Whereas Hanagaki Akari's loyalty was torn between her love for her beloved king and her friendship with the king's strongest adversary.
Who will she choose?
Sequel to The Boss Queen.
Read the first book to understand the story better since this is...
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AKARI WAS in a complete daze.
The 'incident' with the kiss kept playing in her head like a damn broken record that she couldn't look Izana directly in the eye without easily getting flustered whenever he was around.
And she had been behaving like an idiot ever since.
Who wouldn't be? That was her first kiss, after all. And she happened to share it with someone she deeply cared for. It was actually the strangest feeling to her and she was getting all these stupid butterflies. She can't even sleep properly that night. Unlike her, however, Izana appeared to act pretty normally and his treatment of her didn't change the slightest.
Was she the only one who was overreacting to the matter?
"STRIKE THREE!!! BATTER OUT!!!" the umpire shouted from behind.
Eh?
Akari blinked a few times. Her brain ceased to function and couldn't comprehend what in the world happened just now. Only to realize late that she failed to hit the fast-approaching ball thrown by the pitcher and instead, went straight to the catcher's mitt.
"Oh," was all she could say, and then, walked back to the dugout. Shit, she didn't notice she had three strikes already. The softball club had been in rigorous training amidst their summer vacation to condition their bodies for their upcoming practice match to be held a day after in Tokyo.
The ravenette flinched as she suddenly received a hard slap in the butt from their coach the moment she entered the dugout, causing her to almost lose her balance.
"What in the world's gotten into you, Hanagaki? You're getting sloppy these past few days! Get your head in the game, girl! Focus! Focus!"
Akari bowed her head to the older female in apology. "I'm sorry, coach. It won't happen again," she said reassuringly while simply rubbing her pained butt.
Their coach frowned in apparent dismay with her hands on her waist. "Of course, you won't. You're our team's ace, Hanagaki! If you continue to dawdle, I have no other choice but to put you on reserve until your mind is clear. I don't want someone useless in my team, got it?" she stated sharply.
Akari nodded in obedience. "I understand, coach." She motioned to one of the vacant benches and sat down, ignoring all the stares from her other teammates. She removed her batting helmet and hurled a lengthy sigh. "Sheesh. The coach can be cruel sometimes," she muttered with a crushed spirit.
"Here, senpai." One of the girls handed her a white face towel and a bottle of water.
"Thank you," Akari said with a soft smile, making the younger teen seemingly delighted with her small gratitude before going back to her own seat.
