“So do you know Ruki?” Chiyo asks with a scared look, as her and Vera are walking back home from the club.

“No.” she lied. “Why do you know him?” she throws back.

“Who doesn’t know him at our school? He practically runs the place. You know they call him the white tiger, you know since he is beautiful and vicious all at the same time.” Chiyo shudders and wraps her arms around herself.

Vera purses her lips and frown her eyebrows. “What a lame nickname.” she utters.

“So if you don’t know him then why were you dancing with him like that?” she asks without even acknowledge Vera’s insult.
“And from my point of view, it seemed like you guys were talking. And I know for sure that he doesn’t know English.”

Vera gulps down, ‘she didn’t see him kiss my neck did she?’ she asks herself with her hand on the spot where his lips touched her. The skin under her hands still tingled.

Putting on her poker face, Vera asks, “What, I can’t dance with a random guy at a club?”

Her cousin looks at her with one eyebrow raised and looked her up and down. “Vera I know you’re not the type of girl to be dancing that close to some random guy in the club.” It’s true, if it was really some random guy trying to dance with her, she would have blown him off in an instant.

But it wasn’t, it was the very guy that she was trying to make him fall for her and who also was basically blackmailing her. And in the back of her mind she didn’t really mind him being so close to her with his arms around her waist.

She had somehow felt safe in his arms like he was a sense of home, which she hasn’t felt like that in a long time.

‘It’s just the alcohol making me think that way. If it wasn’t for that, I could have easily found a way to get him away from me.’ she told herself.

“Look Vera I’m just trying to look out for you. I know most girls have a weakness for those bad boys type”

‘Yeah your one of them’ she adds in her head.

“But trust me, stay far away from him. I’ve seen so many girls that were strong willed, just like you, who fell for him and end up becoming a complete mess in the end. And I can tell his currant girlfriend, what was her name? Momo? Well I can tell that she is going to be a disaster sometime soon. It never last that long when you go out with that guy.”

“Well I’m not going to be one of those girls.” She says stubbornly. “We were just dancing geez! Nothing is going to happen to me.” she looks over at Chiyo with a smile.

‘He is the one that is going to be a mess in the end’ she secretly adds in her head.

Chiyo stops in front of her and grabs her hands with a tight grip. “Promise me that nothing will happen. I don’t want someone else in the family to be heartbroken.”

Vera smiles, “I promise” she lifts her free hand in the air, “scout’s honor!”

Chiyo laughs and let’s go of her hand. “Ok I trust you.”

She looks at her cousin for a few seconds before saying, “I think I should be the one worried about you more.”

“Why?”

“Because you like Aoi, that’s why.” Vera smiled worriedly at her.

“What?!” she yelled. “Th-that’s n-not true!” Chiyo stuttered.

“Yeah it is! You became a giggling idiot when he was around. And you said some unnecessary stuff about me that he doesn’t need to know about.”

Chiyo looks down at the ground and mumbles something that Vera couldn’t make out and didn’t really care to.

They walked the rest of the way home in silence but Vera couldn’t shake the ominous feel of her cousin’s warning. ‘Why do I get myself into these kinds of things?’ she pouts.

She seems to be asking herself that question a lot lately.

---

Upon walking into class on Monday morning, Ruki finds
Vera with her head down on her desk. There wasn’t really anybody in the class room just a few nerds going over their homework together in a corner. So he walks to his desk with a smile knowing that he can mess with her a little before more people walk in.

When he gets to his seat he makes sure to make as much noise as he possibly could so she would look at him. But when he looks over at her, he sees that she is fast asleep. ‘so she must be a heavy sleeper.’ Rubbing his hands together, taking this opportunity to get closer to her.

He was close enough that he could see her eyelids fluting as if she was having a dream. was also slightly open letting out a little noise.

Ruki leans back and smiles. He couldn’t help but think that her sleeping face was super cute. Then unconsciously his hand goes up to a lock of hair that has fallen on face and twirls it around his finger before tucking it behind her ear. Then he gently brushes his finger down her soft cheek.

The skin contact must have woken her up because her eyes snap open. Ruki pulls his hand back in surprise, but she must still be half asleep because she looks around confused like she didn’t know where she was.

“Were you dreaming of me?” the blue eyed devil playfully asks.

“Why would I?” Vera asks blinking a couple of times.

“Because all you can think of is me now, after what happened at the club.” He dares to wink at her and does his to-die-for smile that didn’t affect her before when the first he aimed at her.

She wrinkles her little nose, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Uh-huh.” He says not believing her.

She gives him a hard look, “I was drunk so I wasn’t in the right mind set, plus I don’t remember half of the night.” She argues back, touching the spot he had kissed her that night. He could tell by her face that she in fact remembers and that she was regretting it.

But he wasn’t.

Ruki liked the feel of her skin under his lips and palms. How she fit perfectly in his arm and also her smell which he could just smell for the rest of his life.

Thinking about it just made him want to go back in time to relive that moment which he knew as never going to happen again… unless it was some other girl. That thought made him sad for some unknown reason.

“So when are we going to start on the project?” Vera’s voice snaps him out of his mind and back into the lonely class room.

“Huh?” he asks confused.

“The project for Ms. Sato, idiot!” she says with a shake of her head.

“Oh yeah I forgot about that. I was just thinking that I would let you do all the work.” He says, knowing that she wouldn’t agree to that.

“Like hell! You have to hold your own weight.” He was right about her reaction. He pats himself on the back thinking that he has already got her down.

Then she said something he didn’t expect to come out of . “Let’s work on it at your house.”

Ruki leans in close to her. “Never.” He simply says.

The girl puffs her cheeks out. ‘Aw how cute!’ he couldn’t help but think.

“Why not?!” she asks

‘Because my mother is a drunk, who physically and emotionally abuses me and I don’t want you of all people to see me like that.’ He says bitterly in his head but what he ends up saying is, “Because I don’t want you to know where I sleep! Who knows you could come at night and try to me!” Ruki says as he crosses his arms over his chest.

Vera looks him before laughing. ‘Wow her laugh is cute.’ He thinks for a split second. ‘Wait Ew! What was I thinking?!” he shivers at the thought.

“But for real we have to do it at your place.” She says again, wiping away a tear.

“No.” Ruki says serious this time hoping that she would drop the subject.

“Well where then?” she asks frustrated.

“At your house then.”

“Like I would let you go to my house.” She snorts.

“Why not?” he blinks.

“Because you will see where I sleep and god knows what you will do when you go back home and think of me in bed.” She shivers and starts to rub herself to smooth away the goose bumps.

“Yeah right, right I already have a y girlfriend. Why would I need to think of someone as bland as you?” Ruki chuckles at the thought of him ing to her.

She looks him up and down with a brow raised before a smile spreads on her pink lips. “Bland you say? Well would a boring girl do this?” she reaches over and puts her hand on his face. With her thumb, she starts to rub his cheek softly.

The whole time her eyes were locked with his. “Nothing interesting, I mean my girlfriend does this to me all the time.” He lied. “So yes, I guess someone as boring as you would do something like this. So unoriginal!” he says in a surprisingly calm voice.

Her eyes go big for a second but just as it came it left and was replaced with a mischievous smile. “Oh really?” she questions as she stats to get closer to his face. “Would someone plain get this close to another person that they don’t even have feelings for?” the tips of their noses are touching now.

“I don’t know, you tell me.” he throws back at her and even manages a confident smile.

She seems to hesitate at what she was about to do but with a surge of her small shoulder, tilts her head to one side and looks into his eyes. “Would someone dull do this?” she lightly brushes her lips against his. ‘A kiss?!’

At the touch of Vera’s lips his body goes stiff. But he manages to utter against her lip, “I guess someone bland wouldn’t do that but I guess this doesn’t make a difference for you because your chapped lips didn’t do it for me.” he lies. Actually his heart was beating so fast that for a minute he swears that Vera and the nerds in the corner could hear it pound against his chest. Also her lips weren’t chapped. They just may be one of the softest lips that ever touched his. Ruki had to clench to his desk so he wouldn’t just grab her face and bring those lips even closer to his.

With a sigh she pulls away, he was already missing the closeness. Looking at the front of the classroom, she clears and she mumbles, “so how about the library?”

“What?” he asks confused.

“For the project!” she sounded annoyed or angry.

“Oh ok so when do we meet up?”

She bites her lower lip, already forgot what she did to him with those lips of hers. “I guess this Friday, since we don’t have school for two days, and the rest of the weekend as well.”

Ruki rips his eyes away from her lips and almost jumps out of his chair. “You don’t think I have a life were I can spend my weekend doing school work with you?!” he asks her, appalled at the suggestion.

“Well we don’t have a choice do we? And if I’m not around, I don’t think you would work on your part.” She adds. He stayed quiet for a while because what she said was true; he wasn’t planning on doing any work at all.

Then he says, pouting, “What about all my plans?” even though he had absolutely nothing planned for the weekend.

She chuckles and does another thing that surprises him. She reaches over and pinches his cheek softly. “You’re so cute!” she smiles wide.

He looks at her with huge eyes but doesn’t mind her touch, unlike his girlfriend’s, which recently feel like he is being touched by something repulsive, like a dirty sock that was left out in a hot summer and was now all crusty.

Then just as fast as the smile graced her face, it drops and she gives him a light slap. “Don’t you dare stand me up.” She states before looking back at the front of the class. He was going to say something clever but Daisuke, ‘ops I mean Daichi’, sits down and starts talking to Vera.

‘Give it up Daichi. she’s already falling for me.’ Ruki thinks arrogantly as he watches them talk. He could tell that she was trying to be nice to him by the way she laughed with no real emotion like how she laughed at him.

When Daichi reaches over to touch Vera’s hand, she pulls it from under his clammy looking hands and puts them under her desk. ‘HA! She’s never done that to me.’ he adds happily with a smile come on his face.

“We should hang out this weekend.” The loser suggested. ‘Aw to bad she is going to be with me the whole weekend, !’

“Sorry I can’t, I have to work on the project with Ruki.” She says with an apologetic look.

The only thing that Ruki got from what she said was his own name. But by the way Daichi was glaring at him. he could tell that he got rejected. He couldn’t help but smile at the loser. “What? Did she tell you something you didn’t want to hear?”

“No she didn’t. She actually said that she will go on a date with me on Saturday.” Daichi said with a sly smile.

“Oh did she?” he questions, secretly looking over at Vera. She shakes her head once and makes an ‘X’ with her arms. She even mouths the word ‘no’. “Well I hope you have fun then.” He squints at him as if he was mad. ‘Liar.’