Stumbling Over Love | ✓

Chapter 50

_Chapter 50~ Isn't That Enough?_

The crowd of delinquents around me howled in raucous laughter from within their existing hideout off campus. For the cause to be from a story of one of the many situations I'd gotten myself into this past year left me a tad sheepish, but amused nonetheless.

"Wait, wait, so you seriously got community service hours for picking a fight with the police?"

I sucked in a breath, grimacing. I motioned them closer, and closer they came. "Well, you see—"

The door to their base room swung open with such a loud force my words caught in my throat. I, as well as the rest of the males in the room, turned our heads only to find that the culprit of the disruption had been Ryu. No means of nonchalance was evident in his features, only causing for a spark of reluctance to wash over me.

"Kikuchi, we need to talk," Ryu commanded.

My skin crawled. Swallowing hard, I trained my gaze onto the delinquents to save me and automatically, all of them rose to their feet.

"Leave her alo—"

A glare from Ryu sufficed and all of them instantaneously cowered like scolded puppies. They retreated so far back I was left by myself with him standing before me.

After a period of silence within the room we were gathered in, Ryu deemed it wasn't necessary to wait. Snapping his hand over my wrist, Ryu practically forced me out of my seat and was dragging me out the door.

"H-hey!" a holler went after us. "What do you think you're—"

Ryu shut the door behind him, instantly quieting the weak shout. I stood deathly still, keeping my gaze to my shoes. Against Ryu, those guys were practically useless. And that was without any fighting! Dammit, Ryu must really be pissed.

"Look, whatever I did I'm sorry okay?" Ryu stated once we left the hideout, entering the quiet city. His voice barely escaped a whisper. "But if you're mad at me why do you have to surround yourself with a bunch of guys?"

Hearing Ryu's words shocked, yet also saddened me. Mad? He still thought I was mad at him? I bit my lower lip. "Sounds to me like you're jealous," I ended up saying.

"Jealous?" he repeated in surprise. I didn't respond, and soon, he spoke, "Jealous? I... They just kept getting really close to you, and I didn't like that. Just because you changed how you look? Why are you letting guys who only care about your beauty approach you like that?"

My heart immediately melted in my chest, leaving me to grin like an idiot. "So you are jealous."

Colour tinged Ryu's face. "I-I...."

"You know..." I said, pressing my lips together. My heartbeat was loud in my ears. "If we were together, you wouldn't have to worry about that."

I shuffled my feet awkwardly. What was I saying? Way to be petty, me. Still... When silence greeted me, I peeked upwards at Ryu, and he had become void of his emotion.

"Aren't we together now?" he responded.

Blood rushed to my cheeks. "N-no! I-I meant..." I swallowed hard then shook my head. I started off down the cement. "N-never mind. I need to get home anyway."

"Wait, but it's cold out. You didn't bring a coat, right?" Ryu called after me.

I merely stuck my tongue out at him and scurried on. "What does it matter to you?"