The Academy's Terminally Ill Side Character Chapter 99: Last Two Days [1]

The last day was exhausting.

I still don’t know how I ended up smack in the middle of whatever drama Leo, Violet, Ryen, and Nora were dealing with—but sohow, I did.

It was chaos. Loud, ssy, and incredibly not my problem.

But for so reason, I beca the unwilling center of it all.

Hours. It felt like hours of navigating their tangled emotions, their weird love-square, their passive-aggressive snipes disguised as concern.

And when I finally thought I could breathe...

Boom.

News ca flying in—Nora and Violet were at it again.

Naturally, the universe didn’t stop there. Leo and Ryen decided to jump back into the ring too. Because why not?

Just perfect.

Anyway, I didn’t bother stepping in that ti.

I just ignored them.

Let them fight. Let them tear each other apart. I had already wasted enough energy pretending to care.

That was yesterday.

And yesterday, absolutely nothing good happened to .

But today—today was different.

Not great. Not amazing.

But... sothing good did happen.

Not directly to , sure, but the outco? It’d definitely help .

When I got to school Tuesday morning, Ryen was talking to the Buttcheeks.

No—actually, since she wasn’t sitting on my desk anymore, I should probably call her by na.

Kiera.

From what I could see, Ryen was saying sothing serious.

It looked like he was asking a question, and when he paused, she nodded with a little smile.

I had no clue what they were talking about—but judging by how bright they both looked, it must’ve been sothing good.

That was fine by .

If they were getting along now, maybe it ant fewer explosions around .

Less drama. Less noise.

I was honestly happy for them.

As their conversation ended, I figured Kiera would go back to her class.

But instead, she turned around and walked straight to my desk.

And sat down.

Again.

So, yeah. Miss Buttcheeks made a return.

She looked at with that familiar smug little smirk.

"Loser," she said, almost like a greeting.

"...Yeah," I replied.

What else could I say?

She didn’t say anything after that. Just sat there, swinging her legs slightly as if it was the most natural thing in the world to claim soone else’s desk like it was hers.

I stared at her.

She stared back.

It was quiet for a second.

Then she frowned. "What? Got a problem?"

"Yeah," I said flatly. "You’re sitting on my desk."

Kiera blinked. Then looked down.

"Oh."

She didn’t move.

"...Well it’s not like it’s anything new, right?"

I frowend at her at that.

What she said was true but that doesn’t an that I approved her doing this.

Sure! Here’s a more natural and human-like version of the Chapter, keeping the tone and intent while improving the flow, dialogue, and emotional clarity:

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It seed like today wasn’t going to be great after all.

There was an awkward silence for a mont, broken only when she decided to speak again.

"I didn’t know you were thinking about all this ti," Buttcheeks said, her tone oddly soft.

Bullshit. That’s what that was. Straight-up nonsense.

"I felt really bad when you refused to give your number yesterday," she added, "but I forgive you now—knowing you had on your mind."

I grimaced.

Forgive ?

Seriously?

"And I just heard from Ryen that you’ve forgiven ," she went on, smiling like this was all so heartwarming reunion. "I was hoping to hear it directly from you, but... I guess I shouldn’t be too greedy."

Of course. Of course this had sothing to do with that idiot protagonist. Thanks to him, things were getting ssy again.

Then she dropped the kicker:

"But you know you can’t like , right, loser? I like Leo Taylor, after all."

"Fuck you."

The words slipped out before I could stop them. Pure reflex. Her tone, her expression, the way she said it so casually—it rubbed the wrong way in all the wrong places.

But she didn’t react with offense. She just smiled, almost bashfully.

"If we’d started off better... maybe we could’ve been friends," she said. "My bad."

"...’Might have been friends,’ huh."

So we weren’t friends now.

Not really.

She wanted to be. That much was obvious. But she also knew she wasn’t in any position to ask for it outright.

And the worst part?

I wasn’t even sure how I felt about that.

I wasn’t even sure how I felt about that.

A part of wanted to scoff, to tell her to shove her half-hearted apology and walk away.

But another part—stubborn and stupid—lingered.

Maybe it was because I wasn’t used to being the center of soone’s attention, even if it was for the wrong reasons. Maybe it was because her words, as ridiculous as they were, still hit sothing I’d buried a long ti ago.

Regret?

Curiosity?

I don’t know.

I didn’t want to know.

"Why are you even saying all this?" I asked, finally. My voice ca out flatter than I ant it to.

Buttcheeks shrugged, as if the weight of this entire conversation was nothing more than a passing breeze.

"Because I ant it," she said. "I ssed up. I thought you were just another weirdo. But you’re... well, you’re still a weirdo—but not the kind I expected."

Wow. Heartfelt.

"And maybe I was curious," she added, glancing away like she wasn’t quite ready to et my eyes. "You weren’t afraid to call out. Most people don’t do that. They just smile and nod and act fake."

I didn’t answer. What was I supposed to say to that?

So she kept going.

"I’m not asking you to forgive . I just... I thought you should know."

She stood there for a second longer, looking at like she was waiting for sothing.

Maybe a reply.

Maybe a punchline.

But I had nothing to give.

So all I could do was avoid this half ass conversation.

"The bell’s about to ring. Aren’t you going back to your class?"

"...I’m going."

But that didn’t an I was going to suggest that we beca friends.

Kiera didn’t say anything else.

She gave a small nod—almost like a peace treaty—then slid off my desk and turned around.

I didn’t watch her walk away.

Instead, I stared at my half-closed notebook, pretending I had sothing important to think about.

Pretending I wasn’t sitting in the middle of a slow, awkward ss I never asked to be part of.

The bell rang a few seconds later, loud and sharp, and just like that, the mont was over.

Students poured into the classroom. The usual noise and shuffling drowned out any trace of whatever that was between us.

But for so reason, her words kept echoing in my head.

"If we’d started off better... maybe we could’ve been friends."

Maybe.

But she was Kiera.

Popular. Loud. Impossible.

And I was... .

Whatever this was—whatever weird halfway-understanding we just fumbled through—I wasn’t going to read into it.

I didn’t need more confusion in my life.

I could overlook the minor bullying, but considering the future developnts and Ryen’s personality, I couldn’t have a close relationship with her until I fixed her problematic behavior.

Still, sothing about the way she walked off stuck with .

It wasn’t dramatic. No sighs, no hair flips, no parting insults.

Just a quiet nod and gone.

And for so dumb reason, it made the classroom feel a little heavier than usual.

I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling.

What was I even doing?

Kiera was... a problem. Not in the throw-desks kind of way—but in the slow-burn, gets-under-your-skin-until-you-question-everything kind of way.

One mont she’s calling a loser, the next she’s talking about forgiveness and maybe-friendship like we were so sitcom duo.

And the worst part?

I almost bought it.

Almost.

But no. I couldn’t afford that.

Not with her.

Not with Ryen around.

Ryen—Mr. Good-Guy Protagonist with a savior complex and a habit of jumping into other people’s sses like it was his birthright—had already stirred up enough chaos.

Now he was getting close to Kiera?

It was just like in the plot.

Fine. Let him deal with her.

He had the patience. The optimism. The main character glow.

He could ta her reckless pride and twisted logic.

I couldn’t—and I wouldn’t even try.

If I got close to her now, I’d just end up pulled into more nonsense. Emotional whirlpools. Misunderstandings. Love triangles with Leo, or squares, or whatever shape their chaos was today.

I wasn’t built for that.

What I was built for... was observing.

Staying a few steps back.

Letting others crash and burn while I quietly swept up the benefits.

So no—I wasn’t going to "beco friends" with Kiera. Not until she fixed her attitude.

Not until she stopped treating like a side quest in whatever drama-filled RPG she was playing.

Not until I knew what she really wanted.

Because I could overlook the teasing.

I could overlook the dumb nicknas and mild psychological warfare.

But I couldn’t overlook soone her attitude toward — when she spreads those rumours about and had her followers to bully .

I know, I already knew that she had learnt her lesson.

But she needs more.

....And she will get soon.

[Main Quest Will began in 2 days.]

I looked at the blue notification in front of and couldn’t help but smrik.

Everything was in the place, and now all I have to wait till the main quest starts.

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Thanks for the reading a Chapter.