Chapter 26: Her Long Lost Friend

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." – George S. Patton

Ahri kept her eyes on her book all the while. There were a few cold sweat forming on her forehead; not because she was nervous. Actually, she was, but the main reason was because Kris was sitting in front of her with his eyes staring right at her. As much of an ice princess she is, she had never wanted a lot of eyes on her, though Kris is the only one staring at her at the deserted library. Nevertheless, Kris' piercing eyes were enough to make her feel like a thousand eyes were on her. More so, they had a past, though it definitely wasn't the type of past that most people would think of.

Kris and Ahri decided to go the library before heading home as they both had nothing to do afterwards. Separately, Ahri wanted to go to the library to study and maybe win the competition. It would be a good addition to her resume in the future, don't you think. As for Kris, he only went with the idea for the two of them to talk. He was a bit hesitant at first, and he still is; however, he was slowly building up his confidence within. It was the perfect timing to talk. He had been waiting for this for a long time now, and he wasn't going to waste the golden opportunity.

Awkwardly coughing, Ahri took the English proficiency book that she was holding and covered her face with it whilst, apparently, reading. As much as she wanted to read and study the language, she can't, mainly because of the Kris' bothering stare. A few minutes later and the feeling didn't waver, at all. Feeling a bit fidgety, she sighed and mustered her courage to glare at him. She closed the book and softly placed it on the table, but her glare was very much evident, and it was straight-forwardly directed to Kris.

Kris, on the other hand, blinked a few times whilst seeing her glare. He couldn't help but find it cute. Well, he had always found it cute. Her glares didn't work on him at all back then, too.

"Aren't you going to study? The competition is right on the corner! And stop staring!" Ahri exclaimed. She glared for a few seconds more before grabbing the book again and read. She was muttering some incoherent words under her breath. Although it was inaudible, Kris knew that they were directed to him, and that made him chuckle.

Ahri, hearing the giant's annoying chuckle stopped reading and looked at the boy in sitting in front of him. She saw him grabbing a book from the pile on the right side of the table and began reading. She scoffed and continued to read.

"So..." Kris trailed off, "How are you and dark boy?" Kris asked oh-so-suddenly, making Ahri's head snap at his direction. "Why are you suddenly interested in other people's business?" Ahri said and scoffed right after. Kris’ shoulders slumped slightly at the tone of her voice.

'She must really hate me that much,' he thought.

He straightened himself up, sitting properly with an arrogant stance, and said, "Why? Am I not allowed to ask any questions? Besides, it was only a simple question. Why are you getting so worked up?" That seemed to boil something within Ahri as her eyebrows knitted and her face was slowly getting redder by the minute. "The fact that you suddenly asked that question is the problem. Of all the questions you could ask, you ask that? Why? Are you jealous of my relationship with Kai? Oh, and for the record, he's not dark. He's tan! There's a big difference.  If you go all around Asia, you'd see that a lot of Asians have tan skin color. Do some research before saying things like that!" She exclaimed.

Kris kept a thin line with his lips seeing how she responded. He couldn't help but feel sad seeing how she defended her boyfriend; however, Kris needed to keep cool, or so he thought. He knew that he should heed down this time. Making her even angrier was probably not the most efficient idea at the moment. This was his golden opportunity after all. He shouldn't waste it.

Heaving a deep sigh, Kris finally spoke in a gentler tone, with no arrogance or a glitch of overconfidence whatsoever, "fine. Let's just... study for now. We'll talk later." That seemed to end the conversation as Ahri simply nodded in return, though a question lingered in her mind.

'Talk later? What's there to talk about? Nothing,' she concluded.

She felt a bit nervous though. The way he said those words were weird, as if they were to talk about something serious, and being serious wasn't Kris' forte from Ahri's mind point.

After an hour has passed, Ahri was already growing tired. She had been focused from her past lessons this day, that's why. The added stress from this so-called 'review session' for the upcoming competition didn't help as well. The fact that she knew all the stuff written in the pile of books didn't help at all. She already knew them beforehand. She blinked a few times before placing the book down and then grabbing her phone from her bag's front pocket. She read the time and it was already six o'clock in the evening.

She sighed before deciding to end the day. "Yi--", she stopped herself midway as she realized that she was about to call him by his real name. She mentally knocked the back of her head for her mistake. She was