"WHERE ARE YOU?"

It was her last message. Was she angry with me or worried? I guess she had the right to do whatever the hell she wanted. After all, she got a message from the guy she was interested in asking her for help. That's why I really didn't want to talk with her. Suppose if she "loved me" won't she freak out when I tell her everything?

"So, how should I answer this?"

I was pondering whether to brush this off or to tell the truth.

As I was thinking about what to do, I suddenly got another message from her.

"MEET ME AT BIRCHLAND HIGH!"

Sheesh, the more aggressive she was, the less confident I was feeling. But I couldn't just ignore her either. After all, I made her worried. There was also this promise that I made that I would talk with her.

"Alright, let's start with sending her my apologies first."

After sending her a message, stating that I couldn't reach my phone because I was talking with my parents, I got an almost immediate answer.

"BIRCHLAND HIGH'S FRONT GATE!"

I breathed in. Guess she IS mad. I didn't know why, but I just couldn't leave this alone. I tried to surf the net, not paying any attention to the phone, but in the end, I glanced at it every few seconds.

"My kindness will definitely come and bite me in the ass in the future."

"Father, stepmother, I will go out for a bit." As I changed my clothes I gave a heads up to the pair of parents.

"Take care!" Annie sent me off while Greg nodded to me from his chair while reading a newspaper. Why the hell was he reading a newspaper?

Now to Birchland High. I chose to put something light on, a plain t-shirt and loose shorts, but it was still hot outside, or was it just me feeling hot?

After I came to the gates, I still didn't manage to see any signs of Mara.

"Sigh, I can only wait for her." I sent her a message that I was already in the place, waiting for her.

As I leaned on the wall that surrounded the campus grounds, I was looking at the students walking here and there. I was afraid that they would stare at me, but no one gave me even a single glance. They were going in and out carrying various bags that probably had different sport's supplies and uniforms.

If I think about it, I was older than them. The oldest students here would be fourth-years, with an average age of twenty-one years old. While I was twenty-two at the moment of my transmigration here. It was a strange feeling. I never felt particularly "old". When I considered the facts, that a few of my former classmates have already managed to marry, and some of them even had divorced, I felt like a small child in front of them.

Andrew always said that we were just different. But after standing here for a while, seeing young boys and girls, I truly felt that I was older than them. I've never had this type of life. It felt unnatural to me. Gathering in large groups, partying together, studying together, gossiping, sleeping with each other without any responsibilities...

As I was feeling reminiscent of my high-school and college years, a large black car stopped right in front of the gates. I didn’t know a thing about cars, but this one looked rather expensive. I think this particular type was called an SUV?

After this car stopped, a girl jumped out of the passenger seat. After telling something to the driver, she closed the door and went in my direction while the car drove off.

This girl was in a baggy-looking tracksuit. Her long hair was gathered into multiple small braids. As for her face, she looked clean, I think she didn’t wear any makeup at all, but something was disturbing on her face, something I didn't quite understand.

As the girl came closer, I finally understood what it was. She had several light bruises on her face. It didn’t disfigure her face at all, but I had a feeling that it was a transgression to leave even the tiniest mark on her face. After all, she was a beauty, just like many others in this world. Then this girl came to me with her hands in the pockets of her track top.

"…" I looked at her trying to understand who she was. Why do I constantly attract strange people?

"Don't you have anything to say to me?" she said with a raspy voice.

To my amazement, this girl was Mara, but after I felt her staring at me, everything made sense. Even if she did hundreds of plastic surgeries and looked like a completely different person, I would still recognize her eyes. Her gaze was that of the bird of prey. Always looking around, searching for the next target to plunge her claws in.

After hearing Jet calling her a slut, I expected her to go to parties every day, hang out with her friends, and spend her life leisurely. Jet also told me she had rich parents, so it was natural for her to have a dream-like life, with no worries whatsoever. But here she is, standing right in front of me, in an expensive yet simple tracksuit, without any makeup, and she even has bruises. Was she fighting with someone?

"Uhm, yes, hello, and sorry, I just didn’t expect you to look like this."

She rolled her eyes at my awkward answer, "What did I even expect from you," she sighed, "Follow me."

We started walking with her in front and me in the back. I bet it looked strange from the side. A girl with a gloomy face who looked like she just finished fighting. And a big guy, tailing her like a tiny dog.

We went to what looked like a pastry shop near the school. After she bought some buns and a bottle of iced tea, we went to the park. Was this park such a popular place?

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We found a quiet place, and she silently put the bottle down and started eating buns one by one. Once again, I was surprised. Was she eating buns just like this? She isn't dieting?

"What are you looking at?" after she wolfed down a couple of buns, she took a few big gulps of tea, "Haa, you never saw a person eating?"

"No, it's not…"

"Then start talking already. Asking me for help with the messages. What was this all about? " She was frowning.

That was exactly the reason I didn't want to talk with her. She was angry.

"Never mind. It's all good now. I'm sorry for writing to you so suddenly."

Smack.

"Ouch."

She smacked me on the shoulder and now was making inaudible sounds while chewing on the bun.

"I'm sorry, can you please talk after you finish eating?" I rubbed my shoulder.

She was rude, and that's after all the words she told me that she liked me, huh. If it was a normal situation, I would leave immediately, but it was my fault in the beginning. I could only listen to her complaints.

After she finally finished all the buns and threw the package into the bin, she lit up a cigarette. I wrinkled my nose. Even if I occasionally smoked, I still hated the smell.

"Huuu." After puffing a few smoke rings, she sat down, "Now tell me everything that happened," she gave another glance that pierced the very core of my soul, "From the beginning to the end."

"Sigh, alright."

Then I told her about Reid and how he started bullying me. How he beat me down a few times in the span of three days. And how I doubted that he would leave me alone.

After I finished telling her everything, she was now sitting with tightly clenched teeth.

"Look, I know it's bad to ask you for help on the basis that you confessed to me a few times, but I was kinda desperate. And now that I found the help, I'm okay. Once again, sorry for bothering you, please don’t be so angry." Even if I wasn't in the wrong, I still felt the need to apologize.

"I'm not angry with what you did, I'm angry with Reid." she ground her teeth. "This bastard."

She smoked a few more cigarettes in a minute. After finishing each and every one of them, she would stomp on the cigarette butt like crazy. After fifth, she turned around at me. Looking like the lioness that finally found her cub. There was a little bit of everything in her eyes. Anger, longing, love, and anxiety mixed all together.

She sat down closer to me and held my hand, "I'm sorry that you had to come through this because of me."

I shook my head like a propeller, "No, no, it's not your fault in the first place. As I said, it's me who should be sorry." I tried to sit further from her, but she followed mine every movement.

"But if I wasn't busy, I would definitely shield you. Because I was absent, you suffered so much." Once again, she tried to make her voice cuter than it was. But unlike the last time, she actually managed to do it. Did she practice?

After hearing her calm, raspy voice, I felt goosebumps rising all over my body. At first, she acted angrily, now she tried to act all lovey-dovey and cute. Fuck, were all the women so crazy, or this particular individual stood out?

"So what are you going to do from now on?" As she said this, her lips almost touched my ear, and I felt her breathing.

I tried to gain distance and sat away, but the bench we were sitting on already ended, and I almost fell down. However, it helped me achieve my goal. As I stood up, I finally had enough space to breathe.

She looked at all my actions like a mother, looking at her child making his first steps. There was a smirk on her lips.

"Fuh, well, I found some help. You can say that the help found me. I would train and learn how to fight, and after this, I would be able to defend myself."

"Heh, that's it? That's your plan?"

"Yeah, what of it?" I saw how her smile grew bigger. Was I saying something stupid?

"Don't you plan to have a little revenge on him?" She stood up as well.

"Revenge?" It sounded good, but I didn't feel that I was able to gain revenge on him.

"Yes, a little revenge on him for everything he did. After all, he might harass you not only physically, but mentally as well," her eyes twinkled as she said this.

Was she talking about getting ntr'ed? Well, whatever, I don’t give a damn... do I?

"How could I make revenge possible? I heard he is a rich son of influential parents. I would be satisfied with my quiet life coming back to me."

"And if I said that I can help you gain something back from Reid?" So far, the smile she gave me as she asked this question was the most radiant.

"Thanks, but I'm afraid I must decline your offer."

"Are you sure?" She shortened the distance between us in a second and lifted my shirt. There were still light bruises from Friday. "So, you intend to let this slide?" She slapped my stomach.

I felt some pain when she slapped my shoulder, yet I felt a different kind of pain from this. I yanked my shirt back.

"Stop this!"

"You always hold yourself and your desires back, you poor boy. You must be so tired of restraining yourself," She traced my shoulders with her fingers, walking around me, whispering this to me, "But you have no need to act like this, you should just tell me a word, and I will do everything for you," her smile was just... chilling.

It was a deal with the devil.

"Then I'm telling it to you, stop this, I have no intentions to take revenge, I have no intention to be indebted to you, and I'm sure as hell, I have no intentions to date you. So you better stop fawning around me. I said that I was sorry for troubling you, but that's it," I folded my arms, "It's in my power to ask for forgiveness and in your powers to grant it. But If you think that I would do whatever you want and play your games because I felt indebted, you're wrong. "

After my rant, her face now had a much more complex expression. With her eyebrows twitching. I bet she didn't know how to answer this.

"I'm sorry for acting like this. I accept your apology." In the end, she gave up. In the beginning, she couldn't hide her emotions from leaking. She looked almost like a crafty fox with the way she smiled, squinted her eyes, and moved. But right now, she looked like an ordinary tired girl. "So what do you suggest then? Will you never consider dating me?"

It was a tricky question when she asked this without any tricks. Of course, I would love to have a girlfriend like her. But I felt like she was crazy, and the fact that she changed her boyfriends as if they were gloves, didn’t give me any confidence that this relationship would work.

"Let's do it like this," I extended my hand to her, "I don't know about lovers, but how about starting as friends?"

"Friends?" She winced.

"What? You don't want to?"

"Nah, it's just, you're the first boy who wanted to be friends with me."

"What, you don’t have any male friends?"

To my question, she simply rolled her eyes. "Of course I have, but you are special. You are one of a kind. Instead of rejecting me, you ask to be friends."

"Hmm, then, you can say that I was your first?" I grinned at my own joke.

"Hah, yeah, you can say it like this."

The day ended just like that. After talking with Mara, I returned back home, and before I even knew it, it was Monday.

It was the second Monday I spent in this world. But it was absolutely different, after talking with the pair of parents I went to school. As I was walking there, I feared that Reid would start beating me, but luckily he wasn't in the school. Was it Mara's doing?

Overall I spent the day peacefully, but after the lessons ended, I was once again called to the guidance counselor's office.

"Student, Erlig, I asked you to come because of your continuous violations of the rules. I must review if you have the qualifications to study at our school."

As I was greeted with these words, I couldn't say anything back. What qualification? What rules? I was beaten down by Reid one-sidedly. But I couldn't even say this. At first, I felt light-headed from this. After all, I couldn't afford to be expelled. After the initial shock passed, I could only stand near the door while clenching my hands.

"I would hand this over to the assistant of the deputy headteacher. They will decide what to do with such a malignant violator of the school rules such as you." As she stood up and went towards one of the bookshelves, I finally saw how she looked and couldn't believe my eyes.

"IT'S YOU!!!"