At six minutes past three Kurin had entered their dorm, collapsed onto their bed and had decided to continue their book in the three hours they had spare until the time they'd agreed to meet with Crystal to eat dinner and work on the project. Now at ten minutes until four they were leaving their room; their satchel containing their now finished book and phone slung over their shoulder, headed for the library.

The book had been every bit as good as they'd expected it to be, the cliche around the middle had been irritating but promptly forgiven and forgotten as the ending and its plot twists made it all worth it.

Their journey to the library was thankfully uneventful, although as they stepped outside they could hear people that sounded suspiciously like Noah, Julia, Paul and Felix screaming and the ominous sound of water balloons exploding. They'd have to ask Noah about that later although honestly they expected nothing less. All the rest of their journey was normal though and finally they arrived at the library.

Momentarily they were nervous about entering but they quickly shook that fear off. There was no way they'd run into Chet here again and even if they did, the library was so busy right now there was no way there would be a confrontation or any risk of hearing anything else they weren't supposed to.

Finally they entered, spotting multiple of their classmates around the room. Callie and Dan were sitting at computers talking amongst themselves, Zhao was browsing through a shelf of books, Magnus was tucked away at a table in the corner reading a book and a group from one of the other classes was sitting at a table discussing manga. They couldn't help but smile as they made their way over to the library's book checkout machine to return their book, then made a beeline for the mystery section once again. A title quickly caught their eye and they wasted no time reading the synopsis and deciding that they were definitely going to borrow This Lie Will Kill You.

If they'd thought for even a second that they could quickly choose a book, check it out and leave, then they would have been wrong.

Enter Dan, "Hey Kurin!" He called out just as the book lover approached the book checkout machine with their new chosen book, they looked over to see the red streaked boy waving them over. "Can you help me with something? Please?" He yelled across the room, making quite a scene.

Not feeling like participating in the spectacle: Kurin waved back, gestured to their book, held up a finger symbolising "Wait a minute." then returned to checking out their book. Once they were finished they approached their friend at the computers. "What do you want?" They asked, not unkindly but not exactly enthusiastic either.

Dan held his hands together like he was praying, "Please Kurin, please help me!" He begged, "We couldn't think of anything in class today, I don't think me and Chet have any music taste in common and you're the music expert. Please?" He blurted out, "Callie, George and Kino have been trying to help but we still have nothing! You're our only hope..." He sighed dejectedly.

Overdramatically in Kurin's eyes but still.

"That difficult, huh?" They muttered. Although thinking about it, Chet rarely mentioned any songs he liked.. Or anything he liked for that matter. The most Kurin knew about his music taste was his ringtone choice but they couldn't exactly mention that to Dan.

Callie looked over, leaning dangerously back in her chair. "He's been trying to think of something since three." She chimed in, "Hey, how's it going with you and Crystal?" She added, tilting her head curiously.

Kurin stepped forwards and pushed Callie's chair back onto all its feet before replying. "It's good, we decided on a song during class and we're meeting up at six to eat and then practise it." They answered, prompting a loud groan from Dan.

"Of course, it's going well for you guys! You're the best at music in the class!" He complained. Kurin stifled a laugh at his male friend's struggle to pick a song. "Look, this is all I've got!"
The music lover looked at the list of songs Dan had typed out as ideas for the project, then turned to look at the boy with an expression that screamed "Are you fucking serious?"

"Hey, hey!" Dan protested, "Don't look at me like that, I have no idea what I'm doing! Stop it! Hey! You're the music expert who's supposed to be my friend so be nice!" He complained loudly, receiving a lot of looks from people around the library including a particularly obvious eye roll from his boyfriend that didn't go unnoticed by Dan or Kurin. Luckily though, Dan did the mature thing for once in his fucking life and didn't call his boyfriend out on his eye roll.

Okay, maybe that was unfair. Dan does the mature thing quite often like... Hm. Nevermind, it was fair.

Diverting Dan's attention back to his request, Kurin took the keyboard and mouse and deleted the entire list of songs from Dan's open google doc. "You're trying way too hard," They muttered, "Miss Bliss said to have fun with it so..." They stopped speaking for a moment as they typed something in place of the list. "So you should have fun with it." Kurin finished pointedly.

Dan read what Kurin had typed on the screen and barely restrained a grin, "You know, this wasn't what I expected you to say when I asked you for help." He admitted with a laugh.

The non binary shrugged in response. "It works." They replied plainly.

"It does, thank you so much!" Dan stopped trying to hide his grin as he thanked Kurin, still laughing as he thought through the suggestion Kurin had made.

Kurin shrugged again, "No worries. I'm going to go now." They excused themself, picking up their book and taking it and themself towards the door. Hearing Dan and Callie continue talking together as they waved them goodbye.

"That is such an amazing idea! When are you going to tell your teammate?"

"I don't know... Oh! Maybe I can copy Kurin's idea and meet up with him at six tonight to tell him and to practise."

Unfortunately, before Kurin could leave the library they spotted Magnus waving them over. Deciding to listen to what Magnus had to say, they walked over to him.

"This will be quick." Magnus informed Kurin the second they arrived at his table. "You see this book?" Kurin nodded slowly, not sure what their friend was getting at. "Don't ever read it. It's a piece of shit and if this were my own copy I'd keep it only to kill bugs with."

The nonbinary raised an eyebrow, "If it's so bad why are you reading it?" They asked. "Besides, I heard that the author was good?" They added wrinkling their nose in confusion.

Magnus shook his head, "The author's other books are all good, this one is just awful. And I'm only still reading it because I started it and now I have to finish it." He rolled his eyes, "You know how it is."
They did in fact know how it is. On more than one occasion Kurin had started a book that was genuinely painful to read but whenever they tried to stop reading a part of their brain wouldn't stop asking how it ends or trying to convince them it might get better still.

"Yeah. I get that." They replied, instead of starting a rant about how bad it is when that happens.

The two fell silent and Magnus turned his attention back to his book, signifying that the conversation was over. Kurin left without a word.
Stepping out of the library, they could once again hear screams, now coming from the direction of just outside the dorm block... Oh gods, was that Paul they could see with a hose?

Deciding not to even attempt to walk in that direction, Kurin instead turned in the direction of the main academy building. Getting soaked by one of his roommate's friends with a hose was not on their to-do list for today, they'd just look around the academy to see if any of their friends were doing clubs or wandering around aimlessly like they were.

Starting to wander, Kurin fell into thought. For obvious reasons such as wanting time to themself to read or create music, Kurin themself was not in any clubs. They'd never considered joining any and probably never would. The only time they'd consider considering it would be if the library started a book club, they could call it the Murder Club as a reference to One of Us is Lying.
Or not. Wouldn't want anyone thinking the club was planning actual murders. Especially considering how Coach Short reacted the one time he assumed someone was planning a murder based on the scrap of paper he'd found talking about the details of someone's death. In reality that was just the paper from a note passing conversation between two students in the year above discussing a detective show they'd been watching but the reaction from Coach Short was as serious as if someone had been killed on the academy grounds.

Speaking of murder on the academy grounds, a loud yell from the direction of the food tech classrooms broke Kurin out of their thoughts. Usually you'd run away from a scream but it was just the academy food tech classrooms, what's the worst that could be happening? Besides they were curious, Noah and his friends were busy causing problems elsewhere, so who was destroying the kitchen today?

As it would turn out it was Shun, Ajit, Pepe and Monica. Although in all fairness to the shy girl, she didn't seem to be playing an actual part in any of the destruction. Instead she seemed to be keeping to one corner of the room baking cookies?
The commotion was being caused by the other three, mostly the soccer player.

"It's really not a big deal..." Shun was attempting to reassure Pepe as the enby silently entered the room.

The soccer player glared back at him, "Yes it is!" He snapped back, loudly protesting against Shun's kind reassurance. "I have to get this perfect!"

Ajit winced, "Come on, it's only your third attempt.. You're not going to get it perfect this soon." He pointed out calmly.

"Then why do they say the third time's the charm when it's not true!?"

While the three continued their bickering, Kurin began to look around the room. Aside from Monica's corner, which she'd just looked over from to wave hello at Kurin, it was a complete mess: Saucepans, baking trays and mixing bowls both clean and dirty littered every surface possible, baking ingredients were also scattered about with one table having an entire pile of broken eggshells and another having half a bag of flour tipped on to the floor. The bin appeared to be overflowing with failed attempts at making something that appeared both burnt and soggy, while the teacher's computer had been logged on to with the webpage for a recipe displayed on it. The three boys were standing at the front of the classroom, their aprons, clothes and hair all covered in what looked like baking ingredients and failed slop, it looked like they'd gotten into a food fight but their conversation suggested they were all just really bad at baking.

Honestly, the only thing they could think of to say at this moment was-

"What in the actual fuck is going on here?"

The words were spoken but not by them. Everyone in the room, Kurin included, spun around to look at the boy standing behind them in the doorway who had apparently just stolen the words right out of Kurin's mouth.

Chet Chipman.

"Ah..." Pepe lagged, seemingly embarrassed about having been seen by the two new arrivals.

Ajit and Shun blinked in unison. "What are you guys doing here?" Ajit asked, seeming genuinely surprised they'd shown up.

"Got bored, heard a scream, decided to see who was getting murdered." Kurin said, turning back to face the trio of flour covered boys and attempting to push all thoughts about what they knew about Chet to the back of their mind. Was that eggshell in Ajit's hair? "Turns out it was the classroom." They finished, raising an eyebrow at the group. "So what are you doing anyway?"

It appeared like the blue streaked blonde boy was about to answer but stopped before he could, most likely due to the intense death glare Pepe was shooting at him that the soccer player probably thought was subtle.

A movement through the air around them alerted Kurin to the fact that Chet had moved and was now standing beside them. "If you're going to give a ridiculous excuse I'll take over Athena's job and go tell the nearest teacher." He threatened, crossing his arms and giving the three boys a pointed look.

Ajit sighed, "No. We'll tell you. Pepe was trying to make a surprise for-" He cut off, noticing how the aforementioned boy was now directing his death stare at him. "Someone." He finished, shooting a glare back at Pepe.

Momentarily forgetting about their mutual awkwardness, the music lover exchanged a look with the purple haired boy beside them, the pair both smirking slightly and rolling their eyes at Pepe's futile attempt to keep his secret. While both of them were pretty smart, it really didn't take a genius to notice Pepe's crush on his best friend that he was desperate to keep secret but doing a really awful job at hiding. That someone Ajit was going to mention was definitely Zhao.

"It's not been going well so far." Shun added anxiously, biting his lip.

Kurin barely stifled a laugh at Chet's sarcastically muttered "Clearly." that was only loud enough for the non-binary to even hear. Then they studied the trio's faces for a moment, Ajit looking slightly irritated, Shun appearing tired and Pepe seeming a combination of embarrassed, determined and annoyed.
The non-binary sighed, knowing exactly what they were about to say. "Need some help?" they offered.

"You'd help?" Pepe screwed up his nose in confusion and surprise. The other just shrugged in response, it was clear they needed all the help they could get and Kurin wasn't the worst at baking.

It seemed their suggestion was not in vain either as a relieved smile spread across Ajit's face, "Please, we need all the help we can get." He accepted with a laugh, gesturing to the mess all around the room.

Not wasting any time in the hopes they could be done by the time they arranged to meet Crystal, Kurin put their bag down on the teacher's desk and grabbed an apron from the rail beside it. To their surprise, they weren't the only one reaching for an apron, Chet was also taking one off its hook.

Everyone in the room's surprise at that must've shown as Chet looked away from them as he pulled the apron on. "You said you needed all the help you could get." He pointed out.

No one argued.

An hour and a half later they'd finally had success... Kind of.

It had taken a lot of yelling, arguing, ingredients, mess making and attempts but they'd finally made a decent cake. Monica had left partway through the chaos with her finished box of cookies, causing them all to take a break from arguing about the best way to soften the butter as she timidly interrupted to ask if they'd like to try the cookies she'd made, which were absolutely amazing. The part of the room she'd been using was still the only clean part although with a now finished cake they were working on changing that.

Ajit and Chet were wiping down workspaces while Kurin worked on washing up the many utensils they'd all used. On one of the other workspaces Shun was helping Pepe make icing for when the cake was cooled.

They'd all been making casual conversation while cleaning but that paused when Chet's phone went off; without a song as his ringtone this time. Instinctively, Kurin looked away, the reminder of the awkwardness between them and Chet flooding back suddenly after they'd forgotten all about it during the past hour and a half.

The purple haired boy looked down at his phone screen with a small frown, "Unknown number." He muttered before pressing the answer button. "Hello?" If the way the expression on Chet's face instantly changed when the person on the other end spoke was at all telling, he seemed to regret answering it. "How did you get my number?" He asked wearily.
A few minutes passed where Chet continued talking to the person on the other end of the call, with Chet giving small responses in contrast to the long space in between them where the person who'd called him seemed to ramble on and on. At one point Kurin was certain whoever had called Chet had mentioned them because he glanced over to them, seemingly scanning their expression before asking the mystery caller "They did?" Which only made Kurin slightly nervous.

Finally Chet hung up on the call and began saving the number to his contacts.

"Who was it?" Ajit piped up suddenly, asking what everyone else wanted to know.

Chet blinked, seeming to remember others were in the room. "It was your boyfriend actually." He replied, then remembering Ajit has two boyfriends, added further clarification. "Dan. Apparently he decided to steal Kurin and Crystal's idea to meet up in the cafeteria in ten minutes then practise for the music project after eating." He explained, then turned towards Kurin, "He said you gave him a song suggestion that he really liked?"

Remembering the conversation in the library earlier, the non-binary nodded. "Yeah, I did." They confirmed, then something else Chet had said hit them. "Wait. Ten minutes? What time is it now?" They asked, slightly panicked.

"Five twenty, the clock is right there." Pepe answered, unhelpfully pointing a wooden spoon coated in half made icing towards the clock and letting a lump of it drop onto the floor.

"Shit!" Kurin swore. They'd really wanted to be on time, especially since they'd be working with someone they're not close with and they have no idea how understanding Crystal would be to lateness compared to someone they knew better like Noah or Dan, both of which are constantly late.

Shun walked over to the non-binary and placed a reassuring hand on their shoulder. "You should get going, we can handle the rest of the cleaning up and the icing." He smiled kindly.

They winced, not too happy about leaving in the middle of helping but also not wanting to be late to meet Crystal, "Are you sure?" They checked.

"Definitely!" Ajit confirmed, "You two should go before you're late!" He encouraged.

No more persuasion was needed, "Thanks." They smiled, letting out a small sigh of relief as they hastily put their apron back on its hook and grabbed their bag. Chet going through similar motions before they both left the room as Ajit called out a thanks for all their help.

For the length of the corridor they walked in silence, things back to being awkward now it was just the two of them. A part of Kurin felt like they should attempt to start a conversation but another part was worried that starting a conversation would just make things worse.
Luckily they didn't have to debate this for long because Chet spoke up.

"Hey, uh. If we're walking together, would you mind waiting for a moment?" He asked, "I have to use the bathroom." Chet nodded his head vaguely in the direction of the door to the male toilets.

Kurin nodded, "Yeah, sure." They agreed, following Chet into the toilets. While the purple haired boy entered one of the cubicles, Kurin checked their reflection for any sign of baking catastrophe in their hair or on their clothes, using water from one of the sinks to remove as much evidence of the kitchen as they could.

They were working on trying to wipe a smudge of egg off their face when they heard a toilet flush and Chet exited the cubicle.

"You've got some flour in your hair too, by the way." The purple haired boy pointed out surprisingly helpfully, albeit dryly, as he turned a tap on to start washing his hands. Kurin hastily removed it then waited until Chet had dried his hands to move away from the sinks towards the door.

"Wait." Chet called out quickly, stopping Kurin in their tracks. The boy hesitated as Kurin turned back around to face them, a puzzled expression on their face. "I just... Thanks for not telling anyone and not asking about it." He tried, seeming genuinely unsure how to phrase what he meant to say.

Either way, Kurin seemed to understand. The non-binary gave a small smile, "It's the least I can do. I wasn't supposed to hear it, those were your private thoughts. It wouldn't be right if I asked questions or told others, it's none of my business." They said honestly, completely unaware of how much them respecting the other's privacy meant to Chet.

The purple haired boy gave a slight smile in return. "Yeah. That's true." He nodded, "Still, thanks. I know what I said... It would've gotten out by now if some others had heard it." Chet admitted.

Kurin wasn't sure how to respond. "Your secret's safe with me." They eventually settled on.

A silence fell between the two, although this time it was a much more comfortable and warm silence than before. "We should go." Chet broke the silence again after a moment, again gesturing towards the door.

It wasn't until they'd walked through the academy building and reached the door to the cafeteria that Kurin realised what they should've said and spoke again.

"Hey, Chet?" They mumbled, catching the boy's attention seconds before he pushed the cafeteria door open. "I'm here if you ever want to talk about... Anything." They offered.

Chet's eyes widened slightly in surprise but then a flicker of a soft, gentle smile fell across his features before he quickly turned away to face the red cafeteria door again. "I'll... Keep that in mind, thanks." He replied quietly before he pushed the door open, marking the end of their conversation.