Chapter 35.


    <b>Chapter 35. The Popr Girl who just wants to be friends. (4/5)</b>


    <span style="font-weight:400">Well, this turned out to be quite an unpleasant experience.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her eyes opened wide when she saw it.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Just when I thought she was about to calm down she started panicking again, her face riddled with worry.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? ck? But… blue? Why? A colored contact?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her face drew closer, too close forfort. I backed away, but she didn’t let me escape so easily and grabbed onto my arm.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… Wait. I’m sorry. But... do I… know you from somewhere else?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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-”


    <span style="font-weight:400">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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Caught off guard by my intimidating actions and words, she nodded without thinking.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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 ce.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Thanks for the hard work. You sure have it tough,” Yuna joked seeing the look of irritation on my face.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">After waiting a minute, the popr girl approached the counter and we had our usual silent exchange.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She’d thankfully left without causing a scene.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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 ce but stopped after walking a block. I turned around and found a familiar girl walking not too far behind.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What are you following me for?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ah. Uh. That is. I wanted to thank you for helping me.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You waited hours just to say that?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No… that’s… it wasn’t all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then what?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“About never talking to you again-”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I mean it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I want to be your friend!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That’s impossible, so give up. Now if that was all, I’ll be on my way now.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If you figured that much out then please leave me alone.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I won’t. I want to be your friend.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaah. And why is that?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Isn’t it natural to want to be friends with someone?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No, I personally don’t think it is.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It is natural.” It was a purely emotion-based response without any sound logic to back her ims.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That is… I’m sorry. But I still want to be friends.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I refuse.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you trying to threaten me into bing your friend?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then there’s nothing to discuss. I will not be your friend.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She had a pained look when I said that.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She sounded like her heart was breaking as she uttered those words.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I shook off her hand and took another step only to be stopped again.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’ll… really do it then.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">It seemed I’d underestimated just how determined she was.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaah. Fine. So be it, you can tell everyone. I still won’t be your friend though.” It was a bluff on my part.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“W-What? You’re fine with that? B-But why?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Because if I be your friend as a result of your threat, the one who’ll end up being hurt the most by such an oue is none other than you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She took a step back as her steel-blue eyes rippled.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That’s… not true.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If it’s not true, then why does it sound like you’re going to cry when you’re the one threatening me?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I took a step closer to her, propped her chin up, and forced her to look me directly in the eyes.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“T-That is…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Even if I’m hurt. Please be my friend.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I’d truly underestimated this popr girl’s persistence. She really was willing to hurt herself over and over again just to try and be someone’s friend. I nearly found myself caving in from her sincerity alone.


    <span style="font-weight:400">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 ident. As such, I see no purpose in us being friends. The only rtionship 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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Enemies?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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 be her one and only.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’ll listen to any demand except the one thing I actually want?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yes.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“But that’s… unfair.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“The world isn’t fair.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her breathing became unsteady as I stared her down.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“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.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re free to do what you want. But I will work towards making you see me as your enemy… starting now I suppose.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I took a step forward and she took a step back.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What are you doing?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Something to make you hate me of course.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">With another step, I closed the distance. She retreated back further but hit a wall. She tried to turn but I ced my hands against the wall on both her sides to block her paths of escape.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Something to… make me view you as an enemy? Just what are you nning?” She looked at me warily.