Crack. Boom!
Immediately after An's words, thunderous sounds roared from a clear, sunny sky. Deafening, fierce, and jarring, it violently shattered both the air and the fragile peace we were all trying to maintain. When Kurokawa kissed C yesterday, I thought I heard that same booming sound. Even as my fists banged on the steel door out of frustration, with Rachel smirking behind my back, the echoes of the thunder still rang out louder than any bell or siren, and definitely more audible than flesh and bone colliding with steel and iron.
A tight, gnawing anxiety began coiling in my chest.
What was happening? How could she know? What did she know? Why was she different from me?
I stared at that ginger girl's childish face, only to be met with a piercing, confident, yet almost indifferent stare. My reflection was nothing but a meager beam of reflected light in a void of incomprehensible darkness, as if I did not matter one bit, a tiny, puny nuisance. To put things worse, her words were hollow and uncaring, and they felt like they wanted to erase my existence. She did not care as I was less than a speck of dust to her. Between the two of us, I was obviously the taller one. However, in An's eyes, I was insignificant.
The housewife looked confused right after hearing that red-haired girl. It was the first time since she gained her freedom, and judging her face, perhaps she shared the same sentiment I had. "I swear I have no idea what you're talking about, An. This is, what? The first time we talked in years? What's up with you?"
It was a lie. We all knew that. C had shown us what the past was. Whatever Rachel was spouting, I knew this was not right. Kurokawa, too. All of us did, but we had to play along with that blond-haired succubus to keep things under control for C, to keep him from hurting himself. Although my boyfriend was already stunned, frozen in space and time, and with not a single thought escaping his mind, we could not let him know about his unique abilities.
Yet Rachel was not done. Her leading role was still under the spotlight, even though the marionette no longer controlled her entire being. The bookworm, whose face had been a pale color since we left, and I were merely pawns on this chessboard of hers. We knew not what to say in this awkward 'reunion' between the alleged childhood friend and a worshipper who probably did a lot of stalking.
"Han, how many years have passed since the last time I actually talked to An?" She yelled, her voice reaching a faraway person looking in.
"I don't know. I forgot. Uh... Maybe two?" Han threw his comments at us, not forgetting to keep a distance from this show, yet deliberately keeping his eyes on the situation like a curious cat with a face half-hidden.
"See, it's quite hard remembering something from two years ago, Lil' An." The housewife shrugged her shoulders as if getting rid of a pest. "You'll have to excuse me for not knowing what you're trying to say. Mmmkay? Now, how about letting him go? We gotta get to class." Rachel quickly reached out to grab An's arm, only to be met with a forceful slap on her hand.
The blond-haired girl's expression shifted from confusion to irritation to acceptance with little effort. Without knowing Rachel, no one could even grasp the truths she hid behind the facade she wore. She was, in all honesty, a talented actor. Too talented. I could hardly contain the boiling, seething rage I got. She made it seem like it was a regular Tuesday.
Rumble
"Troublesome as ever." Eyes flickering with dreadful anger, she withdrew her slightly trembling arm, now covered by a somewhat pink handprint on her nearly unblemished skin.
Two years, three years, five years. What difference would it make? I would even go so far as to say that vixen could not give one single damn thing about the time. What she needed, obviously, was an excuse. She wanted to put on a show and dispel this current bombing crisis that was driving C to malfunction.
"Don't. Call. Me. That." Little ginger growled like a monster. Her voice was bursting with seething hatred, coming from the very depths of hell, like a terrifying beast revealing its fangs. Evidently, I was reminded of what C meant when he said An hated being called small. He did not take the subject lightly at all.
"Call you what? Lil'? Little?" The housewife's lips started to curve sharply. I never thought I would root for her. "But isn't it the truth, though? You are so tiny, I can crush you with my bare hands!" Rachel's words were laced with venom but coated like honey. The killing intent was impossible to miss.
"Try it." An said, colder than ice.
"Let C go, and we'll dance."
"No!"
Before Rachel and An could even throw the first attack, C's sudden voice ripped through the heavy tension like the same knife I once used to cut through someone's neck. Without further delay, my boyfriend moved his body, hurriedly placing himself between An and Rachel meticulously so that if they were to do something, no matter who initiated it, he would have been the one to suffer first.
"Please, don't do this," C begged.
I seriously do not need a blood bath right now! This atmosphere is already smelling like sulphur and iron! Questions are for later! I must defuse this bomb ASAP! We are still in uncharted territory after Kurokawa's event anomaly!
An, clutching on C still, nodded vigorously: "Okaaay! If C said so, An wouldn't waste her breath anymore! An doesn't want C to think of An as being a naughty girl!"
A strong gust of wind that blew up dust grazed my skin and eyes, forcing me to scratch it a little bit. When I opened my eyes, I really hoped An was gone as if waking up from an uncomfortable dream, yet she remained.
It was like flipping a switch —not cute, but terrifying, like watching a serial killer changing into a baby. An's attitude did a 180 change, from a girl who looked at everyone with nothing but disdain and contempt to heart-shaped pupils. Her kind of affection, her loving voice, her unmistakable sense of worship, and the tenderness in every action screamed an anomaly in her presence. Unlike my initial presence in this world, that girl did not have a single speck of doubt in her soul.
She was already freed. I did not like her one bit. Much more so than the likes of Rachel.
"C, C! Can you praise An for being good? Please? Pretty please? Prewwy Pwease?"
"Yes, yes. You're a good girl. You've been a good girl." That came with head pats, and I was getting furious out of jealousy. Why was she getting everything that could have been mine?
"He he he." An snickered, eyes became two happy arcs.
It did not take a genius to figure out she had memories of her past life, perhaps even further beyond. By the looks of everything, the others probably figured it out, too. After all, An did no effort to hide it. The red-haired girl holding on tightly to C's body right now, like a koala, was inherently different from every girl who had appeared since the beginning, a stark contrast to everyone else. There was no reason to question whether or not the catalyst between C and her had ever happened. Her event, no matter what it was, according to C's thoughts, was not in motion for another few days.
"I think this is enough!" I said, voice unknowingly dropping below zero.
There was An, loving and hugging C as if they were already a couple. It made my blood boil to an unreasonable degree. No amount of illogical nonsense could make me let that slide! To hell with her abnormal appearance! What the hell was she thinking? Hugging MY boyfriend?! "Please let go of C. He is very uncomfortable with you right now."
An looked at me with a 'are you dumb' kind of face: "He doesn't look uncomfortable to me."
At least look at me a little when you reply like that!
"Besides," An's eyes focused intensely on me. "Who are you supposed to be?! An doesn't know you."
There was absolutely nothing for me to say about liking that person, yet her behavior was strange. It was not simply hatred or jealousy —the kind of emotion I saw in Rachel's eyes. She genuinely seemed not to know who I was, or perhaps she did not care that much to remember. Still, for someone who supposedly got her memories from the past... Maybe 'Laura' had never been introduced to her.
"I'm his girlfriend! You are a nobody! Let go!"
"No, you're not!"
Except for disgust and contempt, there was nothing else in An's voice, which made me clench my fist into a lump of iron.
"I am!"
"Nuh uh!" She stuck her tongue out, a grotesque parody of childishness.
Help! I need an adult! I NEED AN ADULT!
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