As soon as Kamji heard the last bell, she packed her things, getting ready to leave. River walked up to her with an excited look on her face.
"I can't believe it's finally here!" she shrieked in delight.
"What is finally here?" Kamji asked.
"The Annual Love Feast." Seeing, her cousin's puzzled expression, she explained. "It's a party that is hosted here in school during the eve of Valentine's day."
"You mean like a dance?" Kamji asked remembering the heart shaped decorations that she had seen earlier in the corridors.
"It's more than a dance," River emphasized, seeing her cousin wasn't as ecstatic as she wanted. "There's going to be music, food, dance ,games and lots of romance." she added the last part in a whisper.
"Sounds fun."
"It is fun," River confirmed. "The fun usually starts when the couples starts asking each other out to go to the dance. It's usually a sight to behold." she giggled.
The two girls made their way out of the class and Kamji could see the excitement River was rambling about. They spotted a guy kneeling in front of a girl, holding a bunch of flowers and a card that read 'Would you be my Valentine?'
Kamji could hear her cousin sniffing beside her, "Aww. Don't they look cute together?"
"Yeah, they do." Kamji agreed, watching the girl have an emotional breakdown as she scribbled a Yes on the card. The show ended with the couple hugging each other and the two girls continued their journey.
"Do you have anyone in mind you would love to go to the dance with?" Kamji asked her cousin.
"Not really," replied River, then she released a groan and added. "Mum always makes me go with Peter every year. But this year is going to be different. I am going to get a real handsome date. What about you?"
"No."
"You can have Peter escort you." River laughed. "And a piece of advice just make sure you were lots of cotton under your shoes because my brother is terrible when it comes to dancing. He will step on your shoes like a million times till you can't feel your toes."
"Is he really that terrible?" asked Kamji.
"Yes, he is." she confirmed. "Or how about you and I just go together. No dates. No boys. We will be like the single ladies crew."
"Yeah sure." Kamji opened her locker and began to bring out the books she was going to need for her lessons with Joshua.
"Except if Joshua asks you out to the dance which I will totally understand."
She rolled her eyes at her cousin, "Do you always have to tease me about him. I have told you thousands of times that—"
Her sentence was cut short by a beep in River's watch. "I almost forgot I promised to help mother with some paperwork in her office. I will see you at home Kamji." she gave her cousin a quick hug and scurried out of there.
There was a loud bang and Kamji turned around to see a boy struggling with his locker. He let out a frustrated sigh and kicked at it. "Why won't you open?"
"Do you need help?" Kamji asked approaching the boy who had a neat afro cut.
"Not really, I think is just stuck." the boy replied.
"Why don't you try pushing the locker in while I grab on the latch and handle?" she proposed.
"That could work, Let's do it on three."
"Three." She said skipping the first two numbers as she pulled on the handle. The locker came open and Kamji face turned sour at the balloons and confetti that popped on her face. Stepping away, she dusted some of the glitter that stuck to her body.
"Sorry about that," she heard the boy apologized. "I usually get gifts like these from some of my admirers on Valentine." the boy explained as he sorted through the multiple cards and gifts on the floor.
"I can tell." Kamji replied wondering just who he was to be receiving a lot of love letters and presents from students.
"My name is Buchi Williams by the way." the boy introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you Buchi. You can call me Kamji" she replied.
"Yeah, I know who you are. You're that new girl that transferred here recently."
Kamji found it suprising that she was still referred to as the new girl even though she had been there for weeks. Plastering a smile on her face, she nodded.
"It was nice meeting you Buchi." she said walking off, she had tutorials with Joshua and didn't want to be late.
"Likewise." she heard him say.
When Kamji reached the library, she was relieved to see that Joshua wasn't there yet. She settled down in their usual spot going through what he had taught her last time.
The chair opposite her screeched noisily as it was being dragged across the floor and she looked up to see Joshua. She could see some faint traces of confetti on his hair and she wondered if he had a similar incident with Buchi.
"You're late," She smirked, remembering all the times he had scolded her for coming late. It was comforting to see that he wasn't as perfect as he portrayed himself to be.
"Something came up," he replied.
Kamji had wanted to ask him if it had something to do with receiving gifts from secret admirers in his locker, but Joshua had began to teach her. Few minutes after they started, a girl walked up to them, holding a box of heart shaped chocolate with a red bow in her hands. Looking shyly at Joshua, she asked.
"Hey Joshua," she tried not to stammer and Kamji could tell the girl was nervous. But then who wouldn't be when talking with Joshua?
He tilted his head while staring at the girl with a bored expression on his face, "Yes?"
"I was wondering if you would love to go to the dance with me?" The girl timidly said, her face turning red as she looked at him.
"I guess you must be one of the girls that broke into my locker and filled it with love letters and balloons. Do you know how annoying that is? To get covered in confetti and all those glitter?" he asked the girl visibly annoyed that he didn't only have to repair the lock but also clean the locker.
Kamji who had buried her face in a book, pretending not to hear the conversation finally understood why he was late.
The girls face turned redder with embarrassment. "I did put a letter there but I didn't break anything, I swear. It must be one of the other girls."
There was more than one girl? Kamji thought as she listened to their conversation. As much as she hated to admit that Joshua was really good looking, she had thought that his cold and aloof personality would have pushed people away from him but somehow girls seem to find it attractive. If she hadn't gotten a little close to him to see how rude and cold hearted he can be, she could have sworn she would be among those girls seeking to get his attention. Afterall she had been in love with his brother, Michael for as long as she can remember.
"It's just that I have liked you ever since I set my eyes on you. You practically stole my heart that very first day." The girl boldly confessed.
"So what your trying to say is that I am a thief ?" he asked the girl with a serious look on his face. "I find that a bit insulting."
"A heart thief." the girl responded jokingly, giving him a sly smile and Kamji tried hard not to cringe at her attempt to flirt with Joshua.
"Now why would I waste my time stealing your heart when it's of no monetary value to me. Don't you agree that is a waste of time stealing such a useless object?" He asked.
Kamji saw the girl turn white and her eyes began to moisten in tears, "Your so cruel," she cried throwing the chocolate at his face and running away from the area in between sobs. Some students who had turned to look in their direction began whispering among themselves.
"That went well. Shall we continue." Joshua finally turned to look at her and Kamji glared at him.
"You're heartless," Kamji said him. She was sure that if she was to cut open his chest with a blade, she would find nothing but an empty dark space and maybe with a few cobwebs "It took a lot of courage for her to confess her feelings to you. Did you really have to say such hateful things to her?"
"I believe how I respond to people is none of your concern," he picked up the chocolate the girl had left on the table and threw a piece in his mouth. That act seemed to have irked Kamji more.
"You said her heart was a useless object and that it has no monetary value. Did you have to be so cruel?" She asked again looking at the boy who was remorseless about what he did.
"I don't have to remind you that this is a library except if you want to get yourself kicked out, you can keep on yelling. If not we can continue with your tutorials?" Joshua said, glancing back at the book on the table while taking another bite out of the chocolate.
Kamji turned to see the librarian motion to her to keep quiet. She seemed to calm down for a moment. "The human heart. The one you said is useless is worth a million dollars. My mum, she had died from a heart disease and even though we had the money, it still wasn't enough to find her a new heart." Her hand wandered to the locket on her neck for some minutes as she remembered how tragic it had been to see her mother die. "So the next time you go around calling people's heart useless, you should think about it first."
"I almost felt guilty a bit. I must confess you're really good at pep talk," he looked up from his book to stare at her, his brown eyes bore no emotion. "But it's you said, a heartless human being like myself isn't capable of showing sympathy."
Kamji was a bit taken aback by his response, She couldn't tell if he was joking or being serious right now because his face was as aloof as it has always been.
"Maybe I should take the girl up on her offer and start stealing hearts to fill my empty void chest. What do you think? Being a heart thief doesn't sound so bad." he tilted his head as if deep in thought.
"And I would gladly start with stealing yours." he drawled, his eyes still fixated on hers as he added the last part.
Kamji felt her breath hitch and her heart racing in her chest as if excited about the idea of it being stolen by him. She tore her gaze away from him so that he wouldn't be able to tell that his words was having a significant effect on her.
But somehow he had managed to notice her actions and in a slow sultry voice he asked, "Or have I succeeded in stealing it already?"
"You really have a wide imagination to think that I like you." she managed to say with a straight face. Was there nothing she was going to say that he wouldn't have a perfect reply to counter it? She couldn't help but wonder if he had always been this way, River had mentioned something about his mother being an ex-convict. Maybe that had something to do with his cold behavior. A dark tragic past that had made him want to shut himself in a cocoon and have nothing to do with the outside world. Was that why he acted the way he did? Because he wanted to distance himself from people, he had resorted to being cold hearted and snide.
"Do you understand what I just said?" Joshua asked, noticing the girl had been lost in her own thoughts.
"Yes." Kamji nodded, even though she hadn't heard a thing he had said earlier.
That night while she and River were working on their homework she couldn't help but get curious again.
"River remember when you told me about Joshua's mother being an ex-convict. Do you know what she did that made her serve jail time?" Kamji was thinking it had to be something related to child abuse atleast that would explain Joshua's behavior.
"I don't really know exactly. Six years ago when in our freshman year, I heard mum talking to a teacher about the new scholarship student." River replied. "They were talking in really low voices so I couldn't really make out everything they were saying but mother was worried about Joshua's background and she said something about his mother recently being released from prison."
"How do you know it was Joshua they were talking about? It could have been anybody."
"Joshua was the only student that got a high score and was given a scholarship. Plus he almost never talked to anyone and mother was the school's counselor at that time. She made sure he came to her office everyday because of it."
Kamji brows furrowed in thought as she visualized the scene in her head. "So how did the information about his background leak?" she gave her cousin a look, knowing that the girl had difficulty in keeping secrets.
"Well, I might have accidentally told a friend of mine. But I told her to keep it a secret. I didn't know she would be such a blabber mouth," River sighed. "But you know how students can be, especially with how young we were back then. A lot of people had started adding their own stories and making up their own assumptions that nobody knew what was the truth anymore. Joshua became like a mystery to us."
"Anyways, it's all in the past now. Why did you ask about it all if a sudden?" River asked her cousin.
"Nothing. I was just curious." replied Kamji as she bit the head of her pen.
"I think Mum still keeps some of the files of students she worked with during that period as a counselor. We can sneak into her office and look for Joshua's file."
"You said it was years ago, I don't his records might still be there and even if it is, it would be hard to find it." Kamji didn't like the idea of breaking into her Aunt's office but at the same time she did want to satisfy her curiosity.
"It still doesn't hurt to take a look. I know where mum keeps the spare key to her office, we just have to go to school very early tomorrow and take a look around." her cousin persuaded.
"And what if we get caught?"
River rolled her eyes, " Have you forgotten it's my mom's office we are talking about? What harm is there in her lovely daughter and niece paying her an early morning visit?"