1"We both know we're not cut out for each other."
Jordan had known no peace since the Date Night incident. Unable to bottle up his apprehension any longer, he arranged for them to meet at the volleyball pitch after practice when classes were over.
Staring nonplussed at her, he sighed shakily, rubbing his palms together. "So you mean to say you only agreed to be my date on the condition that I helped you pass the test?"
"Why else would I do that?" she returned casually, crossing her arms over her bosom.
"You even…" he paused to pull in a deep breath on realizing he was almost yelling. "You even proposed to him in my presence, Charl…"
"It's Sakura," she reminded in a tone in contrast to the sternness that shaded the apathy in her eyes for a second.
"Sakura," he breathed, nodding yieldingly. "You can't possibly be this cruel, can you? We have…"
"Save us this bullshit, Jordan!" She waved him off when he attempted to cross their distance, rolling her eyeballs snidely. "You and I both know where your lousy heart lies. Or do you think I'm that dumb to not have noticed?" she completed, looking him up and down with disdain dripping through her gestures.
"What…?" He attempted to defend himself but his lips only ended up wobbling, unable to say anything more.
"What?" She paused, sneering at him. "Do you seriously think I don't know you have a thing for Ashley?" She snickered maniacally. "Quite unfortunate someone like you had to be the class representative. Why else would someone of my class…." lingering on the last word, she stressed emphatically, " be with a goofball like you? I mean…," she spun, flaunting her features. "Don't you agree I deserve Daniil? Just take a good look at yourself and try to compare yourself with Daniil in your thick skull!" she concluded with a snark.
"A…" Jordan mouthed, parting his lips to speak when she hushed him again.
"Aha!" she exclaimed with a snap of her fingers as though an idea just visited. "You like Ashley; I like Daniil. Instead of fighting…," she accented, laggardly drawing her steps to him with a manipulative look creeping to her features. "Why don't we team up to get them for ourselves? I think Daniil is smart enough to help me through my academics so it's a win-win," she suggested, thinking the last part aloud.
"Is that why you tried to kill her?"
Shock stormed into Jordan's eyes, bulging them through and sweeping over the confusion as he stretched the furrow between his brows, raising them aptly with his gaze still interlocked with Sakura's. The scheming look in her eyes however diminished into darts, apprehension duly replacing it. Jordan then swayed his gaze over her shoulder, in the voice's direction instead.
"Charlotte!" the familiar voice hailed sternly when she wouldn't turn around.
"Ha…Ha…Hana," Jordan stuttered. "What is she saying?" he nervously whispered to Sakura whose hands were already shivering slightly, inclining his head downward to meet her buried gaze.
Sakura heaved a deep sigh before turning around to her seething cousin.
"Look, I…"
*Smack*
Jordan gasped at the sight of that. Sakura was trying to speak up when Hana trotted to her and slapped the words right out of her mouth.
Sakura seemed awfully quiet as one who was usually brazen. Her neck remained tilted as an aftermath of the slap, while her breath gradually became soft gasps. She probably was shaken at the time.
She sniffed in air and actively running her fingers through her hair to clear her view, she raised her wobbling eyes to Hana. "What are you talking about?"
Hana scoffed loudly, taken aback by the stunt she was trying to pull. 'Now she was gonna act clueless huh?' was all over her expression.
"I think you know just what I mean, dearest sister," she whispered through gritted teeth, grabbing her head from behind and forcefully pulling her face closer. "What the fuck is this?" Raising her left hand to her face, she held up her phone displaying a paused clip across its screen.
Trying her hardest to hold on to Sakura's staunch eyes with hers losing balance in contrast, she only swerved to her screen seconds later. Her eyes instantly assumed the shape of a moon on recognizing the scene, a sharp gasp escaping her lips in response as she pulled her tremoring hands up into a facepalm.
"Do you now know what I'm talking about?" She let go vigorously, pushing her to stumble back to stability and made to withdraw her hand still suspended in the air when Jordan grabbed the phone from her.
"What were you thinking, Charlotte?!" she scolded. "Did you think you could leave unscathed?! What were you thinking when you pushed her into the god-damned pool?! What?!!!!" she ended with a yell, aggressively pushing her hands against Sakura's shoulders.
"Sak… I mean, babe, what's this?" Jordan asked, veering to her, getting all jittery. Now the duo had their heightened attention on the speechless figure whose palms appeared to be stuck to her lips. Judging by how her eyes wandered below their eye levels, it was pretty obvious she was trying to avoid eye contact by all means.
"You could go to jail, you know that?! Did you think nothing of the Yoshida family name before trying to drag it into this mess?!" Now pulling one hand away from her lips abrasively, "Answer me, you nitwit. What were you thinking?!" she barked.
"Ahhhh!" she vented, letting go and turning away in a fit.
"Are you ready to go to jail?" she breathed with forced composure, her back still against her. Just then, a huff sound reached her ears, urging her to turn back around. And right there hanging on Sakura's lips was a smug smirk.
"What?" She scoffed again. "Did Ashley rat me out or sum'n? What can she possibly do?"
Hana's eyes strolled down leisurely to Sakura's hands trembling slightly by her sides. To further conceal and perfect the charade, she drew her arms up and crossed them over her bosom casually. Even the dumbest fool could've been able to tell she was frightened to death already. Deep down, her heart was pounding erratically but the much arrogance she was fueled with would not let her crumble over someone as "insignificant" as Ashley.
"Dumbass," Hana spat in her awe.
Even though she wanted to stand her ground through all of this, she could not dispute the fact that her cover was blown already. As such, it took nothing for Hana to make her superficial boldness go into smoke as she took slow advancing steps toward her while her eyes brimmed with enigma. Sakura responsively retraced her steps on impulse, uncrossing her arms and dropping her hands by her sides again, this time clenched into fists. Hana then suddenly extended her hand beside her, spurring a flinch as she somehow foresaw a second slap, but relaxed a bit when Hana's phone came into sight. She'd done that to retrieve her phone from Jordan standing there the whole time.
"What is going on?" Jordan mouthed to Sakura who tilted to look at him momentarily, perplexity already gnawing away at his expression.
"Daniil."
Her heart skipped two beats at the sound of that. "Daniil"? What could he possibly have to do with this? More importantly, why was that fidgeting?
With a grim look clouding her eyes, she proceeded to say: "He promised to make your life a living hell."
Besides his intervening on Ashley's behalf being a hard pill to swallow, for some odd reason, this had a profound effect on her. Her ego could have easily walked her through the fact that it was Ashley who'd gotten Hana riled up. But right now, it was a different ballgame altogether. Even she could not deny what bad news Daniil could be. Although she barely knew his background, she could effortlessly tell from the way he acted toward people in general, that he was no ordinary guy. And also judging from the sore encounters they'd had, he would not hesitate in fulfilling that promise. Her feelings toward him held no barrier up when he got pissed; he could do and undo without batting an eye, that much she'd come to know about him. Accepting defeat, she finally relaxed her clenched muscles.
"Tasukete," she pleaded tremulously in Japanese, falling on her knees.