Chapter 118: Moving On
I scowled at Night which made him shut up as I pulled my phone away from him.
"I-I’ll call you later."
I hang up the phone and gulped after Night went silent because of what I did. ’It’s totally his fault why I raised my voice at him, so why do I feel so guilty?’
"I didn’t mean to raise my voice," I said but Night completely ignored me.
’Ugh! Why is this person so moody?’ Can’t he just tell me if I made something wrong? Even though I wanted to ask him what his problem was, I couldn’t ask because I didn’t want to argue with Kenji being here with us.
I waited until we reached the mansion, but the moment the car stopped, Night quickly went out and ignored me. ’Is he seriously on his period?’ I thought as I couldn’t believe it.
"Would the lady want me to talk to the young master?" Kenji asked as he opened the door for me.
I shook my head. "I’ll handle it. Thanks for asking." Even though I don’t want to deal with Night’s moodiness, I still need to get along with him. He said he likes me but he’s acting like this.
Why am I the one who’s supposed to chase after him and ask him what’s wrong? I’m aware that I didn’t do anything wrong to him, so why am I the one that needs to reconcile with him?
Due to annoyance upon realizing the situation, I went to my room first to calm myself.
"Great job today again, young miss." Rika greeted me but I couldn’t force a smile. "Is something the matter?" It looks like Rika’s already figured out what’s wrong.
"I’ll be sleeping here first. If I don’t wake up, then don’t bother waking me up anymore." I said as I was about to lie on the bed, but I remembered what coach Samantha said. Do not skip meals, and do not sleep too late.
"Rika, bring me my dinner in my room." Rika turned to me with a smile.
"Yes, young miss!" She rushed out of the room after that.
My phone started ringing the moment Rika went out, and I saw El’s name. ’I guess he’s going to talk about the date.’ I thought as I accepted the call.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Ellie! I know you said you’ll call me but I just can’t wait to hear your voice again." El said making me sigh. "Is it alright? Are you, kind of busy right now?"
I looked in the direction of the door and said, "No, I’m free right now." I shook my head and went to the bed. "What do you want to talk about again?"
"Oh! I actually forgot, I only want to hear your voice." He said making me taken aback.
’If Night acts and says things like this, maybe I’ll fall for him immediately in a blink of an eye.’
But I know he’s not the type to be all honest with his feelings. What do they call that in Japan? Hmm... ah!
"Tsundere."
"What? I’m not a Tsundere!" El quickly said making me realize that I said that aloud.
"I-I didn’t mean you."
I heard El laugh. "I see, you’re distracted." He said making me feel embarrassed. "Did something happen with you and your crush?"
The way El asked that made me feel uncomfortable for him. Didn’t he confess that he has feelings for me? Wouldn’t it hurt him to know that I might still have lingering feelings toward Night?
"Nothing. It’s my teammate, she’s being cold to me." I lied. Leslie’s already done being cold to me but I’m using her as an excuse. "Anyway, when are you going back?" I tried to change the subject and I think it was effective.
"I’ll be going on the 1st of February." He said with a cheery voice. "I’ll be able to watch you right? I really want to watch you win." El said.
The way he cheers for me makes me think that he’s an older brother cheering for his younger sister. If my brother was alive, would he be like that? Would he be protective and strict, or would he be carefree and gentle? I don’t know. My mom only said that my brother died when he was still in the womb so there’s no way of knowing.
"What about your younger sister? I remember her name is Marielle." I said. He’s really a caring older brother since he’s managing even his sister’s transfers.
"She’s at home. I think she’ll be having fun with her friends for a while before leaving." He said. "What about you? Are you doing great these days? Right! I forgot to congratulate you."
"For what?"
"You won the beauty pageant, right? Although it’s obvious you’ll win."
"And why is that?"
"Because you’re—"
"The food’s here, young miss." I couldn’t hear what El was saying because of Rika.
"I’m sorry, I’ll hang up now. I’ll eat my dinner and go to sleep since I’m tired."
I heard El giggle. "Okay, okay. Eat well and rest well." He said and I hung up on him.
"Who was the miss talking to?" Rika asked.
"A friend."
Rika didn’t bother asking anymore and she watched me eat everything. ’I need to eat a lot to gain more strength for the practice.’ I thought as I could feel my eyes closing due to tiredness.
"The miss mustn’t sleep immediately after eating. You’ll get fat." She said after seeing that I’m really sleepy already.
"I won’t," I said as I let out a yawn. "I’ll rest first then take a bath." Rika nodded as she prepared the bath. While I’m at it, I should probably go read some notes. That’s what I thought until I received a text message on my phone.
Take care of my ring.
The moment I read that Z’s face immediately flashed inside my head. How could I forget? I’m not safe from him anymore... unless I don’t go out of this mansion ever again.
’My ring!’
I rushed towards the desk and opened my drawer. When I saw that the ring was still on the jewelry box, I was relieved. ’What am I doing? It’s not like Z could snatch this while I’m hiding it here. That’s the reason why he needs to abduct me.’
"What am I going to do?"
Despite difficult thoughts going in and out of my mind, I still continued training as if nothing was going on, and the day for the semifinals arrived without a hitch.
It’s amazing that even if my head’s out of the gutter, I could still do my training well. ’Is it that thing called muscle memory?’ I’m doing things even though I’m not being able to focus. I told myself not to do that because I’m afraid I’ll drown, but I still won.
"Wow! Noelle what was that!?" Ericka asked with her eyes wide open as they rushed towards me and pulled me in a hug. "That was amazing!" I looked at the scoreboard and saw my new record. The crowd screamed and cheered for me as I could still feel the water dripping off my body. ’I won?’
What in the world? Did I really win the race? How come I didn’t know?
"Hey. Are you alright?" I looked at Leslie after she asked me that. She’s also wet and she removed her head cap while walking towards me.
"You’re out of focus." She whispered into my ear making me flinch. "Don’t let the coach see you out of focus like that. She’ll surely scold you." Leslie tapped my back and pulled me towards our other teammates.
I feel ashamed despite winning. ’My head was up in the clouds and I’m worried about something else instead of what’s in front of me.’ I gulped as I followed Leslie.
Coach Samantha looked at me and I could feel that she wants to tell me something, but she didn’t. "Congrats, everyone. I’m so proud of you all." She said with a huge smile on her face. Even though I don’t know what happened, I tried to smile at them to celebrate our win, but I feel like I don’t deserve it.
"Ellie!" I heard a familiar voice in the bleachers. A wide smile with bright baby blue eyes stared right at me. "Did you miss me?" He asked with his hair twinkling due to the bright light from the ceiling. Everyone’s looking at him, even those people I don’t know.
’My god, could these men stop garnering attention?’
"Your prince charming’s here," Ericka whispered to my ear. "We’ll change clothes first." Ericka waved back to El and pulled me to the locker room with the others.
"OMG! Noelle’s really snatching all the good-looking men away!" Tristen said aloud as soon as we entered the locker room.
I shook my head. "I’m not."
"But would that be fine?" Doreen asked with a worried tone.
"What will?" I asked.
Doreen looked at the others. "Because Night’s here too."
