บท 55: Let's Be Friends
(-RWBY-)
-Location JNPR Room-
Jaune opened his eyes and he saw a familiar ceiling above his beneath, his eyes wandered around the room and he muttered. "I'm really back huh…"
For half a year, in that world he changed a lot, he wasn't the old Jaune who is naive and weak.
Right now he is at least capable of defending himself, still, despite drowning himself with sake, he still couldn't get rid of the feeling of loss.
His sensei, despite her sadistic training methods, her training actually shows results, even though he's not openly showing it, he actually cared a lot about her, the reason why he cried in the first place is that she became an important piece of his life.
Other than his partner, his sensei actually believes in him, believing that he could become strong.
Her words of motivation felt real compared to his partner, Pyrrha, no offense to her, although she's always reminded him that he has potential, however her words didn't reach his heart.
"Anyway, I wonder where the rest of the team is.." half a year is enough for him to forget some things.
He decided to go outside the room, it didn't take him long to arrive at the cafeteria and he didn't realize that everyone was staring at him yet.
Like Blake, he also forgot that he now has a mark on both sides of his forehead and a new haircut, it wasn't the same mop-like hair that he had.
Jaune finally saw his team and the rest of RWBY in the middle of the cafeteria, animatedly talking with each other.
But they stopped as they saw him approaching, every one of them was looking at him with wide eyes.
He wondered why they were looking at him like that, it wasn't like he had something new on hi-
Oh…
Jaune finally realized why they were looking at him with various levels of surprise and shock.
It was because of his looks, he almost forgot about it, he was so used to his looks and didn't even think how his team and the rest of RWBY would react after seeing him.
He felt like he should panic, but he didn't to his surprise.
Yang was the first one to break the ice she exclaimed. "Damn, Vomit Boy! What's with the new look?! You even got tattoos!"
"Fearless leader?! Is that really you?!" Even Nora couldn't believe the changes in her leader, they just left him for a few hours out of respect because he got rejected by Weiss(Again, no surprise there) they thought that it was better to let him take time to recover alone.
But she never expected him to change his look in just a mere hour of leaving him!
"Yes, it's me, Nora…" He smiled at her, she's still loud as he remembers, and it was a bit nostalgic.
"Jaune…" Out of everyone, Pyrrha was perhaps the most shocked out of them, because she noticed something different from him, she wasn't talking about his new looks, not that she was talking about his body language.
The rest might not have noticed it, but those who have plenty of combat experience could tell that Jaune, is someone strong her instinct as an experienced fighter was telling her so.
But it was ridiculous, she just trained him yesterday night, and she knows better than anyone else, her partner's capability and limits.
There's no way he would become strong enough to the point his presence alone threatens her in just a few hours she didn't see him.
Right…?
"Woah Jaune! You look cool with your new haircut and tattoos!" Ruby stood up from her table and quickly approached her friend and started gushing at his new look.
She liked this new look of her friend very much, though she would never admit that seeing Jaune's new look made her skip a beat.
Yang would surely tease her for it!
Although Ruby was a bit worried about the tattoos that he got, he might get into trouble with the teachers because of it. There aren't really rules about not having a tattoo but Ms. Goodwitch might not like it.
Blake for once in a while her attention wasn't focused on her book, she was looking at Jaune's new look, it surprised her, as she didn't strike Jaune as someone who would get a tattoo anytime soon.
But she was clearly wrong about that, but then again she wasn't that close with him to know him enough, it wasn't a secret that she had the least interaction with Jaune compared to the rest of her team.
Weiss wasn't impressed with Jaune's new look, she thought of this as some sort of new trick to gain her attention, because clearly, it's not working.
As she stated before, she would never accept him, no matter what he would do it won't change her mind, she simply isn't interested in him.
He was someone that likes her for what she has, but not for what she is, it honestly disgusts her, she wondered how much longer he would keep this up.
It was starting to get on her nerves, no matter how much she rejected him, he would always try again the next morning.
Has she not made it clear?
Or does she need her to be more specific that she wasn't simply interested.
If he thinks a new haircut and a tattoo would change her mind, then he's wrong, she swears if he tries to court her again…
A cold glint appeared in her eyes.
She won't be as gentle with her words.
But too bad, at the moment Jaune wasn't thinking remotely close to whatever Weiss is thinking, he still likes her but not much as before.
A half year of experience has made him realize a lot of things.
His naivety.
Immaturity.
Inexperience.
Weakness.
And more importantly his loss.
Weiss was barely a part of whatever occupied his mind right now.
"Thank you, Ruby." He smiled at her slightly.
Different from his goofy smile, his smile had a certain maturity in it that made Ruby blush slightly.
"N-no problem!" She quickly avoided looking at his eyes directly.
Jaune slowly sat down right next to his partner, "So, what did I miss?"
"What did you miss? Are you really asking that?! It should be us that should be asking you! What DID we miss for you to suddenly change your look like that!" Yang slammed her hands into the table.
"Well…" Jaune wasn't sure what to say, he could tell them that he went to a different reality and stayed there for a whole six months or so.
Oh and the fact that he isn't a virgin anymore, but he wouldn't tell them unless they asked.
"Ah! I know! You did this because of Weiss!" Yang exclaimed with a knowing grin.
Hearing that Pyrrha's shoulders sagged, if it was truly the reason why he changed his looks, then she would be disappointed.
"Weiss…?" He couldn't help but blink in confusion, they really think that he'd change for her? Well maybe, but she wasn't the reason for his change.
"Yeah!" Yang exclaimed eagerly waiting for his confirmation.
But before he could answer Yang, Weiss' cold voice cut in.
"If you think that changing your haircut and gaining some tattoos would change my opinion of you then you're wrong."
Jaune frowned at that, for the first time he realized Weiss' arrogance, judging from her tone she was sure that he changed for her.
"Weiss…I may like you but, it's not enough for me to change myself for you." He wondered what made him like her, honestly, he forgot.
His words made his friends, especially Weiss shocked, they never thought they would hear those words from his mouth.
To them it was an alien concept, they'd never thought he'd talk back to Weiss.
It took a while for them to recover before they snapped back to reality.
"Woah, things I never thought would happen," Yang spoke in awe.
"Indeed…" Blake agreed with her partner.
Pyrrha on the other hand was visibly beaming, she wasn't even trying to hide it.
"Hmph! It would be nice if it's true, but perhaps it's just your new way of gaining my attention." Weiss coldly stated.
"Not really." He denied.
"Prove it," Weiss said.
"How?" He asked.
"Stop courting me!" Weiss almost shouted at him.
Everyone from the table was eagerly waiting for his answer.
"Okay," Jaune replied without hesitation in his voice, it was calm and casual like he was talking about today's weather.
They were once again stunned at his unexpected answer.
Weiss was also surprised, but she continued to stare at his face looking for single deceit but found there wasn't.
Her expression softened for a bit. "Really?"
"Yeah," He replied immediately.
"...." Both of them stared at each other for a few seconds, before Weiss replied.
"Good." Weiss visibly relaxed at his reply.
"But."
His words made Weiss once again tense, and her expression became colder than atlas's harshest weather.
"What." Her voice was so frigid that anyone would freeze at it.
"Let's be friends, instead."
Everyone including Weiss blinked in surprise, they didn't expect that.
"You, what are you planning?"
"Nothing, I just want to be friends with you, I want to get to know you better, it must've been annoying to deal with my constant courting, I just wanted to start anew with you." He spoke in a gentle tone.
"Good thing you realized that," Weiss replied with a frown.
"I know, so friends?" He stretched his arms and gave her his hand.
Weiss stared at him suspiciously, but after a minute of silence, she finally took his hand.
"Arc, I swear if this is some kind of trick…"
"No, I promise Arc's word." He shook her hands.
"Hmph! It better be!" Weiss then took her hand away from his and sat down.
Everyone was stunned at what happened just now, even though they witnessed it happening they still couldn't believe it!
"I'm not dreaming right?" Yang tried pinching her cheeks and she felt a bit of pain.
"Nope, I'm not."
While everyone was still processing what they witnessed, suddenly Ms. Goodwitch arrived at their table and said.
"Mr. Arc, follow me inside my office, we have a lot of things to talk about."
—
Okay, there is going to be another part, I haven't added the scene where Jaune shows his progress to everyone in beacon.
Plus, I don't want to lose the motivation I have right now.
Also, I'll write something similar with the other group chat members, but it wouldn't be as long as this one.
Also, support me on Pa.treon I've started putting advanced chapters here.
Pa.treon/charlottes143
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