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If you asked anyone about Phainon, they would tell you he was a model student, a helpful and friendly guy whose popularity among both teachers and his peers was well deserved. A radiant light, pride of Okhema High School. Even the most envious on campus could say nothing to fault the school’s head boy and the final year’s class president other than sneer at him for being “too happy” and a “goody two-shoes.”
No one would believe Mydei if asked for his opinion, which was why he never bothered to share it.
No one would see that side of Phainon other than him and something about that is both a little scary and a little exciting.
“What’s wrong, pretty?” breathes Phainon, pressing him harder against the lockers. “Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours that’s got you so distracted.”
Mydei grunts quietly in pain as the edge of his glasses frame digs into the flesh below his eye.
“You never want to talk to me. It hurts my feelings!”
Mydei had given up on any sort of meaningful dialogue with this- this scoundrel, so what was the point?
Phainon wouldn’t stop being a fucking weirdo and bully. If Mydei busted his lip, broke his bones again like he had the first few times, all it would get him was disappointment from their teachers, a mark on his record and another reason for his father to yell at him till Mydei got a headache.
So he stays silent, once again hoping Phainon will lose interest and let go of him.
He grimaces when Phainon’s head thunks against the back of his, the scent of sweat mingling with laundry detergent and grapes now invading his nostrils with each laboured breath because of the proximity.
“You don’t want to talk? Fine. I’ll go first again then.”
Mydei’s fists clench at his sides.
“Why did you turn down the teacher when he said I should tutor you?”
Is he seriously asking why Mydei did not want to spend a moment longer than necessary with him??
A sound that is half a laugh, half a wheeze escapes him and he can practically see Phainon frown when he speaks again. “What’s so funny?”
Mydei shifts his face a little to the side so his glasses are not digging into the same spot on his skin- they are now perched uncomfortably askew on his forehead but that’s fine for now.
“You could have been less rude about it, you know.”
Mydei wasn’t rude to the teacher. But of course, Phainon wasn’t talking about that - rather about Mydei saying he would prefer anyone else over Phainon.
“You should think about your own interests, Mydei,” Phainon continues, his tone one as if he is a teacher lecturing a wayward student and not some creepy asshole cornering Mydei in the empty locker room. “You suck at math. How else are you going to pass the finals? No one else is going to volunteer. Do you really want to be held back a grade that badly?”
If it gets him away from Phainon, Mydei may consider it a worthwhile sacrifice.
Phainon’s fingers dig into his back through the thin fabric of his uniform shirt and Mydei winces.
“It’s not polite to ignore people. Did your parents not teach you manners growing up either?”
“Your parents never teach you to be a decent person?”
Phainon’s face appears in his line of vision, bright blue eyes narrowed. “Of course they did. Just ask anyone else their opinion. And isn’t that why I’m offering to help you?”
“Bullshit.”
“How rude. But I suppose I shouldn’t expect more from you.”
Mydei remains quiet, and the bastard tuts. “Poor Mydeimos…with that piss-poor attitude and no social skills, however are you going to get a partner! Neither smart, nor eloquent and personable…tsk, tsk. The only thing you have going for you is that body of yours.”
Mydei flushes with shame and a deep mortification whenever Phainon talks about him like that. “Shut your mouth.”
“There you go again. Not even smart enough to think up another comeback…how boring!”
Mydei’s patience is fraying. He’s used to hearing Phainon’s petty insults, even the still mortifying crude remarks, but he doesn’t want to be late for his next class again because of him.
He pushes off the lockers to knock into Phainon’s shoulder and try to push past him. “Then just leave me alone.”
Phainon seizes him before he can turn fully and drags him back, hooking one arm around his shoulders to keep him trapped like the persistent nuisance he is.
“You know I can’t do that, Mydei.”
“I don’t know, so enlighten me, since I’m so dumb.”
“Of course…since I’m a good person, I’ll help you learn.” His hand drops lower, from Mydei’s collar to his sternum, creeps between the buttons of his shirt, the edges they hold together stretched taut over his chest. “I’ll be your friend…and one day, maybe even-“ He doesn’t finish the thought, cutting himself off with a low laugh, but Mydei already knows what he would say.
With the way his eyes and sometimes even his hands wander during each of these encounters and the way he talks sometimes, Mydei would have to be daft to not notice.
“What are you thinking about?” whispers Phainon lowly in his ear, making Mydei shudder in his hold.
“That you are the last person I would sleep with.”
Phainon laughs again, hooking his chin over Mydei’s shoulder. “Is that what you thought I meant?”
“….”
“Oh, Mydei,” he sighs. “You just don’t get it, do you?”
Mydei is surprised when he is released and Phainon takes a step back, turning his head back to look at the white-haired boy.
“It’s alright,” says Phainon. “One day you will.”
When he leaves, Mydei hangs his head, red in the face and trying to make sense of the confusing feelings coursing through his mind.
...........
Mydei has his best disdainful look fixed on his face as he sets his books down on the table in front of Phainon.
No one else the teacher had asked had agreed to tutor Mydei. Not for lack of time, but every other honours student was too intimidated by Mydei’s reputation for getting in fights to do so.
Except Phainon, that is.
The white-haired boy smiles at him as he sits. Not that radiant, sunny one he wears around everyone else, no. That cold one that doesn’t quite reach his eyes, the one Mydei reckons only he has ever seen.
…Not again.
Mydei isn’t even sure what’s set him off this time.
“I’m happy you reconsidered,” Phainon says, reaching over to open up his own copy of the textbook, flipping to the topics they had agreed to cover earlier in the presence of the teacher.
Of course, the teacher had left, trusting Phainon fully to do a good job.
Mydei gives a barely audible hum, and Phainon looks back up at him, the line of his mouth still upturned but razor thin.
“Who was that guy you were talking to during break?”
Ah. So that’s what it was.
Mydei taps his foot against the leg of the table anxiously. His first instinct was always to go against and challenge this hyena, but he truly didn’t have time for this. Finals were just around the corner, and if he had to be “tutored” by Phainon he was hoping to either get it over with as quickly as possible so he could go home and study himself.
So he swallows his pride.
“Can we please focus on the curriculum?”
“We will, right after you tell me.”
Mydei sighs heavily. “Guy from class C. Head of the athletics club, he was asking me to join.”
“Oh, I see.” The corners of Phainon’s eyes crinkle as his smile widens creepily, the lack of warmth in it telling of how he really felt. “But did he really have to put his hands all over you to do that?”
Mydei’s eye twitches. He tilts his head forward, letting his hair fall into his eyes and shrugs.
“Can you answer the question, Mydei.”
“I don’t know, Phainon.”
“And that’s the problem, isn’t it?” cries Phainon, exasperated. He plants his hands on the desk and leans forward, and Mydei leans back in response. “You’re so blind to other people’s bad intentions! That guy was just looking for an excuse to put his hands on you.”
Mydei stays quiet, because what is he supposed to say?
“Well. Anyway. It won’t be a problem in the future.”
Mydei looked at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What? Don’t tell me you enjoyed it.” Phainon’s voice is dark and there’s that out of place feeling again. Who else has heard Phainon talk like this?
Only Mydei.
“No.”
“Then it’s fine if I take care of it for you, right?”
“….What are you going to do.”
“Just a little chat.”
The athletics club captain turns tail and flees everytime he sees Mydei so much as look at him thereafter.
...........
Despite Phainon’s favoured insult of calling him a dumb brute for being bad at math, Mydei was far from struggling in any other subjects.
And history and politics were where he could get back at Phainon.
“Who led the Okheman Alliance in their campaign against the Kremnoan forces in the year 3903?”
“Yes, Phainon?”
The white-haired boy stands and gives his answer, and Mydei smirks in his seat a few places further in the front.
“General Seneca led the Alliance against the Kremnoan forces.”
“Sorry, son, that’s not it. Yes, Mydeimos?”
“The general leading the Okheman Alliance at the time was Labenius.“
“Correct, well done!”
Mydei can feel Phainon’s gaze boring into the back of his head as he sits down.
The teacher and class seem well used to the little games of one-upping each other that they play, but Phainon himself seems scandalised each time he loses to Mydei, which is more than a little satisfying.
However the real place they can compete is PE and their extra-curriculars.
Mydei relishes in slamming Phainon down into the mat during judo club practice multiple times, even if the other grins at him like a freak every time he does before getting up and demanding another round.
But he still hates losing their best out of fives that the supervising teacher has all but given up on trying to curb, so Mydei still gets his fill out of it.
PE is a little better in that regard as he doesn’t necessarily have to touch Phainon during sprints or sports played with a ball. Not for Phainon’s lack of trying, slamming into him whenever possible to steal the ball, which of course Mydei refuses to take lying down, getting away with toeing the line once in a while by returning the favour to send him toppling to the ground.
The other students had started thinking of these as personal contests and even started picking sides to place bets on who would come out on top for the day.
Mydei doesn’t care for their antics, though he has a suspicion the added attention also fuels that bastard Phainon’s motivation to get the better of him.
And of course, outside of their supposed contests Phainon still keeps seeking him out-
“Mydei. Help me put up these flyers?” Mydei raises his head to see Phainon standing by his desk, shaking a stack of flyers at him slightly with a smile.
He knows it’s only being framed as a question because there are still people that can overhear them.
Mydei drags himself from his seat and walks with him to the closest noticeboard out in the hall.
“Are you free this weekend?”
“No.”
Phainon pouts. “When will you stop avoiding me?”
Two girls walk past them, giggling to themselves and looking at the two of them.
Mydei waits for them to be out of earshot, setting down his half of the stack in front of the board and taking a stapler from Phainon, who picks up his own and smiles expectantly at him.
‘When you start behaving like a normal person,’ he wants to say.
“Never,” he says.
The stapler in Phainon’s hand snaps.
“That’s mean, Mydei,” he says quietly, his tone eerily intense.
Mydei isn’t scared of Phainon. But it would be a lie to say he doesn’t unnerve him.
“….I’m hanging out with you now, am I not?” he mumbles, putting up another flyer.
It snaps Phainon out of whatever mood he had been slipping into. “But that’s different,” he says, almost whining, like he hadn’t broken a stapler clean in half with his bare hands seconds ago. “You have to listen to what the class president says.”
“Says who.”
“Well. Me!”
Mydei rolls his eyes. “You have friends. Why do you have to keep pestering me?”
“You really are dumb, aren’t you?” Mydei glares at him even if Phainon says it with no venom behind his words, his face propped on his hand like he’s admiring Mydei and not insulting him. “But that’s cute, too. Because I want to be your friend, obviously.”
I’ll be your friend…and one day, maybe even-
Mydei picks up his pile of flyers and walks towards the next notice board, his ears embarrassingly red, Phainon following behind him.
The obvious assumption one would have made, if Phainon’s truly wasn’t messing with him purely for kicks or for an outlet or whatever, was that Phainon wanted to fuck Mydei. And happened to enjoy degrading him.
But he’d also said that wasn’t it, and the last few months even when he wasn’t manhandling him and trying to provoke him, he’d still buzz around like an annoying gnat, trying to rope Mydei into stuff like what they were doing now.
Mydei wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Phainon…ugh, is he lying, or telling the truth?
He sighs, annoyed. This guy just found different ways to keep screwing with him, didn’t he?
“What’s wrong?” Mydei closes his eyes and curses internally as Phainon’s arm brushes against his. Even inhaling is difficult now because then he’d inhale the scent of Phainon’s soap too. For all the running around he does, how does he smell so damn good all the time? Even the slight tang of sweat doesn’t detract from it…
Mydei needs to get a fucking grip.
...........
The end of one of the school days finds Mydei staying back a little longer than usual after being assigned the task of cleaning up the classroom.
Having picked up all the candy wrappers and balled-up paper (seriously? why were all his classmates hell bent on littering), he returns to the classroom after disposing of them to pick up his bag and go home when he stops in his tracks.
Phainon is there, slouching in his seat. When did he get here?
The back of his white head appears gold in the sunlight, and the line of his shoulders is stiff despite his horrific posture, a hand raised to massage his nape.
…..Is Mydei going to regret it later when he thinks about his dignity over petty revenge? Maybe.
But he’s already moving to where Phainon is slumped over at his desk.
The white-haired boy jerks back when Mydei lightly swats his hand away and replaces it with both of his own, massaging his nape and shoulders.
“Wha-?” he cranes around as best he can. “Mydei??”
“Not even Mr. perfect class president is immune to fatigue, huh?” he comments, snark dripping from his tone.
He would think Phainon would have leapt up. A guy like him who liked pushing buttons probably wouldn’t like giving up control like this to someone he antagonised. This wasn’t even one of their martial arts contests.
But Phainon relaxes as he speaks, chuckling like the infuriating and confusing bastard he is.
“Of course not. I’m not some god or something. But that’s alright.” He tilts his head back to look at Mydei upside down, his eyes half lidded and dark. “I’ve got you to take care of me.”
Mydei looks away, feeling himself blush furiously.
He digs in with his thumbs between Phainon’s shoulder blades in retaliation and Phainon groans. “Ow!”
“Hmph.” Mydei smirks, but he’s alert, prepared to have his wrist grabbed or for Phainon to jump up and try to corner him.
Only for the other to surprise him again when he laughs quietly. “Was that your revenge?”
“…Yes.”
Mydei should stop. He’d only intended to startle Phainon. But his hands keep moving of their own accord as he stares at Phainon’s face, whose eyes flutter shut and lips part in soft sighs and grunts at Mydei’s ministrations.
After another minute or so, Mydei stops before it gets too weird. “There. Done.”
Phainon catches Mydei by the wrist as he walks past him.
When he turns around, he’s greeted by a cheeky smile.
“Let me walk you home?”
Mydei huffs. “I’m not some girl you’re dating.”
”I know that; it would be hard to mistake you for a girl.”
He picks up his own bag and follows Mydei out of the classroom.
He keeps by his side even after they exit the gates.
“You better live this way or I’m going to report you for being a stalker.”
“Who would believe you?”
Mydei exhales harshly. “We’re not even friends.”
“But we could be.”
“No.”
“Aww! But you were so kind to my poor, stiff neck just now.”
“It was an eyesore to look at your posture,” mumbles Mydei and Phainon grins, stepping closer.
“Seriously though, thank you. It was nice of you.”
Mydei feels his face heat up again at Phainon’s low tone and turns his head the other way.
“Stop being sincere. It’s weird.”
“Why? You want me to be mean to you again?”
Mydei makes the mistake of looking back up and Phainon is hovering right next to his face, the extra inch of height he has on him noticeable this close. “I can do that.”
“Haikas, d-don’t get so close,” he sputters.
Phainon just tilts his head. Mydei hopes he walks into a pole. “What was that word? Hi-kas? I’ve heard you say it once or twice before but I don’t know what it means.”
“Nothing for you to bother with,” says Mydei, already tiring of Phainon’s chatter. It was - well, it wasn’t exactly unpleasant yet, but he didn’t know when it would take a turn.
“Oh, come on.” The pest bumps into him, jostling him and Mydei grunts, biting back a threat to break his arm again.
“Don’t you have literally anything else to do,” he grumbles instead, focusing on keeping his eyes on the road before them.
“Hmm, nothing that I feel like doing more than this,” says Phainon, his tone infuriatingly light and airy.
They continue walking a little longer, Mydei speeding up his strides so that he doesn't have to listen to Phainon's nonsense for too long. It's annoying that Phainon's legs are long enough to keep up with him.
That is until he abruptly stops, making Mydei glance back.
“This is my house!”
Mydei eyes the home with feigned disinterest. “And you’re telling me this..why?”
“Won’t you come in?”
Mydei doesn’t know why he’s here.
It’s kind of like he let morbid curiosity get the best of him, like those characters in horror movies that follow spooky sounds straight to the ghost.
Now that he thinks about it, Phainon was just as creepy and off-putting as any featured evil in those movies.
“Were you waiting long?”
Mydei nearly jumps a foot in the air.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that,” he snaps, glaring at Phainon who only smiles happily at him.
A warm hand presses against Mydei’s lower back, the heat seeping through his shirt.
“Come on. I’ll show you my room.”
They climb the stairs in silence. Mydei’s head turns to look at the few pictures hung up on the wall on the side of the staircase; family pictures of what he assumes are Phainon’s parents, most of them with him in it as a small child, gap-toothed and bright-eyed with a big smile. Not that different from the face he put on in front of other people, honestly.
The door of the bedroom at the end of the small landing closes behind them and all traces of innocence hanging in the air disappear as Phainon’s hand wraps around the back of Mydei’s neck.
“What are you-“ Mydei breaks his grip and spins around, but it seemed that was what Phainon was expecting.
Mydei’s eyes widen in shock when something soft and wet brushes against his lips, and he stumbles back, landing right on the foot of the bed.
“You-!”
Phainon has already climbed onto the bed too, his arms and legs caging Mydei in.
His expression is eerily serene as he hooks a long finger into the loose knot of Mydei’s tie, slowly pulling it undone.
Mydei’s breath stutters. “Phainon-“
“Shh. You’ve been studying so hard, Mydeimos.” Bright blue eyes peer up at him from under thick white lashes. “And being so nice and sweet to me. Let me help relieve some of that stress, like you did for me.”
Mydei doesn’t know what to say to stop him before lips seal over his own.
Phainon is a good kisser, he thinks numbly as he is pushed back down to lie on his back, Phainon’s knee sliding between his legs.
Mydei makes a small sound at that and Phainon laughs breathily into his mouth.
“Ngh-!”
Hands creep under the hem of his untucked shirt and Mydei squirms, panting into Phainon’s mouth.
“Don’t-ah-“
Those hands ruck up his shirt as they slide upwards, cupping his pecs and then squeezing. Mydei’s head falls back and a moan escapes him.
And then reality washes over him like ice when he feels one hand leave his chest and grab at the zipper of his pants.
He bites Phainon’s lip, hard, and shoves him off with all his strength.
Phainon lands flat on the carpeted floor with a loud thud and Mydei springs to his feet to loom over him, murderous.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
Phainon stares up at him for a second with those impossibly big blue eyes of his - with his hair spread out around his head like a messy halo, someone may think him almost angelic. But then his face contorts into a wild grin and he licks his bleeding lip and Mydei, shocked, lowers his eyes from that expression only to see a very obvious tent in his pants and 'angelic' is the furthest thing from what he could describe Phainon as now.
“That was hot,” says Phainon, propping himself up on one elbow and looking up at Mydei like he wants to eat him up. “Are you going to punch me? I won’t tell anyone if you do.”
Mydei feels unease churn in his gut. “What-what is wrong with you?”
Phainon’s grin turns into a more sedate, pretty smile, the one he uses to fool everyone with.
“With me? Nothing! It’s not that weird to find it attractive, is it?”
He sits up as Mydei backs off, moving towards the door.
“Where are you going? Don’t leave yet.”
“I didn’t come here for this.”
Phainon almost seems frantic as Mydei backs away, putting his hand on the doorknob. “We can just hang out if you didn’t like it.”
“No.”
“But-“
“Shut up. Just…shut up.”
Mydei doesn’t spend a second longer looking at what expression Phainon might be wearing, wrenching the door open and damn near jumping halfway down the staircase and to the front door.
“Mydei-“
The front door slams shut behind him.
...........
Break the next day finds Mydei slumped over at his seat, cheek pressed to the warm wood of his desk.
He’d barely been able to sleep the last night.
Of course he hadn’t been able to - however briefly it had been, he’d made out with Phainon.
Yeah, he hadn’t expected it and he had stopped it but-
Everytime he thought about it as he lay there in bed, the feelings he had felt were far from disgust.
“Hey, sleepyhead.”
Speak of the devil.
“Go away,” mumbles Mydei, grunting in annoyance when Phainon does the opposite and shoves his stupid butt right onto Mydei’s desk, perched on it like he belonged there.
“Don’t be like that. We still have four lessons to cover. Don’t want you flunking out of school now, do we?”
Mydei squints his eyes open only to glare at whichever part of Phainon was in his field of vision, which happened to be his thighs.
…which looked very comfortable to lay his head on and nap.
Mydei is going insane.
“Helloooo, anyone home? Is your skull going to echo if I knock on it?”
Mydei grabs Phainon’s wrist before he can do just that, squeezing it harshly in warning and raising his head to glare.
Phainon just smirks at him. “Got you to look.”
His lip is still swollen and cut where Mydei had bit it.
Why does he feel these things for the most infuriating person he has ever met?
...........
“Hey, did you see the head boy walking back home with that delinquent-looking guy? Are they seriously friends?”
“No way! He’s just trying to be nice. That guy doesn’t even have a single friend in school.”
“Well, he is a transfer student from Kremnos after all…”
“Heh. You think a guy like that would have friends either way? I know a few people from Kremnos and even they aren’t as weirdly intense as he is. He looks like he’d kill you if you look at him too long.”
“Yeah, like what’s with all those tattoos?? And he’s still just in school…”
“Man, I hope the class prez knows what he’s getting into….”
“Why is he even wasting his time on someone like him?”
“I heard his mother is dead and his father is off his rocker, no wonder he turned out like that-“
Mydei slams his fist into the wall, and a scared silence descends on the hallway.
“If anyone has a problem with me, you can say it to my face.” He turns around to look at the gossiping students, his expression impassive. “Don’t worry, I won’t get violent like some of you think I might.”
No one speaks.
“Well? Nothing to say now? No questions about my home life? You can ask me directly if you want to know about my parents.”
His eyes drag over the mix of sullen, frightened and embarrassed faces and then to-
Mydei inhales sharply when he finds bright blue eyes staring at him from the end of the hall.
No. He didn’t want him to see him like this. Upset.
Mydei turns on his heel and storms away.
The bathroom is flooded for some damn reason when Mydei reaches it, familiar footsteps hot on his heels.
He ignores the water on the tiles, making a beeline for one of the stalls and throwing it shut behind him.
Only for the stall door to not close but instead burst back open, forcing Mydei to step back even as a looming figure blocks the exit completely.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
“Go out with me.”
“…What?”
“Are you deaf?” Mydei bristles and swings a fist, too upset to think of any later consequences. But Phainon is prepared, catching his fist in his and pinning it against the wall of the stall.
“Quit messing with me, you asshole. I’m really not in the mood for it.”
“I’m serious, Mydeimos. Go out with me.”
Stunned silence fills the air for several seconds before Mydei snarls, embarrassment and white hot anger filling him.
“Really? Then get on your knees and beg for it.”
Phainon stares at him coldly, pale brows arching up and behind his messy bangs but Mydei does not budge. He doesn’t care if he sounds ridiculous, he barely knows what he’s doing, operating purely on emotions and some twisted instinct.
“…Beg for it?” echoes Phainon finally, his voice quiet and dangerous.
Mydei almost thinks he’s going to slam him back into the wall, but then-
“Alright.”
Water sloshes around them as Phainon bends his legs; one knee planting on the sopping floor, and then the other.
He kneels before Mydei, silvery white head bowed before he looks up, eyes piercing and intense.
“I like you, Mydei. Please go out with me.”
Mydei raises his foot and presses the top of his sneaker between Phainon’s thighs.
The other gasps softly - blue eyes widening and pale cheeks turning a bright pink, as pink as his lips that are still swollen from Mydei’s bite.
Is Mydei sick for finding it attractive?
“Again.”
Those eyes spark with something - excitement, defiance, want - maybe Mydei is imagining it, maybe he’s not. A bob of his throat, straining against that black choker he often wore.
“I really like you. Please got out with me.”
He should refuse. Phainon is strange and obsessive, keeps trying to prove he’s better than Mydei even while trying to bring him to the same depths of cruelty and perverseness as him.
He stares into blue eyes that are somehow cold but burning hot at the same time.
He’s not going to refuse.
“Fine.”
Phainon doesn’t smile. He surges up like a snake uncoiling and rising from the grass, fluid and deadly as he reaches to cup Mydei’s cheek and connects their lips in a firm, near bruising clash.
He doesn’t know how many seconds or minutes it’s been till they part, both their lips wet. Phainon’s eyes are dark, and he swipes his thumb over Mydei’s mouth.
“You’re mine now. I can tell them that, right? Those vermin that keep talking about you.”
“…Yeah.”
A hand on Mydei’s bicep, almost painfully tight in its grip. “Good. Maybe then it’ll finally get through their thick skulls what their class president really cares about. If not, I can always cut their tongues out.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Phainon grins, back to his bright, sunny disposition while taking Mydei’s hand and lacing their fingers together, starting to pull him back out of the washroom. “So….date after school tomorrow? We can go to the fair.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. Hey. Phainon??”