Black Equation - The Forgotten Ones

Black Equation - Chapter 6*

Patricia turned to her in worry. "Are you all right? Good thing Minamoto's here, huh?"

"Yeah... he's a life-saver." The words sounded garbled, as she forced the lie out of her mouth. She knew those words were ironic; he's a killer, and he just announced her death sentence a while back. He saw how fierce her accusing stare was, but he cunningly depicted his facade.

"This is weird. I thought Jared said you were sick. Why are you here then?" Patricia asked Faye.

"Uh... I got bored at home so I decided to come here since I got better."

"I see. Oh before I forget, Selena, this is an exchange student from Tokyo, Hanade Minamoto," she introduced. She then addressed Hanade. "She's Selena Andrews, one of our classmates."

"Really? What a coincidence." Faye heard the double implications of his words. She thought so herself. How small the world was for her, and how short her time would be now that she had a murderer as a classmate. Could things get worse?

"Why are you here, Pres?" she asked, pulling Patricia towards their homeroom. Hanade followed them from behind.

"Well, I thought Minamoto was lost so I went out to check him," she replied in a patronizing tone. Clearly, she had a thing for him. Faye wanted to say something smart, like avoid him at all cost or anything among those lines. What kept her from doing so was the cold glare he had in his eyes. She knew what those eyes meant. One slip from her would cause him to be aggravated, and who knows what he's capable of. Maybe he wouldn't care enough and kill both girls.

She wouldn't allow that.

*****

She expected that Jared would be thrilled to have her in class, and he didn't fail her. As soon as she stepped in the room, an infectious grin spread over his face, making her smile back in response. She quickly hid her dread about her new classmate, wishing that she would be able to deceive her best friend that nothing wrong was going on. She went to the empty seat beside him with her usual carefree attitude.

Mr. Greene came in almost immediately, so the classes started.

"I'm back," she chirped as she sat down.

"Am I forgiven?" Jared asked in an inaudible voice. He looked worried, half-embarrassed and half-hopeful. She realized that she just had a fight with him, and he blamed himself for her weird behavior that morning. If only she could share it to him, she would at least feel better, but Jared knew nothing about what she's facing. Death. She wasn't afraid to die, but dying was the last thing she wanted as of now. Who wanted death anyway? Not her. But he would know something was troubling her. She knew she had to act, pretend the way she did as an idol, although she hated to do so. She could keep her emotions in check, if it's for the sake of her friends. She had the gist of what Hanade would do if she got more people involved. She could feel the murderous stare on her back. He would watch over him all day, she knew.

"I'm not angry," she replied, after a few seconds, without looking at him. Her cheeks warmed when she remembered his kiss. It was better than she dreamed. How many times had she imagined that? And she’s absolutely an idiot for freaking out. "Could we just… forget?"

"Is that a rejection?" His voice went flat.

"Look here, Jared. I'm not --"

"You're the one not looking at me.” He gripped the edges of his table until his knuckles turned white. “Look at me. I want you to look at me, and tell me that you felt nothing."

Her heart squeezed uncomfortably at the plea in his voice.

She faced him, all stoic and emotionless. "I have other worries to take care of.”

There was hurt behind the suave mask he had on. What could she do? She couldn't bear to tell him that she's destined to die tonight. She wanted to say 'I only think of you as a brother, since way back, so I deliberately ignored your feelings', the easier way out, but that would hurt both of them. And she would be lying. Instead, she said in a milder tone "For now, I want to enjoy the day. Would you deny me that?"

"Of course not." He looked away. “I will deny you nothing.”

*****

She was surprised by how their class accepted Minamoto Hanade. He mixed in with them well, as if he was a normal high school student. Maybe, if Faye didn't know the truth, she would also be among the noisy circle of students. She watched him in the corners of her eyes, the same way he watched over her. They were being too careful with each other, but no one noticed the tension between these two.

Jared entered the room with a box of over-sized pizza on both hands, Daniel tugging behind with two more. They luckily had two classes free, due to an emergency among the faculty, so they decided to order snacks from the nearby Pizza Hut. Someone brought an amplifier, so with Jared's mp4 connected to it, the whole room was in an uproar. No one would think that they were in the middle of class. It was a party.

"Wanna dance?" Ted asked Faye.

She forced a smile. "Sure."

It was so noisy. Everyone was shouting, attempting to be heard against the blaring music.

"Hey! Where's the Coke?"

"Are there no more pizzas?"

"Cathy! Get me some - ouch!"

"Crap! Everyone! The principal's coming!" Daniel's loud voice announced as he turned off the music. The whole class became a horde of busy bees. Everyone moved at the same time. The tables were set, the garbage removed, the boxes and leftover food were tossed at the back. Everything happened in two minutes. By the time Sister Coronel entered the room, the senior batch was as meek as lambs, model graduating students in the middle of a self-study period.

The principal had a confused look across her face. "I believe I heard some noise from your room, children."

Patricia, as the president of the class, stood up and spoke in a rather skilled way. "That would be impossible, madame. As you can see, we were too busy preparing for our next lessons to make any unnecessary noise. As the representative of our batch, it would be my dishonor if what you said was true."

"I see, Ms. Tan. Good job on your work." The stout nun left without batting an eyelid. As soon as the old woman was out of hearing range, the class burst into laughter.

"That was great Pat!" Daniel hollered.

"Amazing speech!" Cathy cheered. The guys stood up and chattered on about Pat's feat. The class unity was really unbelievable; Faye was really impressed. She was immersed in fun when suddenly a stern gaze broke her pace. Hanade was suddenly beside her. He leaned down and whispered something to her ear.

"See you at the park, 6pm. Be alone."