Masked 🎭✔️

Chapter 2

"Aaahh!!" She jumped and ran as soon as she realized what he was up to, laughing.

"I knew you wanted revenge!" She shouted as she ran in circles around the compound and he ran after her.

"Should have trusted your instinct!" He shouted, almost catching up to her.

She was never going to outrun him, she thought. So she did the next best thing: She ran towards her heels. She reached them as soon as she felt his fingers wrap around her upper arm. She used her free hand to pick up a heeled boot and raised it up like a weapon, still laughing.

"Back off!" She laughed. " Or I will fire!"

He listened, letting go of her arm and raising his hands in surrender, still laughing.

"Fine. Fine. Just keep your sadistic boots away from me!" He acted terrified.

She laughed heartily and he joined in, both panting as they made their way to the bench at the center of the courtyard and sat down.

She leaned her head back on the bench looking up at the sky, as did he.

"You weren't really going to stamp me, were you?" She asked still looking up.

"Neh" He replied without turning his head either, "Was fun to scare you though" He laughed.

"I wasn't scared"

"Oh really?"

"Oh, not at all" She replied airily.

"So you wouldn't object to me stamping you now then?" He asked as he pretended to move his foot towards her.

She quickly picked up her feet which were still bare and folded them on the bench.

"I don't take risks" She shrugged.

"Uh huh" He laughed in response.

There was silence for a while as they both simply stared up at the sky, enjoying the comfortable silence and the company they were sharing.

"You're even more fun when you're dressed in joggers shorts" She said after a while, turning her head to look at him.

"Yeah? Why do you say that? You like what you're seeing?" He smirked as he turned to meet her gaze.

"Oh you wish!" She retorted even as she blushed a tiny bit and averted her gaze. "No, I just meant that when you're dressed informally, you act informally. It's a lot more..." She couldn't find the word.

"Real?" He completed.

"Yes. Exactly. A lot more real" She replied.

"Well, this is who I really am. It's not always easy to be myself because people expect you to behave a certain way... especially if you're wearing a suit." He chuckles. "But it helps that you have no idea who I am so I can be myself without any fear of being judged."

She nodded. "I wouldn't have judged you anyways. But yes I get what you mean."

He scoffed. "Sure" he replied sarcastically.

"What? You don't believe me?"

He shook his head, "No...I mean...I want to believe you. But even you come across as someone who dresses to impress and are even more likely to hold others to those higher standards.."

"What makes you say that I dress to impress?"

"I just mean that you hate wearing heels and yet you wear them.."

"Why do you say I hate wearing heels?"

"You were aching to remove them yesterday, remember?"

"Hmm" she replied. "Caught that, did you?"