Chapter 36: Chapter 35.

Chapter 35. The Popular Girl who just wants to be friends. (4/5)

Well, this turned out to be quite an unpleasant experience.

“Uh. Are you okay? You’re bleeding, right?” The girl moved to my front and looked at my face worriedly while raising her hand to the corner of my mouth.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s just some kool-aid powder mixed in with my saliva. It makes for some convincing enough fake blood when in the heat of the moment.” I took out the packet from my pocket and showed her to alleviate her concern.

Her eyes opened wide when she saw it.

“But, you still took a punch to the face because of me. Ah! Your eye. What’s wrong with it? Oh no. What do I do? What do I do?”

Just when I thought she was about to calm down she started panicking again, her face riddled with worry.

“My eye? What do you…” I trailed off as soon as I noticed something g a bit off. My vision was slightly obstructed in my right eye on the side I’d been punched just now. I covered my eye with my right hand as soon as I realized the colored contact had moved slightly out of position from the impact just now.

“Oh no. Is it okay? It’s not bleeding is it?” The girl raised her hand and pulled my hand down. I tried to close my right eye, but I was a bit too slow.

“Huh? Black? But… blue? Why? A colored contact?”

Her face drew closer, too close for comfort. I backed away, but she didn’t let me escape so easily and grabbed onto my arm.

“Uh… Wait. I’m sorry. But... do I… know you from somewhere else?”

“No.”

“Can I see your eye? If you don’t show it to me… I can only assume I’m correct. It’s… you… isn’t it? The fir-”

I raised my hand and covered her mouth, then with my back obstructing Yuna’s line of sight to her face, I spoke quietly so only she could hear in a cold indifferent tone.

“You saw nothing. You’re going to get your drink as usual. Pay for it like a good little girl and not cause a scene here. You’ll then leave, forget everything that happened here, and never talk to me again in the future. Do you understand?”

Caught off guard by my intimidating actions and words, she nodded without thinking.

I took a step back away from her and returned to behind the counter like nothing happened while rubbing my right eye to move the contact back in place.

“Thanks for the hard work. You sure have it tough,” Yuna joked seeing the look of irritation on my face.

I wasn’t in the mood to banter. I suddenly found myself in a precarious spot with my cover blown. If it’d been when I was 16, I wouldn’t have cared as much. But this affected my livelihood. The only saving grace in this situation was that she seemed to at least keep her promises and she was overly nice.

After waiting a minute, the popular girl approached the counter and we had our usual silent exchange.

She’d thankfully left without causing a scene.

The rest of my shift went by without any other troublesome scenes breaking out. I departed as usual at 9:00 PM and headed in the direction of my place but stopped after walking a block. I turned around and found a familiar girl walking not too far behind.

I was being followed. I’d seen her when I exited the building but didn’t want to end up talking in front of the building where my coworkers would see us together.

“What are you following me for?”

“Ah. Uh. That is. I wanted to thank you for helping me.”

“You waited hours just to say that?”

“No… that’s… it wasn’t all.”

“Then what?”

“About never talking to you again-”

“I mean it.”

“I want to be your friend!”

She spoke up like she was confessing her feelings to someone she loved. Though it was obvious enough that it was by no means a confession of love.

“That’s impossible, so give up. Now if that was all, I’ll be on my way now.”

“Wait. Why are you disguising yourself? Is it to avoid people finding out because you might lose your job if they do? You’re not 16 and shouldn’t be legally allowed to work yet, right?”

“If you figured that much out then please leave me alone.”

“I won’t. I want to be your friend.”

“Haaaah. And why is that?”

“Isn’t it natural to want to be friends with someone?”

“No, I personally don’t think it is.”

“It is natural.” It was a purely emotion-based response without any sound logic to back her claims.

“Why do you want to be friends so badly with someone who obviously doesn’t want to? Don’t you realize you’re just being a bother? A nuisance?”

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“That is… I’m sorry. But I still want to be friends.”

“I refuse.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want any friends. It’s really as simple as that. Friends are just a pain in the ass. Nothing you can say will change my opinion of that. I enjoy my alone time in peace and quiet and friends will do nothing but take that away.”

“But… I know your secret now. If you’re not my friend… aren’t you afraid I’ll tell others about it? You’d be troubled if I did that, right?” She asked with a pained expression. Even suggesting the idea that she would do that hurt her.

“Are you trying to threaten me into becoming your friend?”

“No…”

“Then there’s nothing to discuss. I will not become your friend.”

She had a pained look when I said that.

I turned around and began to walk away when she suddenly grabbed my hand and spoke up, “i-it is a threat. I-If you don’t be my friend… I’ll expose your secret.”

She sounded like her heart was breaking as she uttered those words.

“You wouldn’t. You’re too nice to actually go through with it. Empty threats aren’t threats at all, little girl. If you want to threaten someone, you’ll have to do better than that.”

I shook off her hand and took another step only to be stopped again.

“I’ll… really do it then.”

It seemed I’d underestimated just how determined she was.

“Haaaah. Fine. So be it, you can tell everyone. I still won’t be your friend though.” It was a bluff on my part.

“W-What? You’re fine with that? B-But why?”

“Because if I become your friend as a result of your threat, the one who’ll end up being hurt the most by such an outcome is none other than you.”

She took a step back as her steel-blue eyes rippled.

“That’s… not true.”

“If it’s not true, then why does it sound like you’re going to cry when you’re the one threatening me?”

I took a step closer to her, propped her chin up, and forced her to look me directly in the eyes.

“T-That is…”

“What?”

“Even if I’m hurt. Please be my friend.”

I’d truly underestimated this popular girl’s persistence. She really was willing to hurt herself over and over again just to try and become someone’s friend. I nearly found myself caving in from her sincerity alone.

But I closed my eyes and told her, “I refuse. You have your hands on a secret of mine. How could I possibly be friends with someone who could potentially reveal that secret at any moment? Even if you were willing to keep it, I’d be living constantly on edge as you might slip up and reveal it by accident. As such, I see no purpose in us being friends. The only relationship that can thus be born between us in my eyes is one of enemies. From today onward, in my eyes, you are a threat. A threat to my peaceful life. A mortal enemy. We cannot ever be friends. It is unfortunate for me, but if you use my secret against me, I really have no way to go against you.”

“Enemies?”

“Yes. That is correct, we are enemies. If you use my secret against me, I will have no choice but to follow your demands. But being friends is the only request I will absolutely refuse at all costs.” What this girl needed was not another random friend. She had far too many friends and not a single enemy. As such, I’d become her one and only.

“You’ll listen to any demand except the one thing I actually want?”

“Yes.”

“But that’s… unfair.”

“The world isn’t fair.”

Her breathing became unsteady as I stared her down.

“I… won’t give up. Even if you consider me an enemy, I will consider you a friend and work towards making the feeling mutual.”

“You’re free to do what you want. But I will work towards making you see me as your enemy… starting now I suppose.”

I took a step forward and she took a step back.

“What are you doing?”

“Something to make you hate me of course.”

With another step, I closed the distance. She retreated back further but hit a wall. She tried to turn but I placed my hands against the wall on both her sides to block her paths of escape.

“Something to… make me view you as an enemy? Just what are you planning?” She looked at me warily.

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