The familiar scent of fresh forest invaded my nose, it was the unique scent that enamored me in the early morning, and suddenly I remembered the embarrassing state I was in just smelling that scent.
I hurriedly lifted my sight with a pointed-look to the culprit who directed the act of pushing me.
Life… why is it so beautiful?
The smirk on his face added to the handsome features that he had. He was so devilishly attractive. He had that Asian type of beauty like in Korean artists with his bad boy look and the most charming feature that he had was his silver gray eyes, a dull yet magnetic color.
My complaints were stopped due to his becoming momentum.
"Cat got your tongue, dog girl? Or maybe dog got your tongue?"
That handsome face was easily buried by his rude remarks. To all boys that I wanted to meet, this jerk was the least.
I rolled my eyes and says, "What do you want?"
His eyes slanted while his smirk widened.
"My cousin said that she wanted you to go to the house."
"Eh? Who's that cousin of yours?"
My already frowning face scrunched in deep thought.
Cousin? What is he saying? Did I know someone related to him?
"What's your name?" I stated what I was thinking that made me covered my blabbering mouth.
"Nilan Song, my cousin's Aria Song."
No way.
------
Song Family Mansion.
"Aria! You smelly skunk, why didn't you tell me that you had that jerk as your family member?!"
The busy typing artist was concentrating on her blog as she ignored me.
"Hey!" I took away the laptop from her lap.
"Okay. First of all, I did not know that you were 'harassed' early in the morning and at the entrance of the school, too, and that jerk you were talking was simply impossible to touch you 'cause he had a mysophobia so maybe you were mistaken."
Aria explained as she ruffled her messy hair.
Currently, she asked me for a sleepover on their house to have a girl talk because she's bored and she wanted help on something that I don't know.
"I'm not totally mistaken! I smelled his scent and those pair of dirty white sneakers were not easily to be forgotten as it was my first time on seeing it on the university," I refuted her.
My best friend rolled her eyes in response and suddenly those chocolate brown eyes twinkled with delight.
"You're right. He's the only one who wears those a bit beat up dirty sneakers."
So it was not a natural color of those sneakers then?
I smiled at her agreement but curious about what she said.
"Is he a Song right?"
"Yes. Obviously."
"Then why is he wearing those worn-out shoes?"
My question made Aria silent yet she gestured for me to went near her.
"I'll let you one of our family secret 'cause your my best friend, alright?"
I nodded in affirmation as to let her continue.
"Nilan is my half-brother, an illegitimate son of my father."
The revelation made me shocked as my eyes widened to it.
But opposite to me, Aria was bursting in laughter.
"…"
Bam!
I threw a pillow at her face as she kept laughing, she stopped momentarily and restrained her tears.
"I'm just joking… hahaha... you're so serious."
I glared at her.
"There's no secret to it. Nilan is just an adopted son of Uncle Hyun because my uncle didn't have any son as he doesn't want to marry but sadly, uncle died five months ago due to a plane crash and Nilan was left to us."
"Five months ago? Why didn't I know that?"
"Well, it was a shock to me, too because I was in the middle of filming a music video when father broke that news to me and I forgot to tell you."
Ahh, that's why she suddenly ignored my calls and texts during those months. Uncle Hyun was a caring and loving uncle to Aria so I knew how she felt during those times.
"Condolence."
"Stop. I don't want to cry again," she smiled at me, reassuring me that she's fine.
"So more like your family adopted that jer--- Nilan here?"
I stopped on the part of jerk as I pitied him because of his case. It must really hurt when someone you cared and loved dies on you. It's a big impact to Aria so It must be bigger to Nilan.
Aria composed herself and continued.
"Right. We almost got sidetrack out there. What we were talking about again? Those shoes right? Well, Nilan doesn't want us to supply for his financial needs and only spend the money that uncle saved for him, still, he's super thrifty that even his worn-out shoes were okay for him 'cause it's not yet that damaged."
"Oh."
We were fully-consumed by the atmosphere that we didn't notice a certain jerk was eavesdropping on us until he opened his rude mouth.
"Nice, you're talking about me. So are you in love now?" A masculine voice stated by the doorframe of Aria's room. His stupid smirk was directed at me again.
I'm not sorry to this jerk now! He's a mysophobic thrifty jerk!
"Thinking of me?"
Jerk.
-----
The bags of my eyes were a bit big a dark that I thanked my thick-framed eyeglasses for being there in times of trouble, for being my only friend who didn't laugh at me due to my sorry state and for being the one who shielded me from any kinds of situation that I couldn't handle.
Getting sentimental there? Well, the good news is someone didn't die (aside from Uncle Hyun) while bad news is my brother's laughing his ass off because of my darkened eye bags.
"Did you get punch, Rainy?" He laughs again.
Maybe, I should be happy that only he and his cat were present here because I don't want to entertain another audience for this 'circus' show.
"Yes, I got punched on 'both' of my eyes and fortunately, the one who punched me was very good on making it levelled at the same time, " I sarcastically uttered to him that made him laugh louder.
Timmy is staring at me and his eyes are like laughing at me too? Heck! Is he a mocking cat now or I am just delusional here?
"Bye, brother."
I pushed myself off of his car and he just waved at me with his dumb cat's head out of the open window, still staring.
That mocking eyes?!
I'll kill that cat… no, I may go to the prison because of animal abuse. So I'll just secretly steal Timmy and abandon him in the middle of an isolated road.
While I was planning on what to do to that dumb cat as I walked to my building.
I passed on the mini garden by the east side of our building. There were trees everywhere and a familiar dirty white sneaker was on the bottom of a tree.
What are those sneakers doing there? Is Nilan on the tree?
Nilan. Right, he's the reason why I got this eyebags because of his stupid jerk self was kept playing on my thoughts when I was about to sleep. His devilish-look was irresistible, I agree to that and his attitude, too was irresistible, irresistible to get a kick on his face.
On the other side.
Nilan felt cold as he sneezes.
Someone might be thinking of him or simply someone was cursing him?
His irritated face got more irritated because he was looking for his shoes everywhere. He got pranked, again and whoever that person is, he would bury them alive.
Because of his glaring face, students were scattering away from his dangerous aura, though some girls would stop a look on him but still did not dared to go near.
"Nilan, my friend! Why are you having that scary look on your face, again?" Caric said while smiling.
Caric Perez, a twin sibling of Clark Perez, he's an engineering student while his twin brother is on business and finance. He's a classmate and buddy of Nilan.
"Did you see my shoes?"
"Oh. Eh, that 'unique' shoes of yours?" Caric hesitantly stated with his eyes looking anywhere but Nilan.
He looked down at Nilan's black slippers and looked up to the other.
While scratching his head, "Bro, the truth is---"
"No. Don't say anything, I found the culprit."
As Nilan hurried off to a girl under the tree, Caric had a guilty but scared look on his face.
"Wait! Bro---"
"And here you are!"
-----
I was still wondering if I should return this to the owner or leave it here for the owner to find it.
I figured out a while ago that someone had hidden these shoes on this tree trunk because it was so obvious and that culprit would really get thrash by that jerk.
I put the shoes down, I decided to just leave it here because well, maybe for revenge, I guess.
"And here you are!"
I felt a touch on my shoulder and my instincts got the best of me so my automatic response was to defend myself. I grabbed the filthy hand and performed an overthrow above my head.
"Ouch!"
Ops. My bad, it's just Nilan.
I was about to help him when he pulled my offered hand, making me fell over him.
"Got you! You can't escape you culprit!"
The butterflies of my stomach were reacting to our sudden closeness and his zoomed attractive face when I immediately snapped off to what he said.
Heck, I am now the culprit?!
I resisted his grip on me to get away from him when he tightened it as he stood up while me following him.
"Follow me to the student council. I get you your punishment for hiding my shoes!"
He turned to the guy that I was very familiar with.
It's Clark!
"Bring my shoes!"
'Clark' with his scared look obliged and I looked at him with a pleading look as the jerk dragged me to the said council.
He just mouthed a 'sorry'.