The Only Delicacy

The girl tilted her head when he said that.

She thought, "Only a question?"

She had almost no time to spare. Answering his question would make her life easier, indeed. Seeing that she did not have to spend any effort at all, she gladly obliged and immediately nodded.

It was two birds with one stone!

Kevin continued, "What's your name, sweetheart?"

All this while, the girl never noticed the nickname he had for her, 'Sweetheart.'

She had only concluded that he called her that due to not knowing her name. She never thought of the possibility that he was interested in her, more so in love with her, because she was innocent to begin with.

No. Presently, it was more accurate to say that she was clueless to begin with.

This made the girl dumfounded. She subconsciously replied, "Only that?"

When those words left her mouth, she immediately regretted it. Saying those words would only increase her debt!

She felt like an idiot.

Next time, she might as well over think things than over say things that would only worsen the situation.

Actually, Kevin had the capability to know her name even without asking her. He was talented enough to even hack the school's confidential documents without alarming the security. But of course, he still had to ask, for it was proper manners befitting of a gentleman.

Not only that, asking for the girl's name was the one of the basics of courtship.

Kevin replied with a mischievous smile, "No. Not 'only' that.'"

Upon hearing that, the girl's expression slightly darkened.

She sighed to herself and thought, "I knew it."

She regretted digging her own grave. She realized she had been an idiot for a while now, ever since she had not directly discovered that the man beside her was actually Kyle's twin.

She didn't know why she became an idiot. But, one part of her mind subconsciously knew the answer. She had been bottling up too many emotions that she could not think straight anymore.

While the girl was pondering over the cure to her idiocy, Kevin rejoiced at how the girl wanted more favors from him. He would definitely use this opportunity and take full advantage of it without fail.

Kevin thought, "If it's from you, of course I would want nothing less than your heart and life."

This was the first time he felt like this. Ever since he met the girl, he discovered he actually had numerous and different types of feelings in him.

For his whole life, he thought he was satisfied with being his own kind of ideal man: the perfect gentleman, nothing more and nothing less.

Yet, without even realizing she had done so, the girl proved him wrong.

He was a young man inexperienced with the ways of love. Yet now, he seemed like a man with a hundred years of experience in front of his first love.

He was a genius who was perfectly rational. But with her, he would lose all rationality, leading to the clashes of his own mind with regards to insecurity, confidence, pride, and self-control.

He was a perfect gentleman who would do everything for his own pleasure, not even bothering with the feelings of others. Yet right now, he was patiently suffering in her hands. Yes, he sacrificed his own physical pleasures for fear of how the girl would see or judge him.

Most of all, for fear of how their future would turn out to be.

He was a free individual who never enjoyed the shackles of confinement. However presently, he enjoyed it. Or, to be more precise, he loved the feeling so much that he became extremely addicted to it, leading him to confine and keep those shackles only for himself.

He was someone who loved being alone, despite not showing it. Yet here he was, hating the thought of it, more so the thought of losing her.

Never, in his wildest dreams, did he think that he would end up this way.

He ended up far from being a 'perfect' gentleman.

He could not do anything about these surprising sweet changes but just go with the flow, because he was hopeless in front of the girl beside him: his first love.

Despite being the victim suffering from all of these changes, Kevin never once said those words from his heart towards the culprit. More accurately, he never said his heart's deepest yearnings towards her.

He could only follow the ways of courtship, or else his little bunny might run away.

If the girl knew what she had unknowingly inflicted upon him, she would be filled with endless regret upon being entangled in such a big mess.

She barely even said anything except her feelings of gratitude, yet she somehow ended up in a mess like this.

While Kevin was happily thinking of how lucky he was to be the victim of all of these changes, the girl pondered over whether she should answer his question or not.

Or, to more accurately put it, she never tried answering this kind of question before except during her self-introduction on the first day of school.

She had no experience in the department of 'making friends.'

Despite how easy Kevin's question was, this kind of problem was considered, like in a game, a hell mode for the girl.

"It's just a name. Why am I so nervous?" She became fidgety and shy when she thought that Kevin actually wanted to be friends with her.

It was her first time feeling this way. Feeling accepted by someone. She was secretly joyful, but anxious at the same time.

She can't help but ponder whether she might regret this moment or not. The causes of her hesitation were the movies she saw.

Ever since she was young, she would watch movies where her mother was part of the cast. Whenever she had time or was taking a break, she made it a habit to support her mother by buying her work, despite the very limited money she had left.

Thinking of her good deed, she happily motivated herself to work harder and to earn more in order to pay for her remaining expenses.

However, her mother never saw her good deed for she was barely even home to begin with. Whenever she had the time to go home late at night, her daughter would sometimes be working, studying, sleeping or watching television shows.

Her mother never bothered on what kind of shows she watched, because she never cared.

It was hard for them to even contact each other because of how busy the two's schedule were. Sadly, this was the only similarity the girl had with her mother.

With regards to the movies she saw, the stories of friendship always included betrayal of a trusted best friend, jealousy between girls, and separation of childhood friends.

The movies her mother took part on always had a sad ending. She only saw one movie that her mother took part in with a happy ending, and that was on the time before she was even born.

After that movie, it all changed.

Movies were the only light to her world. She learned that the world was cruel through them. With no one to teach her, she based everything she knew in these movies that were actually quite far from reality.

This explained why she was very hesitant in proceeding towards the very first step in making friends.

However, since she owed him her life, she was left with no choice.

While shifting her gaze from the mischievous glint of his eyes, the girl blushed tremendously and tried to face away from him. However, it was all for naught, because Kevin, with his hands both free, held her chin so that she could only look directly at him.

The girl blushed even more when she could not look away.

In Kevin's line of sight, he saw flowers blooming all around her, coupled with extremely rosy cheeks, ears and lips, while she cutely glared at him for not releasing her chin.

If he continued to look at her, he would die from so much moe. But if he looked away from her, he would regret it for a lifetime.

This was one of the hardest decisions he had to make, even if he was a genius!

Yet since he was a professional in the gentleman department, he did not even blush nor let go of her chin. He only tremendously blushed in his mind and affectionately smiled at how adorable his first love was.

However, upon closer look, Kevin's ears were slightly red, for the difficulty of keeping his image was just too much.

Once she saw his genuine and affectionate smile, the girl let go of all her anxiety. She thought that she was bound to make friends in the future, but it just so happened to occur now.

With a new-found determination, she bravely looked towards his eyes that glowed like black jewels amidst the sunlight and promptly replied, "Scarlet…"

At that moment, Kevin saw the most beautiful expression aside from her smile. He saw a confident and resolute, yet slightly embarrassed beauty saying her name while looking towards him.

Only him.

"What number is it?" Kevin felt a cupid arrow struck towards his heart and realized that he fell for the same woman an nth time. Despite the constant pain of his heart racing and being struck, he did not care.

That pain, for him, was something extremely precious. It reminded him he was a human being. Someone living and breathing. Not a robotic genius without feelings.

For the first time, Kevin felt alive

Feeling as if he was on cloud nine, Kevin gave her a tremendously beautiful and destructive smile. He happily looked forward to falling for her again and again.

Scarlet thought he was happy that she answered his question. She, too, was on cloud nine and blushed while looking away upon realizing that she made her very first friend.

What Scarlet did not know was that Kevin never planned to stay as mere 'friends' with her. He had planned something much more than that. He was an individual who had high ambitions and goals for the future even before he met her.

Never someone average.