"And what brings YOU here?" Reid scrunched his face in displeasure.

Hearing her voice, I've remembered her advice. 'Get your emotions under control.' Though it proved to be much more difficult to apply this in a real-life situation. I still felt my blood flowing fast, my hormones out of control as I felt extreme anger.

"And why I shouldn't be here?" She walked past Reid's group as she made her way and stood in front of me.

Bill and Johnny made brief eye contact. Feeling the pressure she emitted by simply standing here, they let me go.

Moving her face even closer, she whispered languidly. "Don't cause a commotion here and follow me. Be a good boy." Turning around on her heels, she looked straight at Reid. "And what are you still doing here? Don't you have your own business?"

"You…" He wanted to say something in return but eventually gave up. With an eminent expression of anger on his face, he turned around. "Let's go, guys, the stench of these cowards made me lose my appetite." His goons awkwardly moved together with him.

"Let's go." Leaving these words behind, she started slowly walking away. Her heels, making a clicking sound on the tile floor.

"I think it will be better for you to follow her."

"I know that it's Mara we are talking about, but she helped you right now." Bill and Johnny both clapped me on my back.

"We will talk about this later."

"Don't worry, we will get back at them, now hurry up."

Seeing Mara was walking away, I clenched my teeth and quickly went after her.

Glancing back ever so slightly after hearing my steps made her quicken her pace. We didn't get too far from the canteen. We walked in the opposite direction of Reid as we made our way towards a lone deserted staircase.

"I was too late to stop him." Mara turned around as she bit her lip, her eyebrows furrowed. "I as well tried to send the guards towards the people around you, but it proved to be harder." She kept nibbling on her lower lip. "Also, you did well there."

"Almost, jumping at him is good?" I scowled at her.

"You did well having those guys with you." she rolled her eyes at me and huffed in anger "Will you please calm down here? You're not the only one with a crappy mood, and it's hard being the only one who uses her head."

"What happened to you?" It was probably the first time I saw her like that. She didn't even try to play with words like she usually did. The gap made me startled, and my anger started fading away.

"It's…sigh...family business." She rubbed her forehead. "And because of this, I was forced to make an appearance here, dammit!" She stomped the tile floor with her leg. Her cheeks were puffed, and her eyebrows were creased hard. The grey eyes, which almost always looked as if she were seeking prey, now glinted strongly with ire.

Seeing someone being as angry as I made me calm down much faster than I thought.

"Is it that bad? If you didn't come here, who knows what would've happened."

"Of course, it's bad!" Using her hands as cushions, she leaned her butt on the wall.

I rubbed the scar on my nose. "If you tell me what you wanted to do, we can think on how to turn this situation in our favor together."

She tilted her head sideways while mowing her upper body forward. "Initially, I wanted to help you from the back. But by announcing our relationship like this, we will eventually make him alert. He will be more aware of you and your actions. Yet I never thought that he would go after you like this the moment he gets the chance."

I felt the cogs of my mind moving, audibly, as I thought about all of this.

"He isn't the brightest, but he is far from being a stupid muscle head everyone thinks he is. He will surely see you as a threat if we don't turn this situation around." Mara started rhythmically tapping the floor with her heel.

"More like seeing you as a threat..." I nibbled on my lip for a second. "Mara, you don't want me to be high-profile, right?"

Still tapping with her heel, she nodded to me.

"Then I think I know how to salvage this. Is your reputation precious to you?"

"Pffft, like hell I care about it."

"Then everything is simple." I started walking back and forth. "I'm not so sure why you insist so much on keeping a low-profile, but I can say that you were courting me for the third time, but I rejected you." She squinted her eyes but allowed me to continue. "As you said, I will start hanging out with the guys from Brave and Bold. I'm sure the rumors will spread through the whole school if I leak the news."

"And if they don't believe you?" she sounded skeptical.

"I think I have a way to ensure they will believe me," I glanced over Mara's figure the way she wouldn't notice. "And they can defend me during the days. If our clique is big enough, he probably won't mess with us, right?"

"This can actually work." she stood up straightly and looked at me with a renewed gaze. "Continue."

"I will try and fix my schedule according to the schedule of Reid."

"You need help with finding out his schedule?"

"No, I have my own way." I shook my head in denial, very much to the surprise of Mara. "And by night, I can hang out with you, having your personal protection."

"If I pull some of my strings…" She pinched her chin in rumination.

"But, I will need your help in the following things. First of all, to keep low-profile all kinds of fights arranged by the Birchland High's higher-ups, my participation in the college's tournaments and everything like this is a no-go. I need to get sidelined from the physical activities."

"Yeah, this I intended to do from the beginning."

"Secondly, I want to gain more experience. I don't know how long I will be able to attend small-scale fights. And I don't know how much experience I will be able to gain there. Thus I want to fight in that underground facility."

"No!" She instantly rejected it, but I won't let her have her ways with me.

"Yes!" I looked at her sternly. "Yes, you will help me fight there. I want you to make sure that I won't get expelled or get my license revoked no matter where and when I fight. Only this will help me grow." It will help me grow. And it will as well help me gain at least a bit of money that I will spend on my own needs. And with money will come more freedom. But this thought was left unsaid.

"Urgh, I don't want to! What am I going to do if anything happens to you?" She pouted once more.

"But I will be with you at every event, won't I? We will spend our time together that way. And that way, we don't need to constantly think if we will be seen by anyone, right?" I walked closer to her, throwing this bait as I smiled at her.

Baring her teeth in a scowl, she stared me in the eyes. "Fine! But you will tell me every time you want to go there or visit another even remotely shady place!"

"That's easy. And lastly, I want you to guard everyone around me. And I want you to do it properly." Reid's face was once again before my eyes, and I clenched my fists in fury.

"You can say that it's already done. I've made you this promise before, and I intend to keep it." There was steely a glint in her eyes.

I exhaled to calm down. "Good, with this, I will leave you for now. If anything happens, either you or I will call each other."

"Hmph, that's what happens if you don't control your emotions properly." She suddenly exclaimed, throwing her hand up.

"Excuse me?"

She had a mocking smile dancing on her lips. "I've got a little bit angry, and you managed to get whatever you want."

"… Maybe…" I remembered one last thing I wanted to ask her. "Oh, and by the way, I will probably go to pay for my tuition tomorrow, and with that, I will be broke. So send me the date of the next... gathering... please."

The bell rang just at this moment. I heard students getting ready to pay a visit to the canteen. I shouldn't be seen near Mara, so I quickly walked away.

Thinking of the things we talked about, perhaps there was a way to do everything better, but I let it be for the moment. I was still angry at Reid and my own powerlessness. And when I thought about our meeting in the canteen...

"Grumble."

I heard the rumbling of my stomach. Only now did I remember that I was hungry. Making my way back to the canteen, I saw a large number of students. Getting either from the classrooms or their respective training facilities, going here and there. Making my way back, I've spotted the duo of friends after some time. They had an extra tray with food.

"Hey, you still took my meal?"

"Erlig?"

"We thought you are gone?"

Both of them were surprised to see me here as their forks stopped moving.

"Yet you still took some food for me?"

"You might've come back hungry, and standing in the queue would've been way too long." With Bill's gaze directed behind my back, I turned around and saw a large queue forming up.

"While the worst thing that will happen to us is eating your share."

Johnny wiped his mouth with a paper napkin.

"Yeah, I'm hungry mind if I join you?"

"Go ahead."

"Pleasure is ours."

"Great."

Sitting down, I started wolfing down the food. Washing down a couple of dumplings with the broth, I noticed how Bill and Johnny kept stealing glances toward me. There was only us over the table, so I was sure it was me they were eyeing.

Wiping my mouth from the broth's marks, I cleared my throat. "Ehem, so you want to ask something?"

"No."

"Nah."

Both of them resumed their meal, but their eyes still gathered on me.

"Sigh, If you want… I can answer your questions back at the gym."

"It's a deal."

"We got you."

Both of them smiled triumphantly, while I shook my head in exasperation. Why not ask about anything directly?

As we finished eating, we made our way from the bustling canteen and right to the training gym, the branch of team Brave and Bold.

"Why is there no one here?" When we returned, there was still not a single soul here.

"Probably having an official fight somewhere."

"Taking a day off."

"Or they went to the main gym."

"Playing with girls."

"Bill!"

"What?"

"Heh, you guys are something else." I chuckled. Hearing their friendly bickering made me remember my only friend from the old world. It also reminded me of Jet. And the fact that due to my own single-minded obsession, I couldn't become true friends with him. Was it even worth enough to talk with him? What kind of person was he? As he got caught up in my business, I felt that he didn't deserve all of this.

I felt the urge to get my revenge growing stronger in me.

"So anyway, what the hell happened with you and Reid?" Bill asked.

"Yeah, why is that upstart messing with you so hard? We heard some rumors, but we didn't think it was that bad." Johnny went to pick a bottle of water.

"I don't know why. You probably heard that Reid sent me to the hospital?"

They looked at each other, and both shook their heads. "You didn't?" I widened my eyes.

"When did this happened?"

"If it was at the beginning of the academic year we were abroad, had a scheduled fight there."

"Oh." I nodded. "Well, yeah, he basically went after my head, and I have no memory of why the hell he did that."

"No memory as in?"

"You don't know why?"

"I literally have no memories." I shook my head.

"Whew!"

"Whistle!"

"That's some crazy stuff."

"You don't know why, yet he still tries to get you? That's nasty."

"Maybe... and that's when Jessie came to me and wanted to help me. She even shielded me once from him." I had a complex look remembering her figure as she protected me.

Both of them changed in the face.

"That's really brave of her."

"Uh-huh, brave indeed."

"What do you mean?" I remember her saying she had fifty-fifty chances of winning him.

"Seeing as you are a novice, you probably never thought about this," Bill sighed.

"But there is no chance in hell she can do anything to him," Johnny added.

"It's not about him being a boy and her a girl."

"It's not about weight difference either. Reid is in a class of his own. She is pretty reckless when it comes to defending the honor of her friends and teammates."

"But even like that, she knows when she will lose or win. I somehow get the idea of what she said and did. If she ever said that she stands a chance against, him she probably did it, so you won't worry."

Hearing all of this I felt a cold sweat coming out of my back. She did all of that for me? Risking her…risking her health and wellbeing for me? Why?

"The worst thing is that he always goes around with those punks around." Johnny scrunched up his face in disgust.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for the number difference, there would be no way we would try and hold you back."

"And it was damn hard to hold you."

"Where do you get all this strength and energy?"

Listening to the duo rambling, we sat down on the bench that was placed near the wall.

"I don't know, I just felt a desire to smack his face and wipe this annoying grin of his."

"If you tolerated this for a long time, we kind of get it." Bill nodded in understanding as Johnny grinned nastily.

"Don't worry, pal. When our band returns, you just wait and see how he will try and pick a fight with you." he clapped me on the back.

"Thanks, guys."

"Oh, and know that we finished talking about him, what happened with Mara?"

"She is pretty well known."

"Both of you aren't into rumors, are you?" I smirked.

""No!""

"So yeah, you can now say to any of your friends. I'm the first man to ever reject Mara Sobol three times in a row."

"Wow!" Bill exclaimed in surprise as his mouth opened wide.

"Mad lad!" Johnny clapped at me.

"Why, though?"

"We know those rumors about her and so on, but still..."

"Both of you would at least try to get a one-night stand with her, right?" I looked at them, somewhat accusatory.

"Uhm…"

"Ehem…"

And both of them grew timid. Bill rubbed the back of his neck while Johnny started fake coughing into his fist.

"I don't like one-night stands. I can't describe why I simply don't like this." There were a lot of things going on in my mind. But talking with Bill and Johnny helped me to vent some of my frustration. It helped me to calm down.

"It's a shame."

"Kind of."

"But!" I interrupted them as I stood up and looked at both of them from above. "There is another reason." Gaining their full attention, I couldn't stop my lips from forming a smile. I remembered the view from not so long ago after glancing at Mara briefly.

"Although I'm an ass man myself, her boobs are simply too lacking."