Her mask cracked. For the first ti, a flush of color rushed to her face, her eyes widening.
"What—? No. I don’t need your useless permission for anything."
"Then I don’t need yours either. Equal."
The words slipped out smoother than I expected, and I leaned back in my seat, feeling the tiniest bit of satisfaction.
Wait, but why was I even bickering with this girl? What kind of life had I stumbled into where arguing about permission to leave a chair was a hill worth dying on?
"You do," she insisted stubbornly.
I rubbed my temple again, fighting the urge to slam my forehead against the desk.
"And for what reason?"
Her eyes burned into mine, her voice like ice.
"Because I said so."
I stared at her in silence, then let out the longest sigh of my life.
Yeah. If sitting beside her didn’t kill , the argunts surely would.
I wasn’t sure how long I was going to live with this girl as my seatmate, but sothing told my life expectancy had already been cut in half.
-----------
The mont class ended and the shuffle of feet filled the room, I let my head collapse onto the desk.
Exhaustion seeped into my bones. Class was draining enough, but add hunger on top of it and I was about ready to sell my soul for a plate of rice.
Still... I couldn’t complain too much. Yara had actually stopped talking to throughout the lesson.
My headache might have cracked my skull open if she hadn’t. That silence, rare as it was, felt like a blessing.
While I lay there, half-dozing, half-planning what I needed to do before robbing that organization the system dumped on , I felt a tap on my shoulder.
My head shot up instantly.
Of course. Who else could it be? Yara. Always Yara.
I rubbed my eyes and muttered.
"What do you want now?"
"Don’t you know how to ask any nicer?" she replied flatly, though her stare carried the usual sharp edge.
"This is even the nicest I can be," I said, deadpan.
Her expression didn’t change, but I swore she looked tired of our endless bickering.
For once, she skipped the verbal sparring and went straight to business.
"I want you to follow ."
My instincts imdiately flared.
"To where?" I asked cautiously.
"Just follow," she said again, as if that explained everything.
I rolled my eyes.
"You could at least try to be more civilized when kidnapping soone. Maybe lure with candy or a fake flyer about a lost puppy. Sothing less obvious."
Her hand curled into a fist, knuckles tightening, though her face remained as blank as always. But I could feel the heat in the air.
"You know," she said, her tone cold but calm, "you’re the first person to ever talk to disrespectfully, make repeat myself, question , and annoy this much... and still be alive. I could just follow my instincts and kill you right now."
I gave her a thin smile, though every nerve in my body scread caution.
"I’m quite special, it’s an honor, Miss Yara. Besides, I already paid the price for my previous actions, so an apology wouldn’t really change anything now, would it?"
Her fist loosened at the word Miss Yara. I caught it instantly, the little shift in her posture, the way the tension bled out just slightly.
So that was it. Her weak spot. Praise her, acknowledge her superiority, survive another day.
I filed that survival tip away in the ergency folder in my brain.
If I was stuck with her, I had no choice but to adapt.
"I’ll let that slide. Just for today," she said finally, her eyes narrowing. "It won’t another ti."
"Noted," I replied, forcing my tone casual even though my pulse hadn’t slowed down yet.
"So, since you’re so curious about why I want you to follow ..." Yara began, her tone flat but with a hint of hesitation. "Uh, well... I want you to go with to get sothing to eat. Food’s on ."
I just stared at her. No reply. No nod. Just stared.
"Why? Do you still want to kill that badly, even though you already said you wouldn’t?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
Her hand rose to her forehead like my words had physically given her a headache.
Honestly, I wasn’t wrong. She looked like she was regretting even opening her mouth to .
But I had to be cautious. This was Yara. She wasn’t just so random girl from class, she was a walking executioner.
If she really wanted gone, she could pay off an entire restaurant staff to keep quiet while she stabbed mid-bite.
Or worse, just slip poison into the al and watch choke.
Her teeth ground together before she spoke.
"I’m trying to be as generous as possible, but you’re taking it for granted. I’m literally saving your butt."
That caught off guard.
"Saving my butt? Wait, what do you an by that?"
Most people would’ve said ’helping you’. But her exact words were ’saving your ass’. And that sounded way too deliberate. Suspicious.
Normal people might have ignored that detail, but not . Not here. Not in an academy full of rich brats with family secrets and knives hidden behind their smiles.
Her lips curled into a smirk, her eyes lighting up with amusent like she had just caught stepping into her trap.
She leaned closer, enough that I could feel the chill of her presence.
"Can’t you ever let details go?"
"No," I answered instantly.
"Well then... yes, I really did an it. I said ’saving your ass’ because I am." She paused, clearly enjoying this too much, then dropped the bomb. "I know you have less than five hundred dollars left in your bank, don’t you?"
My face went blank. The air around stiffened.
"Courting death?!" I muttered under my breath.
Her smirk vanished in an instant.
"Huh?" She blinked, caught off guard. For a mont she just stared at , silent, her expression unreadable.
Then realization seed to dawn on her. Her eyes widened, and she jabbed her finger toward , her composure cracking.
"You...!"
But instead of finishing her thought, she abruptly turned her head away. Her voice dropped into a mutter.
"...You dare!"
I leaned back, lips tightening. I hated this. Soone digging into my life like that, pulling out details I hadn’t even spoken aloud.
It wasn’t just casual curiosity either, Yara’s kind of digging wasn’t normal. It was invasive, suffocating.
Like having my entire existence displayed on an open page for her to flip through whenever she pleased.
For rich and popular people, privacy didn’t exist anyway. But ? I wasn’t exactly that popular. I had a na, sure. But now, I actually had secrets, things I couldn’t let anyone sniff out.
But I’m not sure she can find out about the system.
"So," she said at last, regaining her calm exterior, "are you coming or not?"
I leaned back in my chair, thinking it through. There wasn’t much to lose.
At worst, it wasted so ti I could’ve used planning my quest. At best... maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.
But if she wanted to go, I had conditions.
"If you want to co along, I have a few rules."
Her eyes narrowed.
"...What?"
"First, you pay."
"...I already said I would."
"Second, don’t give a headache."
She just stared at . No reply. Of course. That one was practically impossible for her.
I continued anyway.
"Third, don’t do anything to harm ."
Still silence. But this one I wasn’t letting slide.
I tapped my finger against the table sharply, demanding an answer.
Her lips finally moved.
"...Depends."
"Huh?!" I almost choked on my own spit.
That was not the answer I was expecting.
She looked away, as if the conversation had already ended for her.
It was pointless to force her. If she wanted to dodge, she would.
"Fine, fourth rule," I said. "You’ll answer any question I ask."
"Still depends. I can’t guarantee that."
I exhaled through my nose, glaring at her.
Annoying. Absolutely annoying.
Still, rules one, two, and three were the important ones. Well... mostly one and three. Two was just wishful thinking.
I shrugged.
"Alright then. With that settled..."
I stood, pushing my chair back, and gestured toward the door.
"...Lead the way, Miss Yara."
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