Something Smells Familiar, Probably.

I drop my bag on my office seat. My shoulder also begs for me to put them down, but I ignore them. I have a lot of work left to do, so you should work too, shoulder-san. You might think, 'But you're not needed in this school.' Well, I have news for you. I am now. Who'd keep the vampire trap if it's not me? Yeah, that's right. Me. So… yeah, I'm busy.

You  know I rather be busy than talking to myself like this: I open my laptop and click on the minesweeper.

Alyssa pushes her chair to me. "Senpai, you look like someone who made a promise and now regrets it."

How does she always do this? It felt like she was monitoring me all the time. "Well, yes. I am." I say that trying to gesture my feeling but I feel like my limp prefers to stay low.

Alyssa gets her eyes on my laptop screen. "This is the tenth time I ask you this week, but have you learned how to play minesweeper for real?"

  "No."

  "So you're just clicking things?"

  "Yeah. That's the fun of it. Try not to click the bomb by luck," I say as I point at my cursor on the small square of mystery.

  "Well, as long as getting bombed can relieve your stress."

No. Minesweeper sucks. I only play this game because: one, it's easy to close the game if Madam suddenly appears out of the blue again (she had) and two, it can distract me from worrying about more things. Had I've actually known how to play this game, it might actually be fun.

"You're okay?" That's not Alyssa.

  When I look up, there's a teacher leaning on my border. If I remember correctly, he goes by the name of Larry.

"Larry, what's up?" I think this is the first time we actually talked.

  He rolls his eyes. "Oh, this joke again? My name is Bob."

Oh, it was not a joke but anyway: for his first impression of me, I want him to think I'm a friendly and chill guy so: "I'm sorry, I guess I have ligma today," I say.

  "And… we've met before." His eyes lower now, "Three times. And three times you tried to get me with the same joke."

I shrug. "Hey, just trying to break the ice here."

"I prefer cold anyway." Bob chuckles, and I just weirded out. Does he mean he's a machoism who likes other acting cold toward him? There's a lot of guy likes that, no?

  He continue, "No need, we both have lots of things to do so spare the small talk."

  "All right."

  He clears his throat and gives me a serious look. "Have Steve… done something to you yet?"

I raise my eyebrow. "Is he trying to?"

  "Well, you know, he's furious today. Someone moved his ball last night. And he very well thinks it's you. I had a chat with him today… and he looks like he wants to…—in his words, going to Er3n Yeager the shit out of you."

Oh, wow, I certainly don't want to get Yeager'd.

Alyssa jerks for a second and gives me a frown. "Senpai?"

I turn to her. "What is it?"

"Steve has done anything to you yet?"

I shake my head, "No. I didn't see him today so far."

Alyssa sighs and nods at me. "Good. You should get even with him in the right way. If he's going to do anything dirty to you, I'm going, in his own words, to Mikasa, the shit out of him."

I sigh, to think this is all just because of one small ball. "All right, I'm going to be Armin' the shit out of this."  I don't know the full reference, but didn't the blond guy has always have a genius plan?

Bob scratches his head. "The weird thing is… he's been missing for two hours already."

Alyssa snorts, "I wouldn't worry if I were you. That guy is Steve. He just has to click respawn to, you know…"

I couldn't help but to ask this, "What if he's in hardcore mode?"

Unfortunately, Alyssa ignores my question. "Shush." Alyssa points at the door.

Steve is walking in with his head down.

"Speaking of the devil."

Bob crosses his arm as he looks at Steve and me. "So? Aren't you going to resolve things with him?"

Alyssa chimes, "You did kick his balls yesterday."

"He did?" Bob smiles wryly and mumbles, "So you're one of us too, huh?"

I think a little about what he said. Probably has to do with Steve being not really a popular guy in the office. It's hard to like someone like him. Though any of my opinion of him are just indifference.

But sitting here like this would only bring trouble later. I push myself up and nod. "All right. I'll try to make it even with him today."

"Good luck, Senpai." Alyssa pumps her fist.

With a little drag, I walk to Steve's desk. I've apologized to three person in this week. I think I'm ready for the real challenge now. Steve and I are just acquaintances, so it'd go differently, I think.

Okay,  now I'm here. How do I actually do this? "He—Hey, Steve." I call him out.

Steve is still looking at his laps.

"Steve." I continue, "I just want to say sorry if I did anything to offend you."

He's still silent.

"Like, maybe, accidentally kicked your ball yesterday." God, that sounds so wrong. I gulp, "I'm really sorry, if there's anything I can make it up for you I…"

Then something feels off.

I try to get a sight of his face, but Steve turns away.

"Are you all right, man?" I ask.

Completely ignoring me, Steve opens his laptop.

Maybe he doesn't want to talk to me right now. I didn't think he would be hurt much like this… Now I just feel bad.

I sigh, "All right, you look a little busy now. I'll just leave you be now. We'll continue this conversation later, all right?"

Something feels off. Something feels familiar. Where have I smelled this fragrance?

I return to my desk. Larry is not here now—I mean Bob, was it Larry, whatever? Alyssa stared at me with a soft, hopeful expression in her eyes.  She can do that?

She starts, "So how it goes? Did he do something?"

"That's the weird part. He didn't. Is he that mad?"

Alyssa shrugs, "As someone who's known him since elementary school, it's weird. He sometimes sulks... but not like this. He can do anything but be silent." Alyssa looks at Steve, who's staring at his laptop blankly, "What's going on with him?"

I say, "I got something not right from him… He smells very familiar… in a real bad way."

Alyssa has said nothing, and when I turn to her, she is curling her lips at me.

"Senpai… That's just gross."

"What?" Then I get the gist of what she's thinking. And I don't want to say it even if it's in my mind.

"Alyssa, no. You know I don't mean it like that."

Alyssa is pushing her legs and chair away from me. "You drop that weirdness, Senpai. You can't just sniff people freely. Unless… if it's an illness. Can you stop? Have you got an addiction to smelling? Well, if you really have to sniff on someone, just sniff me."

My eyes droop down to her body. Slim and soft. Sniffing her? I shake my head off. I'm not a dog!

"Hm?" Alyssa is in her teasing mode now, which only happens once in a month. She smirks, "Why? Isn't sniffing your best fetish?"

"Alyssa." I warn her.

She pulls herself closer to me as she whispers, "I'm offering myself to you…" She sniffs herself, "you sure you'll not regret this? Sen-Pai."

"No."

With that said, she backs to her apathetic mood. "You're no fun."

"I'm also not a pervert."

"I'm not so sure about that."

I decide to just ignore her for now.