Vera walked back into cooking class after the nurse had given her a bag of ice saying that that was as much as she could do for her.

She presses the ice into her cheek as she walks to her seat. Right before she sits down she sneaks a peek at Ruki. But he wasn’t there. He must not have come back yet. She shrugs and looks a Kai.

He looks at her with a worried smile. “Did anything happened?” he ask with his brows frowned.

She squeezes the bag of ice and looks away. “Yeah something did happen.”

“Well?” he asks, urging her on.

“Well I told him that he was short… in Japanese.”

His jaw drops almost to the ground. “The biggest mistake you did was mentioning his height and you said it in Japanese?!”

“I know I know I just couldn’t help it.” She sighs.

Kai looks around and then leans closer to her. “So how did you get away because I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t let you leave so easily.”

She adjusts herself farther into her chair. “Well…” she trails off, “let’s just say that I hit him where it counts.”

Kai’s eyes bug out for a second but then his features soften into a proud smile. “You have some real strength to stand up to him… unlike everyone else.”

She snorts, “I wouldn’t call it strength, more like acting stupid and mostly likely bring harm to oneself.”

“It’s not acting stupid it’s being brave,”

She looks out the small window that overlooks the school gates. “Sometimes being brave isn’t so good, it could get you into a lot of trouble.”

Kai sighs, “Well the cake is done. Would you like a slice?”

She looks back him and grins, “Sure!” he nods and cuts out two pieces form the small cake and hands her one. She takes a fork full and brings it up to her lips. Right when she was going to take a bit the door slides open. Her eyes travel to the boy walking into class like nothing happened.

She popped the fork into . She chews it while watching Ruki. When he gets close to her table she starts to wolf down the rest of her slice out of panic. When her plate is empty and her cheeks looking like a chipmunk, she looks up to see that Ruki has slowed down and was looking at her with eyes spread into thin slits.

Vera gulps down the cake and it painfully slides down . He gives her one last look before going to his table. She looks down at her plate as if that would help her get away from his eyes. ‘I shouldn’t have said anything to him!’ she yelled at herself.

Then the bell rings making her jump. She gets up and washes her dish and starts to leave when Kai voice stops her.

“Wait!” he says, “let me walk you to your next class.”

She looks at him confused because for the few weeks that she has known him, he has never done something like this before. But she just looked at his smiling face and all her worries faded away. “Sure!” she beamed.

“Lead the way.”

She nodded and starts walking to the door. When she is out the door she sees a group of girls surrounding the guy that she saw at the nurse’s office. Her brows frown at the sight of him smiling at all the girls. Shaking her head and her lips pressed into a fine line, she leans to Kai and whispers, “what’s up with that?”

He looks at what she was pointing to. He rolls his eyes and sighs, “His name is Aoi. He’s like the school’s playboy or something.” He narrows his eyes at her, “why are you asking?”

Still looking at the tall boy enjoying his company she murmurs back, “I’ve seen him around before that’s all.”

---

After school ended Kai was waiting for Vera at the school gates. When he sees her, he waves her over.

“What’s up?” Vera asks as she runs up to him.

“I want to show you something.”

She smiles, “alright, it’s not like I’m going to be doing anything anyways.”

“Let’s go!” he starts walking in a different direction from the one she takes home. She struggles to catch up to his long strides to her short ones, but somehow manages to not fall behind.

“So where are you taking me?” she asks, a little out of breath.

He must have noticed that he was walking too fast because he slows down. “I’m taking you to one of my favorite places where I like to be alone or just think.” Kai smile down at her.

She tilts her head to the side, “and why are you showing this to me?”

He scratches the back of his head and looks ahead. “Well I just thought that since we had become better friends today I would show you something special you know…”

Vera swallows down the gilt and managed to mumble, “Oh… Kai you know I’m not going to stay in Japan forever don’t you?” she looked up at him.

He blinks a couple of time. “I know that. That’s why they called you a foreign exchange student and not a transfer student. Come on Vera I’m not stupid or anything.”

Her eyes fall to the ground and her grip on her schoolbag handle tightens as if that would give her strength. She was trying to find something else to say to him when she hears Kai talk again. “We’re here!”

She lifts her eyes up to see a grassy hill and a sparkling river bank, casting a red-orange glow from the setting sun. She gasps taking in the beauty of it. “Wow it’s just like in anime or manga. I didn’t even know I lived so close to one of these.”

He just giggled and started gently pushing her down the hill. When they had reached the bottom, he sat down and patted the ground next to him. She sits down crossing her leg in front of her and looked at the ground noticing that there were white wildflowers growing around them. She pulls a few out from the ground and starts making a crown out of them. “Man I used to make crowns out flowers and grass all the time when I was a kid.” She pauses and shakes her head smiling like a little kid again, “I can’t believe I still remember how make to them.”

When she was done weaving the crown of flowers, she placed on top of her head fitting perfectly. She looks at Kai and asks, “How do I look?”

Kai chuckles, “like a queen.” He lies down, putting all his weight on an elbow.

She laughs, “I’ll make you one, but out of grass. That will make you my king and this hill your kingdom.” She started interlacing the grass together.

“So I’ll be the king of the hill huh?”

“Yes a very special hill my lord.” Vera adds and puts the crown on his head. She lays down too feeling the soft grass under her. She tucks her hands under her ear using them as a pillow and looks at Kai. “So how long has Ruki and his two goons been messing with you?” she asks.

He rolls over to his back. He sighs heavily, raising one of his hands and looks at it with his palms open to the darkening skies. “It’s been going on for as long as I can remember… if I had to put a time when it started, I would have to say around late elementary.”

He closes his hand like he’s trying to grab a piece of the sky but seeming to give up he slowly brings his hand back down to his chest. “I don’t even know why they bother me, I wish I knew.”

She rolls over to her stomach and places her head between her arms looking at him like a mother would if their child was being tormented on the playground. She says jokingly, “I could seduce Ruki and find out why they do that to you.” She laughs, “And maybe I can get them to stop because you know he’s like the leader and he would be totally in love with me that he would listen to everything I say like I’m God himself.” She rolls over to her side again still facing Kai and smiles at him.

He blinks a couple times and choked out, “you would do that for me?”

Her smile drops.

He suddenly grabs one of her slender shoulders and shakes her gently, “Yeah! Do it! Then after he falls for you, you could dump him! It would be the perfect payback!” he was beaming now and had light in his eyes.

Vera huffs and pushes his hand away. “I was only joking about that Kai. And it wouldn’t be easy to get him to like me let alone ‘love’ me.” She air quoted love.

His smile quickly turns into a deep frown.

 She groans as if she was in pain and slides a hand down her face, “Ugh! Kai, your killing me here! Fine! I’ll try to do what I can” she shakes a finger at him, “but I’m not making any promises… anyways if all goes terribly wrong, I’ll be returning to America soon anyways.”

Kai looks down at the green grass and starts to pull chunks out the ground. “Don’t worry Kai there is a thing called internet and cellphones. We will talk every day!” she reaches over and places her hand on top his to stop him from killing anymore grass. “Plus I’ll come to visit again because my mom is going to stay living here.”

He pouts, “Yeah I know.”

Then they roll on to their back and looked back at the starless sky. Vera closed her eyes with a grin, enjoying the sound of the river and the sound of the little bugs around her. She couldn’t think of a better place to be at.

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A/N: I'm glad you guys enjoyed the last chapter :) Thank you for reading and commenting! Update soon ^^