“You mean the one that burned down?” Keiba blurted.

“What other boarding school would I be talking about?” He snapped. “Yes the one that burned down.”

She winced inwardly. “Sorry, Min. I said that without thinking.” She got off the bed and took the hair supplies back into the bathroom.

Min sighed. “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” He got up too to lead her back to the bed. They lied next to each other on the mattress staring up at the ceiling.

“Do you think she had something to do with it?” Keiba asked gently. “Darcie, I mean?”

He sighed again. “I don’t know. The authorities said it’d been a gas leak. But do you really think she could do something like that? I mean, I know she’s evil, but is she that evil?”

“Mini… I wish I could tell you. To be honest I don’t think she set it. She might’ve had something to do with it, but she would’ve had someone else do it for her. She never gets her hands dirty.” Keiba felt compelled to add, “She gets her personality from her mother.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Remember when we first met and you asked me how my mom died?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sure her mother had something to do with it.”

“What do you mean?”

Keiba got out of bed and started pacing. Min sat up and watched her. “My mom got sick. Really sick. It got so bad that she was bed ridden for the last few weeks that she was alive. My dad hired a nurse to stay with her. That was Darcie’s mom.”

He nodded for her to continue.

“From the moment she met her, my mom had had a bad feeling about her. She could sense that something was off. She confided in me, as my dad was already charmed by her and wouldn’t listen to anything bad said about her, but I was only ten or eleven at the time and I didn’t understand her feelings at first. I knew Darcie’s mother wasn’t the nicest of people, but that was where it ended. It wasn’t until I got home from school that day that I realized my step-mother’s true colors.” Keiba paused.

Min looked at her in that intent, focused way of his. “What happened, Keiba?” He queried. “What’d you see?”

She took a deep breath before continuing, “I walked into my mom’s room. I thought she was asleep until I saw that she wasn’t breathing. When I tried to wake her up… an empty bottle of her prescription pills fell out of her hand. I watched it roll under the bed and I remember thinking that there was something wrong. Everything about this scene seemed… fabricated. It didn’t seem real.” She felt pressure behind her eyes but held her tears at bay. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked at Min-Kyung.

He his lips slowly. “Babe,” he began. “You don’t think it’s possible that she took the pills herself?”

She shook her head, acting much more calmly than he would’ve thought. There was of course sadness in her gaze, but one thing Min had always respected about Keiba was the fact that she never seemed to lose her head.

She told him, “I looked it up. It’s really hard to kill yourself that way. Your body will make you throw up the pills up before you take too many. And I know in my heart of hearts that my mother was strong. She wouldn’t have taken herself out before God could invite her into his Kingdom. That wasn’t who she was. Even when she was sick that light never went out of her eyes. We used to talk all of the time about what we’d do when she got better. It never even crossed my mind that she might die, despite what everyone was telling me. And I still believe that if she’d been given the chance, she would’ve gotten better.” She sniffed and wiped at the wayward tear that had slipped down her cheek. “There’s absolutely no way my mom would give up.”

There was that familiar lump building in and it made her voice sound thick—like it was laced with molasses. And yet she continued, “But I knew you’d probably think it was a suicide, and I don’t blame you because that was what everyone thought. In fact, if I hadn’t seen the expression on Darcie’s mother’s face I might’ve been convinced of that too. But I did. And she was grinning. Grinning! Can you believe that? What kind of nurse doesn’t care about her own patient? No. What kind of person doesn’t care about someone that’s just died under her care? Someone with a family? But no, she wasn’t sad, and she hadn’t called the police. She just stood there… smiling. I stared at her as she looked at my mother and we stayed that way for a while. I thought hours had passed, when actually it was probably only a few minutes.” She swallowed. “Eventually she said, ‘Looks like you’ll be needing a new mother’. And I guess I snapped. I kind of remember grabbing a vase and throwing it at her. But somehow she held me down and gave me an anesthetic. I guess my dad came home shortly after that. He was the one to call the police.”

 “I believe you.” He murmured. “I’m sorry for your loss, Keiba.”

“Thanks. It’s too late to do anything about it now. Mom wouldn’t want me to dwell on it forever: she was even more optimistic than I am. Besides,” She forced herself into a much more cheery disposition. “I don’t want to be one of those angsty teenagers you read about in bad YA fiction. I have too much self respect.”

Min smiled a little. “C’mere.” He said.

Feeling as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, Keiba went back to the bed and allowed him to pull her down and again hover over her. She blushed as her eyes searched his, finding nothing but tenderness in his gaze. He kissed her lips and her neck and then he rolled over so that she was on top. She placed her hands on his chest and sat up.

“Ah. Rudolph has returned.” He smirked.

She covered her reddened nose with one hand and glared down at him

He chuckled and set his hands on her hips. “Let’s get some ice cream today. There’s a parlor up the road. We could walk there.” His hands went up her shirt and over her warm skin. His grin turned devious when she shivered. “Arasso?”

She nodded. “D’accord… Did you want me to take your braids out?”

“Now why would I want you to do that?” He smiled. “I like them. Don’t take them out until later.”

And Keiba would be lying if she said she didn’t like them on him too. “Mmkay. Let me just get changed real quick.”

She kissed his forehead before she got off of him. She took a pair of jeans into her bathroom to change into and was out within five minutes. He took her hand and walked with her out of the dorms.

Keiba couldn’t contain her smile. She was happy just being with him; one can only guess what joy it brought her to know that he was just as glad to be with her. But she also loved that he was so real. She really admired the fact that he could go out in public in braids and just not give a damn about what anyone said about it. He was so strong in her eyes. Just as she was strong in his. They were perfectly content in their own world until someone bumped into her shoulder.

“Ow. Hey, watch it!” She exclaimed at the same time that the other person snapped, “Watch where the you’re going!”

Min pulled Keiba close to him and opened his mouth, but stopped when he saw the young man’s eyes widen a fraction in recognition. At Keiba.

“Oh. Keiba.” He said. “I’m sorry.”

“Ben.” A smile easily replaced her earlier indignation. “It’s okay. It was my fault anyway.”

Oh, right. Min remembered Ben from their pre law courses. He relaxed somewhat.

“Min, this is Ben.” Keiba introduced. “Ben, this is Min.”

“’Sup?” Ben offered his hand.

Min accepted it. “I remember you from pre law.” He said.

“Yeah, I’ve seen you there too.” Ben rolled his eyes. “Mr. Blake’s a bastard.”

Min smiled a little. “Where did you and Keiba meet?”

“I was taking papers to Ms. Heller.” He replied. “She was in the room too so I introduced myself.”

Min nodded, but Keiba’s face scrunched in confusion. She had a pretty good memory, and when she replayed their first meeting in her head, there hadn’t been any papers in Ben’s hands. She wondered why he would lie about that.

As though Ben knew what she was thinking, he plastered on a smile and reminded her, “But the second time we met you were slamming a door in my face.”

“Ah.” Keiba frowned guiltily. “I’m sorry about that, Ben. I wasn’t having a very good day.”

“It’s cool. I can relate.” He smiled. “So, uh, Min,” he began. “What’s up with the new ‘do?”

“Keiba did it for me.”

“Oh. I mean, I kinda like it. It’s different, but I like it.” He turned to Keiba. “You’ll have to do mine sometime.”

She laughed a little. “Ben, you’ll have to grow some more hair for me to do that.”

He laughed with her. “True.” He reached for a lock of her hair and tugged gently. “But I like what you do with yours. It looks cute like this. But then, you always look cute.”

Keiba had to replay his last sentence in her mind a couple times before it’d really hit her what he’d said. And when it did, she had to physically step out of his reach and look at him like he’d grown a second head. She was stunned by the fact that he was flirting and his boldness to do it right in front of Min-Kyung. Ben hadn’t really shown any interest in her before, so why was he laying it on so thick now? She didn’t trust it.

“Ben—”

But Min interjected before she could finish her sentence, and his tone was much icier than it needed to be. “Listen, Ben, Keiba and I have to get out of here.” He said. “Now.”

Ben had heard the coolness in Min’s tone, but pretended he hadn’t. “Okay. Well, I guess I’ll see you later, Keiba.” He winked.

Min tightened his hold on Keiba’s hand minimally.

“Oh, and, Min-Kyung,” Ben added, almost as an afterthought. “See you in class.”

Min said nothing. He just started walking down the sidewalk, tugging Keiba after him and muttering something under his breath. Once they were out of Ben’s sight, Keiba tugged on his hand to get him to stop.

“Look at me.” She ordered.

When he did, she rewarded him with a soft smile. Some of his irritation left his features and some of the tension left his body. She rewarded that with a deep kiss that was better than any ice cream he’d ever had, even on the hottest of days. He’d thawed by the time their lips parted, and he released a contended sigh, wrapping her in his arms.

“Don’t worry, okay?” She murmured. “Just don’t.” He nodded, touching his forehead to hers. “Good boy. Now let’s get us some ice cream.”

He grinned and they resumed their stroll to the ice cream parlor. He got a mint chocolate chip cone and she got a cookies and cream one. They sat on a bench side by side to enjoy their treats.

“Is it good?” He asked.

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, it’s—”

She stopped when he leaned forward and at her ice cream. She was so surprised by this that she almost dropped it. Min savored the taste and leaned in to her ear to whisper, “It is good,” and he sealed his words with a kiss to her temple.

Not wanting to leave it at that, Keiba, feeling daring, leaned forward and took a of his too—only her actions were slower and more sensual.

He watched hungrily as she her lips and whispered, “Yours is too.”

Min wasted no time tilting her chin upward and pressing his mouth to hers. The flavors mixed together, creating something no ice cream could duplicate.

“Mm!” She pulled back with a laugh. “Mine’s dripping.”

“Aish.” He let go of her hand to wrap that arm around her waist. “Well hurry up and eat it so I can go back to kissing you.”

She giggled. “Yes sir.”

The pair finished their treats in peaceful silence, completely unaware of the storm that was brewing just under their noses.

Updated!~

Uh oh, looks like Ben's making his move, but Keiba's sensing somthing's not quite right with him. Will she be wise enough to fend him off?

Hopefully ^^

And I dunno if I already wrote this translation, but oh well. D'accord means 'okay'.

 a/n: Joonie is one of the few Korean men I find looks actually attractive in cornrows. Others may disagree, but je m'en fiche!! *I don't care!!

Well, I feel as though this chapter could use some more editing, but I wanted to get it out there since It's been a little while, so I hope I haven't disappointed anyone. But here comes the bad news: with school coming around updates will become less frequent, but worry not as I am determined to see this thing to the end! Keiba and Min-Kyung's story shall be completed I promise you!