The Retired Hero is an Extra

"Are you seriously asking because you don\'t know?" He blurted out, being unable to hold his boiling frustration any longer.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Ziva responded with another question, confused at his words.

"Seriously," Jash muttered as he facepalmed himself, the exasperation of the moment catching up to him.

Despite Jash\'s rudeness and ungentlemanly tone, Ziva wasn\'t offended.

Instead, she was really interested in knowing what got him so worked up as he always preferred to not get angry.

In her eyes, Jash was the type of guy to even swallow insults if he thought getting angry over it wasn\'t worth it, and only a waste of energy.

Yet, here he was, increasingly irritated by her repetitive questions and apparent cluelessness.

"Ziva, do you not remember the mayhem our elder brothers caused whenever they met?" Jash finally asked, choosing to be straightforward with it.

"Hmm," Ziva nodded before confusion appeared on her face, "But what does that have to do with anything?"

Exasperated, Jash rolled his eyes and increased his pace, torn between two thoughts.

Sneaking a glance to get some clue, Jash wondered, \'Does she really not know, or is she doing this on purpose to tease me?\'

Yet she had already caught up to him, matching his pace easily, causing his attempt to discover her intentions to be futile.

"It has everything to do with it! Imagine them causing a mess inside the Student Council, don\'t you know what they can do?"

"I know, I know, but wasn\'t the Princess there as well? She was the President, so I am sure she took care of things."

Hearing her logical and sensible response, Jash wished he could explain how he was so sure of it.

\'She just made things far worse, or so I wish I could say,\' he thought, realizing he didn\'t have any proper plausible explanation.

"Well, given how we were called on the first day, it\'s obvious things wouldn\'t be that way, right?"

"For a second, let\'s assume what you are saying is true, but again, what does it have anything to do with us going or not?"

"Just why are you not getting the point!?" he exclaimed in a louder voice, frustrated as his eyebrows furrowed and hands clenched.

That was his last attempt to make her understand, but it seemed that it wouldn\'t change anything.

"Listen," he said, breathing deeply to calm his nerves. "You could\'ve just gone, but you followed me. Why?"

Experience tales on mvl _emp _y,r.

"Just because," Ziva replied with a shrug, not fazed by his emotional changes in the least.

However, her eyes were sparkling with a hint of curiosity at what got him worked up while her lips almost curled into a small imperceptible smile.

Unable to notice it, Jash\'s lips twitched at her answer and he just shook his head dismissively.

"Then I also don\'t want to explain further, just because," he cried out before hastening his pace once again.

Yet Ziva didn\'t follow him this time.

"Kuah-hahahaha"

The sound of her failing to stifle her laughter rang in his ear as he stiffened and turned around to find her clutching her stomach.

The corner of her eyes were moist and she seemed to be wiping a tear from laughing.

Her sharp laughter cut off all thoughts in his mind as he gazed at her absentmindedly.

\'Knew it!\' he called to himself inwardly after returning to himself from the daze.

For some reason, a smile tugged at the corner of her lips at her smile as she approached him.

Maybe he was a masoch–?

Yeah, nope. Definitely nope.

"Haha haa... at least tell me what got you so worked up," Ziva asked, controlling her laughter as she approached him.

"Haha, very funny," Jash replied, making a face at her as if the two were kids.

However, the two were in their own world, not caring about their surroundings at all, which were empty.

It made sense that the Block 1 was empty as there were no other classes except the Induction one, so the students were busy exploring the Academy.

"Well, it got you worked up, which is a rare sight, so I enjoyed it," Ziva shrugged, patting his shoulder, looking on with a straight face.

"Until later," she muttered, looking at the sky and began walking away.

"Oi, oi, where are you going?" Jash asked, pulling her back from her wrist, dumbfounded by her act.

In fact, he seriously wanted to know what was wrong with her for acting up all of a sudden.

"Don\'t pull me so suddenly, it hurts," Ziva said, making a pitiful expression, ignoring his question.

"Yeah, yeah, as if! Even if I yanked you with all my strength, it\'d be nothing but a mere muscle cramp!"

Jash truly felt wronged, but he could only roll his eyes at her act, not buying it in the slightest.

"Tsk," Ziva clicked her tongue as her act got caught, making Jash\'s lips twitch in disbelief.

\'I am just here you know?\' he wanted to say it, but kept it inside.

Not everything needed to be said, and he wanted to know what was on her mind.

"So?" he tried to insinuate a response from her, but all he got was an arrogant, "So what?"

Sighing strongly, he said, "You knew about it, so tell me why were you about to go to the President?"

"Hm? I don\'t remember saying anything like that," she replied casually, shaking off his words.

"You had already said \'Alrigh\' by the time I interrupted," Jash said through gritted teeth.

"Huh? Oh, that? I was about to say \'Alright, let\'s meet tomorrow, we have to choose our subjects today.\', but you butted in."

This time, it was Jash\'s turn to be fully surprised and he finally understood why she didn\'t seem to care when he refused to meet the President.

Thankfully, no one was around by the time Jash and Ziva exited Block 1, heading to the Ranker\'s dormitories.

Though their walk was silent as Jash was embarrassed to the point of wanting to dig a hole in the ground and bury himself.

\'Damn it! Just how did I not catch her mischief?\' he thought in apprehension, his fists randomly clenching and unclenching.

His knuckles had long turned white while his palms had turned red from his exaggerated actions.

If not for Ziva stoically walking next to him in a manner of mocking him, releasing a few chuckles and whistling, he would be fine.

It was eating away at his conscience until it didn\'t.

He took a deep breath, telling himself to calm down. \'Jash, it doesn\'t matter. Understanding girls is impossible.\'

\'Let\'s just give up and get going. That\'s the best solution, buddy,\' he told himself.

If an overly brainy fellow knew his thoughts, they would think Jash got schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder.

Maybe even bipolar disorder, but it was no big deal.

Every person had their moments, and this was Jash\'s... to be let down and dying of embarrassment.

"Okay, bye," he suddenly said, running off to the lift, entering it and immediately closing it.

He wanted to give Ziva the least amount of time to enter it, but she strolled leisurely, making no effort to catch up.

"Cute," she muttered, shaking her head with a smile as she leaned against the wall, waiting for the lift to return.