‘That’ Side Character Chapter 21: Validated

The rest of the students were a little bewildered by this sudden drama but among the confused looks some of the girls were a little loved up at having seen Kenma’s protective side, and one classmate, in particular, sat back in her chair and eyed his side profile while she bit into her bottom lip and smirked a little.

“You know what? That Kenma guy is kinda cute,” she thought, lidding her eyes at him. 

The teacher went back to her desk, and Kenma went to his seat, and you just turned slowly in your chair to sit straight and stare down at the desk in front of you.

“Wait? So Kenma is getting in trouble for knocking the back fence over? But… did he knock it over?” You cast your mind back to the last time you had used the back fence and clearly remembered it falling over, because you remembered seeing it land on a dandelion and it sending a plume of feathered seeds into the air.

Your head shot up and you swiveled it back to look at Kenma who was giving you a slightly saddened look.

“He didn’t knock the fence over,” you thought as you had an internal conversation with him, “Kenma, you didn’t do it, did you? I did it. I was the one who knocked it over. By why? Why did you take the blame for me?” Your eyes welled with tears and you shook your head sadly at him, “I don’t want you to get into trouble because of my sake,” you thought. 

He shook his head back at you, almost telling you not to take the blame as you would surely be suspended.

That class went by really slowly and you don’t remember a lot of it, but finally the bell rang to conclude the lesson and you stood up to leave, but the sharp look from the teacher made you sit back down quickly.

Kenma refused to leave the classroom as well, even though the teacher hadn’t given him any indication to stay, and he walked up beside your desk and stood there.

You looked up at him.

“Go, Kenma,” you whispered.

He shook his head stubbornly.

“No. I need to take the blame,” you replied to his shaking head.

“No. I’ll take it, because I did it,” he said to you.

“No, you didn’t, I did. I remember kno—,”

“Y/N, come here,” the teacher demanded.

Your form prickled at her sharp tone and you got up, ready to make the walk to her desk on your own but Kenma was right there beside you.

“Kenma, you are not needed, please leave,” the teacher said to him.

“School policy say that you need two fighters to a boss fight,” Kenma replied her softly.

“Speak up, please,” the teacher said impatiently.

“We have a right to have two students present,” he said a little louder, keeping his head down.

She pursed her lips, knowing he was correct, and so thus did not pushing the issue.

“Y/N,” she addressed you and you quickly looked down, “I will ask you straight. Did you knock over the fence at the back of the school?”

You refused to make eye contact.

“You must answer me,” she demanded sharply.

“I already told you,” Kenma cut in, “I knocked down the fence.”

“I am not talking to you, Kenma,” the teacher snapped.

“I am taking Y/N to the principal,” Kenma said, taking your hand and gently pulling you with him to the door of the classroom, “your treatment of her is unfair and I am a witness,” he added softly as he left with you.

“Why, Kenma?” you whispered through your stress seized voice box as you hobbled beside him.

“Because they are out to get you for no reason,” he replied, “I don’t know why… but I can feel it.”

You felt so validated. You had felt this for a very long time and had voiced it a few times to various people but everyone had just said that you were paranoid and stupid.

Tears suddenly cascaded down your cheeks as you looked down at your hand in his while he walked you down to the office.

“Kenma really is nice,” you thought, reaching your other hand out and grabbing the back of his shirt then taking a larger step forward and pull your hand from his so you could hug him from around the back, burying your tears stained face into the back of his shirt.

He was surprised to find your arms around him and stopped, but then gently patted your hand as you gripped him around the middle.

“Thank you,” you suddenly wailed, “everyone say I’m weird and crazy and I’m making it up but you believe me and you’re trying to help me and I reeewee thisnkaahhsdj—.” The rest was an incoherent sobbing wail from you as you broke down again and continued trying to talk though your crying.

“Uh… ok?” he replied with confusion, half deadpanning as you insisted on still trying to talk to him through your crying, “come on, we’re near the end of our quest.”

He walked the rest of the way with you to the office as you clung to his back then stayed with you once inside the reception area.

Kenma did most of the talking, as you were currently out of action, and explained everything that had happened, still maintaining that he was the one who had knocked over the back fence.

Just based on how upset you were, the principal felt ashamed and promised to look into it, then dismissed you both. She suggested that you stay in the infirmary for a while until you had calmed down, so Kenma took you there and stayed with you until next class.

Once the bell rang, he left, and you snuggled down under the sheets and just hid away from the world.

“Maybe if I just stay quiet in here no one will notice and I’ll be able to stay here forever because it’s nice and quiet,” you thought as your eyes closed and you slowly drifted off to sleep, thinking about how cool it would be if you could breathe under water- something random that had just popped into your mind.

Kenma looked a little burdened as he walked slowly back to class with his hands in his pockets. 

He was worried about you.

“It’s not fair that they keep picking on Y/N. She might be annoying at times but she doesn’t deserve this,” he thought.

<<< ‘That’ Side Character Chapter 20: Off with the Fairies 

‘That’ Side Character Chapter 22: Competition? >>>