Date night.
The one night students of Political science in IUC longed for every semester. (300 and four hundred levels respectively) It was a tradition established by their predecessors to foster relationships between themselves, expanding their political world and career through those meetings. It was founded based on the relationships between men and women in politics, majorly coming together for the sole aim of annexing territories, and obliterating common enemies.
Initially, date night was simply professional; no strings or hard feelings attached. With the students then particular about gaining grounds before leaving school, date night took the form of meetings to allow students form alliances with equally respectable and influential families to aid their growth. Sometimes some couples ended up together in the real world.
But now, date night was reduced to a measly chance of letting the students ask their crushes to a date, and flaunt their wooing/dating skills and their wealth in extreme cases. Some students could go all out in preparing luxurious proposals, driving their best cars to the venue, and dressing in a lavish style. Its original intentions were forsaken.
"Be my date"… "Will you be my date for that night?" … Flowers… bouquets made of dollar bills… all and more were flying in the air as this year's date night was fast approaching. Following those were of course rejections, joyful wails, sighs of distress, as students either got the ship sailing or sunken before they could even board.
Archer received one of those from Hana who didn't like to wait for the other party, and it was already a sealed deal.
At the time it was halfway into lunchtime and he went to the near-empty class to find Ashley sitting alone as usual.
He walked to her.
"Hey, Ash." He called her attention with a nudge because she had headphones on.
She slid them down lazily before raising her unenthusiastic eyes to him. Typical of Ashley. She wasn't the least affected by the date night frenzy.
"What are your plans for date night?" He asked, ignoring the voice in his head that already disclosed to him the answer.
"Who cares about any of that? Date night is the last place I'd be on that weekend."
"So we're not seeing you there?"
"Of course not, Archer."
"Ashley can you not try to make it? You don't have to stay for too long or get yourself a date. Just come," he tried to convince but it obviously wasn't getting anywhere to her.
"You bagged yourself a date, yeah? What difference would my presence make?"
"I just hope you'd loosen up and be free."
"I don't have to go for date night to loosen up," she retorted sharply.
"Have fun, Archer," she drawled and then pulled her headphones back in place.
Since Hana's return, they weren't as close and Archer was merely trying to make things right. He heaved a sigh and left her, feeling downcast.
"Archer, what are you doing here? I've been looking all over for you." He ran into Hana at the door. She linked arms with him and they strolled out together.
"What should I wear for date night? Could you help me pick a dress? I want to look stunning for you on that night, Archie. I can't imagine how…" she kept jabbering while gesticulating.
Archer did nothing but listen patiently until she was done.
She suddenly unlinked arms and the next thing Archer saw was a tan-skinned girl with wobbly eyes hopping in before him. "So what do you think?" Hana asked with eyes sparkling with high hopes and expectations.
Archer just stared back for a while, and just when his silence was about to sap the energy in her eyes…
"I think anything would look ravishing on you." He stated matter-of-factly, cupping those mushy cheeks of hers with a seductive smile on.
Her tan cheeks immediately went bright red and she buried her face in her palms feeling shy.
Hours onward…
Sakura was on her way to the boys. To the boys in the sports team in pitch D where they practiced before retiring home on certain days. Now clubs had been formed, they did so within themselves to get ready for whatever inter-school competitions that may arise.
She had a bouquet probably to propose and get a date for date night?
By the time she arrived, practice sessions were over and the boys were leaving the locker room one after the other. She had to wait patiently as no girls were allowed inside.
"Sakura?" she heard from Jordan who just walked out. "What are you doing here? Did you come looking for me?" His eyes went down to the bouquet she was holding, and then his lips curved into a narrow smile undeniably thinking she was here to ask him out.
"Look Kura. I was going to do this. You didn't have to…"
"Daniil!" she cut him off abruptly and walked past him almost at once when Daniil came out.
~~Daniil's POV~~
"Daniil." I heard a feminine voice call from behind and halted. It was Yoshida calling. She was approaching me with a bouquet of red roses. 'Are we in the Valentine's season or what?'
"Here." She extended the flowers to me. "Be my date for date night," she asked rather confidently for one who's been at bay.
I looked condescendingly at the embodiment of her sloppy efforts in those flowers then raised my belittling gaze to her. If only she knew how much I loathed these. She should be giving these cheap things to her boyfriend and not me.
That's right, Jordan was around somewhere.
I extended my eyes and saw him in the background. He appeared furious and dumbfounded at the same time. I was enjoying this not gonna lie. I decided to play with them both a little.
With a smug smile still fixed on Jordan, I took the flowers from his girlfriend. He clenched his jaw, appearing more livid than before. This was fun!
"Jordan? Over here," I ordered beckoning on him with my fingers like a boss would to his lackey.
He remained unresponsive for a moment before taking calculative advancing steps toward us. He stopped, standing behind Yoshida. I on the other hand nudged her aside and took a step towards him.
I dumped the flowers at his feet. "Congratulations. You've earned yourself a date."
After flashing him a wry smile that made steam exhume his head, I turned around to leave when Yoshida blocked my path.
"Move aside," I ordered coolly.
"What makes you think you can trample on my feelings like this?!" she bawled.
"Sakura are you breaking up with me?" Jordan asked, materializing beside her.
"Move aside."
Her jugs bouncing up and down betrayed the intensity of the fumes that whirled up in her chest. I loved this feeling – crushing people's pride like eggs. The sound it made when I squashed eggs in my grip filled me with as much elation. Considering how dolled up she looked, I was able to tell she least expected a flat-out rejection from me. Well, that's because Yoshida was all beauty and no brains. Someone reasonable could tell when I had zero interest in them.
My glare hardened, sending chills to her spine seeing how her eyes wavered, darting around instead.
"Sort out your qualms and leave me out of it," I told them simply before walking out with pride surging through my veins.
"How could you do that in my presence, Sakura?!" I heard Jordan scold. How pathetic. I couldn't care less about their raggedy relationship but I sure was having a whole lot of fun watching their drama unfold. A sardonic smile squirmed its way to my lips, walking further out of eyeshot.
Lectures were over at the time.
I called Jason to come pick me up from the building's entrance.
"Hey boss what's good?" Jason greeted when I sunk into the backseat.
"Everything."
"Did something happen?" he asked probably giving me a closer look.
"Yeah, I just did something fulfilling." I still couldn't let go of the aftertaste that lingered in my mouth after the humiliation I meted out earlier; the mischievous smile never left my lips.
"I bet it's nothing good."
I huffed. "I figured out a way to get Ashley to come to me."
"Your one-sided love?" he remarked with sarcasm. My mood was tainted. I didn't like the sound of that but I refused to give in to my urge to refute; I wasn't in the mood for a brawl.
"You want to hear it or no?" I asked sounding a bit serious this time.
"Of course, I wanna hear it. What sorcery are you planning to perform this time?"
"Must you put it that way?"
"I'm sorry but I don't see another means of getting Ashley to join your pack of admirers."
"You think it's impossible, yeah?"
"No, I don't…" My brows creased in confusion. If he didn't think it was impossible, what could possibly warrant his silly remarks? "I don't think it's impossible. I know it is," he completed with emphasis on 'know.'
I scoffed in disbelief.
"And if I do?"
"I'm staking 50k, boss." I raised my brows, stunned by what he spewed.
"Excuse you?"
"Fifty thousand dollars in cash if you can pull it off in one week," he insisted. "You're gonna credit my account otherwise. Deal?"
"Do you have such an amount of money to give? You've been having your fill with my money, right?" I teased.
"I don't know about that but I'm almost hundred percent certain that bitch will not dance to your tunes in one month. I'm about to be made 50,000 dollars richer. Woohoo!!!" He accented the last part with a celebrating tone.
"Be prepared to lose your money. I already have everything planned out and the first step is soon to be underway."
"The first step? The fuck is that?"
"Ashley's going to be my date."
"Your date?"
"For date night."