The way Adrianna looked at Pryce made her frightened. She pressed her cheeks and ran away while shouting, "Niiya, look what she did to me!" However, Niiya had already left for home; he didn't want to attend the rest of his classes.

Dmitri held Adrianna's hand as they headed to the garden in front of the chemistry wing.. Over there, they found Nate standing beneath the tree canopies; he looked as though he was waiting for someone. They moved closer to him and quietly sat down on a nearby bench.

​​

"Sorry to hear about what happened between you and Niiya," said Nate in order to break the awkward silence. He could hear Dmitri's thoughts when Niiya had pinned Adrianna down and had been afraid that Dmitri may kill Niiya.

Adrianna smiled with pursed lips and looked away. Her relationship with Niiya was over. There was no way she could go back to being his friend again. She had so looked forward to come back to college, thinking that things may have straightened themselves out, but everything had only gone south. Dmitri held her hand and said, "I don't know why, but I, for one, am happy that Niiya is finally understanding us and won't be interfering with us anymore." Adrianna nodded even though she felt as though a portion in heart had become empty.

Suddenly, there was a buzz of activity and a scream. "Darling!" someone shouted from the distance. Adrianna looked at the source of noise and saw Ookashi leaping like a deer in her direction.

Nate was so happy to see Ookashi and hearing her say "darling" made his heart miss a beat. He stretched out his arms to receive his love and smiled at her with all the love he had in his heart. He watched as she ran towards him and then completely ignore his open arms as she went to hug Adrianna. His eyes wavered as he stood frozen to the ground. "The darling was Adrianna," he grumbled as he sheepishly folded his arms across his chest, inviting a throaty laughter from Dmitri.

"Adri, where have you been girl? I missed you sooooo much!" said Ookashi as she tightly hugged Adrianna.

Any tension that they may have had evaporated in a second. Adrianna laughed along with her friend and hugged Ookashi back. She had missed Ookashi so much. The two girls cried for some time as the boys watched and rolled their eyes at the drama that was unfolding in front of them. Nate was extremely jealous and wanted to separate Ookashi from Adrianna so that he could hold Ookashi into his arms.

Ookashi let go of Adrianna. "You were absent for more than a month. Do you even know how much you have missed? You better not be absent again or else you might have to repeat the year. That's it! From now on, I will come to your house every day to pick you up and bring you to college! That's it!"

Adrianna giggled. She was enjoying Ookashi's cute outburst. "I missed you Ookashi," she said as she hugged her again. "Let's go to the cafeteria," Adrianna suggested before leading them all to the college cafeteria.

Nate and Dmitri left the girls alone at a table and went to fetch some snacks.

"I am angry with you Adrianna," complained Ookashi. "You married Dmitri but didn't even treat your friends. At least you can give me a party!" The way Ookashi was talking was as if she had forgotten about what had happened in the past.

"But- but Niiya is still very unhappy," said Adrianna.

"Oh! Let him be! I have asked him to move on with his life a number of times, but he still wants to hold on to that thread and continuously stay in a foul mood, so what can I do? It's not as if there's only one girl on this earth!"

Adrianna laughed.

Ookashi rolled her eyes and continued, "I think he will come around. Just give him some more time." Then, she looked in Dmitri's direction and asked, "How is he? What kind of a lover is he? You guys got into such a whirlwind marriage. There was no dating – just marriage right off the bat! You better tell me everything about it!"

Adrianna couldn't stop laughing. It was great to be back with Ookashi. Ookashi was the same wild girl as she had been before. Adrianna started to say something when she was again cut short. "When will you treat me? I want to see your house. Nate tells me that you live in a lavish house and that he lives somewhere near your house."

Adrianna looked at her friend and said, "You selfish brat! You just want to go to Nate's house and not mine."

"Noooo! I also want to go to your house," said Ookashi, blushing at the same time. "Nate has been pestering me for a long time, so I thought I should pay a visit to his place…"

Dmitri and Nate had come back by that time and had placed the snacks on the table.

"Ookashi wants to visit our place Dmitri," said Adrianna while picking up a cheese ball and popping it into her mouth.

Nate glared at Ookashi. He had been asking her to come to his house for so long but she had been declining him. Now Adrianna hadn't even asked her to and she wanted to visit on her own. Ookashi bit down on her lip.

"She also wants to visit Nate's house," continued Adrianna.