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

Chapter 18: Rumor Shutdown

1107 words, 5 minutes

Before they even made it outside, Akane decided to break the silence. "Well, I'm not gonna pretend like I don't know what you want to talk about, so I'll just start us off..." She clutched her backpack strap tightly as she turned to look at his profile view. "...who's Ting Ting?"

Josaku snickered once, keeping his hands in his jacket's pockets. "Wow, you even heard her name."

"I didn't mean to," she backpedaled. "I just..." She just what? Wanted to know every single interaction he had? For the sake of what, a peace of mind? "I don't know, I just..." This wasn't adding anything to the conversation and they both knew it. Akane didn't know what else to say afterwards.

Josaku talked for her. "She's just some girl in my class."

"Construction Management?"

"You remember my programs?" he shot back, smirking down at her.

Akane faced the entrance door instead. "Well... I'm pretty good at recalling details. And Athletic Training is split into male and female, so she can't be in your athletic classes..."

"Nice," he said, walking ahead and opening the door for them. "Well, either way, she's not someone to worry about."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah. She's just a classmate, that's all. Nothing more."

Well, if that was the case, then Akane supposed she should trust him on that. He hadn't known she was watching before Ting Ting left as far as she knew, so she had grounds to assume he wasn't acting that way just to throw her suspicions off.

Plus, he talked to her about it. That in itself was huge. Akane felt glad knowing he didn't try and hide it from her.

"Alright," she said satisfyingly. "Thanks for telling me. And... sorry for eavesdropping."

"It's OK," he said, hoping they could walk farther down the street together this time. "She's not important to me anyway, so it's all good." And he didn't mind Akane knowing that, too.

They walked past the parking lot in silence, basking in the afternoon Sun and inhaling some fresh air together. Minzhu Lake looked as calm as ever, and not a lot of cars were driving on the road.

"By the way, your friends are funny," he commented. "You told them about me?"

Akane's cheeks erupted into a blush and she held one of them with her palm. "Um... I couldn't resist." She couldn't lie.

Hearing her phrase it that way sounded pleasing and he wasn't sure why. "Yeah? What did you tell them?"

~

While they were outside having what was in Akane's opinion a "difficult conversation", a group of students that had noticed their interactions started to question it and chatted outside one of the canteens.