Rei knew his popularity had skyrocketed ever since the internships with how he changed his messy hair to a better one after styling it straight rather than being wavy. The most obvious change was his demeanor and his behavior from a reckless attitude and easy going appearance to confident and cold like an ice prince.
People joked about pairing him with Eunji's little sister but later found out his situation with Sylvie as they left his lovelife status unknown since the two would often flirt around or act like friends to which everyone knows that friends do not miss each other passionately.
Another thing that Rei noticed was how some of the staff were looking at him like they had seen a ghost, especially with the older staff. He didn't bother to understand them since he cared only for himself and the people he wanted to protect but his curiosity still wondered if it's because of his new looks of how clean he wears his clothes rather than them being all wrinkled.
The other one that he had hated when noticing his popularity was the girls. Sure he did look nice at rare moments before his change but the one he had now made him more attractive and handsome as he had heard from Ha-Eun or Jinah about their gossip with some of the girls in the academy.
Commenting of how they would like to have him to take their ability to walk especially when there are times when they noticed seeing Sylvie limping around the hallway or in the classroom after the next day when one had seen her went to his dorm.
The males in the academy especially started to hear some banging sounds like something hitting a wall but had never heard things like either wet noises or moans from what some of the girls had asked with their male friends who lived near Rei's block in the dormitory which is why the headmaster who heard about decided to implement a sound muffling spell around the dormitories after hearing the gossips from the staff who heard it from the students.
"You're putting too much power." Rei said as he dodged Keitaro's blue flames that immediately transformed into spikes which the latter broke easily with his sickle.
"And the durability is too low. You gotta balance it out despite having such a strong technique." He added before sending out glacier spikes towards Keitaro who responded by manifesting blue flames from the ground before forming it into a wall of stones which immediately broke down upon Rei simply punching it with enhancement from his prowess.
"Focus. Balance the firepower and durability when executing it. Put enough output for both before execution." Rei said after vanishing from Keitaro's view and punching him right in the guts.
"You did well either way." The black haired male said before putting his sickles back to the sheaths as he helped the blue haired male to stand up.
Keitaro breathed heavily after being able to rest as he sat still on the bench in the sparring room while Rei was training with himself by manifesting both shadow tendrils and ice sickles before alternating between two along with practicing new moves for slashing.
The blue haired male was intrigued and impressed with Rei's method of training. Spiritual energy output, reserves and execution since physical training could be just done easily when committed which Keitaro was good at.
"You are insane." Keitaro grumbled after drinking his water, wiping off his sweat as he watched Rei training harder than him. "How are you still moving?"
"Sheer will and commitment?" Rei joked as Keitaro scoffed, understanding the joke behind it especially when referencing a movie that they've recently watched prior to Ha-Eun's suggestion which surprised them all since they've never expected the supposedly wholesome girl to be this type of person to watch a movie like that.
"Anyways. Catch you later." Keitaro said upon checking the time in his watch as he left first, leaving Rei by himself who was still training.
The black haired male felt like someone was watching him but whenever he used a power boost from Keith to sense anything around him, there was nothing except the feeling of being watched somewhere.
He felt that he was just being paranoid before paying attention to himself as Rei looked at the time as he left to at least take a quick shower before attending some of the class later in the afternoon.
...…
Sylvie had one thing in her head as she could feel like someone was either eyeing her or watching her but whenever she looked for the source, there was nothing but people just gossiping to each other and minding their own business which was weird since female students mostly envied her for getting a piece with Rei especially with how she glowed after spending a night or two with him.
"Sylvie!" Ha-Eun called out as they joined each other, talking about how their day went on or just mainly the things they shared in common especially with watching older movies made in the 2000s to 2015s.
The movies nowadays were mostly repeated plots but in different settings yet some still watched it since they love the same genre and plot setting to which the magenta haired girl and the black haired girl never liked since it was just repeating every storyline in a different pacing.
"I swear! That Titanic film felt so controversial with the love story!" Ha-Eun exclaimed while Sylvie agreed, "Like how could you marry someone and declare that you still haven't moved on with a guy who you just met!?"
Sylvie nodded her head in agreement before feeling shivers down her spine as she immediately turned around but saw nothing. "Is something wrong?" Ha-Eun asked while the magenta haired girl felt weirder than before, "I'm not even sure. Feels like I'm being watched…" Sylvie answered before they made their way to history class to where they found Rei and Keitaro looking done with how Haru was glaring daggers at them in the opposite side of the room.
"Pft. He looks like a child." Sylvie muttered to Ha-Eun who chuckled since it was true.
...…
The next morning was more chaotic than what the academy had expected as usual. It was all because of the board that was posted in both the main lobby in the campus and in the dorms of the female and male sides. Pictures of their personal lives being photographed with the most embarrassing or dumbfounded moments.
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
A scream from a particular female that everyone had never expected from, the 'Ice Queen' who looked to be flustered to which surprised most of the female students in the area of their dorm which showed her using make-up to conceal a hickey and bite mark on her neck and collarbone.
Gossips wondering if the photos are all real or just edited although some knew that it was true since they've seen their own friends' unusual antics. "Who the hxll dares to post this shxt?!" Eunji exclaimed, which was making most of the female students go back to their respective ways, not wanting to face or witness the wrath of the 'Ice Queen' when angered or frustrated to the boiling point of pure rage.
Meanwhile, at the male dormitory was something opposite of personal since the female side had pictures of their embarrassing moments while the one that was posted on the board were pictures mostly of Rei being shirtless.
One had a picture of how he was in the middle of removing his clothes. Two had pictures of him working out intensely then another had his back being wide and exposed to which half of the male students were jealous at his figure.
"Damn. He's shredded as fxck."
"You reckon Sylvie ogled whenever they did the deed?"
"As a straight male. I am officially gay after seeing this…"
"I guess I'm gay now."
"How wide is his back?"
"You think his dxxk pics are here since most of these pics are his?"
"Gotta be packing if Sylvie always spends the night at his dorm or two…"
Rei sweatdropped while also feeling the ancient being laughing within him. The male knew that yesterday from what he felt was odd and somehow connected to this.
"To whoever God could hear me. Please don't let me jinx it." Rei prayed to himself while shivering in fear of not wanting to deal with something that could surprise him despite being cold and ruthless from most of his previous experience as a student sorcerer in the assault division.
...…
Turns out, he shouldn't have prayed since he was summoned into the headmaster's office along with the two seniors in the assault division to figure out who was the culprit behind the scenes from this early morning.
"You gotta be kidding me… First, I had every female student ogling or just staring at me with pure lust in their eyes after the internship and now I have a stalker??" Rei exclaimed to himself while Eunji was steaming in both embarrassment and pure rage then Rinka looking to be out for blood especially with her embarrassing picture of being confused with the library sections.
...…
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