Chapter 52: The Apple of My Eye
I took deep breathing before opening my eyes slowly, and I was in awe as I looked at the sunset in front of me. "Wow." I’ve never seen the sunset this close, and it’s breathtaking.
"Do you like it?"
I turned to El, smiling from ear to ear, and I started punching his arms. "O-Ouch. Why are you hitting me?" I frowned after he asked that. "I apologize for surprising you, but you won’t come with me if I didn’t do it like that."
"Of course, I wouldn’t come with you! Did you forget what happened to you last time?" I exploded. "I don’t want you to get hurt again." The memories of El kneeling on the floor with blood coming out of his body flashed inside my mind, making me feel extremely terrible.
"I don’t want that to happen again."
El pulled me in a hug as he whispered to my ear. "It won’t happen again." He said and started caressing my hair. "I’m sorry that I couldn’t protect you at that time. I was weak." I gulped as I suppressed my tears. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He shouldn’t be apologizing for something like that.
"I-I don’t understand why you keep wanting to be with me."
El moved away from me as he wiped my tears. "You might not believe it, but I like you." I looked up to his face with my eyes wide open. ’What?’ Did he just confess to me? Or does that mean he likes me as a friend? "It’s love at first sight." He said.
"What?"
I saw his face turn red, and he averted his gaze. "This might make me look like a pervert, but I know why I took you in that time," El said as he took a deep breath and looked into my eyes. "You were too beautiful, and I immediately fell in love. I thought it’ll scare you if I told you, so I asked to be friends."
What is going on? This is too fast— I mean, I don’t get any of this. Can someone really fall like that? ’Oh.’ Who am I to talk? I fell for Night because of his face too, and it happened too fast. "I’m not pressuring you to respond to my feelings. I’m already happy being your friend, and I don’t want to be ignored by you." He said.
"You already experienced something bad. Why would you keep wanting to be with me?"
El chuckled. "Being alone in that hospital room, all I can think about is your face." He said. "It looks like I can’t stop thinking about you. But you ignored my messages, so I thought you might feel guilty about what happened." I looked down, and I felt his hand holding mine.
"You shouldn’t feel guilty. It was my choice to protect you." El said, making me look back at his face. "It was embarrassing because I can’t even protect you well. Did I look lame?"
I quickly shook my head. "You were cool."
"Did you fall for me?"
"Of course not!"
El laughed. "It’s not easy to make you fall for me, huh?"
I glared at him. "You kidnapped me. Now Kaoru will report you as someone dangerous." I sighed. I wonder what happened to Kaoru. "Who are those students holding onto Kaoru anyway? Did you bring dangerous people to our school?"
"Of course not! They’re students at your school that I bribed. I think it’ll be romantic to kidnap the princess sometimes." El chuckled. "Look, the sun’s setting, and it’ll be dark." He said that with such a suspicious tone which made me back away.
"I’m not planning to do anything bad! I’m just going to show you something amazing." My forehead creased as I looked at him in doubt. "Let’s sit here." El made me sit beside him on the bench near the railings.
"By the way, are you really okay now? It’s only been a day since that incident happened." I still can’t look at him. How come he can drive a motorcycle now?
El chuckled. "You’re overthinking. It wasn’t even a big injury."
"But you were bleeding too much."
He scratched the back of his head. "To be honest, I’m still healing."
"What?!" I stood from the bench. "Then why did you come to my school— and why did you ride a motorcycle?!" I can’t believe this guy. I really can’t believe him.
"Please don’t scold me. I just really want to see you." El pouted. "Look." He pointed in the direction of the city, and my eyes twinkled in surprise. The city lights shone with the sun setting in the background. It made me forget all of my problems as I was distracted by how beautiful the scenery was.
"Do you always go here?"
El stood beside me. "Not really. I just discovered this place while driving aimlessly." He said. "Isn’t it amazing? It’s peaceful and calming. I wanted to show you this because I thought you were having a hard time."
How will I stay angry at him when he’s like this? "You didn’t have to waste your rest days just for this," I said as I grabbed onto the railings. "Thank you. It’s relaxing to be here." A smile formed on my face as I looked at him. Even if he confessed abruptly like that, I still appreciate him as a friend, which won’t change.
"Did you do great in your exam? I also feel bad because I couldn’t teach you till the end."
I chuckled. "I think I did great. Night helped me for the remaining lessons in mathematics."
"Night? The guy you have a crush on?"
My forehead creased. "How did you know that?"
"The students from your school always talk about it whenever you’re near." Right, they love gossiping about me. "He’s also the one who helped me from that weird masked guy, right? I think he’s indeed cool. I understand why you like him."
I smiled a little. "If you’ll only look at Night’s appearance, he’s cool. But I don’t like him anymore."
"That’s a relief then."
I shook my head as I watched the scenery in front of me. The calm wind that touched my face made me smile as I looked at the sky. It’s already dark, but all the problems I’ve been thinking of suddenly disappeared like magic. "I think you’re really good at this."
"Good at what?"
I didn’t answer El as I only smiled. It’s fun being with him, even though sometimes he’s eccentric. "Thank you for doing this for me, El."
El ruffled my hair. "It’s my pleasure. Here, I also brought snacks if ever you get hungry."
My smile grew wider. "What’s with that? Are we going on a picnic?" El smiled too, and it felt too genuine that I got taken aback.
We ate while staring at the city lights. El talked about what happened after I lost consciousness that day. He said that Night helped him by defeating that masked man, and Kaoru was the one who helped him reach his butler, Lorenzo. "Nothing much happened after that."
"Didn’t your parents get mad because of what happened?"
El chuckled. "Nope. I didn’t let them know. My sisters would only worry, and I don’t want them to worry about me." I looked at my sandwich as I felt terrible again. "Don’t look like that. I’ve been telling you that it was nobody’s fault. Maybe it’s those masks man’s fault since they’re planning something bad towards you."
Even though it was all because of me, El still comforted me with his gentle and kind words. I wonder what he sees in me, why does he like me? "It’s getting late. I said I’ll bring you back before 7, so shall we go now?" He reached his hand out to me, and I hesitated before accepting it.
Am I ready to protect someone like him? How? I can’t even protect myself. ’I’ve been saying this repeatedly, but it’s the truth.’ "Let’s go." El grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the bench.
"I won’t drive too fast today, so you should enjoy the ride." That’s what he said as soon as I got on his motorcycle. "Hold on tight." I held on to his waist, and he started driving away. It felt different than before. It’s calming, and I can see the road lights opening, leading us back home.
I closed my eyes as I leaned on El’s back. ’He’s too kind for me. I don’t deserve such kindness.’
Since it was already dark, El decided to accompany me until in front of the Yamaguchi household. I don’t know if it was okay for me to tell him where I live. "I guess this is it. I didn’t know you lived here." El said as he removed my helmet for me. "Did you have fun?"
"Being kidnapped? It’ll never be fun for me."
El let out a nervous chuckle as he removes his helmet. "I’m sorry for doing that without thinking about what you may feel." He said, causing me to shake my head while smiling. "If I may ask for something in return?"
"Huh? What is it?"
El moved his face closer to mine and kissed my cheek again. "I’m sorry again." He said with a cheeky smile as he quickly put his helmet on. "I’ll text you. See you!" He drove away without waiting for my reaction. ’I told him not to do that anymore.’ I sighed.
"What a sight."
I flinched as I turned around, and there I saw Night. He has his arms crossed and his usual no-expression face. ’Is he going to scold me for what El did again?’ I took a deep breath as I walked towards the gate.
I’ll just apologize since it’s my fault. But before I could even say something, Night pulled me closer to him, holding onto my arm. He brought out something from his pocket. It was a handkerchief.
"What are you—"
Night roughly rubbed his handkerchief on my cheek, causing me to blink thousands of times due to confusion. "Excuse me, but what are you doing?" He clicked his tongue while continuing to do that as if it didn’t matter, even if it made me confused.
After almost peeling my skin off, he turned his back on me and entered the gate.
I was dumbfounded. "What was that about?"
