another detention after class. And by the unpleasant expression on M. Vargas’ face, this time Ivan doubted he would get out of detention as easily as last time.

He felt depressed thinking that he would miss the chance of being with Yao this evening. It was really awful! What would happen if someone—such as Francis— would use his absence as an opportunity to flirt with Yao again?! He had to get out of school as soon as possible!

All this was stupid Feliks’ fault! If it wasn’t for him everything would have been fine! Why no one was never on his side and never believed him?

A little sad by the latter thought, he comforted himself by assuring that if Yao had been there; it was certain that Yao would have been on his side…or at least he would have believe in him.

 “Son, I am worried about your comportment. Your behaviour is troublesome these days and the headmaster absolutely wants it to stop. If it continues like this, I will have to talk with your father. Is that what you want?”M. Vargas said.  It seemed like he had a discussion with the headmaster before the beginning of the detention. This wasn’t a good sign…

“No, I really don’t want that.”Ivan plainly responded.

“Thanks Goodness.”The teacher expressed with a big relieved sigh.” Don’t take it badly, but your father is a little intimidating.” He added. Obviously, he looked quite glad to avoid this option for now.

“It’s okay…”

It wasn’t the first time someone told him that his father looked intimidating, Ivan never took it badly, but he seriously thought that sometimes people tend to exaggerate. Although, he wasn’t going to complain in this situation; his father would be pretty mad if he knew in what kind of trouble he always had.

“But seriously, you have to stop. If you cause trouble again, I will have to call your parents.”The Italian teacher announced. 

Ivan nodded; he will try his best to avoid causing trouble, even if it means avoiding some people from now on.  

“And for your detention, you will have to clean the class.”

Detention?! No! With the teacher’s last comments, the Russian was hoping that the detention would end soon, but it looked like it was actually starting.

“kolkolkolkol! I don’t like that!” The Russian complained. Cleaning the class completely seemed like it would take hours to do.

“Well, that what happens when you don’t keep your promises.”The teacher reminded him. The Italian wasn’t happy with that too; he was the one who had to stay at work even longer to make sure that Ivan was cleaning the class like he should.

The student gave a quick bitter glare to his teacher. It was true that he promised to not cause problems anymore, but this time he really didn’t cause any problem. If only someone in this stupid school would believe him.

“While you do that, I will correct some homework. When I will be finish, I want this class to be all shiny and clean!”

*** 

Ivan did his best to clean the class as fast as he could. He didn’t care that the teacher wanted it to be “shiny and clean”, he didn’t like to clean, so he did what he could do. The only thing he wanted was to get out of there and see Yao. Unlike what M. Vargas planned to do, the Italian felt asleep five minutes after he started to correct the homework, so it wasn’t like he would notice that Ivan wasn’t cleaning correctly.  

It has been a while that it started raining outside, but recently it seemed like the rain was stronger. Not that Ivan was complaining, the sound of the rain was something nice to listen to, especially in comparison to M. Vargas’ snoring. The Russian didn’t know how many times since the beginning of detention that he just wanted to make a loud noise to brutally wake him up. 

Desperate, he looked at the clock and realised that it was already pass seven. Time sure passed fast, but he felt like he had been cleaning the class for so much longer. No matter what, he still thought of Yao. Soon the café will be close; he wondered if his crush would wait for him if he didn’t finish the detention on time. Or maybe, Yao wouldn’t and would simply go home accompanied by someone else?

This sudden small jealousy made him anxious and tired. He glanced at the snoring teacher… the Italian wouldn’t notice a thing if he would run away, right? He seemed like he was deep asleep after all.

Slowly, Ivan approached the door; however, before he could even touch the doorknob, M. Vargas suddenly woke up. Automatically, the student rapidly pretended that he was about to take the broom that was next to the door.

 “Ha?…so are you finished?”The teacher asked half-sleeping.

“Actually…”

The Italian looked around the class, he was still sleepy, but he noticed that the class looked pretty clean.

“Ok! It’s perfect! You can return home!”He concluded.

A huge smile immediately appeared on Ivan’s face. Finally, he would be able to get out of this horrible detention.

 “It looks like you did a very good job! Have a good weekend.” M. Vargas said, before the Russian left the class.

Without losing any precious second, Ivan took his school bag and ran out of the class. In not too long, the café will be closed, he only hoped to arrive there before Yao would leave.

(TBC)