Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Seeing Inez, who kept trying to break free from the strong grip of Rian's hand, Cakra immediately clenched his hands tightly. His breathing turned rapid, his heart beating faster than before. The boy's gaze sharpened.

Seeing that, Cakra felt like he was witnessing the death of his own mother, who was always tortured by Reno, Rian's father, a few years before her death.

Unable to contain his anger, Cakra moved forward with clenched fists. The boy immediately threw his fist right at Rian's jaw. So hard that it made Rian move away and almost fall to the ground.

All the students who saw the scene immediately screamed, a similar incident as before. Cakra hit Rian for the second time. Cakra didn't care, he was too fed up with Rian and all things related to that boy.

Rian just hissed in pain while holding his jawbone, which was sore and hot. He glared angrily when he realized that the culprit was none other than Cakra, his half-brother, whom he had always hated.

Not wanting the bad record in the student book to increase, this time Rian chose not to reply to Cakra's Impact. He remembered the threat of his counseling teacher, if one more time he made a mistake and ended up in the counseling room, Rian was threatened with being dropped out of school.

Before darting away, Rian took the time to glance at Cakra with a cynical look in his eyes. Meanwhile, Cakra didn't seem to care. Slowly, the crowd in the parking lot began to disperse.

Cakra closed his eyes for a moment while taking a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

"Hey, you're okay, right?" asked Inez, who suddenly stood next to Cakra.

He nodded slowly. "I should be asking, is your hand okay? Are there any injuries?"

Inez smiled sweetly. "Yes, I'm fine. By the way, thank you for helping me."

"No problem," replied Cakra, smiling slightly.

"To show my gratitude to you, how about treating you to a drink at the cafe? You want to, right?" Inez asked.

He couldn't accept the offer, so he shook his head slowly. As much as possible, he rejected it in a subtle way so that Inez would not be disappointed, or at least understand.

"Right now, I have some business that I can't leave behind, I'm sorry I can't."

"So what should I do to repay your kindness?" Inez thought for a moment. "Well, we can go to the cafe another time. Wait until you're not busy."

"Uh no, I'm not asking for anything in return." Cakra shook his head more firmly.

"Well... I feel bad for you." A disappointed look appeared on Inez's face. "I don't want to be indebted to other people."

"I only ask one thing," Cakra said softly, making Inez blink in surprise. Of course, Inez felt happy. Whatever Cakra asked for, Inez would comply as much as possible. Because Inez really liked that boy.

"What do you want?" asked Inez enthusiastically. Her eyes blinked.

"Return my shoes that I borrowed from you, I want you to bring my shoes tomorrow, okay?"

"Your shoes?"

"Yes, my shoes, tomorrow you must bring those shoes."

After he finished speaking, Cakra realized that he had to go to work immediately. If he delayed any longer, Cakra was afraid that his boss would be angry with him, which would be even scarier if Cakra's monthly salary would be cut. Cakra shuddered a little, he had to keep those bad thoughts away.

"I'm already late, I'll leave first then, see you later!" Cakra waved briefly to Inez. Then hurriedly darted towards his bike.

"Uh, wait a minute!" Inez exclaimed as she raised her hand. But Cakra didn't hear him, the boy had already sped off on his bike.

Inez let out a long breath. Cakra's words about his shoes confused Inez. "What shoes? I don't think I've ever borrowed his shoes." Inez thought while trying to remember, and she scratched her head. But her efforts were fruitless. Inez had no memory of borrowing Cakra's shoes.

"It hasn't even been a week since we met, when did I borrow them? Wrong boy!"

***

Zidan stood up from his seat to follow his friends, who had left the classroom. But before he could step off the bench, his movement was stopped because Cakra held his arm.

"What the hell? Want to come to the cafeteria too? That's unusual, I usually don't want to."

"That's not it," replied Cakra. "I want to ask you something, Dan."

"About what?" asked Zidan lazily. He was still standing, looking down at Cakra, who was still loyal to his position.

"About a girl," said Cakra quietly.

Zidan, who originally looked lazy to listen to Cakra talk, immediately had a surprised look on his face. The boy blinked his eyes, then decided to sit back down with sparkling eyes.

"About girl? Do you have a crush on a girl here? What's her name? Which class? What do you like about her that makes you have this crush? When are you going to shoot her?" Zidan bombarded Cakra with questions to answer. The boy looked so enthusiastic.

Cakra snorted softly, and immediately he was too lazy to continue his words, which he intended to ask Zidan. How could Cakra answer Zidan's questions if he couldn't digest each of the questions?

"Hey, answer me! Instead of gawking." Zidan snapped his fingers right in front of Cakra's face. "Which girl do you have a crush on?"

"I don't have a crush on girls," Cakra replied, a little annoyed.

Zidan tapped Cakra's shoulder quite hard. His face became flat again. "How the hell are you? You said you wanted to ask about girls."

"Inez, do you know where her class is?"

Zidan's surprise apparently did not stop there, he turned his head quickly and glared at Cakra. He almost fell over because Cakra mentioned the girl's name.

"Do you like Inez? Do you really?" asked Zidan with a heavy accent. It sounded so loud, but fortunately, the class was quiet. There were no students other than the two of them.

"Don't say it loudly, can you?" said Cakra while glancing at Zidan sarcastically. He let out a long breath. "I'm just asking. I don't like Inez!" Cakra denied it.

"You wouldn't be asking if there wasn't something? You really have a crush on Inez, right?" Zidan gave Cakra a probing look. "You seem to have good taste too. When you met her, what did you feel? Did you feel strange vibrations in your chest? Did your heart explode when you looked at Inez? Did you feel that she was the only object that was pleasing to the eye? If you feel all those things, you're in the same boat!"

Cakra felt like stuffing Zidan's useless mouth right now.