The squishy, ambrosial mixture of baked delights, garnished with only the supplest of jellies, left pleasant scintillas on your cluster of bulbous taste buds. The rolled jelly was nevertheless balmy despite being cooled, retaining enough heat for the dessert's pleasuring tang. It was nothing short of a masterpiece, perfectly embraced by the heavens.

It was certainly better than the repulsive mixture of ketchup, mustard, and spicy mayonnaise.

As you were indolently settled on the mangy wooden chair towards the back of the classroom, you considered the agreeable notion of drifting off within rising muses as the sedate lunch hour lingered.

Chowing down on cake, undisturbed by noisy distractions. Accompanied by the presence of Sumire, who sat in front with her own half of the delicacy. You'd offered to take less, as it was mainly her expertise that fabricated the final product, but she humbly declined with her remarkably subtle, yet motherly smile.

Tuning into your own thoughts and needs rather than those surrounding in the enclosed vicinity, while focusing on no more than the plate, fork, and food on the desk. It was a quintessential activity of eating: bite, chew, swallow, repeat. An infinite loop of robotic movements, all to admire the divine flavor.

How nice would it have been to spend your time in serene relaxation for just a handful of minutes? It wasn't sinful to loosen up before the next class swept the floor, nor was it greedy to ask for.

The idea sounded sublime at the time-- devilishly so.

In reality, acquiring a sense of tranquility inside the bounds of a realm dedicated to assassination was only an ecstatic reverie. If it wasn't the abnormally, but arguably altruistic Koro-sensei scampering about, then it was the students who were bubbly and energetic all around. In short, there was always some sort of inciting ruckus. With a 'fun', but remedial learning environment like 3-E, it was both good and bad.

The creaking blares of a chair propelling forward resounded in the air, harsh and grating to your tender ears as you flinched. Promptly, a malevolent leer found itself dawdling within your field of vision, one that you should have been accustomed to after detecting it a number of times. "Hey, [Name]-san~"

As such, your daily dose of hue and cry came from none other than the redhead. Of course, it had to be Karma Akabane. Needless to say, he happened to stumble upon the list of people you weren't too pleased with, earning his spot fair and square from a simple, but stupid prank.

Although he probably hadn't meant for much harm with his concept of poking fun, it was still uncomfortable to play the role of a victim. Perhaps it was just hypersensitivity, or maybe it was just him.

Karma had taken a seat ninety degrees away, situated at one of the sides of your mediocre workstation. Lethargic from his presence alone, you softly breathed out. "Karma-kun, I'm not handing over the Jelly Roll Sumire-chan and I worked so hard on."

You vigilantly eyed the plate, before glancing back at the troublemaker. The relatively stupendous slice sported distinct traces of nibbles here and there, making the assumption that he didn't want bitten food.

"Hm? Ahaha... Quick to jump to conclusions now, are you? Your defiance is flattering, [Name]-san." He beamed, much like a Cheshire cat."Don't worry, that's not why I'm here."

You hummed, raising an eyebrow in response. Reluctantly lending an ear, you mused the other possibilities why he'd wanted anything to do with you, however, nothing plausible surfaced. You returned to your saccharine treat, patiently anticipating his elucidation.

He immediately proceeded with his intent, his tone exhibiting an almost playful slant as he scrutinized your supposed meal. "So, is that all you have for lunch? You're bound to face malnutrition at this rate."

A clang chimed in the inhabited space, but in that single, evanescent moment, the stimuli were hushed, and everything appeared oddly quiet. No, everybody else was chit-chattering and minding their own business-- it was just you.

You'd dropped your fork, with the metal crashing against the porcelain of your plate to spawn a jarring ring. Was he showing solicitude? The previous confrontation with surmised consideration hadn't ended well.

"Ah..? No, there's more in my bag, thank you very much. Wait."

Food insecurity was prominently on the rise within society in the current era, indirectly spurred by the scheme of materialism. Regardless, you did have a proper collation tucked safely in your schoolbag-- or so you thought. Instead, the void of your backpack was filled with the general necessities of learning, which consisted of mostly textbooks and writing implements. You could have sworn shoving in at least a bento box or sandwich of some sort, practically anything that was kosher nutriment.

You wanted to prove him wrong, but the evidence was nowhere to be found. At a temporary loss for words, you gently stammered, materializing yet another suspicion that something was up. "I-I could've sworn that I had an authentic lunch! Um, Karma-kun? If you don't mind my asking, you wouldn't happen to have seen it, would you?"

Though it wasn't in your best interests to point fingers, chances were that the redhead was involved, one way or another. By paying you a visit rather than Nagisa, who was preoccupied by Kaede, it hadn't seemed all that ordinary of an occurrence.

In return, light peals of laughter filled the air among other background noises, much to your expectation. His gales were those of mirth, eyes cast downward to analyze your figure. The response that followed, however, was short and succinct. "Oh? I might have~"

"Give it back!" You impulsively blurted, but briskly remembered to display the decency of adding appropriate decorum. "P-Please, Karma-kun. Weren't you the one concerned about my eating habits? That's why you're here... right?"

Karma paused for a split second, simply taking a moment to chuckle some more. "Sure, if you say so, [Name]-san. What's the rush? We still have plenty of time, so I figured we'd play a mini-game, first."

Unfortunately, the thief had supposedly borrowed your lunch without permission. You weren't entirely sure how he had done it, nor were you sure about whether he was actually safeguarding it in his possession, either.

Your ample lips arched into a quivering moue, frowning and dissatisfied. "How do I know you really do have it? Where's the proof that you're not pulling my leg?"

"My hands are nowhere near your legs now, are they?" He joked with the idiom, shaking his head. A pair of sharp, pale eyes flecked with tints of gold and mercury averted your way. "Relax, you can trust me. I'm not a liar, unlike a certain Tsuchiya-san~"

There were many things wrong with the very string of words he'd uttered, especially his self-proclaimed sense of honesty. Still, the mention of Kaho elicited you first, your fuse running short with dilated eyes from the intolerable name.

"H-How do you know about Kaho-chan...?"

Your stutter was trailed after by a wave of thought, an essence that seemed to transpire and pop up more frequently nowadays. It made sense that anybody and everybody knew about Karma, with his fearful reputation, though you hadn't ever recalled Kaho becoming a major superstar around Kunugigaoka.

Or was it merely the fact that you truly didn't know her, at all?

"A little birdie told me. With how often you fret over things, I'm no longer surprised by the quantity of gray hairs you have." Karma teased with his signature laugh and simper, his hues of golden mercury diverting to your [color] tresses of hair.

You exhaled in slight irk, childishly retorting with a simple remark of pure denial. "I don't have gray hairs--!"

If he wasn't part of the solution, then he was definitely part of the problem.

Nonetheless, he hadn't stooped low enough to join Kaho Tsuchiya. At this point, you were almost entirely certain that nothing could one-up her atrocious disposition. Although you hadn't encountered her since the brief incident on the main campus, you hoped matters would stay that way. You were scared of her, and crossing paths would have been dreadfully painful, despite the pitiful relation of former friendship.

It was still laughable that there was once a time when she presumably cared enough to tittle-tattle and apprise you about the dangers of associating yourself with Karma Akabane. Maybe she wasn't entirely wrong, or maybe your sense of judgement and intuition was impaired by your somewhat black mood for the day.

"Right, I'd double check that if I were you, [Name]-san~ Back to my point, though," he adjourned, the same smile creeping up on his features as his lips tugged upwards.

It was a genuine wonder why you remained loitering around the notorious boy who presented you with tension from time to time.

"Have you heard of the game called red hands?"