Karmanami: Intertwined.....

Chapter XVI

Karma was keeping his distance from Manami especially when Kira was around. He misunderstood that Manami and Kira liked each other.

Manami finds Karma walking by the hall when she approaches him.

"Karma kun wait."

Karma stops on his way but doesn't turn back.

"Why have you stopped coming to my place. You've also been ignoring me these days."

"You have Kira to be with you all the time right? Then why should I be there with you. It looks like you are having a good time with him." Scoffs Karma.

Manami couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Karma kun, you're getting it all wrong. Kira kun is just my work partner and nothing else." Protested an angry Karma.

"Partners? Hmph.... I guess your work partner loves buying costly jewellery for you."

"What did you say?" Manami raises her eyebrow.

"Did you spy me and Kira kun that day? Kira kun invited me to buy a gift for her friend, you misunderstood things Karma kun." Explains Manami who was filled with desperation.

"You were having a great time with him." Grunts Karma.

"He's a friend of mine and I had a good time shopping for his friend but you're Overthinking things. Have you gone crazy?" Manami was slowly getting impatient.

"Yes I am crazy and it makes me angry whenever I see you with him. You seem so happy with him that it bothers me too much. I hate the way he cares for you. I hate the way he talks to you, the way he talks about you. I feel scared that he may propose to you and you'll accept him. I hate everything about him. I just don't like him being around you but I don't know what else to do." Karma sounded frustrated.

Manami was frustrated, she pulls Karma and makes him turn so that she could see him face to face.

"So you have a problem with me being friendly with Kira kun?"

Karma didn't answer.

"You can't even adress me by my first name, yet you feel you have the right to get upset over Kira being a good friend of mine?"

Karma couldn't answer because he realised that what Manami was saying is true.

"You cannot even tell me things up front yet you get upset when Kira kun and I seen happy?"

Karma was silent again.

"You don't speak clearly about your feelings yet you have problem with Kira kun and me sharing a friendship moment."

Karma was still silent.

"You.... " Tears were slowly dropping from her eyes.

"You can't even tell me that you love me without being drunk but have a problem that Kira kun may propose to me?"

Karma looked up this time. He was surprised.

"Yes, Akabane Karma you confessed your feelings for me the last day of out trip. I thought your love for me was genuine. I thought it was real. I was wrong about you. "

Manami runs away while still in tears while a dumbstruck Karma stood frozen. Manami rushes to her classroom when she bumps into Asano, who noticed that she was in tears.

"Okuda, are you-"

Before he could finish asking Manami was rushing again and it seemed like she was going to the girls bathroom and although it was inappropriate for a guy to go to the girls' restroom, Asano didn't want to see his good friend crying. He follows her and stops outside the restroom from where he could hear Manami crying.

"Okuda I know you're in there. I need to talk to you please." Calls out Asano.

"Asano kun please leave me alone, I don't want to talk to anyone right now." Answered Manami while holding her tears back.

"If you won't come out then I'll have no choice but to step inside the restroom and get in trouble for it and I know you wouldn't like that to happen. So please come out."

Asano hoped the trick would work and it actually did. Manami steps out of the restroom with eyes that were still wet. He takes Manami to a silent and secluded space.

"Now tell me what happened."

Manami narrates the whole incident to Asano who couldn't help but sigh in disappointment.

"Akabane is really helpless and dumb when it comes to people he loves." He sighs.

"But why does he think like that. Kira kun and I are just friends, how can he get things so wrong."

"Akabane really loves you and we're in our teenage you know, it's the phase where youth use their heart rather than their brain sometimes, especially when it comes to people they love. Akabane isn't different either. He's just what can we say..... Umm... Jealous." He chuckles.

"But yeah, I don't like Kira either, he just seems weird to me. But the case is different with Akabane, his feelings for you makes him a little insecure and it scares him that he may actually lose you to that guy." He adds.

"But then still... "

"You have the same feelings for Akabane right?" Exclaims Asano causing Manami to blush a little.

"H-How do you know?" Asks Manami.

"It's too obvious." He chuckles.

Manami has heard this similar answer before and it honestly didn't surprise her anymore.

"How about you tell him your feelings already then?" Questions Asano.

"No. I won't. I don't like this Karma kun who doubts people for no reason, who get so jealous and so insecure. I mistook his love for me. " Answered Manami.

Asano thinks for a while before getting hold of her and making her look at him.

"I'll make him back into the Karma you love." Says a firm and confident Asano.

To be continued.......