Ara walked back to her house with her head down. No one accompanied her, and she didn’t summon her Warrior to walk with her. She couldn’t when she felt like she betrayed him. Guilt ate at her heart, and it told her that she deserved to be lonely.

Upon reaching her house, Ara dragged herself up to her bedroom. She closed the door and collapsed on the floor, her eyes immediately b with tears. She couldn’t believe she did that to him. He had been nothing but like a silent pillar of support, almost like a friend. She wasn’t lonely when she was with him, and she enjoyed their times together, even though he didn’t say much. He was the closest to the person that she wished was there for her when she had no friends. She felt like a monster, a hypocrite. She was disgusted at herself for being so weak.

Ara stared at the card she hadn’t realised she took out, and seeing his face on it made her heart constrict even further. She knew she had broken whatever bond that they had, and the thought made close up.

Her mind was a blur, and before she knew it, Ara had kissed the card, an instinct of hers recently whenever she needed comfort. Her vision was blurry thanks to her tears, but she could still see the form of her Warrior through her tears and the hair that was matted to her face. She hadn’t realised that her tears had fallen.

The nameless Warrior stared down at the Master that he had second thoughts about, and the memories from earlier replayed in his head again, making his heart constrict but his eyes angry. He had every right to feel betrayed and furious by the female before him, but the main feeling he had was hurt. He had slowly started to believe that she wasn’t like the others, but he was hilariously mistaken.

Why is she crying? If anything, I’m the one who should be hurt.

The blonde said nothing and did nothing, but instead continued to listen to his Master’s sobs that were progressively getting louder. He blankly let his body follow when his Master tugged at his hand from her curled up position, causing him to crouch in front of her, both knees on the floor. Only when the female wrapped her arms around his shoulders did the Warrior let his expression morph into one of shock.

“I’m so, so sorry,” Ara apologised as she hugged the blonde even tighter. The boy tensed under her grasp, and her chest squeezed again. “There’s nothing that validates my actions, and I understand if you are hurt and upset. I can’t ask you to forgive me, but just allow me to say sorry.”

The blonde stayed in his position, saying nothing. His chest constricted painfully and he wanted to do nothing but push her away, but he didn’t know why his body was so heavy. So the two spent the next hour like this, Ara continuing to drench his shirt with tears while whispering apologies over and over again. The blonde let her, his mind in a dilemma.

♤ • ♡ • ◇ • ♧

The next few days were spent with Ara trying hopelessly to repair whatever relationship she had with the blonde Warrior. She still continued on with school and her training, but at home, she did whatever she could to make the blonde feel more comfortable again.

After she had stopped crying that day, Ara took the initiative to ice the swell that had grown on the blonde’s cheek. He had flinched at the contact, and she immediately apologised before dabbing on the wound gently. She did this till she fell asleep, and continued even in the morning, despite the fact that his cheek was almost back to normal.

Ara tried to initiate conversations with the blonde, only to fail hopelessly every time. His sentences had been reduced to not even five words long, and Ara knew he was still deeply hurt by her. She knew she couldn’t give up if she wanted him back, so she patiently waited for the day he would decide to forgive her.

“So…what was the longest time you stayed in your card?”

“Not long, Master.”

“Well, I’ve been living with aunt and uncle for seventeen years, and this is the first time I ever set foot into the Academy,” Ara tried to fill in the silence with facts about herself, just to ease the Warrior back into longer conversations. The blonde looked uninterested, but she could see the tiny bit of curiosity behind his expression. He hadn’t asked why, but Ara decided to reply to his unasked question.

“Since I was young, I had been home schooled because I didn’t have the ability to enter the Academy even when I was of age. My parents died when I was little, and I had been living with my aunt and uncle ever since. They’re really well-known, so they were super embarrassed when they knew their niece had nothing to offer,” the blonde noticed how his Master looked a little sullen at the mention of her past.

“My cousins, one of them being the boy that dropped by,” the blonde recalled when the angry-looking stranger had dropped by her house for a battle. “Never liked me. Why would they? They were the elite of the Academy, and they were related to this loser that was stuck at home and did chores like a slave.”

The blonde widened his eyes at his Master’s revelation, not expecting her to go all sentimental on him and reveal herself like an open book. How would she know what being a slave felt like? It was worse off for Warriors.

“I never had many friends because I didn’t venture out much, and it was not like Aunt and Uncle Chae really approved of me going out. They were afraid people would find out,” the blonde watched as Ara started to have tears form in her eyes. It was silent for a moment, Ara staring out of her balcony as the blonde stood quietly beside her. He knew his Master was fighting an internal battle then, with the way she clenched her fists ever so tightly.

She then plastered on a smile before wiping away at her eyes, turning to face him. “I guess that’s why I wondered what it would be like if you were a friend instead of my Warrior.”

The boy’s eyebrow quirked up in surprise, but it was gone in a flash. Was this why she kept trying to make conversation with him? Why she offered him things like friends would do? Why she treated his wounds? Why she looked so hurt when she slapped him?

Because she wanted to be friends?

The boy felt different things all at once. He was surprised by what seemed to be her genuine intentions, touched by her efforts to make it happen, confused as to whether to trust her words…

And also, angry that she wasn’t true to herself.

If she genuinely wants to do that, then she should first stop caring about what other people think.

He hadn’t forgiven her for her little stunt the other day, but he couldn’t deny that he kind of missed the normal conversations, and her efforts to make him feel equal.

They had been walking together one day, him following a metre behind her that expressed their relationship. She had then slowed down her pace until they were side by side, a small smile gracing her face. It was a small gesture, but he would never forget it.

The boy stayed silent throughout the time Ara was talking, and the girl simply sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to forgive her anytime soon. She then returned back to her room, leaving the boy to stand there. She had left with a smile, but he didn’t miss the lonely teardrop that flowed down her cheek.

Great. Now he felt sad too.

♤ • ♡ • ◇ • ♧

“Well, well. Look what we have here.”

Ara groaned as she heard the annoying voice of her cousin enter her eardrums, her physical form in front of her, stopping her dead in her tracks. She really didn’t want to deal with Somin right now, especially since she was still trying to mend her relationship with the blonde Warrior.

“What do you want?”

Somin looked over her nails, her eyes not focused on her little cousin. Ara gritted her teeth.

“I heard you managed to beat my brother. Congrats! That’s quite a feat.”

Ara knew she wasn’t genuinely happy for her, but responded anyway. She just wanted to leave. “Thanks. Now move,” Ara tried to take a step sideways to continue on her way, but Somin had other plans.

“Woah there. Why the rush? Think you’re so good now because you beat B.M and that kid in the Placement Test? Those two aren’t even that good, so you better step off your high horse,” Somin taunted with a smirk. She loved torturing her cousin.

“That’s rich coming from you,” Ara scoffed.

The smirk on her cousin’s face disappeared, and the girl took a step closer to Ara, her arms now crossed. “Beat me and then we’ll see who is the one playing herself.”

What was this? Lee Somin initiating a battle with her? The loser? The weakling? Deep inside, Ara knew she stood no chance. But it was definitely amusing to get under Somin’s skin, because it meant that somehow, she was beginning to look like a threat. Her desire for recognition burned alive, and before she knew it, Ara returned Somin’s smirk.

“Next Friday. After school, at the arena.”

Upon returning home, Ara excitedly ran up to her room and dumped her bag on her desk. She then whipped out her Warrior’s card and kissed it, her determination to kick her cousin’s soaring.

The blonde materialised in three seconds flat, his expression still cold. Ara paid no heed to it though, too excited about the idea of beating her cousin to remember their strained relationship. The boy noticed that it was the first time his Master looked so pumped. He wondered why.

“Time to train with all you got. We’ve got some -kicking to do.”