BEAUTY MARKS

1.WHISTLEBLOWER

Dominque's fan club took a lesson to create as almost all the single female dancers swooned over him.

"He's so hot," Patricia said as she clipped on her hoops in the lockerroom.

"I didn't know Dyan had an older sexy brother. I mean that man is Latin Supreme."

"No one did, Jane, and I so agree on the Supreme part."

"Do you think he has a girlfriend?"

"Fine men like that are always taken, and if not, they are Pirhanas."

"I'll let him bite me anytime," Janis said while she snapped her fingers.

Patricia rolled eyes, "anyway, lucky you, Tequila, by the way, Kaede, how come he knew your name?"

Kaede closed her eyes a second. She tried to make an abstraction of the conversation from the beginning. Now Patricia roped her back into a discussion she didn't want to have. She hoped the episode would get zapped, but no one missed the piece, "he's friends with a guy I worked with." Kaede slammed the door to her locker, picked up her belongings, and made her way to the door.

"Hey, Kaede, aren't you going to drink with us?"

"Sorry, guys, I'm dead," she blew kisses from afar and left. With her luck, she would probably find herself sitting next to Dominque.

The warm air hit Kaede's face. Spring played its last sample, and summer already slid in the background. She sighed, wondering how her dance class turned into a night on Elm street nightmare, and things were not getting better.

"Hey, where are you running to?"

Kaede turned, Dominque leaned on the walk with one leg kicking back and his hand in his pocket, no things were getting much worse.

"Home," Kaede resumed her stride; she had no strength for the verbal Ping Pong match.

Dominque jogged along to catch up and halted her with his arm, "did I do something wrong?"

Kaede sighed, "I would say I'm the one getting punished for some wrongdoing. This place is my haven. Why do you have toㅡ, never mind," she adjusted the strap of her backpack and continued to walk.

Dominque stepped up and blocked her path, making the woman kick in a sideways glance of annoyance, "listen, Kaede; I didn't know. My sister asked me to help her. I did not expect to cross you; guess it's our destiny." The concern on his face became a smirk.

"Dominque, you shouldn't do this. I don't know what bet or challenge you guys."

"Hold it, who are you talking about?" Dominque lowered his head to face Kaede's stare, "what bet, what guys?"

The man was getting the hang of the woman's reactions. When Kaede unleashed these stripes of sentences, it meant something bothered her, yet she tried to hide it. To Dominque's surprise, she explained.

"Dominque, you and I, it's messed up from the beginning. Do you know what? I was pissed the other day. You put me in that uncomfortable spot. I've been there, and I don't want to go through that again."

Kaede held back the real motives of her outburst. She didn't wish the man to know how he made the feelings rise on her barometer and the deception it was to hear Lee Han praise his performance.

The guy kept his eyes on Kaede as he attempted to read between the lines of her expression. Dyan yelled from the Floor's entrance, "Dom, I don't want to get home too late. If you want to have a drink with the class, it's now."

"Hold on a minute," Dominque yelled before shifting his gaze back, "Kaede, I'm listening; what are you talking about?"

"You and that model it hurt. I know it's ridiculous. I mean you and I, there's nothing, right?" Kaede scratched her forehead with her forefinger, "also, you know Marco hates me. If you are his friend, as he says, you shouldn't hang around me like this. I'm tired of this situation. Ask Marco about me because we need to stop this. We'll end up hurting one another."

"Tell me why Marco doesn't like you?"

"Ask him," Kaede's voice drifted from firm order to a plea.

"No, you tell me, I mean, it's not like you slept, dated, or something, right?"

"Dom."

Dominque slightly turned his head to the side while keeping one eye on Kaede, "I said hold on, Dyan," switched his focus on Kaede once more, "tell me, Kaede, nothing happened between you, right? Answer me."

Kaede took three steps back, "I think you already know, stop blocking out the truth, Dominque. Forget me, please."

The woman turned on her sneakers and walked away. There was no denying it; she liked him too much already, but Kaede preferred to play the whistleblower on her relationship with Marco to flee the potential story she could have with Dominque. No matter what the man said, the future relationship was doomed beforehand, according to Kaede, who assumed that women like Lee Han would make her into the stalker fiend she once was. She wasn't possessive, but the more she loved, the more she feared to see her idle escape her.

"Dom."

"Yeah, I'm coming. Stop yelling my name, as if I owe you money or something."

The man wasn't angry but perplexed. Dominque deducted since the Da Suff party that something went down between his friend and the woman. He just hoped it was small and that their secret went along the lines of a flirt. Dominque was even willing to accept the idea of one nightstand. Everyone made mistakes; that's how he would take it. The man wished there weren't too many songs played and that the tale stopped with a minor flirt, for the more the truth unfolded, the more Dominque became the ugly one as his crime was to covet one of his closet friends Ex.