Kill Me With Love (Karma Akabane)

XVIII.Almost Said It

Finally, the exam day came. 

Walking with Karma, Achlys doesn't feel anything.
The E-Class students finally realized how everyone's eyes were
not only on them, but also on Achlys'.

And all of a sudden.. Karma stopped walking and Achlys bumped
against his back as she is, as usual, out of herself.

"Karma?" She called him curiously.

Gakushu stood in their way, who was also headed for
the designated classroom.

"Achlys.. how have you been?" With his usual smile,
Gakushu greeted her, ignoring Karma.

Everyone else stood by and paid attention to Gakushu.

Karma looks at him with an empty facial expression,
but hasn't made any move. Instead, Achlys steps forward
and stands in front of Gakushu. With a cold glare, Achlys
faced him.

"I'm doing so much better" but then she suddenly smiled
sweetly, as if mocking Gakushu. "What about you?" Achlys
asked him in return.

"What a coincidence. I feel the same." Gakushu returns her
mocking smile and chuckles.

"Ahahaha. How funny." Sarcastically, Achlys answers him.

"Please, don't be sarcastic." Gakushu continues to laugh.

The cold atmosphere between the two grew thicker until..

"Let's go, Achlys." Karma grabs hold of her hand and drags
her away without saying anything more.

Gakushu seemed a bit surprised to the point that he was
a bit pissed. Before Karma could take her away, Gakushu
stopped them by holding Achlys' free hand.

Karma stops without letting go of her hand and looks at
Gakushu with an annoyed face.

"What?" Karma asked in a rough tone of voice.

"Karma?!" Achlys feels confused but couldn't stop herself
from turning red.

"N-Nagisa-kun..! L-Look over there!" Kayano seemed surprised
and pointed at Achlys, Gakushu and Karma.

"W-What's happening..?" Nagisa wondered.

"I'm not finished talking to her." Gakushu glared at Karma.

"Nope. You can't talk to her." Karma calms himself down and lets
out a confident smirk, mocking Gakushu.

"Says who? You? What exactly do you know about Achlys?
   Let go of her." Gakushu raises a brow at him and orders Karma.

"Enough of this, Gakushu." Achlys forces herself to break away
from Gakushu's grasp of her hand. "Let's go, Karma" 

With a triumphant smile, Karma walks with Achlys and then
looks back to Gakushu to stick his tongue out.

Gakushu's jaw tightens. But then..
"I'm going to crush you now, Akabane Karma."
Gakushu smirked and annoyed Karma.

Without saying anything more, Karma pretends to yawn and then
slips his arm around Achlys and pulls her closer and glances back
at Gakushu who was still standing in the hallway with clenched fists.

Nagisa and Kayano, their classmates who witnessed everything happened
stood there with their eyes comically whitened out and their jaw dropped
on the ground.