Empty Promises

|8| Taking Control

A/N: Recommend reading: Up to chapter 51

"Hey Hanami." Kiara suddenly appeared as she tapped my shoulder to grab my attention. "Err... are you and (L/N) actually a thing now?"

"I thought you already knew that." I arched an eyebrow, a bit weirded out by her question. We had been dating for quite some time now... 

"Well yeah, everyone at school knows that." She grimaced. "I just wanted to see if it really was true."

"Why?" I narrowed my eyes.

"It's just-... I still have difficulties believing it."

"And why is that hard for you to believe?" I frowned, not liking where this was going.

"Because he's always been so unapproachable and more like a daydream I guess," she pondered.  "I mean-" she began, "just how does fate work?! You used to complain so much about him and now bam! You're dating!" She exclaimed. "You got lucky," she chuckled, though there was a hint of bitterness in her tone. "He's so handsome and so charming," she swooned. "Though I guess it's true he can be quite intimidating." She grimaced at this.

I rolled my eyes. He actually wasn't that intimidating. He was more sarcastic and dry than anything else. It was the eyes that made him appear that way.

"I'm still in shock, honestly," she continued her rant, her head shaking in disbelief. "I can't believe he's actually noticed you of all-" She was quick to stop herself.

My eyebrows furrowed in displeasure.

"That he noticed me of all people?" I finished her sentence and crossed my arms against my chest. 

"I didn't mean it like that," she chuckled awkwardly. 

I clicked my tongue. She did mean it like that. She was being serious. 

"Sorry if I offended you Hanami," she was quick to say.

This sudden apology surprised me. It was the first time Kiara was apologizing to me... Whenever we argued, I was always the one to go after her. Like that day we argued about me getting kicked out of the drama club...

Now that I thought about it... Did she actually play the victim after I got mad at her for dismissing my dreams? 

I frowned, that argument running through my head. Yes. She did. She made me the villain. 

I narrowed my eyes and stared at her in silence. Since when was she the one to apologize? It didn't make sense unless-... Was she now trying to get on my good side because I was dating Rui?

It would make sense because, ever since Rui announced our relationship, I took notice of how easy I now found it to boss people around. My conversation with Emica was one of those instances. After all, she had always followed Fuyuko but as I began posing a bigger threat, she tried to get on my good side. 

"Hanami, are you okay?" Kiara asked since I still wasn't talking and was just spacing out into the distance. 

I didn't respond and I continued pondering over all this new information.

Kiara... she wasn't a good friend, was she? She had only stuck with me because she probably had no other choice. And worst of all, it was always her who decided on everything. It was her who always made the decisions. And I had always hated that. 

But now, it was me who had the upper hand. It was me who could be in control. I got something she didn't have and she was jealous... Just like Fuyuko who threatened me because I was dating the boy she liked.

I smirked, but my smile soon faltered. They were only jealous of me because they didn't know the whole story. They didn't know the only reason why Rui even started talking to me was because of an arranged marriage. After all, they could only see the appearances he had carefully laid out. 

I frowned at the thought. People were now jealous of me. They wanted to be in my shoes, they looked up to me... but it was all a lie. If it wasn't for this marriage, I would still be that theatre loser who never got any roles... 

'But who cares?' A sudden thought crossed my mind. 'At the end of the day, people will only see what you decide to show them. No one knows this is an arranged marriage. No one knows the truth.'

"Well Kiara, you did offend me," I flashed her a creepy cheshire-like smile as I tilted my head to the side. "Shouldn't you apologize to your good friend?"