Midnight Smiles【COMPLETED】

Chapter 5: The beast who's friends with the Beauty

Nevertheless, he headed to Ryder's house. Maybe it was because his stomach was filled or because this time he had Ryder's consent for visiting her that his footsteps were quicker than the previous nights.

He walked to the backyard, strangely in a good mood, but as soon as he got close, a loud shout startled him. Sure enough, when he checked behind the face, what faced him wasn't only Ryder but also another girl with wild curly hair and a petite body.

Jake recognized her immediately. That was Jasmine... that girl was quite the odd type. She had a rather violent nature, but back when he was still in school, Jake had also noticed that despite the fierce attitude, Jasmine was extremely kindhearted. She was the only person Jake had seen around Ryder.

If Ryder thinks of her as a friend, she surely is a good person. Jake was sure of it. However, he also knew that this friend of Ryder was also too overprotective. Suddenly, he wasn't sure if he wanted to deal with her. What if she attacked him?
He was about to turn around and leave when Jasmine asked Ryder a question that made Jake stop in his tracks.

"So why did you name that guy Midnight?"

Ryder told Jasmine about me?

Now Jake was too curious to leave. He wanted to know what Ryder would tell her friend. Even though he didn't dare to look at the girls for fear of getting caught, he squatted against the fence and shamelessly eavesdropped on the girls' conversation.

It's not shameless if it's for a noble reason.

Knowing what Ryder thought of him was extremely important! Therefore, it's noble!

No one in the world would convince Jake that he was being a bit of a creep at the moment, yet given the fact that his self-esteem had taken a strong hit the moment depression punched him in the face as if it was the reincarnation of Mohammed Ali, it was kinda acceptable from him to want some assurance from the girl he used to like.

"For two reasons," Ryder said but didn't continue with the explanation. This only got Jasmine impatient.

"Those two reasons being..." Jasmine urged her, but Ryder just smirked at her and scrolled down her phone. "Just spit it out already. I'm sorry, okay?!"

Ryder giggled happily at her achievement in angering Jasmine. This friend of hers who had been playing games a few minutes ago had mistreated her laptop by hitting and cursing it. She needed to get punished for it. After angering her, Ryder was finally satisfied.

"Okay, okay. Well, the nickname first came to me because of a book I have read. You know the one with the psychopath that killed his victims every midnight."

Jake frowned. He was extremely displeased.

She named me after the fucking psycho!!! And he even dies at the end! Is she wishing me an early death or what?

"The one you kept calling your baby? That died in the end, and you mourned him for a whole week?" Jasmine asked and the gloomy expression on Jake's face was instantly replaced by a blush. His face felt hot, and his heart was pounding against his chest.

B-baby?

Now his ears turned red as well.

Does that mean that... that she...

"He was precious and adorable and didn't deserve all that happened to him. My baby deserved all the love in the world." Ryder stubbornly defended a psychopath from a book.

Her words only made Jake feel as if he was about to explode from overheating.

Truth be told Ryder felt hesitant about giving Jake a name from a book, even worse, that of a "psychopath", she couldn't help but think that this situation and that of the book were somewhat similar. She thought the stranger most likely hadn't read that book. However, judging by the way Jake talked, Ryder somewhat believed he was well-read, so to save herself some face in case he had read that particular book, she came up with the second reason, which was 40% an excuse.