"Y-Yes." Her voice shook, but feeling her lack of conviction and confidence, she reiterated with more firmness, "Yes!"
"We satisfy each other, isn't that a win-win situation?" She displayed her false bravado, hoping to not be busted by the others.
"You're aware that I like you, right?" Gani pointed out. He really wanted to get angry with her because of how recklessly ruthless she was. She was basically self-destructing just to turtle out of her true feelings. Wanting to alleviate her cowardly approach by not showing any aggressiveness, he decided to take the damsel in distress route and put on his most wrenched look.
Yumi avoided his eyes and answered, "Yes..."
"And yet you're asking me to play this game with you without considering what I would feel?"
"I..." Yumi turned silent.
"Heartless! You're the best of both worlds. You enjoy my heart and my body but refuse to reciprocate. Tell me, it's not heartless?" He snorted. He placed his right hand on the top of his chest to caress his invisible heart. He was like a heartbroken maiden facing the greatest scumbag of all time.
Yumi stiffened but she could not argue because she was really acting heartless right now. She knew that her proposal was a double-edged sword. She thought that if she acted like a scumbag and at least satisfied his physical needs and hers as well, over time, Gani would outgrow his puppy love and they could continue to be the best of friends by then. But the other side of the coin was, this could be a trap for her. Maybe by that time, she would be the one drowned in love and unable to come back.
Seeing the crack in her act, Gani struck while the iron was hot and played his damsel in distress character with gusto. "How do you plan to compensate me? What if you got bored of my young body, dumped me when you were done and looked for another hunk guy to hook up with?
"No...I won't. I'll stay with you until you've moved on from me. We're friends, so I won't let you be left alone like that. This deal is supposed to make us both happy and not that."
"You promise you'll never leave unless I'm done?" His eyes were full of doubt and suspicion.
"Yes. I promised." Resignation could be heard from her voice now. She never thought that Gani would react this way. He had never been this emotional in front of her since that day, ten years ago, on their first meeting in her tree house.
"What if you fell in love with me but I've already moved on? What will you do then?"
"Don't worry, it won't happen...Impossible..."
Gani could clearly detect the misery in her almost inaudible declaration. He could not even categorize her words as a declaration because of how weak it was, reflecting the announcer's lack of confidence.
He wanted to reach out his hands to her and pull her to his embrace, but he needed to finish this discussion and let her know his stand loud and clear. "No. It's not impossible. I'm such a charming guy, who wouldn't fall for me and my little junior's skills?"
Yumi felt a strong urge to slap him out of his self-absorbed illusion and pull him back to reality. Even her eyes were threatening to roll on their own! However, being in the wrong first, she swallowed all the roast that was clamoring to be spoken in her throat and chose to be the Mother Teresa of this situation. Sometimes, it took extra effort to take his words seriously....
Wait...
Yumi squinted her eyes. She had a sudden intuition that this man was bluffing her, trying to reexamine Gani's words and former actions.
He will not bring out his little rising dead here if he's truly hurt, right? Am I overanalyzing this?
Finding the process of analysis too overwhelming, she soon gave up looking into it and accepted his claims at its face value.
He continued, "If that happens, I will not mind if you want to chase me back. Maybe I could revive my hard-beaten heart for you by then. I'm easy to coax. You'll never know, right?"
He saw her eyes brighten as though she had been shown the right path and then dim again when an unknown thought clouded her former clarity. Gani wanted to sigh but he just let this be as it was and just noted to himself to slowly guide the girl in their days ahead.
'Okay then! That's one settled. Let's talk about exclusivity. I wanted this to be exclusive. How about you?" Seeing the confusion in the girl's eyes, he kindly explained what he meant to her and asked again, "So...what are your thoughts?"
"I think I like that too..." She thought that it was a no-brainer to be exclusive. She could not imagine herself doing those things other than Gani. Just imagining it made her feel violated and repulsed.
Gani smiled when he heard her stand. Even if she wanted otherwise, he would do everything within his power to make her choose exclusiveness. He was not a good person in the first place, anyway.
"I have a lot of kinks. Are you sure you can handle them?"
"K-Kinks?" Her mind blanked, but she refused to ask what that word meant. This was not the time to look stupid. "Of course, I can handle it! It's just kinks. What could possibly happen wrong? Bring it on! I'll satisfy you!"
"You're not asking what exactly my kinks are?"
Yumi checked the depleted wall clock. She struggled to stay calm after not having access to the current time. She really didn't want to miss her class now. Missing one lecture was like missing a whole semester because of how interconnected each topic was. She knew that asking would lead to another thread of conversation, which was the last thing she wanted to do.
"Not asking. Not asking. We can take our time solving it. Everything is fine with me!"
Noticing her small impatient movements, Gani followed the line of her sight and understood her intention, "We still have twenty minutes left. You won't miss your class."
Everything after that became blurred into her distracted mind, adding to it was the sleepiness that was creeping on her after their taxing activity. When the time was up, Yumi was awakened from her stupor, spotted the man reaching his right hand to her to offer a handshake, gave her hand in confusion and heard him say, "I'm looking forward to our new and exciting relationship. May we have a euphoric orgasm and noodle-like legs every. single. day!"
Gani flashed his most charming smile while his eyes stayed on her longer than normal.
She felt chills run down her spine and perceived a strong sense of foreboding.
The school bell rang and Yumi absorbed nothing from the lecture that had just concluded. She hung her bag on her back and strode away from the noisy crowd.
The house was unusually quiet and when she arrived on the second floor her grandmother, who was always in her rocking chair, was nowhere to be found. She decided to check the master's bedroom but before she could, she heard footsteps coming from the first floor, so she turned around to check that out first.
When she reached the ground, Grandma Cruz greeted her with a silly grin. Yumi smiled back but was taken aback by how muddy her grandmother's lower half was. Coming to the conclusion that the elderly person sneaked out to do gardening again, she did not spare the old one from her scolding.
"La! I told you not to do these things again. What if you slip on the mud and hurt your bones?!"
Grandma Cruz's eyes averted her granddaughter's fierce gaze. Her demeanure was like a child displaying embarrassment and fear of getting caught by her strict elders.
"Osya! I won't do it again. Please bear with your old grandma. I'm just too bored alone in this house. I won't do it again. I won't do it." She mischievously cajoled Yumi.
Yumi retracted her doubtful glare but her heart felt ominous. She was sure that this would not be the last and the grey-haired lady would certainly double her effort to hide her tracks.
She escorted her to the bathroom and cleaned the old woman with the utmost care. She lifted up the hem of her duster dress and washed away all the dried mud on her time-imprinted skin.
"Lola, just leave all the hard work to me. Including our vegetable plot. You're not getting any younger, you know? I want to have you by my side until I grow super old, so please stay healthy for me, okay?"
Yumi collected a clean towel from somewhere and patted her skin.
"Hay, naku! I'll be ancient by then!" Grandma Cruz retorted, but the joyful beam on her face outed her truest emotion.
After drying her limbs, Yumi stood up and pulled her grandma into a big hug and acted coyly, "I don't care you're still my most adorable grandma! Promise me, okay?"
Grandma Cruz paused for a moment but eventually gave in to her dearest granddaughter, "Okay, I'll try my best."
"Y-Yes." Her voice shook, but feeling her lack of conviction and confidence, she reiterated with more firmness, "Yes!"
"We satisfy each other, isn't that a win-win situation?" She displayed her false bravado, hoping to not be busted by the others.
"You're aware that I like you, right?" Gani pointed out. He really wanted to get angry with her because of how recklessly ruthless she was. She was basically self-destructing just to turtle out of her true feelings. Wanting to alleviate her cowardly approach by not showing any aggressiveness, he decided to take the damsel in distress route and put on his most wrenched look.
Yumi avoided his eyes and answered, "Yes..."
"And yet you're asking me to play this game with you without considering what I would feel?"
"I..." Yumi turned silent.
"Heartless! You're the best of both worlds. You enjoy my heart and my body but refuse to reciprocate. Tell me, it's not heartless?" He snorted. He placed his right hand on the top of his chest to caress his invisible heart. He was like a heartbroken maiden facing the greatest scumbag of all time.
Yumi stiffened but she could not argue because she was really acting heartless right now. She knew that her proposal was a double-edged sword. She thought that if she acted like a scumbag and at least satisfied his physical needs and hers as well, over time, Gani would outgrow his puppy love and they could continue to be the best of friends by then. But the other side of the coin was, this could be a trap for her. Maybe by that time, she would be the one drowned in love and unable to come back.
Seeing the crack in her act, Gani struck while the iron was hot and played his damsel in distress character with gusto. "How do you plan to compensate me? What if you got bored of my young body, dumped me when you were done and looked for another hunk guy to hook up with?
"No...I won't. I'll stay with you until you've moved on from me. We're friends, so I won't let you be left alone like that. This deal is supposed to make us both happy and not that."
"You promise you'll never leave unless I'm done?" His eyes were full of doubt and suspicion.
"Yes. I promised." Resignation could be heard from her voice now. She never thought that Gani would react this way. He had never been this emotional in front of her since that day, ten years ago, on their first meeting in her tree house.
"What if you fell in love with me but I've already moved on? What will you do then?"
"Don't worry, it won't happen...Impossible..."
Gani could clearly detect the misery in her almost inaudible declaration. He could not even categorize her words as a declaration because of how weak it was, reflecting the announcer's lack of confidence.
He wanted to reach out his hands to her and pull her to his embrace, but he needed to finish this discussion and let her know his stand loud and clear. "No. It's not impossible. I'm such a charming guy, who wouldn't fall for me and my little junior's skills?"
Yumi felt a strong urge to slap him out of his self-absorbed illusion and pull him back to reality. Even her eyes were threatening to roll on their own! However, being in the wrong first, she swallowed all the roast that was clamoring to be spoken in her throat and chose to be the Mother Teresa of this situation. Sometimes, it took extra effort to take his words seriously....
Wait...
Yumi squinted her eyes. She had a sudden intuition that this man was bluffing her, trying to reexamine Gani's words and former actions.
He will not bring out his little rising dead here if he's truly hurt, right? Am I overanalyzing this?
Finding the process of analysis too overwhelming, she soon gave up looking into it and accepted his claims at its face value.
He continued, "If that happens, I will not mind if you want to chase me back. Maybe I could revive my hard-beaten heart for you by then. I'm easy to coax. You'll never know, right?"
He saw her eyes brighten as though she had been shown the right path and then dim again when an unknown thought clouded her former clarity. Gani wanted to sigh but he just let this be as it was and just noted to himself to slowly guide the girl in their days ahead.
'Okay then! That's one settled. Let's talk about exclusivity. I wanted this to be exclusive. How about you?" Seeing the confusion in the girl's eyes, he kindly explained what he meant to her and asked again, "So...what are your thoughts?"
"I think I like that too..." She thought that it was a no-brainer to be exclusive. She could not imagine herself doing those things other than Gani. Just imagining it made her feel violated and repulsed.
Gani smiled when he heard her stand. Even if she wanted otherwise, he would do everything within his power to make her choose exclusiveness. He was not a good person in the first place, anyway.
"I have a lot of kinks. Are you sure you can handle them?"
"K-Kinks?" Her mind blanked, but she refused to ask what that word meant. This was not the time to look stupid. "Of course, I can handle it! It's just kinks. What could possibly happen wrong? Bring it on! I'll satisfy you!"
"You're not asking what exactly my kinks are?"
Yumi checked the depleted wall clock. She struggled to stay calm after not having access to the current time. She really didn't want to miss her class now. Missing one lecture was like missing a whole semester because of how interconnected each topic was. She knew that asking would lead to another thread of conversation, which was the last thing she wanted to do.
"Not asking. Not asking. We can take our time solving it. Everything is fine with me!"
Noticing her small impatient movements, Gani followed the line of her sight and understood her intention, "We still have twenty minutes left. You won't miss your class."
Everything after that became blurred into her distracted mind, adding to it was the sleepiness that was creeping on her after their taxing activity. When the time was up, Yumi was awakened from her stupor, spotted the man reaching his right hand to her to offer a handshake, gave her hand in confusion and heard him say, "I'm looking forward to our new and exciting relationship. May we have a euphoric orgasm and noodle-like legs every. single. day!"
Gani flashed his most charming smile while his eyes stayed on her longer than normal.
She felt chills run down her spine and perceived a strong sense of foreboding.
The school bell rang and Yumi absorbed nothing from the lecture that had just concluded. She hung her bag on her back and strode away from the noisy crowd.
The house was unusually quiet and when she arrived on the second floor her grandmother, who was always in her rocking chair, was nowhere to be found. She decided to check the master's bedroom but before she could, she heard footsteps coming from the first floor, so she turned around to check that out first.
When she reached the ground, Grandma Cruz greeted her with a silly grin. Yumi smiled back but was taken aback by how muddy her grandmother's lower half was. Coming to the conclusion that the elderly person sneaked out to do gardening again, she did not spare the old one from her scolding.
"La! I told you not to do these things again. What if you slip on the mud and hurt your bones?!"
Grandma Cruz's eyes averted her granddaughter's fierce gaze. Her demeanure was like a child displaying embarrassment and fear of getting caught by her strict elders.
"Osya! I won't do it again. Please bear with your old grandma. I'm just too bored alone in this house. I won't do it again. I won't do it." She mischievously cajoled Yumi.
Yumi retracted her doubtful glare but her heart felt ominous. She was sure that this would not be the last and the grey-haired lady would certainly double her effort to hide her tracks.
She escorted her to the bathroom and cleaned the old woman with the utmost care. She lifted up the hem of her duster dress and washed away all the dried mud on her time-imprinted skin.
"Lola, just leave all the hard work to me. Including our vegetable plot. You're not getting any younger, you know? I want to have you by my side until I grow super old, so please stay healthy for me, okay?"
Yumi collected a clean towel from somewhere and patted her skin.
"Hay, naku! I'll be ancient by then!" Grandma Cruz retorted, but the joyful beam on her face outed her truest emotion.
After drying her limbs, Yumi stood up and pulled her grandma into a big hug and acted coyly, "I don't care you're still my most adorable grandma! Promise me, okay?"
Grandma Cruz paused for a moment but eventually gave in to her dearest granddaughter, "Okay, I'll try my best."
