The Equation of Hearts

√𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟺𝟸ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩ

"Dude!" Odele begged, taking a hold of Kato's arm. Yes, he had grown more fearless with his advances: Adonis wouldn't stop making fun of him for not fighting back against Kato. "What school does she go to!? Let me see her!" He shook the boy. Kato hummed and continued reading his book, Antonio pulled on his other sleeve.

"Are you pretending to read so Odele won't bother you?" Antonio, a boy who did the same with more advanced books so that adults didn't disrupt him either, queried. And yes, yes he was. It was something Elena told him to do, and something she did herself - upon Tenshi telling them.

"Absolutely." Kato nonchalantly gave him a high-five and Odele grumbled,

"Come on man," he muttered and inhaled, "please man! Your friends can't be- oh my God." His jaw dropped at the sight of Cassandra walking up to them. "That's a girl, right?" He whispered as Cassandra looked up from her phone and raised a brow,

"Why'd you call me to your boys' day out?" She poked Kato's head. She was taller than Odele.

"Meet Antonio." Kato lifted the boy, who grinned and waved. Cassandra made a face,

"Uh... what? He's like 15." She looked up at him, unbothered.

"7!" Antonio corrected her with a bright smile.

"Wait what?" She realised.

"He's 7." Odele had switched from the desperate boy to a more mature man, "sorry, I've come to realise that absolutely none of your friends know about us? Is it just the area you live in?" He wondered. In reality, Cassandra didn't care about mainstream media, and Camilla wasn't even from the world.

"No, I really just don't care about the rich." She shrugged, it was one of the reasons Kato liked Cassandra so much, "why am I here?" She asked again, looking at the group. "And yes, I am a girl. Just ask next time." She patted Odele on the shoulder and was startled to start carrying Antonio, who caught a hold of her neck and didn't let go.

"Sorry about that," Odele scratched the back of his neck and Kato looked around,

"There wasn't enough testosterone from Odele." Kato nodded back to the man and Odele gasped,

"Ass!" He hissed, Cassandra began laughing,

"Chin up," she assured him and carried Antonio on her bicep, "there's no way you could compete with my testosterone anyway." She jeered.

"That's rich." Odele deadpanned. Kato was glad to see competition spark,

"Back home, even the tigers are scared of me." She grinned.

"Bullshit."

"Language." Kato warned and covered Antonio's ears.

"Let's go to the zoo then." Cassandra shrugged and began walking away.

"Mate what did you pull me into?" Odele muttered and pulled out a cigarette. He was usually rather discreet about his smoking habits, and up to that point, Kato had never seen him smoke. But no one with a voice as deep as Odele's wasn't smoking. The disappointment and stress that came with knowing he was losing this bet and also, not seeing Camilla, was such a shame to him. "What's the forfeit?" He muttered.

"You're rich... got a sister?" She turned back,

"You're absolutely not dating my sister, you can kill yourself instead." Odele narrowed his eyes, Cassandra pulled a face,

"Ew. No thank you. You rich people from here are really annoying as it is," she drawled. Kato liked this open and fearless version of her she tried to hide when they first met. He wondered why she was acting so effeminate, it wasn't ever her thing. "But how much does your sister spend on one shopping haul?" She grinned.