[The King's Avatar] The Misconstrued Situation With An Overdue Explanation

Chapter 17: Pretty Persistence

1214 words, 6 minutes

The next day back at university, Akane noticed something quite... distressing during travel time to her next class.

She had to head from the Language and Literature department to the Economics department, and on her way there, she saw Josaku in a hallway that wouldn't take her there.

And he was talking to another girl.

This girl was about her height and wore her long black hair down, a cute red sweater, black tights and white Chinese flats with blue embroidery on them.

Akane could feel her heart ache when she watched the exchange from afar, so she dared to get a little closer even though her classes weren't that way. She hid behind a pillar and sharpened her ears for the sake of her sanity. Maybe she's just a classmate.

"I'm not interested," she overheard Josaku tell the girl.

Wow, OK. Such perfect words to hear, even though they made her dread the thought of what they could've possibly be talking about before she noticed them.

"Come on, handsome," she drawled in return, cutely holding her textbooks over her stomach and making Akane cringe at her efforts. "Just give me a chance, I'm hardworking and I can tell you're into girls like that."

"Just because you got your textbooks out doesn't mean you're hardworking, Ting Ting."

Akane would've burst out laughing if it weren't for the fact that she had to stay quiet and that Josaku addressed this girl by her name. Ting Ting, huh... Akane would love to talk to her at some point... oh yeah, just a little chat...

"Listen, Josaku—" Something about hearing another girl refer to Josaku's name so casually made negative feelings stir inside Akane's gut. Particularly jealousy. A healthy amount was OK, right?

"I don't want to listen to anything you have to say. I'm not interested." After shifting his positioning on his feet, Josaku stared at Ting Ting with a face that said he meant what he was gonna say next. "Leave me alone..."

Akane was perplexed. Leave him alone? Just how long was this girl bothering him for? Since travel time started? This only lead to Akane scoffing very quietly, as one must not have better things to do if they can go and bother someone who was just trying to get to class before the 10-minute mark was up.

Ting Ting's expression was still. Holding her textbooks tighter, she walked past him briskly, having nothing else to say apparently. Josaku turned around and watched her walk away, an unmistakably annoyed look on his face. Akane could only wonder why this girl irritated him that much.

Did he attract girls from all over the campus and she just didn't know?

Akane couldn't bear such a thought. She felt her entire being wilting just because she thought that, and her gaze became downcast, Ting Ting's footsteps echoing in the distance.