Chapter 581 - New Roommate (8) - Shelly's POV

I never saw Rika without Luke again ever since she returned to her dorm room. After Luke fed her a chocolate bar, banning her from other sweets, Rika immediately fell asleep. I watched her sleep inside one of the sleeping bags inside the club room. Knowing Rika couldn't do anything, Luke was able to entirely focus on his fraction work with Alex. I wondered what was going on behind the scenes.

"This is going over the line," Delia whispered to me.

"I think this was the first time he did this," I nodded my head.

"Hasn't it been around a week?" Cillian agreed with us.

Other than being awake for classes, Rika was always asleep around us. When Luke finished with his fraction work for the day, he would carry her to his dorm room with Alex. The club room was solemn as Ethan opened the door to join us. He slightly frowned, noticing Rika was still unconscious. Rika was the person who brought energy into the room, suggesting many interesting projects for us to try.

"I want Rika to wake up soon," Sienna pouted.

"Are you doing this on purpose?" Ethan directly asked Luke.

"Rika is tired lately," Luke remained ignorant.

"She falls asleep every time you feed her something," Ethan argued.

"It's too much. No wonder she ran away from you," he pointed out Luke's obsession.

"Why would my cousin intentionally make her fall asleep? Is this really how you see us?" Alex coldly joined him.

"Is there anyone inside this room that doesn't think the same?" Ethan looked at us.

The room went silent, everyone agreeing with Ethan. Our club president pretended he was invisible, trying to avoid both Luke and Alex. He was equally stunned by their cruelty towards Rika. A couple of us nodded our heads, wanting to know why they suddenly took drastic measures. It was a struggle to not feel guilty when this all started due to me agreeing to the new agreements.

I wanted to continue using the dorm room on my own. I never wanted to go back to the days where I was under the eyes of Alex. But Rika suffered from Alex moving into her dorm room. They never left her alone, watching her every move inside the classroom. All her smiles vanished, replaced with dead eyes. The teachers pitied her, leaving her alone instead of asking her more questions.

"What's going on?" Oliver came into the club room.

Oliver returned from his mission given by the school today. He stiffened from noticing the rigid atmosphere in the room. When he looked down, he found Rika deeply asleep, a rare sight since she was always doing something inside the club room. He opened his marble, sending us a message to keep his words private.

[They shouldn't know] Delia responded.

[Did she get caught?] Oliver wondered.

[Rika willingly went to them since she figured out the measures Luke was going to take if she didn't return] I wrote.

[It's been like this for a week. Luke has been feeding her something so she would always be asleep] Cillian revealed.

[Are you for real?] Oliver directly faced us.

"You can't do this to your partner," Oliver turned to Luke.

"What are you implying?" Luke narrowed his eyes.

"Everyone knows you're intentionally making her fall asleep since she ran away from you," Oliver supported Ethan.

"I have never done this to Rika. What would I gain from it?" Luke tried to dismiss our accusations.

"You want more control over her," Ethan knew all our thoughts.

"You're always trying to check up on her. From the contract you made me sign to all the messages you send me," he added.

"Do you know anything about Rika? Do you know her as much as we do? You can't just accuse us when you don't know what is actually happening," Alex began to get mad.

"Then tell us what is happening," Ethan started to get frustrated.

"How can we trust you?" Alex crossed his arms.

"You're not even willing to tell us," he looked disappointed in them.

"One of the former members in this club room sold information about her," Alex argued.

"Do you really think we would sell information about our best friend?" Delia got offended.

"Who knows?" Alex mumbled.

When Rika began to stir in her sleep from the commotion, Luke immediately dashed towards her. He placed some earmuffs on her to block the noise and gently cradled her back and forth until she stopped moving. Everyone was familiar with this scene. Luke always did this during our fraction meetings. But there was no reason to do this during the daytime, making us more suspicious.

"I will have to stop bringing Rika here if you wake her," Luke warned us.

"I'll start packing the documents," Alex opened his inventory.

"We're not wrong!" Sienna raised her voice.

"Let's leave," Luke noticed Rika frowning in her sleep.

"You're planning to confine her to your dorm room, aren't you?" Delia shouted.

"We only came here since Rika begged us," Alex packed the crucial files.

"It doesn't add up," Ethan mumbled.

"You're claiming that you're not intentionally making her fall asleep, but you don't want to wake her," he summarized.

"It's like she's sleeping to recover from something," Oliver concluded.

"Leave us alone.. We know what's best for Rika," Alex gestured to Luke that he was ready to leave.