JAY JAY POV
"Pay up, idiots!" Drew chirped, a triumphant grin on his face as he held his hand out while the rest of us were busy stuffing our faces with cake.
Jare groaned, looking like he wanted to punch the wall, but he reluctantly fished some crumpled bills out of his pocket. One by one, Percy, Aries, Eman, David, Calix, and Felix followed suit, grumbling under their breaths as they handed their money over to Drew.
"Hey, Drew, did you start another debt circle?" I asked, eyeing the stack of cash growing in his hand. "I thought I told you no more making debts"
"No, Mutya! This time, it was a fair and square bet," Drew said, fanning himself with the bills. "And I won by a landslide."
I turned my sharpest glare toward Section E. "Son of—who is idiot enough to bet with him? I've warned you guys a thousand times: any gambling involving Drew is strictly prohibited. You might as well just throw your wallets into the Pasig River."
I looked at my twin brother, who was still looking sour. "What the hell was the bet, Jare?"
Jare rolled his eyes so hard I thought they might actually get stuck in the back of his head. "We had a bet on how long it would take you to get here. We thought you'd come straight home after picking up that monkey from the airport. But Drew and the others bet that you guys wouldn't show up for at least two hours."
He paused, crossing his arms and giving me a look that felt like a forensic investigation. "And turns out, they were right. Where the hell were you guys for two hours? The airport isn't that far if you take the bypass."
SHIT.
I felt the blood rush to my face instantly. My mind flashed back to the car parked on that abandoned stretch of highway, the windows fogging up, and the way Keifer's hands felt... Ahem. Focus, Jay-Jay! Poise!
"Probably making a playmate for Grazel," Felix teased, nudging Jare with his elbow and giving me a look that screamed I know what you did last summer.
"Shut up!" I snapped, my face feeling like it was currently being grilled over an open flame. "I'm not planning to get pregnant yet! We just... got stuck in traffic! Manila traffic, hello? Have you seen the EDSA lately?"
"Keifer's face says otherwise," Denzel teased from the corner, leaning back with a smirk that was entirely too knowing. "He looks way too satisfied for someone who just sat in a bumper-to-bumper car for two hours. Plus, you know Grazel keeps asking for a baby sister or brother to play with."
I glared at Denzel, who was currently the only one among us who actually knew what he was talking about—since his wife had just given birth to a beautiful, screaming, diaper-filling baby girl.
"Asshole! Worry about your own wife and daughter first before you start worrying about my uterus," I hissed, my sass coming out in full force. "Go change a bag of diapers or something, Denzel!"
Keifer, who had been listening from the side while calmly sipping his drink, just let out a low, dark chuckle. The jerk didn't even try to defend me. Instead, he just caught my eye and winked at me over the rim of his glass.
"Yuri, tell them about your girlfriend already!" Blaster shouted, grinning like he was about to drop the biggest scoop of the year.
My ears practically perked up like a radar. Omo! Juicy gossip! I leaned forward, nearly dropping my fork. "Ohhh! We have a new couple in the group? What's her name, Yuri? Is she pretty? Does she like food?!"
Yuri shifted in his seat, looking like he wanted to vanish into the floorboards. "Nothing," he answered shortly.
I blinked, my forehead creasing in genuine sympathy. "Nothing? Really? That's her name? Gosh, I feel so bad for her. Her parents must have been really uninspired when they signed that birth certificate. Hi Nothing, nice to meet you! How do you even give her a nickname? Noth? Thingy? Poor girl."
Section E went dead silent for a second before a few of them started snickering into their drinks.
"I meant there is no one!" Yuri groaned, rubbing his temples as if my very existence was giving him a migraine.
I gasped, my eyes widening. "There is No One? That's even worse! Is she related to Odysseus or something? 'No One has stolen my heart!' That's just tragic, Yuri. Is she a ghost? A spy? Why would you date someone named No One?"
"Jay-Jay, stop," Keifer's low voice rumbled beside me. I felt his hand settle on the back of my chair, his thumb absentmindedly brushing against my shoulder. "He's saying he's single."
"Oh," I muttered, finally connecting the dots. My brain is sometimes like a slow internet connection—it takes a while for the page to load. "Why didn't you just say so, Yuri? You're making it so complicated!"
Yuri just stared at his plate, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'I give up.'
"Well, anyway," I shrugged, reaching for another slice of cake. "If you ever find a girl named Something, let me know. It'll be a huge improvement over Nothing."
Keifer let out a huff of laughter, his eyes softening as he looked at me. I could feel his gaze—steady and warm—marking me as the only person in the room who could be this profoundly empty-headed and still keep his attention.
"Don't worry about him, Jay," Keifer whispered, leaning in so only I could hear him. "Focus on your cake. You have frosting on your lip."
Frosting on my lip?! My heart skipped a beat. This is it. The classic K-Drama moment where he wipes it away with his thumb and…
I stared at him expectantly, my heart doing a frantic thump-thump. But instead of the romantic thumb-swipe, Keifer just handed me a napkin with a smug little smirk.
"Wipe it yourself, Mutya. I'm not your personal bib," he teased.
ASUNGOT! I snatched the napkin from his hand. Fine! No romantic movie moment for me today. I'll just eat my feelings instead. Cake never teases me. Cake understands me.
Hmph!
I crossed my arms and turned my head away, looking at the wall instead of the chocolate cake that was calling my name. If Keifer wanted to be a jerk and deny me my K-Drama moment, then he could just stay there and talk to the air! I'm a London-bred student, okay? I have pride!
"Keifer, I think you hurt Jay-Jay's feelings," Rakki said, leaning over the table. She looked at me with a sympathetic expression, then shot Keifer a look like he'd just committed a crime against romance.
I rolled my eyes. Feeling hurt? Please. I'm an independent woman! I don't get my feelings hurt just because a guy won't wipe frosting off my face!
...But he didn't have to be such an asshole about it. My daydream already had the background music and the slow-motion zoom-in ready to go, and he just... handed me a napkin like I was a messy toddler.
"What did I do?" Keifer asked.
He sounded genuinely confused, which actually made it ten times more annoying. He blinked, looking at me, then at Rakki, then back at me
"You're really asking that?" Felix chimed in, stifling a giggle. "you're supposed to be a genius, but when it comes to Jay-Jay, your IQ is lower than Drew's Math grades."
"Hey! Leave my grades out of this!" Drew barked from across the floor.
"Seriously, Keif," David added, shaking his head while leaning back. "Even I know that when a girl stares at you with frosting on her face, she's not waiting for a lecture on hygiene. She's giving you an opening."
Keifer shifted in his seat, his gaze dropping to the napkin in my hand and then back to my pouting lips.
"Jay-Jay," Keifer called out.
"What?" I snapped back, still nursing my bruised ego and my half-eaten cake. I didn't even look at him. I was too busy planning his demise in my head.
Suddenly, I felt his fingers near my face. Before I could ask what he was doing, he swiped a glob of white frosting from the edge of the cake and smeared it right over my lips.
My eyes widened. Is he serious right now?!
Keifer didn't give me time to breathe. He leaned in, his shadow completely swallowing me, and crashed his lips against mine.
It wasn't a gentle, sorry-I-was-a-jerk kiss. It was possessive, sweet, and tasted entirely like vanilla cream and him.
"Woahhhhh!" the Section E boys erupted in unison. The sound of chair legs scraping the floor and plates clattering echoed everywhere, but it felt like it was happening in a different dimension.
Keifer pulled back just a fraction—enough to look me in the eye—but he wasn't done. With a slow, deliberate motion, he licked the remaining frosting off my lips, his tongue grazing my skin in a way that made my knees turn into literal liquid. He cleaned every trace of the sugar, his gaze dark and focused entirely on me.
He finally pulled away, leaning back with that signature, heart-stopping smirk. He looked like he had just won the ultimate bet.
"Happy?" he asked, his voice low and vibrating with that annoying, beautiful confidence.
I stood there, frozen. My face was so red I was pretty sure I was glowing in the dark.
"Gago," I whispered.
It was the only word I could find.
"You're welcome, Mutya," he chuckled, reaching out to ruffle my hair as if he hadn't just shattered my entire nervous system in front of our friends.
I stuffed a huge piece of cake into my mouth, nearly choking on the sponge. I really, really hate him.
Just as I was trying to fan my face and pretend my heart wasn't doing the cha-cha, Jare and Percy strolled in. They were carrying a large, elegantly wrapped gift box, and they both had these mischievous grins that immediately made my danger sensors go off.
"Jay-Jay, we have a gift for you!" Jare announced, holding the box out with a bit too much enthusiasm.
"Give me!" I said, instinctively reaching out. I'm a simple girl—I see a box, I think there might be snacks or a cute outfit inside.
Beside me, I felt Keifer shift. He leaned in, his shoulder brushing mine, suddenly very interested in what my brothers had brought.
"Be careful... it's so fragile," Percy added, giving me a slow wink that practically screamed 'there is a prank inside this box.'
I paused, my fingers hovering an inch away from the ribbon. I raised my brows, looking from Jare to Percy, and then back to the box.
"Wait actually... you open the gift first," I said, retracting my hands and tucking them firmly behind my back.
"Why?" Jare asked, pouting his lip like I was being the unreasonable one.
"My dear twin brother, if there is one thing I've learned from seventeen years of sharing a womb with you, it's that I can never trust your 'gifts,'" I said, narrowed my eyes as traumatic flashbacks hit me like a runaway truck. "Remember the whipped-cream-exploding-pie from last year? And the Joker jack-in-the-box that literally gave me a bald spot from stress? No thank you!"
I nudged Keifer with my elbow. "Help me out here, Keifer. Don't they look suspicious? They have that 'we-just-put-a-glitter-bomb-in-your-life' look."
Keifer didn't move his gaze from my brothers. A slow, warning smirk touched his lips. "I agree. Open it, Jare. If it's actually a gift for my fiancée, you won't mind demonstrating that it's safe, right?"
The Section E boys started chanting in the background. "Open it! Open it! Open it!"
Jare looked at Percy. Percy looked at the ceiling. The silence lasted a bit too long for my comfort.
"Fine!" Jare huffed, grabbing the ribbon. "But don't blame me if the surprise is ruined because you're so paranoid!"
I hid behind Keifer's back, peeking over his shoulder, ready to bolt if anything started hissing or ticking. Lord, please let it just be a bag of chips.
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