You didn't understand why Daichi had made such a big fuss over just a measly snake bite. Yes, it was technically poisonous, but in the grand scheme of things, why did that matter? You were immune to poison, and thus you weren't affected by it. Daichi hadn't asked you to remove the snake from your pocket, and you hoped he wouldn't. Terry the Snake was pretty cute.

"Everyone knows entering the forest is dangerous," The nurse reprimanded you, "what possessed you to enter? You're lucky the wound isn't too big, or we would have had to send you to the hospital."

While the Daisei Institution had one of the finest medical facilities, with top tier equipment and professional care, you supposed a poisonous snake bite would require more than that. You wiggled your ankle, making the nurse berate you further.

"[Name]! Stop moving your leg, I'm trying to bandage it."

"My mom said airing a wound would be better," you said off-handedly, "the last time she sustained some wound to her head, she didn't do anything to it. She got blood all over the floor, but—"

"Stop—!" The nurse closed her eyes, "your family must be a peculiar bunch."

"Hm? Well, they are slightly weirder than average. I'm the only normal one in my family," you deadpanned, "I wonder how my mother's doing. She went bungee jumping, apparently."

Normal one? The nurse sweatdropped, any student who is so nonchalant about a poisonous snake bite isn't normal, he's crazy! She had seen students whining about twisted ankles, about mere scratches, but in her whole life, Sayuka had never once seen a student walk in from the forest covered in twigs and branches—accompanied by the president.

"Ah, bungee jumping," Sayuka said at last, hoping this conversation would somewhat steer to a normal one, "I went before. Quite a delightful experience. I nearly died, when I almost jumped off when the rope had yet to attach—"

Ding! Your phone buzzed. You furrowed your eyebrows as you checked it.

It was your mom. She was now in his hospital for a broken bone. Wait, correction: broken bones. Knew it, you thought, your mother was the kind who made frequent visits to the hospital. She was practically a VIP member; and currently you were swimming in money thanks to the many insurances she had covered.

"Oh, my mother went bungee jumping without the rope," you shrugged. "She's in the hospital now."

"What?"

"What?" You stared back at the nurse.

"She went without the rope? Is she suicidal?" Sayuka stared, aghast. "What in the world...?"

"No?" You tilted your head, "well, yes, she's a little weird."

I think she's more than weird, Sayuka sweatdropped.

"Oh, and she says Terry is cute." You read her messages aloud. You had taken a picture of the snake, and while your mother had been a little miffed that it wasn't a crocodile, she had said your little pet was plenty cute.

"Terry...?" Sayuka was confused.

You dug around in your pocket, casually bringing the snake out. It seemed to have reflected on its less than stellar actions, and was pretty tame. Terry curled around on your hand, flicking out its tongue. You could see the fangs glimmering, and its eyes taking in the sight of the nurse.

Sayuka gave a wild little scream, stumbling back. She knocked over a few chairs in the process, causing Daichi to rush back in.

"Is there anyone—oh." He paused. "My apologies, Madam. It seems that [Name] has forgotten to inform you that he kept the snake."

"It's poisonous!" Came the garbled little sound of Sayuka, who was trying not to choke.

"It won't hurt you. You won't touch them, Terry, is that right?" You cooed. The snake hissed in answer, and you petted it, letting it coil around your neck

"I think it's best you keep, er, Terry in," Daichi sighed, "let's go, [Name]. Everything has been settled. Your new roommate is waiting for you. I suggest you keep the snake out of touch and out of sight."

"Thanks," you nodded your head, "for all the trouble, I mean. Is it normal for the president to accompany me...? To accompany new students? That's a lot of work."

"Well, the teachers were wondering where you were." Daichi closed his eyes, "I received a great deal of messages concerning you, considering you were hours late and apparently no one caught sight of you. But in regards to your injury, it's best you settle down and rest."

And well, Daichi went to check on you after Akio had boasted in that terribly annoying voice of his. It gave him a little satisfaction that Akio had indeed not gotten his way again. Last year Kaen—who would have thought Kaen, of all people—had nearly suffocated that student to death. He had turned off the carbon monoxide detector or something along those lines—ever since three years ago, Daichi had stopped immersing himself in the game.

The game was just an excuse for the elite to prey on smaller people; unassuming ones; and destroy their whole life. But this time, you...

Daichi could already imagine that Akio would be incensed if he found out you were in good shape. Then there was Saito to worry about; Saito wouldn't exactly strike unless you did something to aggravate him, so he was in the clear for now, and Inei was generally lazy, so that only left Jun.

Jun despised breaking the rules: more like, he despised people who broke the rules. So the minute you did something out of hand, like—

"Do you want a cigarette?" You asked innocently, holding out a small packet. "Well, this isn't real. They're just gummies."

And...you were screwed. One part of the game included spying on your every little move—of course, not when you were in the dorm, that would be disgusting—and eating in the medical center, unless allowed, was prohibited. And to eat gummies shaped like cigarettes that Jun would argue 'could give off the wrong impression'—

Yes, Jun was an absolute monster when it came to the stupidest slightest rules, but that was already strike one for you. And to top it off, the snake.

He sighed.

Well, it would be interesting to see how long more you could pull this off. Last year Jun had organized this whole shady scheme that led a student to become bankrupt and corrupted, so...

"It's specially flown from Milan," you added. "My father got these gummies when he shot down a secret crime syndicate."

"Pardon?"

"Oh, my father works odd jobs. You know, when he's tasked to kill someone—was I supposed to reveal that? Nevermind—and I guess he's searching and saving some animals now." You said casually.

"Oh...right." Daichi was at a genuine loss of words. The most astounding and appalling thing to him was that you deemed all of this as normal behavior, when it was definitely the very opposite. Somehow, you had convinced yourself you were perfectly normal, when...

"Just head to your dorm." Daichi muttered.

.

.

Your dorm was bigger than your own room at home. It looked like a hotel room, and you were thankful that while you would be sharing your room with someone, there was a sufficient place for you to relax too.

"A-Are you the..." a voice said apprehensively, "are you the new student? I'm your roommate."

It was a boy. A meek looking one, with freckles dotted on his cheek and he was shivering so hard it looked like he had been dumped in the North Pole. Yet there was a sort of slyness to him, a coy, maddeningly kind of aura you felt from him that had been absent from Daichi. You suspected Daichi wasn't what he seemed to be, but he didn't seem like a little annoying beaver.

Sorry, you were just a hater.

"I am," you confirmed, "nice to meet you. What's your name?"

"Tanaka," he mumbled. "You came by scholarship, right? Everyone's buzzing about you."

...Hmm. Somehow, there was something about this guy that infuriated you. It wasn't even his quivering voice, you didn't hold that against him—but just something about him that rubbed you off the wrong way. He reminded you of Professor Quirrell or whatever his name was from Harry Potter.

"Are they?" You raised an eyebrow. Your father taught you to access people, always. And this Tanaka guy...

Well, it wouldn't be any harm to be wary of him.

"Yes!" Tanaka stumbled over his words, "I mean, the past few scholarship students dropped out."

"Strange." You couldn't care less. You were already yawning.

His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.

"And I heard, it's because the student council did something to all of them. Like blackmail, you know. I always knew something was wrong about them. For instance, that Jun guy! And oh, that president always rubbed me off the wrong—"

"And while all this information is super super helpful," you drawled, "I think I'm going to go to sleep."

"Hey! I'm being serious! The student council isn't what everyone makes them out to be," Then Tanaka became pale, seeing the wound on your leg, "hey! What happened to your leg?"

"Stop making so much noise," you grumbled. "You're being annoying. It's just a snake bite."

"A snake bite?" He exclaimed, "you got..."

On cue, Terry slithered out. It really seemed to like the word snake a lot.

"Hey, I thought I told you to stay calm and quiet." You frowned at the snake.

Tanaka gave a huge shriek to your amusement, and that seemed to agitate the snake as it went over and gave Tanaka the biggest bite, making your roommate shriek in the loudest voice ever. You were certain everyone could hear him. For someone who was so meek at first, he had the highest, shrillest voice. It could break glass.

"It hurts! Ugh, holy shit, it's poisonous!"

"It's just a snake bite, though. We are matching now." You looked in confusion at Tanaka, who was tearing up.

"Who keeps a snake in their pocket!"

"Hey," you said, offended, "he has a name. It's Terry. Tear Ree."

"Call the ambulance!" Tanaka bemoaned. He looked at a pathetic sight, clutching his ankle. A familiar purple had blossomed on his skin.

"Huh? You don't need an ambulance. Just use ice or something. The first time a snake bit me, I just used ice and nursed it for a bit. Then it was okay."

"You don't know what you're saying at all."

"That's a little insulting, considering I'm the one who got my scholarship. But like, don't wounds just heal on themselves? Just leave it on for a bit, hobble for a while. My mom broke her leg last time and she could walk just fine."

"Your mom is weird!"

You sighed. "I know. It's hard only being the normal one in the family."

Tanaka looked at you expectantly. "What are you doing? Call an ambulance!"

"Okay, okay..." you tried calling the ambulance, but accidentally called Daichi by mistake. Whatever. Daichi probably had more influence.

"[Name]?"

"It's my roommate," you explained, "he got bitten by Terry."

There was silence.

And then an extremely long sigh.

"Just...just...go to sleep. I'll handle it."

You shrugged your shoulders. Then ignoring the pained look on Tanaka's face, you hugged Terry and went to sleep.

.

.

—

.

.

"He assaulted a student, Daichi," Jun crossed his arms, looking extremely angry and pissed off, "and harboring a pet is out of the question.. Kick him out immediately."

"Oh," Akio whined, "but then the game would end with no one winning! Just admit it, Jun, you're just too scared you'll lose. That's some elementary school shit. We don't even have a rule banning pets. And from what I heard, that injured person practically asked for it."

Jun rolled his eyes. "So you're saying I'm supposed to overlook it for the game?"

"Well," Inei said lazily from where he was lying down. His voice was muffled as he had been sleeping, his face in the pillow, "[Name] didn't actually do anything. And he seems to be doing a great load of idiotic things. Following and entering the forest was already an extremely stupid thing for him to do."

"I think that's the most I ever heard you talk. You sound awfully excited about this." Daichi said wryly.

"Well," Inei shrugged, "I had nothing better to do, so I was observing him. He is interesting, all right."

"But hey, what kind of pet did he keep? Some bunny? Some squirrel?" Akio butted in.

"Hm." Daichi gave a non committal answer. If only the members knew just what they were dealing with. "But anyways—case closed. Jun, [Name] did not break the rules, and thus, he will not be kicked out."

"And so the game continues," Akio grinned, "I really want to destroy him. He brushed off my plan like it was nothing."

"Have you ever considered that your plan was highly idiotic?" Jun scoffed. "If I recall, You've hardly ever won the game before."

Akio narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, like you even have a say in this—"

"Just stop. I don't want to hear anything about the game," Daichi hissed. "Go do proper council work."

"I don't wanna," Inei yawned.

"When do you ever want to do work?" Jun muttered under his breath.

"Just..."

Oh, forget it. The Daisei Council was aggravating. It hadn't even been this bad previously—they had never been so entwined with the game before; so engrossed. But considering how peculiar this year's target was, Daichi couldn't deny that even he was intrigued.

[Name] was strange.

Very strange.

It would take more than a petty trick to take him down, and the council members would slowly realize that.

.

.

—

.

.

Knock.

You sat up where you had been lounging on your bed, furrowing your eyes.

Now, that couldn't have been Tanaka. Tanaka had been carried off in a gurney, making a huge fuss and causing everyone to whisper about the incident; except they didn't know it was a snake and assumed that it was the 'scholarship' effect or whatever that was—but you heard briefly there was a chance that you might have to change roommates.

Slowly, you opened the door.

"...Hello," you greeted awkwardly. "And who might you be? It's pretty late to go knocking on someone's door."

It was a stranger before you.

Glasses, messy hair, and a smile on his face. He was pretty—gosh, was everyone in the school pretty? But you noticed that his smiling expression looked forced. Eyes never lied, was what some Brawl Stars character had said before—and now you agreed, as the stranger's gaze was practically smouldering.

"I'm your new roommate," He introduced, "my name is Jun."

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