Jayden glared back at Ethan, refusing to back down. His silver earrings and silver hair shimmering under the office light, reflecting his rebellious energy. "Well, forgive me, Mr. Cleanliness," Jayden spat out. "I moved in today, and I still had to come for the tryouts. So forgive me that I did not have the time to clean up!"
He was defending himself, but the defensive tone confirmed Ethan's point.
Ethan snickered again, that dismissive sound cutting through the air. "That's just an excuse." Ethan then turned sharply toward the housemaster and delivered his final, reason for not being able to live with Jayden with a straight face. "Now I have another reason I don't want him in my room. He does not know how to manage his time, which means that he will disrupt my very organized life, and I don't want that disruption."
The housemaster finally talked, cutting into the argument before it could escalate further. "I'm sorry, Ethan and Jayden," he said, sounding genuinely regretful, but firm.
"There are simply no extra rooms right now. And your coach also said it would be good if you two can live together. In your coach's exact words, he said he wants you two to be friends and also keep each other in check too. So I'm sorry that I can't help you. Besides, I think you two will be good friends eventually."
Ethan and Jayden exchanged a single, horrified look. They realized that they had no choice now but to live together.
But Jayden did not want to let go of the matter that quickly. He folded his arms. "I don't want to be friends with him," he said to the housemaster. "He's too arrogant."
Ethan quickly inputted too, unwilling to be outdone in the exchange of insults. "I don't want to be friends with him either. He's too rash and loud."
Jayden's anger escalated instantly. He stepped forward toward Ethan. "Do you want to say that one more time?" he challenged.
Ethan just looked at Jayden with complete nonchalance and a cold lift of his eyebrow. "What?" he asked him coolly. "Do you want to hit me or something?"
The housemaster quickly cut in, his voice suddenly stern. "Boys, boys, remember no fighting in the dorm building, or else you both will be punished."
Jayden glared at Ethan for some time, his anger boiling just beneath the surface, but the housemaster's warning was clear. He finally snapped, "Fuck this, I'm off."
He turned to leave, needing to escape the suffocating presence of the Ethan.
But Ethan was faster. He quickly blocked him, stepping in front of the door. "I don't care if you're going somewhere," Ethan stated.
"But you have to follow me back to the room now, and return the room to a livable space once again."
Jayden glared at Ethan. "Does everything that comes out of your mouth have to be so poisonous?" he demanded. "How exactly does a little scattered clothes suddenly make the room unlivable?"
Ethan definitely did not care about Jayden's dramatics. "I don't care," he repeated simply. "All I want you to do right now is just for you to arrange the room back. How hard can that be?"
Jayden looked at Ethan, utterly defeated by his personality. "Fine," Jayden said, his voice full of spite. "I will arrange your stupid room back to its clean state." His voice emphasized that 'clean state' with bitter sarcasm.
The Housemaster, clearly enjoying the end of this standoff, couldn't resist adding fuel to the fire. "It's your room too now, Jayden," he chirped.
Jayden couldn't help but glare at the housemaster one last time before submitting. The housemaster burst into laughter as he watched Ethan and Jayden leave the office together.
They both entered the room together. Ethan, without a word, walked to his reading desk and sat back at it. He pointed to the chaos with a single, imperious gesture. "Start cleaning, and please arrange everything back the way you found them, thank you."
Ethan then stood up, retrieved a fresh set of clothes from his side of the now-shared wardrobe, and walked toward the bathroom joined to the room to shower.
Jayden watches Ethan leave, his anger still simmering. He mimicked Ethan's cold posture and clipped tone.
"How can someone be that proud and cold?" he muttered to himself. Jayden genuinely does not get how Ethan can live that seriously. Jayden could not help but think that Ethan is taking life and things too serious, too rigid.
But he was a man of his word. He still cleaned the room. He started with his own belongings, neatly arranging his clothes into his own wardrobe space, stacking his shoes into the shoe cabinet, and placing his box to one side.
Then, sighing dramatically, he turned to the captain's side and helped Ethan make his bed properly, smoothing out the wrinkles.
After quickly completing his assigned chore, Jayden left the room. He needed space and air. He wanted to walk around the school, to start to get himself acquainted with the school and its layout.
By the time Ethan finished his shower and came out of the bathroom, the suffocating stickiness gone, he saw that the room is now cleaned. It looked like his safe space once again. Ethan breathed in relief.
The world felt correct once more. He did not see Jayden in the room, which meant Jayden had left. Ethan could not be bothered by where Jayden had gone to.
Ethan went to his desk, brought out his homework, and started working on it.
It was finally time for dinner, Ethan closed his homework which he had finished right on time, Ethan stood up and walked to the dorm dining hall.
He could see many other students there already, the hall a loud buzz of teenage energy. Some students greeted him with respect, and some ignored him, which was something that Ethan is used to already. He preferred the anonymity. He grabbed his meal and sat down alone at a quiet table near the window.
Ethan was halfway through his food when Jayden came into the hall. Jayden walked in as if he owned the place, his confident, easygoing swagger immediately turning heads. Jayden took his food, and instead of sitting at Ethan's table, he sat far away from Ethan, an action Ethan is grateful for.
But what Ethan noticed immediately was the reaction of the other students. Within minutes, students started approaching Jayden's table. Soon, Jayden's seat became the focal point of noise and laughter in the entire hall. He was friendly, loud, and charismatic, drawing people in like a magnet.
Ethan could not help but snicker, a cold, inward sound, clearly not liking how free and friendly Jayden is—it felt unearned, another form of Jayden's effortless talent.
Ethan finished his meal quickly. He stood up after finishing his food and then walked back to his room. It will soon be the time for study period, and Ethan didn't want to waste any more time observing his infuriating roommate's social ease.
He needed to be alone, silent, and dedicated. He needed to think about his performance today against Jayden, meticulously breaking down the game film in his mind to figure out where he had gone wrong and where he could have improved to ensure the margin of victory next time was absolute.