𝐇𝐄'𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄

ᴇɴᴛʀʏ #30 | ᴛᴇɴꜱɪᴏɴ

030 | Tension

"Does Nicolai not have a good relationship with his father?" (Y/N) asked after a few beats of silence settled between her and Jian. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I'm not trying to pry. I'm just curious."

"Well, you could probably already tell, so I don't need to say any more," Jian smiled, however the look was strained.

She frowned at that.

Hm...

Even though Nicolai acts like a dickhead to me... it's probably because of his dad.

Maybe I should just...

Furrowing her eyebrows, recalling all her interactions with Nicolai, she then rolled her eyes as her mood successfully soured upon remembering exactly what he said or did to her.

Yeah, fuck trying to be nice to him.

I'll just ignore him.

"Alright," she shrugged as she stood up with a sigh, rolling her stiff neck before packing her stuff and shrugging her backpack on. "Since Nicolai said to leave when Mr. Orval got home, I'm going to head out now. We'll work more on the project tomorrow since Mrs. Young did promise to let us work on it in class."

"You're not going to stay longer?" Jian asked with a pout, laughing when (Y/N) obviously cringed.

"After that... no," she shook her head, giving him a brief wave before walking the steps up to the front door, about to exit when he stopped her.

"Maybe I should give you a ride home?" Jian suggested as he ran up to her.

"Huh? You don't have to. Didn't you say I could ask one of your drivers?" (Y/N) raised a brow as she thought about their earlier conversation when in the car driving over to his house—already having known that she wouldn't have been able to get home at a good time if she had to walk.

"Yeah, but I'd prefer it if you'd let me drive you."

"Hell no," she shook her head as she took a step back. "Stranger danger, remember?"

"Am I really a stranger?" Jian placed a hand to his chest. "I thought we were friends?"

"Do you think we're friends?"

"Obviously."

"Even after..." she trailed off, knowing that earlier that week she had probed deep into his personal life—in how he had been visiting his dead sister at the cemetery—and thought that he would have reacted differently; negatively.

"It's fine," he patted her head, his smile only softening when she swatted him away. "In all honesty... you remind me a bit of her."

Blinking up at Jian, (Y/N) didn't really know what to say to that.

"Come on, just let me drive you," he persisted.

Finally, she did relent, following him to his rather nice car that sleek and a dark grey in color. Sliding into her seat and shutting the car door, her mind whirred with activity. At first, she was a bit weirded out when Jian compared her to his dead sister, but then it made sense. It would explain why he wasn't irritated with her when she dug up those memories of Mei so suddenly and unexpectedly—it was because she reminded him of her.

The notion made her smile a little.

All while this was going on, Nicolai faced his father, the man who controlled basically everything about his life.

He hated him.

"What did you want to talk with me about, Father?" Nicolai asked, squeezing his hands tightly behind as back as his whole body tensed.

"I want to talk about your recent behavior—more specifically, the behavior of cutting classes, fighting with not just other students but Jian, and the fact that you are tarnishing my reputation," Mr. Orval sighed in clear disappointment, leaning against the desk that sat within his office that he brought his son to. "To be quite frank... this is becoming problematic for me, son, and such errors need to be corrected, don't you think?"

In an instant, Nicolai's head whipped to the side after the dull slap that filled the air. His face twitched as pain laced through the side of his face and made anger flow throughout his body, doing everything in his power to restrain himself from doing something he wouldn't regret, but would from the consequences.

"How many times have I told you, Nicolai?" Mr. Orval hummed as he readjusted his cuff links. "How many times, hm?"

He merely lowered his head.

"Countless," Mr. Orval's blue, soulless eyes cut into his son's form. "Countless times I've told you to behave, and yet you keep doing the same thing over and over again. You're dragging the Orval name through the dirt by doing this, and you don't care. You don't. And I just I can't understand why."

Mr. Orval's eyes narrowed the longer he stared down at his son. And though Nicolai's head was lowered, his father could see that instead of fear, there was nothing but anger blazing in his amber gaze. He could see it—see the hate, the loathing. The fact that Nicolai felt no fear, but instead hatred towards him, was something that made Mr. Orval's patience stretch unnervingly thin.

"Do not continue disappointing me, son, or there will be consequences," Mr. Orval finished as he walked out of the office.

Nicolai continued to stand there, his whole body trembling while his teeth grit. Trying to calm his breathing, he then glanced out the window just in time to catch Jian and (Y/N) pulling out of the driveway, and how happy they looked only stoked his anger.  He hated the fact that Jian was able to live so freely, so unrestrained unlike he. Now, he was flaunting that by hanging around a girl whom Mr. Orval hadn't set him up with. Whenever Nicolai would have to meet someone, it was always for some sort of financial or political gain.

Fuck him.

Fuck her.

Fuck my fucking shitty old man.

Fuck everyone.

Clicking his tongue and shoving his hands in his pockets, Nicolai walked out of the room. Unfortunately, whenever he passed by a servant, they couldn't help but remark how much he looked like his father in that exact moment.

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To be continued...