Chapter 7
"Ey, something the matter?" Maine asked and looked around to see what made the persistent Annah turn to her cola with great interest. Ricco was coming in their direction with a smug on his face as he saw Annah on the table.
"How's that for food, bottom feeder?" Ricco said with a smirk while Annah acted as if she can't hear anything and can't see anything.
Ricco turned to Maine this time, "Your friend having aphasia once again?"
Maine just pinned her lips and shook her head. She looked at Annah who was still bowing down to her cola with unnatural engrossment. It'd been like that for the past two weeks. Ricco would throw the bait of insults and Annah casually let off herself from the hook as if he didn't exist at all.
Maine wasn't sure if what she saw on Ricco's face was irritation or subtle anxiety when he sat at the table across Annah after he dismissed his groupies to the other table. She kept her silence even though Annah was seriously doing her best to ignore the imposing presence of a Kwon in front of her.
"Hey, mixed blood, did you suddenly have severe aphasia now?" Ricco tried once again but Annah still didn't respond once again nor even raised her head.
"Or is your mind in boggle for the potion I put in the chocolate shake?" He drawled rather seriously with eyes piercing towards Annah's direction.
Maine looked at her friend who had her headshot up the instant.
"What did you put in there, you git?" Annah asked in shock which immediately put the smugness back to Ricco's face.
"Guess what? I'm not telling." Ricco said and stood up from the seat.
"Hey! I'm not done talking to you, you stupid pureblood!"Annah hollered and actually stood up to follow him when he was leaving the food section.
Maine looked at Basik and Gideon who heaved a deep sigh and shook their heads after ushering Ricco with their eyes.
"I'm hungry and I'm eating." Basik went to the counter along with Gideon.
Luna followed suit looking at the door where Ricco and Annah disappeared. "Bother hybrid." she spat in low voice.
While Maine stayed at her table and ignored the purebloods around Kwon's circle of friends as they consumed their kind of food which the hybrid wasn't allowed to have. Blood.
"I can finally breathe..." Basik muttered while he sipped in a blue silicon pack, concealing the scarlet fluid in there.
"Yeah. Ricco's acting strange the past weeks." Gideon added and twirled the golden-colored straw to his tongue.
"He's been angry and pissed and exasperated and-"
"Intolerable." Luna ended gently, pouring the pack of scarlet into the clear glass instead, and drinking it from there. She licked the stain off her lips after a while.
"Yeah." Gideon agreed. "Do you see his desk on his study? It's divided in two."
"He punched it hard last night," Basik said.
Maine wondered what could have made the carefree Ricco lose his composure? Maybe a matter with his father, the king? Or some problems in the order around the school among the purebloods? Or trouble with the prefects' annoying nagging?
"Let the Park girl dissipate his bad temper," Gideon muttered in low voice but Maine heard it very well. And for that, she felt suddenly thrilled for getting such information.
"She should...she caused it." Luna once again added in a gentle tone but laced with hatred in there.
Pressing her lips firmly on the straw while she sipped her tea, Maine thought she heard the right cup of tea just now.
So Annah could also piss the ever-composed Ricco Kwon, huh? What did she miss? Annah angered Ricco? But It was Ricco whose been under Annah's nose for the last two weeks that she was ignoring him.
Her mind lighted up for something she concluded on her mind. "This is so freaking interesting," Maine said, trying her best to hide her smile as she bowed her head and giggled like one demented person.
Basik, Gideon, and Luna turned their attention to the woman at the next table who was giggling at her food. They then let her be and ignored her behavior.
"Hybrid." The three of them just said.
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"What did you put in that shake, Kwon?" Annah demanded following Ricco down the stairs and into the hallway. "Hey, you stupid, didn't you hear me?"
Ricco turned to the archway door leading to the library and Annah groaned angrily and followed him inside again. She found him sitting in the corner of the history books section with a book readily opened before him.
Annah stood beside him and crossed her arms on her chest.
"Oh now, here you are. How long have you been in here, mixed blood?" Ricco asked pleasantly.
"Very funny, Kwon. Now tell me." Annah demanded still, quite distracted from the book right in front of him. Her brows twitched upon reading the subtitles above the book's header. Her mouth gaped in shock and bent towards it. "Is this what this is?" she asked him in a shocked expression.
"Leave me, you mongrel." Ricco pushed Annah out his way when she was literally bending over his view.
But Annah was persistent and even slid herself to the chair beside him and nabbed the book to his possession and began flipping the pages.
"I can't believe this. It's here! It's all here! How?" Annah beamed for more.
"Can't you see, I'm reading it? You insufferable hybrid." Ricco reached for his book but Annah just merely swatted his hands away.
"How did you even have a hand on this book? This is the only copy there is." Annah asked.
"I'm the king's son," he said and gave up from taking away his book from her tight grip.
"Lend me this." Annah turned to him with her round eyes.
"Not a chance, Park."
"But-" Annah bit her lower lip and looked down the fine arts of antediluvian incantations-The Conipuput. "-were you studying it to earn an apprenticeship with professor Toc?"
Ricco just simply jerked his shoulders, not really answering her question. But Annah took it as a yes.