The Girl Who Loved A Beautiful Devil ~Karma AkabaneXReader~

Chapter 3

 I was gasping breathlessly for air by the time I'd finally reached the mountaintop where the End Class campus was located; my lungs felt as though they were on fire and I could hear my heart beating louder than a drum in my chest like it might burst out at any moment.

The sun was slowly setting behind me, casting its last rays of light onto the planes of the earth before it vanished completely. It took me much longer than I'd expected it would for me to reach my destination; forty-five minutes to be exact. I began my tiring journey right after school had ended and ran up all the way from the main campus down below. Doubt began to rise in my mind that anyone let alone Karma would still be there after such a long time, but just as I was about to turn around to make my way back down, my ears pricked up at the faint sounds of laughing coming from nearby.

I jerked my head in the direction of the old, run-down campus that belonged to the E Class to see a couple of students whose faces I'd never seen before exit from the small building's entrance. Without much thought, I swiftly hid myself behind a nearby tree to avoid being seen and probably questioned for my unexpected presence there.

I watched silently as the students bid their goodbyes to one another before parting their own ways down the mountain; I didn't see Karma but I did catch sight of his blue-haired-friend whom I'd saw that day at the cinema, and it took me some effort to refrain myself from barging out of my hiding spot behind the tree to march up to him to ask about the redhead.

Once they had all left and had gone far enough until all I could see were dark smudges from the distance, I left my hiding spot and quickly headed for the entrance of the run-down-building. Nervously, I poked my head out to look inside and my eyes lit up when I saw the familiar red-haired-male whom I'd been searching for standing alone next to the shoe lockers in the room. He had just slipped into his shoes when he lifted his head up and those mercury orbs of his met mine.

"(L/ N)-san," he murmured, staring at me with his bag slung over his shoulder; though I couldn't catch much of his expression because of the dim lighting of the room, the hint of surprise in his voice was enough to give me a vague guess at what his face had looked like.

"Karma-kun," I started, my voice sounded much firmer than I'd expected it would but that was good; I needed to be confident, or seem like I was at least. "I need to speak with you."

It took him a few seconds before he finally responded with a light nod and I allowed him to lead me outside to talk as it seemed like there might still be a few teachers inside the school. We stopped under the tree which I'd unashamedly used as a hiding spot earlier and I nearly cringed as the sight of it reminded me of my patheticness.

"So, what do you want to talk to me about?" Karma inquired, his mercury eyes focused on me with such attentiveness that it made me shrink back until my back hit the tree trunk.

Despite the slight blush that had begun to tint my cheeks, I cleared my throat and said, "Okay, this might sound odd, but... bear with me."

The redhead just stared at me, waiting, and I sucked in a deep breath before continuing, "Asano-kun told me something about you..."

Karma scoffed. "That doesn't sound odd at all, it'd be odd if he didn't say anything about me."

I chose to ignore his remark and carried on, "He told me that you're a psychopath."

There was a pause of silence before Karma asked, inquiringly, with not even a hint of accusation in his tone, "And do you believe him?"

"I..." I began, the false confidence that I had earlier had already faded by that point, and I was left an awkward and uncertain mess. "That's what I want to talk to you about- to ask you, actually... I want to ask you if you'd allow me to observe you..." I trailed off.

Karma cocked an eyebrow at me. "Observe me?"

"Y-yes," I stammered awkwardly; I felt like cringing at that moment, I had no idea why I felt so flustered. It could maybe be because I was talking to an extremely attractive guy whom I might had really liked or it could maybe be because I was practically asking a psychopath if I could observe him to confirm that he was actually a psychopath. Whichever one it was, I wasn't quite sure... but my instinct told me that it was a little bit of both. "Allow me to explain, I aspire to become a psychologist in the future and I thought that it'd be good to get some experience. So what I'm asking is, please allow me to observe you; your responses, your movements, your behavior, your personality and emotional changes... And I'd be able to make a proper diagnose about your mental state in a couple of days."

The redhead continued to stare at me for a couple of seconds before speaking, "So you came all the way up here, just because you'd heard that arrogant jerk claim that I was psychotic and you wanted to ask me if I'd be your test subject?"

"Well, test patient, actually," I corrected. "But that works too."

He let out a deep chuckle and within a blink of an eye, his hands are planted on either side of me on the tree, trapping me between him and the tree. My eyes widened as they shot up to meet his mercury ones which were gleaming with malice. "You know, I'm not sure if you're stupid, or really stupid to be able to come up with an idea like this." He murmured, his voice deep. He leaned in and I could feel the tip of his nose brush the sensitive skin of my bare neck. I gasped.

"Didn't it ever occur to you that being alone with someone who had been called psychotic by others might lead you to end up with deadly consequences?" he asked, his heated breath hitting the base of my neck causing a shiver to run down my spine and goosebumps to form on my arms.

Usually, someone who was stuck in the situation I was in, would be struggling to get free and screaming at the top of their lungs for help, but instead, I was paying so much attention to Karma; too much attention. I could feel how soft his crimson locks were as they occasionally brushed against my jawline, I could feel the overwhelming heat that radiated off his body and slipping into my own, warming me from the outside-in, and I could smell the intoxicating scent that lingered on his pale skin; the scent of him, the scent which was purely soap, sweat and boy.

I could feel my cheeks begin to flush a suffusion of red that was a matching pair with Karma's vibrant hair. His soft, warm lips touched the burning, fragile skin on my neck and I immediately felt my knees unbuckled; I had to lean my weight against the tree to prevent myself from collapsing onto the ground.

"I'm going to enjoy playing with you, (L/ N)-san," he murmured into the crook of my neck. "You smell and taste so incredibly sweet and I'm afraid to say that I'm addicted."

My eyes had become heavy and my breathing ragged; I was exhausted yet I felt exhilarated. "I... know you're... not like that... Karma-kun," I breathed and he pulled away from me to meet my heavy-lidded-gaze. "And what makes you think that, (L/ N)-san?" he asked, amusement playing on his lips in the form of a smirk.

"Because you weren't like this when we first met..." I replied, my voice merely a whisper.

"I've been claimed to be a psychopath," he started, his gaze never wavering even once. "For all you know I might've just been pretending, putting up a façade to manipulate others, like you for example."

"No," I croaked. "You weren't,"

Karma's eyebrows furrowed vaguely and the smirk on his lips faded as he stared quizzically at me. "And what makes you think that-"

"It's because you were being completely real," I said and I caught Karma's eyes widened slightly, so slightly that I would think I'd hallucinated it; his impassive countenance cracking vaguely. "Every smile you gave, every word you said, they were all completely and utterly genuine; you weren't pretending, Karma-kun."

The redhead stared at me for several moments and just as my eyes were about to fall shut, he pushed himself off of me and my arms had to quickly grab ahold of the tree trunk to prevent myself from falling face-first onto the ground since my legs were still weak from Karma's previous assault.

"Hey, do you know that old little café five blocks from the main campus at the corner of the intersection with that pale blue sign hanging on the front?" Karma suddenly asked me and I had to take a second to think before nodding; I knew that place, I'd never really been inside but I'd passed there every time I had to buy the groceries.

"Good, then what do you say meeting there tomorrow morning at eight o'clock sharp?" he picked up his bag from the ground which he'd dropped earlier and glanced at me, his expression unreadable.

I gave him another nod, afraid to speak since my weak voice would betray the firm look that I'd managed to put on.

"Then it's a date!" he confirmed with a smirk spreading across his lips.