Li-oxess Viper

Despite your desperate efforts to reject his help, Kalim is determined to get you to confess to Jamil. At least you distracted him enough so that you didn’t have to confess on the spot. However, he’s quite intent on planning your “perfect” confession To Jamil…which has led you to countless practice confessions with Kalim the following week. 

Things were going scarily well, and you’re now just working up the courage to actually say the words to Jamil. With Kalim, however, some things can never go too right without any consequences…

You currently sit in Kalim’s dorm room across from the boy, reciting your confession to him. It’s about noon, and the both of you haven't had lunch. Oh dear…

Gingerly holding a tray of snacks for you and holding Kalim’s lunch in the other, Jamil makes his way up to the dorm rooms to feed you two. What he doesn’t expect is the hushed tones he hears from you and Kalim behind the door, and his heart twinges with a little fit of jealousy–not that he’d admit it to himself.

But what really takes hold of his heart is when he can make out your next words, “I’ve loved you for a long time. Please accept my feelings!” Startled, he almost drops the treats from his hands. 

All this time, you assumed that you were far from Jamil’s league. Though he may seem annoyed, he always takes you through problems you can’t get into your head, no matter how many times it may take. Even if he doesn’t want to stand out, you feel your heart flutter watching him in his games when he’s in the zone. You’ve always kept your feelings to yourself, and you made an effort to never show it. You’d wanted nothing more than to be able to call yourself his, and him yours. 

What you didn’t know was that Jamil had that same longing for you, if not stronger. 

But now it’s all ruined. (Or so he thinks).

Because of course you’d pick Kalim over him. It’s been that way since he was a child–it was quite literally in his blood to put his desires below an Asim. 

And so he blankly knocks on the door, and walks in like nothing happened. Despite how Scarabia’s dorm is usually hot and humid, the room’s atmosphere drops to subzero. 

Even Kalim understands the grave situation, and attempts to gracefully amend it. 

Clawing at Jamil’s pants, he shrieks, “JAMIL! WAIT!! DON’T LEAVE!!! THE PREFECT HAS SOMETHING TO SAY TO Y–”

Despite his gallant efforts, the vice-housewarden simply places down the tray he brought in, peels Kalim off his person, and politely nods to the wide-eyed you before leaving the room. 

How were you going to get over this?

Over the next few days, your attempts at reconciling with Jamil are cute at most. Or rather…you aren’t given the chance to do so in the first place. 

Before class starts, Jamil intentionally enters at the last minute so that he can get the seat farthest away from you. 

Rushing over to the classroom, you promptly set aside your bag to the seat next to you to save it for Jamil. After a few minutes, a string of students come along and take their seats as well–Jamil usually included. But for some reason, he enters unusually late, taking the seat closest to the door despite you waving in his direction. He definitely saw you, by the way. Ace even made fun of you for being ignored, making a few students snicker at the situation. 

When by some miracle that the both of you are paired up for alchemy class, he perfectly takes control of the vibe and conversation so that the two of you strictly converse about the lesson at hand. 

“Jamil, I–”

“Prefect, please continue stirring the pot, we can’t mess up the potion when we’re almost done.”

“Okay, okay. Can I just talk to you about last ti–”

“You can talk to me later, we have to get this potion to Crewel.” 

Later never came, because the minute you finished your work, Jamil blasted off the classroom claiming he needed to tend to Kalim’s lunch (which is a complete lie, of course, because he always prepares it the night before. In the past, he’d make one for you too.)

But you guessed you wouldn't be getting his cooking this time–even eating with Kalim during lunch doesn’t work. He perfectly times his meals so that when you approach the two of them at their table, he’s just about finished eating (can he sense you coming their way or something?!)

Despite your efforts to get closer to Jamil, it only feels like he’s getting farther and farther away from you. Is this his way of letting you down? You suppose it’d be easier for him to straight up ignore the fact that you were practicing your confession to him as a way to quietly reject your feelings…

But that doesn’t feel right either, because you were 99.67% sure that he liked you back. For starters, he’d bring you home cooked lunch every week, walk you back to your dorm, help you study for tests even when it cost him his rare downtime…he even gave you his jersey to wear to his games! You were literally just waiting for a confession at this point! 

Feeling responsible for making you and Jamil grow apart, Kalim resorted to plotting with Grim to get the both of you to talk…

“Hey, Henchman, Ace told me to meet you at the lockers after practice, he said he had something to give to ya.” 

“Ooh Jamil!! Can you teach me basketball? I’ll meet you at the court later, see ya!” 

With a sigh, the both of you head over to the court…Jamil visibly freezing when he sees you. Before he could turn away, you quickly grip his wrist. 

“Prefect, let go.” He tried to wiggle his hand away from your grasp, but he doesn’t have the heart to fully shake it off. 

“Jamil, please, I’ve been trying to talk to you all week! Meeting you here may have been a coincidence, but I think it’s time I finally clear things up…”

“What is there to clear up? This is hardly appropriate, considering how you’re together with Kalim now. Let go of my hand.” Jamil’s icy tone is betrayed by the look of hurt he’s wearing on his face. On the other hand, a hundred question marks are flying around your head. Since when were you dating Kalim??

“What?? What are you on about?” You let go of his hand, but step forward to face him clearly and place them on his shoulders. Consequently, he searches your eyes for any hint of trickery—he knows what he heard the other day, after all. 

Then, you both speak at the same time: 

“Jamil, I like you!!” Scratch that, I love you!

“Prefect, please stay away from me.” For Kalim’s and my family’s sake.

… 

A silence envelops the two of you, processing one another’s words. Slowly, Jamil takes your arms into his and leans his head against your shoulder. His grip on you is heavy, but it doesn’t hurt—it just tells you how much he’s been holding back the past week. 

“Are you sure?” Facing you, he mutters, “Tell me I heard that right.” 

“It’s kind of embarrassing…but Kalim was helping me prepare my confession for you,” you gently held the sleeve of his uniform, avoiding his gaze, “I was really hurt when you avoided me the whole week, I thought you were silently letting me down…” 

Internally, Jamil gave himself a slap to the face. He prided himself on being able to easily read into people’s thoughts and actions, but it seems he turns blindsided when it comes to the girl he loves…

“I can’t believe I almost lost you to a stupid misunderstanding…” he takes your hand in his and lets out a shaky breath, “I’m sorry, Prefect.” 

“That’s right. You didn’t even let me use the confession speech I spent weeks practicing for!” 

Chuckling, he lets out a relieved sigh now that you’re able to joke with him, “Well, you can say it now if you'd like.”

“Hey, you’re just putting me on the spot. Maybe tomorrow…” 

“Hm? So you can practice it with Kalim first?” 

You shoot a look at his smug expression, and instead pull him into a big hug in response, “For the record, I’m still the one who confessed first. Are you planning on leaving me hanging?” 

“Hmph. Fair enough,” he reaches out to cup your face, intense eyes meeting yours, “I like you too, Prefect.” 

Extra: 

Too in love and focused on each other, you and Jamil fail to notice the small crowd that formed outside the court doors. 

“TAKE THAT KALIM!! I TOLD YA THE PREFECT WOULD CONFESS FIRST. PAY UP.”