Chapter 10: "Denials"

Angelo Cruz POV

I was catching my breath as I arrived at the karaoke bar near our school, I immediately went to the counter and asked, "Have you seen a girl here somewhere with brunette long hair, ah with fringe wearing a gray uniform, around this height? What else... ah, she seems shy and she has round deep brown eyes."

The counter snaps his finger, "Ah the cute girl?"

I blushed as I look away, "Ye-yeah...is she here?"

"Yes but she left just a few minutes ago with some guy... man, her head was bleeding pretty badly, I guess, he took her to the hospital."

I felt a shiver down my spine, I was so worried, "What? Is she fine? What happened?"

But the counter was clueless. I was about to leave and check which hospital Kristina was sent to when I heard the guys behind me snickering, "Damn it, we always had her too. That damn annoying guy just had to come."

I look back and saw it was the same group of guys who took Kristina earlier.

One of them had blood on their hand, I gritted my teeth.

Suddenly one of them remarks, "What was her name? Kristina, was it? Too bad, it would've been fun to see her so desperate."

"So cute-" 

I clenches my fist tigthly and smacked him before he even finished talking, I grabbed him, the one with blood on his hands by his collar and pushed him so hard to the wall that his head started bleeding. One of them punches me, "Who the hell do you think you are punk?! You just hit beast!"

I spit out blood and I mocked, "My god, are you all talk? You punch like a girl."

He threw another punch but this time I avoided his attack and countered by punching him in his stomach.

The counter was panicking, "H-hey, take your fight outside!"

The remaining two guys attacked me at the same time but I grabbed both their arms and twisted it. They screamed in agony, "You a**hole! Your broke our arms!"

"Who among you came up with the stupid idea to bring Kristina along with your stupid plans?"

They looked at the guy with the broken arm instinctively. I turned back to look at him with a piercing gaze. My heart is pounding so loud, I'm so furious at them. I punched the guy they all looked at until he can barely see anymore. He was coughing blood and if I threw another punch, he might be in a critical condition.

I raises my fist in the air until one of them shouts, "Hey! that's enough! He's dying, what the hell are you doing?!" I punched the floor slightly grazing his face. My fist was already bleeding as well. I grabbed some money from my pocket and gave it at the counter, I said, "For your troubles. Place your hospital fees on my name."

"You're insane."

"Touch Kristina again and I'll insanely kill you next time." I threatened as I left.

I rode my bike home, no one was there. I stared at my ceiling and then my fists, ah... this is bad, I got so mad at them for hurting Kristina. I told myself over and over that she's someone I shouldn't associate myself with. I keep telling myself I don't like her but why am I so much affected by all this?

Ah, it's hurting my head.

Why did you have to get hurt Kristina? I'm going to go crazy worrying like this but I can't visit her like this. I can't be that insensitive. Ah, why did it have to be you?

Why should you be the person I like? Ah snap out of it, Angelo, it's a temporary feeling and it'll fade away.

Will it?

I peek outside and saw Kristina's mom rushing to go out, she must've heard where Kristina was taken to. I hesistated to follow her but I didn't... it's my fault that she's in that condition right now. I could've stopped them earlier.

ah... this is so annoying. I grab some ice to alleviate the pain on my knuckles and face from where I was hit earlier. The bleeding stopped and I bandaged them messily because both of my hands are injured, both of it was shaking. Crap... what would my dad say?

If they knew, they'd immediately send me back abroad. 

I scoffs and muttered to myself, "Am I really their son? Oh right...I'm not, I'm just a bastard son. A tool they need to keep the bloodline running."

Screw it. 

Screw it all.

Suddenly, my phone was ringing, it was her. Great, just great, the timing is impeccable. Is the universe conspiring against me right now?

I sighed as I answered the phone, "Hey, what made you call?"

"I heard about what happened."

I replied, "You really have eyes everywhere, do you? How did you send this time?"

"To be fair, I just did it because you never tell me anything besides, did you really have to beat up those guys? What did you do that for?"

Huh, so she doesn't know about Kristina yet, so it wasn't one of my friends, who the hell did she send this time to spy on me?

I changed the topic, "Well, now that you know about that immediately, I'm assuming you already know where I'm staying right now."

"...Yeah, yeah I do...did you meet Kristina?"

"When?"

"When what?"

I replied, "When are you planning to go here and forcibly pick me up? or were you planning on suddenly being here without notice?"

She was silent then she replied breaking the silence, "Please don't make me come there. Just go home."

I hang up the phone.

Crap, she already knows.

Kristina Valdez POV

I slowly opened my eyes trying to make sense of what happened. The white light of the hospital ceiling was the first thing I saw. The smell and the atmosphere here brings back memories of my first ever panic attack. I hated going to the hospitals.

It always scared me as a kid.

I tried to stand up but my head hurts suddenly, I was assisted by a guy's unfamiliar face, it was blurry, maybe because I don't have my glasses on. He says, "Wait, take it easy. What do you feel?"

"...who are you?" I was confused as I grabbed my eyeglasses to see his face more clearly.

He says, "I'm the one who found you. I'm Kevin Langdon."

meet Kevin Langdon

a 173cm tall guy with a slim build weighing at 65kg. He's from class 4-A and he's the head of computer coding society in their school. He has a jolly and friendly personality matching his cute face. He has a jet black colored hair which was cleanly groomed as expected from someone in the class A standards.

he has a captivating set of slanted eyes surrounded by his long lashes. He's the white prince at our school, so they said.

"Ah, you're the stalker."

Kevin was surprised, "Never in my life have I been called a stalker."

"But you are. You knew about Ashley."

He laughs as he explained, "She's my sister."

Crap, that was embarassing, I apologized, "I'm really sorry for jumping to wild conclusions."

"Don't you always?"

I looked at him in confusion, he pinches my cheeks and said, "I told you I was transferring to the same school as you and you never even tried to find me."

"What?"

"Seriously?" he grabs his phone and showed it to me, he continued, "Nice to meet you, I'm K."

"What?!"

But my online friend K... is a girl? WHAT? K is actually a boy?!