In a twisted game of truth and lies, Yuki Kobayashi schemes to win the heart of her academic rival, Rhett Tudor, and the college scholarship with it. But if he sees through her deception, it's game over.
...
Yuki blew her bangs to the side with a puff of air. "It's not that deep, Ethan. I had fun bullying the bullies. I have fun fighting for people to give me what I want."
But more than that she'd had fun pushing the boundaries of what people expected, what her parents expected. Pushing herself to rise to the challenge, to break records, to overthrow the social norm. She'd pushed and pushed until the day the boundaries disappeared and she stumbled into a world that was rainy, foggy grey. Even worse, she wasn't indestructible anymore.
If she couldn't be strong, what then?
"Every word out of your mouth convinces me that you're an awful person and I shouldn't even be trying to warn you," Ethan said with a frown. He did look rather put out, like he'd prefer to be anywhere else. With his shifting eyes beneath his sweatshirt hood and the nervous jumping of his leg, Yuki wondered how he'd managed to approach her at all.
"Well, I'm glad you've realized that." She tossed her lollipop stick in the trash and headed toward the entrance, assuming he'd want to follow her out to get away from whoever he was avoiding. If the warning was worth it, he wouldn't leave after making it this far.
"I want my ring back," Ethan hissed in a whisper behind her. He followed Yuki back to the picnic table under the maples, the bones of their branches now stripped of leaves.
"Let's keep walking." She didn't want to linger here in plain view, though a check of the library window didn't reveal Era's watching eyes.
The last thing Yuki wanted to do was give Ethan his ring back. All her plans hinged on having a ring that wasn't Rhett's without sacrificing her own. An equal exchange of queens placed her back at square one. But Ethan had brains enough to know that telling Rhett or Era of his ring would force her hand.
She had to give it up. Ethan had better make it worth her while.
After turning the corner, Yuki swiveled on her heel and ground to a halt. "I'll give your ring back after you give me the warning."
"You shouldn't trust Era." Ethan huffed, chest heaving as if he were out of breath.
Yuki raised an eyebrow. So much for a grand warning. "No shizzle, Sherlock. You think I haven't figured that out?"
"Shut up and listen to me for a couple minutes," he snapped, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "You shouldn't trust Era because she considers her friends to be disposable. Haven't you wondered why she doesn't have any from her own year? She's a senior, yet her close circle consists of you, a sophomore, and Sophia Lim who's a junior."
Maybe she'd been too harsh. Ethan had some guts after all. That stacked two surprises on top of each other for this week. After Rhett had called in to the school sick, she'd texted him two things.
I'm sorry. Again.
And—
If you're still asking me to the dance, my answer is yes.
He hadn't replied back yet.
"Look, Ethan," —Yuki sighed, running a hand through her hair— "it's nothing personal that I asked for your ring. Since you're not playing the fortune game this year, it seemed like the most logical option. But if you think you're going to convince me not to play too, then you're dead wrong."
Sophia on the other hand, hadn't been wrong about Ethan's choleric temperament. The skin of his neck bled to the shade of a beet, while his clenched fists indicated he might be thinking about strangling her. "This isn't about some game!" After he stomped off for a brief moment, he returned with flared nostrils but moderated breathing. "Have you heard about a girl with the family name Iwasaki?" he ground out between his teeth.
Yuki shook her head. "Nope, never met her. Does she go to Zenith?"
"Used to," Ethan said quietly, his gaze still darting around as if the trees held hidden cameras. "And I know you've never met her because she disappeared earlier last year before you got here."
A chill swept over Yuki, raising the hairs on her arms. "Why'd she disappear?"
"Some suspected kidnapping, others suggested she ran off with some guy. The last time anyone saw her was leaving a party with Era. But when she was never found and her parents left town, whispers started to go around that someone wanted her to disappear. Someone powerful."
There had to have been some investigation. People couldn't just disappear into thin air like that, could they? "Who was she?"
"She was Era's best friend." Ethan put his backpack down and unzipped it. "I never met her either, but news about her disappearance went around and I did some more digging. My older sister graduated two years ago so I found her yearbook." He pulled it out of his backpack and opened it to a page captioned "The Asian Cultures Club".
Among the dozens of students in the picture, two drew Yuki's eyes to the center of the group. Era, a fortune cookie presented to the camera in one hand while her other formed half a heart. To her right, another girl completed the heart gesture, a girl with lively, laughing eyes. A girl with her hair cut in the hime style.
You look just like her.
Yuki traced her finger along the names below the picture that listed everyone left to right. She passed over Era's and stopped at the one beside it, heart threatening to burst out of her fragile chest.
Flaws have a way of catching up to people. Ends their legacy prematurely.
Pearl Iwasaki.
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