Missing Link

🔗Chapter 5🔗

The rest of the day went on pretty uneventful. Classes were held with only a few meltdowns in between, and by the time lunch rolled around, things had settled down into a normal mode of chaos.

As Rilla had guessed, everyone couldn't stop talking about the fight, constantly buzzing with theories and facts, some even acting out what it was they saw — which was horrifyingly out of place, because most of them weren't even there.

Every couple of minutes, a student would pluck the courage to walk up to her and ask for her side of the story, like she was the type to stop what she was doing and join the group of classless gossips. Hoseok would smoothly step in, putting on his charming smile as he kindly told the person to leave her alone. It depended on who it was. If it was a girl, she got the smile and an apology.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Rilla's kinda busy right now. Talk to someone else about it."

If it was a guy, he got a glare, eyes flickering with lightening and,

"Fuck off."

At some point, she grabbed hold of his hand and didn't let go for the rest of lunch.

As she predicted, Billie didn't show up for lunch. According to Hoseok, Nicholas was healing quite nicely with his Alpha by his side. Rilla had kept her word, skipping her first class to explain things to the principal. The original offender — Brody Cain — was expelled, unaware of that fact because he was still unconscious in a hospital, and Billie was suspended for taking matters into her own hands.

Everything about that morning just went further to prove that Rilla was right, as always. Links did absolutely nothing but cause problems.

And then, five minutes before lunch ended, the universe decided to mess with her a little more. A sudden crash and a flash of light grabbed everyone's attention and a sudden hush fell on the lunch hall.

Someone squealed, confirming Rilla's fears and she squeezed Hoseok's hand tightly.

"It's a flash ink!"

A flash ink was a tattoo made of light, which manifested on a new Alpha Link pair, upon their first meeting after physical contact. The tattoo is of the same design on the pair, on different locations of the body. No two pairs can have the same tattoo pattern. The tattoo remains visible for 24 hours before vanishing, appearing whenever the Alpha wants it to.

A boy and a girl stood, staring deeply at each other as bright green light shone from different parts of their bodies — he, his left shoulder and she, the back of her right hand. Slowly, he gently held that hand, lifting it up as he whispered,

"Hi."

She giggled, smiling brightly. "Hi!"

It was like she infected him and suddenly, a large grin appeared on his face. Placing a soft kiss on her hand, he said,

"I'm Jackson... Do you... Uh... I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. This is kinda surreal for me."

She shook her head with a little laugh.

"It's okay. It's pretty magical for me too. I'm Maria, by the way."

"Maria... " he muttered, as if testing the name on his lips. "That's a very pretty name."

Her cheeks turned pink, and she looked at the floor. Very gently, he lifted up her chin and stated.

"Please, don't hide from me. I don't think I want to live in a world where you're not looking at me."

It was like they were in a little bubble, lost in each other without any regard for the world outside it. Rilla had seen this a thousand times and every single time, the sight made her sick.