[Music Recommendation: "Tiptoe Thru The Tulips" by O'Neill Brothers (instrumental only)-available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in a loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter ~

I struggled to find the right words and had to search the seven seas in my mind just to gather the courage that I needed to answer that simple question. Mom, Dad, what should I say? Should I be honest and say it's a contract? Of course not, she's not Hora and Crystal.

'OH MY GOODNESS! I just realized… I confessed the contract to Crystal. And Kaiden said I shouldn't tell her. Oh nooooooo… I'm doomed. I just broke an agreement from the contract. I'm sure Crystal would keep a secret, right? But still… Ugh. I'm such a clutz. I need to explain this later to Kaiden.'

Anyway, since the future of my book is on the line, I need to keep with the charade. I could just explain to Callan and Verrill later. Was I allowed to tell them though? Oh well. I should ask more questions to Kaiden to clarify the boundaries of each section in the contract. This was the exact reason why I should review contracts first before signing and ask proper questions.

"I—ah…" I scratched my cheek lightly, trying to hide my embarrassment. Lowering my eyes, and answering in a soft whisper, I told her, "Y-Yes, I am."

"Oh, so it's you," Marie smiled, and she was so cute. "You make a lovely couple."

"WUT?!" Callan shouted in his shock. "Y-you two are… together now? For real?"

Verrill, on the other hand, was calm about it. Did he know? Well, at least, Marie was okay with it. Maybe she wasn't a member of Kaiden's fans club. Phew. That made me sigh in relief. I was looking forward to having a friend—even just one—amongst my classmates. It's kinda lonely being avoided by others.

"Yes," Kaiden answered Callan. "It happened when you were away. And stop asking questions."

Callan's eyes went towards me and Kaiden alternately. He looked like he had lots of questions but since he was reprimanded, he was holding off from asking.

Soon after that, lunch finished and we all went back for our next classes. Kaiden accompanied me again, and even gave me a hug before parting ways with me, much to my surprise. He's being careless. What if I accidentally touch his skin? Yes, we already touched but that's just his finger on my palm.

'Ohh… Now that I think about it, it's July now—a new month. That means, we need to try touching again, right? Hmm… I wonder how we should do it this time.'

Hours passed and before I knew it, classes ended. It was time to go home again. I managed to get Marie's number before saying goodbye to her. Then, I passed by the comfort room before going to the parking lot.

Once I'm near the parking lot, I noticed Kaiden and Marie were talking to each other outside the car. Hmm… they seemed rather close? And I must admit, Marie was very pretty. They… looked good together.

Sting.

A sudden throbbing pained my heart.

'Haaah… What the heck, Sena? Are you jealous of Marie?'

Sighing to myself, I remembered how everyone knew who she was and she even mentioned to Kaiden that she left her wallet. Was she gonna borrow money? If yes, then they must be so close, right? I could have lent her if she asked me. But she asked Kaiden instead… It meant they were in a closer relationship than we were, right? I mean, why would you ask for money from a guy? Also, Kaiden was talking to her just fine—a girl! I thought he never had female friends!

'Haaah… What's going on? I don't understand. And somehow… I'm a little jelly that Kaiden is close to another woman. Waaaaaaaaaa… What's wrong with me? Marie was really nice, too. Although I did admit I'm Kaiden's girlfriend. But it's all fake! What if she's the one he really liked and he just didn't notice it yet since he had never been in a relationship? Am I being a nuisance here and preventing their love from growing? Maybe I can ask Crystal about her later. This sucks… who do I turn to for love advice? This love thing is soooo hard!'

Anyway… I still need to confess my wrongdoings to Kaiden later. If he's merciful, we could continue our charade. But if not, I might be kicked out of the program and maybe Marie would replace me. She'd probably do a better job especially since she's so cool and brave and blunt. She'd go perfectly with Kaiden.

"Sena? What are you doing there?" Hora caught me hiding behind a plant.

"Oh, ahm. I'm waiting since I didn't want to bother them," I answered, glancing over at Kaiden's direction.

It only took Hora a few seconds to guess I'm pity-partying by myself.

"Pft! Wa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

I was taken aback. I'm here sulking and she's laughing at me. Horaaaaa, when did you learn to be mean?

"Hey! Why are you laughing at me?"

"Sena, ha-ha-ha! You're overthinking," she said as she laughed at my misery. "If you only know… ha-ha-ha! You won't look like that."

"Yeah," I crossed my arms, "why don't you tell me then."

"You'll know when it's time."

…

…

Wow. How VERY helpful. We both knew how I hated the waiting game.

______________________________

Hi Pumpkins!

I just wanted to let you all know that I made changes for June privilege tiers. Please take note of the discount especially for Tier 5, it has 99% discount which means all privilege chapters that you'll unlock moving forward will just be 1 coin each so it's a major discount.

I'm putting it on here to be clear since the new app update is not showing the discount percentages per tiers. Hope it helps. Thank you so much for all your support again.

ABC Tiers (June)

● Tier 1: 2 Chapters, 1 Coin (Auto)

● Tier 2: 5 Chapters, 399 Coins (Scarecrow) 10% discount

● Tier 3: 12 Chapters, 859 Coins (Casper) 30% discount

● Tier 4: 15 Chapters, 1099 Coins (Grim Reaper) 50% discount

● Tier 5: 20 Chapters, 1499 Coins (Secret Witch) 99% discount

Lots of love,

Macy Bae