Say "I Love You"

Chapter 3

|Benio Adashino: A demon in sheep's clothing|

"Y-you...!"

Rokuro pointed at this girl who claimed she was the one who topped him this year. Despite being pointed at rudely, the girl was impassively meeting his eyes.

"W-What are y-you doing here?!"

"What do you mean... 'why'? I'm a student here..."

"Do you know her, Rokuro-kun?"

Mayura stepped forward, breaking their one-sided glaring contest. Rokuro tensed, still shell-shocked and wary. He was having a hard time believing that the girl was here, in front of him, looking way too smug for his comfort. He teared his eyes away from this human-shaped nightmare and met Mayura's widened blue ones.

"Uh...kinda..." Rokuro trailed off, noticing everyone's gaze on him. "We bumped into each other the other day...that's all."

"Bumped, you say?" Mayura furrowed her brows in question, her lips twisting into a suspicious curve.

"Hmm...yes?"

The lips of the girl-Benio?- quirked upwards at his uncertainty, and decided to steal the spotlight.

"Really? Could you call it... "just" an accidental bumping...was that all, Mr. Rank 2?"

There was a challenging edge in her quiet voice, which confused many. Among what was quickly turning into a scene stood Mayura, who looked worriedly at Rokuro.

He gulped, knowing too well what she was talking about... However, he couldn't possibly let her best him. He did the only things he could do.

That is, glaring daggers at the jade-eyed girl, who was showing nothing but feigned innocence. But it wasn't enough. His temper was flaring with every second, her impassivity shoveling coal into the fire of his anger.

"Wouldn't you please shut up?!"

"A-and it's not like... It's not like that! Don't believe any of the shit that she's implying, Mayura."

Rokuro tried to breathe slowly. He needed to keep his cool when he talked to Mayura. Besides, they were in public. As quietly as he could, he added with a frown, "It was quite the opposite. Really."

"I...I see" Mayura smiled weakly. Shit. She clearly didn't believe him entirely.

"Why are you lying to your girlfriend? Why don't you just tell her about the hotel where you-"

Benio said, still wearing an innocent expression, but there was a sadistic gleam in her eyes. It seemed that only Rokuro could perceive it. To everyone else, she was a confused victim of his agitation.

Her aquamarine eyes flickered to the couple.

"Hotel? What kind of-" Mayura's confusion turned to horror and disbelief.

"Oh."

She turned to Rokuro with a evil glint in the eye.

"Shut up, breastless!" Rokuro barked without thinking, earning a startled gasp from the spectators and a shocked look from Benio. Who knew the gentle, polite and friendly Rokuro could talk like this to a girl he just met?

The gossipers were already murmuring excitedly between themselves, pulling out elaborated scenarios out from thin air.

'Just where are they going with this?' Shimon thought, a sliver of displeasure gleaming in his cold blue eyes.