Remi's p.o.v
I didn't even know what to expect when I headed after him. This was the first time in these four months he's been angry at me.
"Kai.."
He continued walking up the stairs and got to his room, closing the door behind him. I opened the door and walked into his room.
"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you. I didn't know we would get in the competition. I'm just as surprised as you are.. And I didn't know they'd ask us to live there."
He was quiet. He sat down on his chair and opened his laptop.
"Kai, can you look at me for a second.."
I took a step closer and tried to touch him but realized maybe that would make him even angrier.. " I guess.. I'll come to talk when you calm down."
I turned around to leave, but he suddenly grabbed my arm.
"Don't leave. I just.. I need a minute." He spoke, looking down. "I don't know how to process being angry when it involves you."
"I'm sorry." I said my heart sinking down to my feet.
I should have thought this through. I should have been more careful.
"I didn't know it would turn out this way. I'm really sorry."
He kept staring down.
I kneeled down as he was holding my hand. I leaned my chin on his knee.
He finally faced me. "I understand you didn't know about this until today. I'm not mad about that. What bothers me is that now you have to make a decision. If you and Francy want to take this seriously, you can't not go."
I sighed. "I haven't talked to Francy about this yet. Maybe she's not comfortable with going. She hasn't said anything to Elric either."
"But you want to go?" He asked.
I played with his fingers as he held my hand. Did I want to go? Yes. But it was still fresh in my head as an idea. Do I want to leave Kai for two months? Absolutely no.
"Doing this project is fun." I smiled. "But I don't want to go there for two months. I'm going to miss you very much."
Kai suddenly slid off from the chair, dropped to his knees and hugged me. He held me so tight.
"Don't go" He whispered in my ear. " Please don't go."
I tried to pull away to face him. Suddenly he nudged me down on the floor and pressed me under him. Both hands beside my head.
His eyes were half-closed looking at my lips.
That look did all kinds of things to me.
His lips were getting closer. The smell of his washed-out cologne on his shirt was hypnotic beyond reason.
At that very moment, his lips brushed over mine and all my body reacted to him instinctively.
His kiss was like a wave of warmth. My whole body tingled as he kissed me again, hungry and intense.
The taste of him... it silenced my thoughts and made me want more. I wrapped my arms around him.
"Don't go." He whispered over my lips. "I'll kiss you like this all summer, just stay with me."
"But.." I started talking and he suddenly brought his lips down to my neck and his hand slid under my shirt caressing my waist. The moment his fingers touched my skin I had lost my thoughts again.
He's never kissed me like this before. It was always so restricted, controlled but this..
Oh no no no. He cannot do this to me, not like this.
I nudged him away and sat up breathless. I touched my neck where the trace of his lips still burned my skin.
"I'm not going to go." I told him. "That's what I was trying to say before you umm did that.."
He pushed his hair back and sat up looking at me. "Really?"
"Yes." I answered. "If you don't want me to go I won't go. There's no hard feelings or anything."
He suddenly broke into a smile and dropped down laying on the ground. He let out a breath of relief.
I touched my chest to calm down my heart. "Hey um.. You mean it?"
"Huh?" He looked at me
I paused.. "That um.. you're going to kiss me like that all summer?"
Instead of replying he just took my hand and placed a soft little kiss on my inner wrist. But his eyes sent me a look that ran a chill down my spine. Oh my god. Kai..
This man will be the death of me.
Oh no.. what will I tell Francy now..
Lucy's p.o.v
I trudged back into the gaming room. I was sleep-deprived and hungry, but it was worth it.
Ace was laying upside down on the couch with his head hanging off the couch. He stared into the ceiling in a daze.
"What are you doing?" I asked him.
"It helps me think." He replied and then rose up back to normal. "Tell me you have something." He asked desperately. "I can't live like this anymore."
We were both desperate these last few days. We called our lawyer, the game center and all they could do was tell us to wait. TO WAIT!!
They wouldn't even tell us who the person was who claimed it was a plagiarized game.
All the while our fans who played the game wrote thousands and thousands of emails asking us what happened and we had to come up with something to reply to all of them.
We couldn't sleep. We couldn't eat.. Or work.. So..I did something about it.
"I have something," I told him and sat down next to him.
His eyes widened in excitement. "Did they call? Email?"
"No." I answered. "Nothing of that sort. Since we couldn't get any answers I did my own search and found the person that might have been the perpetrator."
"Really? Who was it? " Ace asked and then paused. "How did you find that out?"
I paused. "Don't ask."
Ace abruptly stood up. "Tell me you did not hack the official GDWC system!!"
"Of course not." I scoffed. I wasn't stupid. "Just the employees."
Ace was pretty fast to realize what I had done. "Lucy, you hacked them! Do you want to make things worse..."Ace walked around the room going on and on about the consequences of this action..
But I had to do it...
Eventually, he dropped back down on the couch and calmed down. "But.. uh.. wait..So you actually found out who that shit was?"
"Yes."
"Wow. I'm going to beat whoever it was to a pulp. " Ace tried to focus. "Okay wait wait.. then who was it? Why would they not tell us? Can I sue them?"
"It took me a while to find the answers because they don't know either. They got a very believable email from an account they couldn't identify. I checked the email and there wasn't a trace. Well not a visible one anyways. I stayed up all night trying to analyze the origin and eventually came up with one thing. . xxXenon."
Ace was utterly confused. "A code?"
I shook my head. "I thought so as well but no. It's a name. A hacker's name."
"A hacker did this?!" Ace got angry. "Why would a hacker be after us? Jealousy? Do you have any more enemies I should know off?"
"No. I have no idea who this person is and why they would do that. But I do know that whoever it was known I would try to find them. There were obvious clues left for me to specifically follow and find them. "
"So what do you want to do now?" Ace asked.
"Well since I don't know their real name I could only trace their steps as the hacker. xxXenon is popular amongst young people and the underground. So I used some logic, past connections and found the hacker is connected to the annual underground gaming competition."
"Yep." Ace shook his head. "Now I'm certain it's someone who is after you. They wouldn't just magically show up in our city if this was someone who didn't know you. I don't believe in coincidences."
"I don't believe this is random either," I confirmed. "In fact, I'm also trying to come up with a list of who would do this but let's be real. I'm not the most likable person."
"It's this underground gaming competition illegal?" Ace asked.
"No. They call it underground cause the gaming competition is done in a completely different manner. They use different rules than usual gaming competitions."
He seemed perplexed.
I sighed. "Ace.. I think we need to go to this underground gaming competition and take a look ourselves. It's starting in a few weeks. I've been to this type of competition to watch so I kind of know the rules.."
Ace rubbed his head irritated. "I understand. We have to find this shit or there go our championships. Even now I'm not sure they will reinstate us back into the competition. But if we find that person and they take back what they said then maybe we have a chance."
This was crazy. We needed to get there and that was the only means.
"How is the gaming competition different underground?" Ace asked.
"They have different rules. Hacker rules."
"Who organizes stuff like that?" Ace asked.
"Big companies. They use these chances to find computer-savvy young people who would do anything for money even if it means selling their skills. "
Ace was unwavering. "It's only playing games for us.. We'll get in, find that hacker who screwed us over and get out. We don't need their prize money nor their job offers."
"We still need better gamers. They play in teams." I tried to explain.
"What? So more work.. " Ace sighed. " No. Screw this. We already decided to do this anyways. You'll tell me later. Now let's go eat. I'm fucking starving."
a/n
Okay before you kill me hhaha there is a legit reason for Kai's behavior. I'm adding this in because i think it's important.
Lot's of people were very quick to judge Kai when he did something they didn't like. Remi as well. And I will elaborate if you guys want me to, but I want you to think about why he acted the way he did and why it's actually a normal reaction.
A good character has a well rounded personality. What is logical to a reader from one perspective is illogical to another and the other way around. I don't want my characters to cater to what readers think is suitable. That is what makes the story fun and the characters likable even if they do unlikable things.
But I never write anything without thinking it through first and checking if it works with the character's personality or not.
Thank you for reading through that. moving on. 🤭