Seeping Jealousy

Martin is whistling cheerfully when he enters the cooking class after lunch and Kai Shoji, his junior and one of his few friends he made outside of his own circle of friends, sees him and waves, “yo Martin! You look like you are in a good mood.”

“Yeah! Made a new friend with a first year. Another Italian!” and he puts his bag on the seat beside Kai, “wait, you are taking this advanced baking already? I thought there’s two other pre subjects needed before this can be taken.”

“Oh! I finished those already. I will only take those food plating and theory classes later, since I prefer practical first.”

“Smart move. I learn better in practicals too.”

Professor Buccio enters and they start their baking class, and Martin proceeds to drop a few eggs to the floor, falls face first when he trips over himself, and even burns a perfect cake batter that he definitely won’t screw up normally. Groaning at his bad luck, Kai tries to console him while Professor Buccio uses him as an example to always keep the kitchen spotless to avoid any accidents.

*********************************

Giorgio finished his classes for the day and he walks from the medical faculty to the arts faculty so he can walk home together with Mariella. His mind is occupied from the chapter notes to review and is interrupted when he hears someone shouts, “Gio!”

He turns to see Martin waving at him while jogging a little, and is that a band-aid on his nose? He waves back as greeting and when he approaches the blonde, his grin grows wider, “are you heading to the arts faculty? Because you are heading into that direction.”

“Yeah. By the way, what happened to your nose?”

“Oh this?” Martin scratches his neck and he chuckles, “fall face first in my baking class. So not cool.”

“Ouch, must have hurt. Are you sure a band aid is enough?”

“Well, after a good sleep, it will be good as new,” they start walking together in comfortable silence like they have done this many times and Giorgio wonders if this is how it feels to befriend someone of the same gender, since all the friends he had is Mariella who is obviously a girl, while Tao Akihiko is a family member, so it’s not counted.

“Wait, you are a first year right? Do you know your way to all the related buildings yet?”

“My guardian gave me a tour last week, so I won’t be confused.”

“Your guardian-?”

When they enter the art faculty building which has very artistic wall paintings all over, Martin spotted Leonardo’s familiar and striking orange bandana and he shouts, “yo Leonardo!”

“Martin!” The rest of the students around seem to be used to these two loud guys, and they just ignore them, while Giorgio is trying to spot the familiar pink hair and when he fails, he takes out his phone and shoots a quick text to Mariella.

“Hmmm? Who is this?” Leonardo asks in English when he spotted the blonde who obviously came with Martin, since Martin always stands near people he knows, “oh right! I met him this morning and he returned my lost phone, and we even ate lunch together! Gio, meet my best friend, Leonardo Romano. Leonardo, meet this fellow Italian, Giorgio De Rose!”

“Hey,” Giorgio greets the shorter man and Leonardo grins, “yo! It’s nice to meet another Italian. Where are you from?”

Well, it’s not like he is going to go back anyways, “Naples.”

“Wha-?! Not only are we fellow countrymen, we came from the same city?! Damn, what are the odds!”

“Really?! Then why didn’t you order today’s specials? Or were you afraid it’s not as nice as back home?”

Giorgio shakes his head and tries to explain, “no, I just didn’t have the mood for pizza today.”

“Your lost,” Leonardo then turns to stare at Martin and grins, “and tonight we have pizza! I’m starving.”

“Didn’t you eat anything for lunch?”

“Nah, Professor Larue is being awfully bossy today, something about more rehearsals since there’s a huge dancing competition coming up as extra credit, and I am chosen to be part of the crew.”

When Giorgio spotted Mariella who is approaching from afar, he waves at her and she frowns when she sees two unknown men near him, where Giorgio is unexpectedly standing very near to the tall guy wearing blue turtleneck sweater, which is rare, since Giorgio is not the type to be able to make friends easily, or letting someone enters his comfort zone this soon. It took almost a year before I could hug Giorgio when we were little! When she is near enough to the trio, she immediately grabs Giorgio’s arm, and asks the other two with wary eyes, “who are you two?”

“Huh?” Leonardo stares at the pinkette and his face flush when he realizes she is a first year in performing arts that he had been staring at while practicing his dance and the girl was practicing her vocals. Meanwhile, Martin grins and he gives her a thumbs up, “hey! The name’s Guido Martin. Everyone calls me Martin.”

“Mariella, I met them just today. They were from Naples as well.”

“Wha-?” Mariella starts speaking in Italian while she looks at Martin up and down, where surprisingly she feels Giorgio flinches a little where she is holding him, “Martin is it? What’s up with your outfit?”

“Huh? What’s wrong with the way I dress?” Martin looks at his clothes and Mariella comments, “who wears a sweater and lets your navel show due to your low waist pants? You either dress with a purpose in mind, or be fashionable, but you didn’t nail any of it.”

Giorgio wants to point out that Dr Seiji has uglier pants aka snake skin patterned pants than Martin here, but he says something else instead, “Mariella, don’t insult someone you just met.”

The pinkette stares at the blonde with a fake hurt face expression and she pouts, “Giorgio! I can say whatever I want, it’s freedom of speech!”

“Still, you can talk about it in a nicer way?”

Mariella finally lets out a huff, indicating she is not pursuing the topic any further, “fine,” then she tugs at Giorgio’s coat and says, “come on, let’s get back home. Murai cooked lots of nice food this morning and we can eat once we reheat them.”

“Okay,” Giorgio turns to look at Martin and Leonardo and he waves a little, “we are going.”

“See you Gio! Be careful on the streets!” Martin waves back and Mariella raises an eyebrow and looks at Giorgio, who keeps a poker face after hearing the nickname Martin calls him. When the duo walk off, Leonardo whines a little and says, “are they a couple?”

“Huh?”

“They look close. And they don’t look alike to be siblings.”

For some odd reason, Martin didn’t feel good in his chest when he thought of the possibility of the blonde having a pretty girlfriend like Mariella.