46 School Maelstrom 3

The next day, yesterday's event became everyone's common gossip material.

Sofony Mendez' sister was bullied, the elder sister slapped the bully to death. Then everyone involved was scolded severely by the teachers and guidance counseling staffs.

It was made into a big issue due to the involved parties... Students were talking about how it all started between a lackey of a campus goddess and a sister of another campus goddess. The matter had been exaggerated in just a few verbal renditions.

Out of concern, Wendy scolded Sofony from morning to after school. She repeatedly stressed that Sofony could have just left the slapping part to her since her image had always been that of a straightforward fierce queen capable of slapping people to death with words and violence. Wendy really grilled Sofony over the fire. Meanwhile, Clea spearheaded the gossipmongers fighting the other side. Apparently, there were people twisting the story to their convenience and their new friend, Clea - as a witness, thus someone indirectly involved - helped out by putting those people in their place .

Throughout this, Sofony could only smile since her new post was to receive the scolding and not talk back, or else Wendy would choke her to death. Her best friend was too much in treating her like a kid who doesn't know how the world rotates.

She could only justify herself within.

What else could she do? Her heart felt so heavy when she saw Steffy bullied like that. Reasons disappeared out of the blue. Consumed by the guilt and anger of not being able to protect the person she vowed to protect, she stepped out and did what she had just done. She didn't think she was that bad, though. She had a reason. As a sister, it was not that wrong to avenge her wronged and beaten up little sibling.

In the first place, that Vienna was the one who started everything, the one not content even after receiving an apology.

Now, everyone else must be scolding and scorning her in their mind. Wendy and friends did out of concern, the rest out of contempt.

'People must be thinking that I am so fake. Well, in a way, it's true... It's just that, why is it so easy for people to judge and jump into conclusions?'

A gloomy sighed escaped from Sofony. Maybe she was just being hypocrite again, praying for people not to think bad of her even after all she had done. It's different today though. Most mouths only care about the slapping part, not the boring reason.

If it were before, all the badmouthing and hurtful criticisms would have driven her already to commit suicide, as her previous self was very concerned about what people think and say about her.

She would be crying all night, musing whether she had been wrong, or heartless. All the thinking would probably make her skip classes and even meals for a week or so.

That's how she used to be, truly weak-hearted.

Sofony shook her head as she entered her apartment with Steffy.

She could already imagine that the coming days would be like this.

'If Gio heard what I did at school...'

As if all oxygen vanished from their house, Sofony couldn't breathe. In actual, she just unknowingly held her breath when this thought dawn on her. For some reason she couldn't name, Sofony didn't want Gio to think of her as a violent and unreasonable girl.

'What if he hates her because what he wanted is a pure and innocent girl?'

'Will he hate me?'

'Are there ways to not let him know how I managed to send someone to the hospital due to my slaps?'

<System: Brain is offline again. So great that you didn't think about this yesterday. And why even bother wondering how he'd react? He's just a sugar-daddy. Do sugar-daddies care what their mistresses or pets do at school? You're overthinking. You're not even seeing him as a romantic interest, but a convenient living and bedding partner. So why care? Are you that mindful of having an innocent and harmless image in his eyes?>

In her mind, she seemed to see something rolling its eyes at her.

Seconds passed. A trembling school girl stood in the middle of the living room without answering the question of the thing in her mind. The atmosphere in the apartment turned inexplicably weird.

Steffy was dropping her bag on the sofa at that time. Her arm and leg wrapped with bandages. She had her back on Sofony's direction and this was the reason why she didn't notice her sister's expression.

Then out of a sudden, a loud scream many decibels higher than a normal shriek came from behind, stunning the heck out of the innocent girl and some neighbors who were quietly enjoying the late afternoon dramas on their TVs.

When Steffy looked back, she was more stunned to see a girl crazily messing with her own hair. Steffy didn't notice that she unknowingly crouched down on the sofa to hide. The poor girl was secretly pondering over if the incident stemming from her made her older sister crazily concerned. She wondered if Sofony was the type of person to worry unhealthily about everyone's opinion.

.....

In the middle of the night, Golden Residences. A man whose body was covered by a long black coat wordlessly stepped out of the elevator. In his left hand was a silver-colored suitcase, his other hand clutching on the phone to his right ear. His authoritative and irritated voice sounded.

"Just do it. I don't care. If they don't want to acknowledge that you secretly became their controlling shareholder, bring up my name. If they still won't shut up, inform me. I'll give them what they want."

The other party was secretly frustrated by the cold voice but dared not to complain or interrupt. The last sentence was not only directed to the board members of Star Saga Entertainment but also himself. He wisely chose to just agree to everything and let the conversation end. Maybe that would be the best thing to do given that it was now past 11 pm.

"Any more question?"

"None," No one who still love their neck will dare to have, the person didn't dare to voice out. "Young master. Good night."

Gio slid the phone into the pocket of his coat. He was now standing in front of his condo unit, quietly fiddling with the electronic lock to open it up.

Speaking of this unit, it was actually the very first property he managed to buy after returning from the military. He bought several houses and villas a few years after. In every first-rate major city in the country, he at least had one house. It was natural to somehow forget that this humble unit existed.

It was just that recently, he had been going back here. His assistants and bodyguards were at first puzzled. He owned a bigger and more beautiful residence within Alina City so a person of his status inhabiting a humble and small condo like this was really a puzzle. However, they later knew the reason, a cause that made them speechless. Many then immediately applauded Gio in their hearts. Nobody ever imagined that a murderous psycho monster like him could be so romantic and love-fool! Well, that's what they assumed.

With a sliding sound, the door opened to reveal a cold and dark world beyond it. Gio had to blink several times. His expression later turned into a frown as he pondered.

'Asleep? But she doesn't like switching off the lights in the living room at night.'

'Not around?'

His frown deepened. He locked the door in and then strode towards the table to put down his suitcase.

When he checked the bedroom, the person he was expecting to see sleeping there was nowhere to be found.

Now, his expression was not merely a frowning one, but rather dark, his mood down when he fished out his phone and dialed her number.

'Not answering?'

He controlled his emotion to the best of his abilities, but his assistant George who he called next still managed to judge his current mood. Gio didn't know, but when he ordered his assistant to fetch Sofony from wherever she was currently at, George was wryly smiling and inwardly complaining to all the deities in the world.

George mused if he was the one bothered since he was not the assistant that followed Gio overseas.

"Do you understand what I said?"

George replied that he would bring the girl back within two hours while sighing within. His free hand was rubbing his still drowsy eyes.

'Young master is getting crazier each passing day. Can't he just sleep first? He just got off the airplane and has no time to rest.'

George shook his head when the call ended. He rose from his comfortable bed. While he was groping for his eyeglasses on the nearby study table, he dialed another number and confirmed the whereabouts of the person that most of his colleagues were now calling as witch or madam.

A seventeen-year-old girl who bewitched their master to the point of obsession. Possibly a modern witch. The kind that naively seduced people to bed while capturing their souls and mind.

'She's just in her apartment. What's wrong with her returning to her own house? Is he high on drugs or something, to not think of that? Which one? Marijuana? Aphrodisiac? Dextroamphetamine amphetamine?'

'Sighs. Maybe old Gil is correct. Young Master is pitifully put under a witch's spell.'

The witch was not even a mature one, but still an unripe highschooler. Another sighed came out of the poor assistant's mouth.

'Well, at least the killing orders are toned down. Scheming how to murder someone is always tiring and no longer fun, so this is quite a break.'

The equally tired assistant, who had just gone to sleep but was awakened just to go fetch a girl, put on a formal suit and then went out of his 200 meters, three bedrooms, single person house. He glanced to the left and shook his head. Gio's unit was on the same floor so he knew that his boss now weirdly staying in the condo was only five doors away. Probably his boss was busily counting how many minutes it would take them to bring the girl back to his bed.

A couple of hours later, a girl heartlessly left her sister to sleep on her own and didn't protest when a man in a black suit appeared to take her away.

When she appeared on the door of the unit, she, with eyes slightly red, wordlessly flew to her man's arm. A very long and hot kissing session followed. Clothes were of course somehow thrown somewhere, and warm, thirsty bodies started entwining. Sometimes, when they passionately embraced and longed for each other like this, it was hard to believe that only lust existed between them. But it could happen because both of them don't really have a pure reason to stay with each other, with the one just clinging for survival and physical security, while the other just thinking of the former as a dear object in his possession. The scarce time spent with each other could be the prime reason for the lack of love. But so far, they're both captive of each other's bodies.

This night, as the man had just gone back from a tiring business trip, Sofony only let Gio climaxed within her once. The rest of the time was spent sleeping warmly next to each other's naked body, their skin touching from time to time, but the tiredness brought by their busy days allowed them to not be disturbed in their rest.