90 After That Day - Chris's Version 2

When lunch break came, he first made sure Clarissa Guzman was not at the cafeteria before he headed in. After all, even if he made it appear like it was just an accident, in the end, he still caused a perfectly fine phone dive into a dirty water canal. Who knows if that infamously two-faced woman already bore a grudge against him because of that?

"Better be safe than sorry", he said to himself. Though it's shameful to admit, she was stronger than him. It was a lesson learned after their short tug-of-war yesterday.

After ordering a meat and vegetable meal set, he quietly carried his tray to a table near the corner.

He purposely chose a two-seater table. To ensure no one would bother him in his lunch, he left the tray on the vacant seat opposite his. Unfortunately, not even five minutes passed and an uninvited trouble threw that pitiful tray somewhere just to take the seat for herself.

His frowning face looked up. And there she was, the trouble he tried to save only to get himself into another deeper mess.

Who else could it be other than Wendy Gomez?

"Hi! Mister Chris Bastard! You remember how you ran away from me yesterday, right?" cheerfully greeted by the teeth-clenching girl.

The way she smiled as she said those words between gritted teeth strangely made her look cuter than usual. Sadly, her appearance was not appreciated by Chris.

"What are you saying?" he gloomily replied, awkwardly putting down the spoonful he was about to bring into his mouth.

"Didn't you leave me at the storage? What? You forgot? You dare forgot how you left the ashamed goddess, me, there?"

He stiffened for a few seconds. He took a moment to question the system whether the reasonable girl with him yesterday was just an illusion. It answered no. This made his face hardened again, realizing since the girl only remembered their conversation at the storage room as their last meeting yesterday, it means her memories had really been erased.

Facing the 'her' who went back to being bossy and annoying, he didn't know what to say. He felt betrayed, thinking he went through so much last night, yet the person he helped simply forgot it.

But not long after, he realized maybe this was for the best. He recalled, her experiences yesterday were not good memories because she had been controlled. It would be too much for her to bear. In comparison, what he'd gone through was not really comparable to hers.

He cleared his throat and set his mind to just continue his initial plan. Since the girl had successfully gone back to her normal life, he would leave it that way. And him? The transfer would continue. Maybe after class, he would inform his parents about this. After all, it was probably about time he leaves the bad memories behind.

"Hey, say something!"

His mind went back to his body due to that angry shout. He raised his head again. What greeted him was her dark face. Seeing this, he unconsciously blurted out, "What?"

"What 'what'? Argggh! Fine, I won't pursue that storage incident anymore! But damn bloke, what do I need to do now to write off our bad encounter yesterday morning?!" she frustratedly asked.

An idiotic devil tried to suggest,

Immediately an annoyed expression crossed his face which the observant girl didn't miss. While Chris knew it was due to the system, Wendy assumed the guy was truly angered by what she said yesterday.

"Hey, I'm really sorry," she couldn't help but utter when guilt came into her heart again.

This time, Chris was surprised, his annoyed expression vanished. But when he was about to reply, another gentle-sounding voice echoed from the front.

"Wendy, come back here already! Let's eat!"

The girl in front of him immediately turned to face the direction of the voice. Chris also looked over, and just as expected, it was that woman.

Sofony Mendez. The one who should also be titled, Savage Goddess.

Chris froze as he remembered how this woman miraculously turned things back to normal again. Of course, there was nothing she could do about the injured teacher. Still, it was amazing how both Wendy and he could return to their normal lives. His unbound system kept on telling him she was a hypnotist, and that was how she solved the attempted murder case yesterday.

Of course, he had already considered this angle. When he realized she had looked desperately for Wendy, to the point she traveled to another city the moment she received the text message, he knew Sofony wouldn't be doing anything bad to her friend.

The only problem? She was a host... So far, he saw that hosts could obtain unimaginable strength and power that also could easily lead them to the dark path. That Violent Goddess used it to murder a teacher using borrowed hands. How would he know whether Sofony Mendez was different?

He gave Wendy a pitying look, knowing it would be hard for her to not get involved if his conjectures were correct.

'Whatever. I'll transfer somewhere next semester anyway.'

Then he watched as Wendy stood up and walked back to her. The girl said she'd be looking for him again later, but he dismissed it, as speaking with her had never been in his schedule.

...

"I-I like you! Please go out with me!"

A dumbfounded Chris stared blankly at the braided-haired girl blushingly confessing to him. They were under the shade cast by a tall Acacia tree. It was near the white painted gate of the academy. It was after class and Chris was on his way home when this classmate told him she had something to say personally to him.

He only assumed that there were problems with the notes he returned earlier.

However, he didn't expect to end up in this situation.

He simply never imagined himself in this scenario.

For the very first time, Chris felt like the mysterious and unnerving voice from his mind finally did something correctly. He realized that it helped him come back to his senses again.

He faced the red-faced girl. There was a trace of guilt and shyness on his expression. However, conviction reigned over it. When he finished gathering enough courage, he said,

"I thank you for your feelings. I'm flattered that someone actually liked a boring guy like me," he started. "It's just that I cannot accept your feelings. It won't be fair to you. I'm sorry."

He didn't know how to properly reject a confession so he only said what his heart dictated. Naturally, his answer made the atmosphere between them awkward. He didn't even know how the next second and minutes passed. All he knew, his female classmate ran away, crying. And the whole time, he just stood there like a real stupid bloke.

A minute later, through the help of the nagging system, he regained clarity of the current situation. He then cursed himself.

"Damn, how the hell am I going to face this classmate tomorrow?"

"Conflicted because you rejected someone?"

Just when he was about to debate with the IQ-less system, a feminine voice echoed near his ears. It was followed by a hearty laugh that familiarly sounded like a certain bothersome girl.

"You should worry that she'd paint you as a heartless heartbreaker to our schoolmates! What if she tells this story to our infamous publication? You'll then be known as the heartless first male god runner up! Haha!"

If his guess was correct, then it should be her. He didn't even notice her coming. "Why do I keep running into you, woman?" he gloomily asked after seeing it was really Miss Number One.

"Correction, we did not run into each other. I intentionally looked for you! Hah, don't tell me you forgot what I said this lunch!"

The tall acacia tree's trunk had a cement construct around it where people could sit. Wendy naturally sat there, her huge sling bag placed on the spot next to her. She then looked up to the gloomy-faced student who was staring at her as if she just said something unbelievable again.

"What? Entranced by me?" she asked. "Let's have a proper talk. Just sit there."

Chris didn't move even after the girl pointed her right forefinger to the spot next to her bag.

"If it's about the sorry," he breathed deeply, telling himself this has to be done to bring his peace back . "Apology accepted. And I'm sorry too. Just assume I've lost my cool back then."

"That's it?" Wendy asked as though she couldn't believe things ended just like that.

"What more do you expect? It's not like the sin itself is big. It's just me being unreasonable."

'And actually, you've never been at fault. You're under control when you said that,' he thought while shaking his head.

Deeming that they had already reached a conclusion, he nodded at her and turned around. However, he had just taken his fourth step when the girl's voice resounded again. "Wait! I said wait! Stop!"

Chris knitted his brows at the pretty girl that blocked him with her arms spread wide as if she would really not let him pass by her.

"...What?"

He saw Wendy creasing her forehead for a second, looking troubled by something. She then met his gaze and replied, "I know this might sound unbelievable to you. But ever since I saw you this noon, I felt like what I needed to do is to not really apologize... But return a favor. It's weird. I know. But my conscience kept bugging me that it's a huge favor..."

"Hey, I just want to ask you something. Did we meet yesterday after school but I just somehow forgot? Maybe at a restaurant, or in the middle of the streets... Like I was crossing it but a truck suddenly appeared out of nowhere and you happened to be there to save me, something like that?"

The passing wind playfully carried away a few strands of her wavy back length hair. But because it helped to distract her, she didn't see the flash of surprise that appeared on his poker face. Within the two or three seconds that she was brushing the strands aside, she also didn't see the complicated glint that flickered in his eyes.

She only heard him grumbled, "I didn't know a genius' imagination is also so amazingly difficult to follow."

Feeling insulted, she said, "I'm just asking. What's so hard to answer in there? Really a bloke. Whatever. I don't like the feeling so I'll just do it my way. Anyway if you're more comfortable seeing it as an apology, then do so."

"What?" he muttered, confused.

"Heh, boy. Since I keep feeling it's really a huge favor, I'll just also do something big this time. I know you're still moving on from Felicity. That's why you get angry at me yesterday. So how about I just help you move on? What do you think?" she asked with a wide but pretty smile on her beautiful face.

Sadly for the system, when Chris recovered from the shock, he coldly replied,

"I'm thinking we already need your best friend to send you somewhere. A mental hospital."

Wendy simply blinked at him and narcissistically said,

"Oh? Wait, why am I having this hunch that you're thinking I'll make you fall for me. Oh, please. I don't want any addition to my list of stalkers."

"What I propose is to help you not have enough time to be sad!"

"I'll probably drag you into my parttime! I assure you, with cases in your left and right hands, you won't surely even have time to think what kind of rat your cat eat that day!"

Chris only looked at her as if he was watching a madwoman danced in the streets. Moments later, without commenting anything to what she was currently explaining, he spun around and ran to the opposite direction.

In his mind, it was already confirmed.

He must transfer after the final examination because if he didn't, this crazy girl who was the complete opposite of the person he'd been with last night would surely either pester him or anger him to death!