Chapter 579


    For some reason, Katherine liked Sophia a lot, so no amount of hostility from Joshua would change


    anything.


    Katherine and Joshua were neighbors, but Katherine loved clinging to Sophia and would often walk her


    to her house before collecting bottles with Joshua on the way home.


    Although Joshua''s household didn''t fare any better than Katherine''s, he always kept himself and his


    clothes clean and tidy. As a result, the girls in ss loved ying with him.


    Katherine, on the other hand, was very skinny and tanned when she was little. Oblivious to the fact that


    Joshua liked her, she did not feel upset at all when other girls sat next to Joshua. In fact, she even


    walked up to him and said, “This is awesome! You won''t be lonely now that you have someone sitting


    next to you, and I get to sit with Sophia!”


    Joshua ended up getting mad at her for two weeks.


    Even so, Joshua still walked home with Katherine every day and tutored her whenever she had trouble


    with her homework. They even picked up bottles together as usual, except Joshua wouldn''t talk to her


    unless absolutely necessary.


    Katherine was so oblivious that she asked if he wasn''t talking much due to a sore throat.


    That was when Joshua realized there was no point in getting mad at her because she wouldn''t


    understand it.


    The three of them remained in the same ss for six years straight in elementary school, and they


    somehow got into the same ss in their first year of junior high as well.


    It wasmon for junior high school students to begin experiencing physical changes in their bodies


    due to puberty and develop crushes.


    Katherine looked like apletely different person after her first stage of puberty. Not only did she slim


    down, but her skin also became a lot fairer.


    This marked the end of her “ugly duckling” era and resulted in lots of boys trying to ask her out. They


    would either do so verbally in person or leave love letters on her desk.


    However, Katherine was not exactly the brightest when it came to romance.


    She knew that boundaries were a must between boys and girls at that age, but she didn''t exactly


    understand the confessions she received from boys.


    If anything, she simply assumed the boys admired her character and capabilities.


    When Katherine first received love letters, she would show them off to Joshua and brag about them.


    “Ha! See this? You''re not the only one receiving love letters! I get them too!”


    Sophia simply sat there on the side and observed Joshua''s interesting facial expressions. He was


    obviously displeased about it, but he couldn''t show it or Katherine would get mad at him.


    When they were in the second year of junior high, a boy from a different school would wait outside their


    school gate every day to confess his love for Katherine. Although Katherine enjoyed the feeling of


    having the boy confess to her while the surrounding students cheered them on, she found it annoying


    after a while.


    Little did Katherine know, the boy''s family had some ties with the local gangsters, and he was quite the


    hooligan as well. Eventually, he got impatient after being rejected by Katherine several times and


    decided to force her into epting his confession.


    One time, he refused to let them go until Katherine said yes. Seeing as Katherine still wouldn''t ept


    his confession, he tried to drag her away by force. However, Joshua smacked his hand aside before he


    could even touch Katherine.


    Naturally, the boy and his cronies did not take kindly to that. He grabbed Joshua by the cor and


    asked him why he had to butt in like that.


    “Because she doesn''t like you,” was Joshua''s response, and he swiftly punched that boy in the face.


    That was the first time Joshua had gotten into a fight for Katherine. Although he fought aggressively, he


    was at a significant disadvantage due to being outnumbered. Eventually, the teacher had to step in and


    break them up.


    Despite the fact that Joshua''s academic results had always been excellent, fighting outside the school


    gate had ruined his reputation. Not only did he receive a warning for his misbehavior, but he also lost


    his schrship for the entire academic year.


    Katherine cried several times at home after finding out what happened. Since then, she would ce all


    the love letters she received into a paper bag and burn them.


    Katherine did not perform well during the midterms and failed to make it into the same ss as Sophia


    and Joshua.


    Those two, on the other hand, excelled academically and were among the top scorers in the city.


    A few high schools evenpeted with each other over Sophia and Joshua. Silverleaf School went to


    the extent of offering them a thirty thousand allowance on top of exempted tuition fees, but they both


    turned the offer down.


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    The two of them then chose to enroll in Central High School with Katherine and secretly requested to


    be ced in the same ss as her.


    Sophia and Joshua had known each other for almost ten years at the time, but they were not very close


    and would only meet when hanging out with Katherine.


    As neither of them was the outspoken type, they hardly spoke to each other when they were in the


    principal''s office at Central High School.


    When the principal asked them the reason behind their request, Sophia instinctively turned toward


    Joshua for an answer.


    He didn''t even look at her as he replied, “She has always been with me, so I don''t like to lose her all of


    a sudden.”


    That was probably the boldest confession anyone had heard from a fifteen-year-old boy.


    Sophia could still remember the principal''s reaction when he heard Joshua''s reply. After staring


    hesitantly at Joshua for a few seconds, the principal decided to hold back on lecturing him. “I admire


    the friendship you have with Katherine. Since the three of you have always been in the same ss, I


    wouldn''t want to ruin things by separating you three.”


    Sophia had never told Katherine about that, though. On the first day of school, Katherine was


    overjoyed when she found out that they were going to be in the same ss again. After hugging


    Sophia, she ran up to Joshua and did the same.


    While watching them from the side, Sophia noticed that Joshua''s ears had turned bright red.


    Unfortunately for him, Katherine was so carried away with celebrating her luck that she didn''t notice his


    reaction. As the two of them matured throughout the three years of high school, they started having


    fights more and more often.


    The worst was when Joshua used another girl to spite Katherine.


    Sure enough, Katherine assumed that Joshua actually liked that girl. When the girl approached


    Katherine and asked her to keep her distance from Joshua, Katherine agreed to it without any


    hesitation.