3 『 i 』

~Yahvinna~

"Hey! Earth to Vinna? Hello?"

I blinked away from the wall I was staring at, finding Aubrey Holland, one of the few extroverts who decided to adopt me, staring at me with her hands raised over to my face. She seemed quite annoyed, but that didn't mask the playfulness coming from her eyes, indicating that I had accidentally drifted off from the gossip she's been trying to share to me.

I gave her my most interested look even though I probably know what she was talking about, just to entertain her, "Uh, sorry? What were you saying?"

"Dear Lord, Vinna," She plopped back to her seat, puffing up her cheeks, "You need to get out more—you seriously didn't hear about the news?"

"News?" I asked back, feinting my curiousness.

Why wouldn't I know about the news, Aubbie? Every headlines and recent news literally go through me before anyone else because, hello, I'm literally the head of the council, so, what news did I miss?

"About the new student on Class-12 C, who just came today, by the way," Her eyes twinkled as she clasped her hands together, probably in her wild and endless dream, "I heard he's a hottie."

"Oh, really?" Oh, please, Aubbie, only if you knew.

"You sound so unimpressed, Vin," Her tone drastically went down, before pausing, like she'd realise something. "Wait..." She started to stare at me with her curious eyes, leaning over the table, her face inches away from me, "You're the head of the council..."

Oh, good. She remembered.

"... it's no surprise if you'd seen him so," Her lips curled up to a rather giant smile, "what does he look like?!"

I can't just straight up say to her face that this "hottie" she's talking about is an absolute asshole, right? I mean, I already knew him before he even enrolled here because he's—

The cafeteria suddenly became god-awful silent, until soft whispers and gossiping snapped everyone out of the said silence. A few even squealed, like they've seen someone from Hollywood ascend down from the heavens... and I, unfortunately, know why.

Even Aubrey was stunned.

Without even turning my head, I already know who's coming. With his domineering appearance at first glance, even the straightest males and mostly bent girls would go head-over-heels for him, which will probably last until he showed his true asshole self. Probably.

I'm pretty sure all of this ear-breaking screams will be a daily occurrence in this school, and would actually tip off the balance of the already non-existent peace. There's nothing to blame them, at all, really. I could just imagine the faces of their class when he showed up earlier.

After all, his face could very well resemble an angel. He had these silvery-blue eyes, matching his silky and wavy platinum blonde hair that reaches down to the nape of his neck, which is against the school rules, by the way. His breath-taking glance would surely capture every girl's heart, and he's not even an actor nor a famous basketball player.

Heck, he's an angel.

Granted, his name is actually after one of the archangels that came from heaven, suiting his angelic appearance—but just that. It's a shame that his name and appearance doesn't suit his personality—because it seemed like when he fell from the heaven above, his personality came crashing down all the way to hell to pick up a devil's.

Gabriel Leo Adler, the brightest and the very epitome of an angel, but the very embodiment of an asshole for his personality... and I don't think anyone else can see that.

I really don't mean to judge, but the very first time I saw him, his actions completely screamed "I'm an asshole", for barging into my room without any notice. I think they had just moved in as our neighbours that day and, somehow, he ended up in my room.

How the fuck did he do that?

Where the fuck did he come from?

Oh, please—I, too, have no clue.

"Hey, Aubbie?" I called the stunned woman across my seat.

"Hm?" She hummed, her gaze completely focused at someone, "Yeah...?"

"Ugh," I groaned, bringing my head down onto the table, "I was having a somewhat good day too..."

"While I was gone?" Lo and behold, the actual devil showed himself.

I raised my head up, preparing my most uninterested and mostly dead stare to give him. He only returned a closed-eye smile that accentuated the little dimples his cheeks are holding, letting out an amused laugh, "Sup, V."

Oh my word—someone, get me out of here.

"Aubbie," I stood up from my seat, grabbing the arm of my stunned friend, "You don't want to contract a virus from him, trust me. Let's go." It's surprisingly easy how I dragged away the, now drooling, Aubrey through the crowd that had gathered around and, finally, out of the cafeteria.

It was, honestly, suffocating in there. Had I not got both Aubrey and I out, I feel like I would've died due to the amount of people in there. Of course, it also served as my excuse to get away from my a-hole neighbour that crawled out from hell.

Now that we got away, it's my turn to snap Aubbie out of her daze. She's always like this—always fantasising about good-looking men, and I don't even want to know what's going on inside that brain of hers. "Aubbie, hey," I snapped my fingers in front of her face.

"Oh my go—" She finally snapped out of her said daze, "Vinna," Her drooling continued though, as she placed her hands on my shoulders, "did you see how pretty he is?!" The sparkles in her eyes completely intensified. "And, girl," She let go of one of my shoulders to use the back of her now free hand to wipe her drool, "you didn't tell me that you knew each other."

"I didn't see the need to," I dead panned. I really didn't. "And, besides," I looked at her dead in her eyes, "he's an asshole."

"Who's an asshole?" Oh, for heaven's sake, Gabriel.

"You didn't know?" I snapped my head towards his direction, gently pulling down Aubrey's hand off of my shoulder before placing my right hand over the back of my neck, really fuming at this point—I mean, why on earth does he keep appearing out of nowhere? "You should look at the mirror, Gabriel."

He rolled that angelic eyes of his before raising his hands in a surrendering manner. "It seems like you're still mad about last time, V," he chuckled, his lips forming to a mischievous curve, and I don't like it.

"Don't even mention it," I narrowed my eyes at him, bringing my hands down, "Gabriel."

I haven't felt like this in ages, until a demon named Gabriel Leo Adler came around. No one would actually understand why, at just a small sight of this man, a vein keeps popping on my head. Why wouldn't I? Aside from invading my privacy, he—

"Okay, okay—you sound mad so, I'll stop," he chuckled again, stepping away, "for now." Then he just vanished—gone, probably roaming around to his new brewing fan club or whatever.

I breathed a sigh, able to breathe properly now that he's gone. I know this would raise questions for me, coming from the bewildered person behind my back. As if on cue, Aubrey poked my shoulder, "Why are you even mad at him? He's such an angel, Vinna!"

"You really wanna know?" I turned around to face her, and she hastily nodded, eager to learn a new hot topic. "To make the long, agonising, story short, he, the neighbour next door, trespassed to my room not by using the door, but by using my window," I then breathed, "and walked in on me while I was in the bathroom."

With my ending words, I think Aubrey's world just momentarily stopped. Maybe her mind even exploded from the obvious nasty thoughts she's creating, "Did he see your—"

"No, Aubrey," I quickly beat her to her words, not wanting to hear the rest, "Fortunately, I was just about done dressing up when he, unfortunately, came in."

"But could you imagine if he saw your—"

"Aubrey Holland," I called her out, "stop." I then placed my hand on her shoulder, "One more question like that, your work will be doubled."

She immediately closed her mouth before letting out a defeated sigh, "Okay, Miss Head of the Council, you win. I don't want to get into more trouble."

"Good." I smiled at her, bringing my hands down and leading the merry way through the hallway.

❅

I would've absolutely flipped if it wasn't for the fact that it's a teacher who asked me to show around the new student. Being the person who should act like a role-model, I politely smiled and accepted the awful task of leading a pervert around the school, "Yes, Mrs Thompson," I kept my faltering smile as the person next to me kept his smug one, "I'll gladly show Mr Adler around."

"Thanks, Vinna," The woman behind the desk smiled, "I know you're busy with school work, but I'm glad you're taking some time off for our new student."

"Then," I took a stride towards the door, "we'll be going now."

Upon stepping out of the classroom of the Class-12 C, I picked up my pace with the intention of making a great distance between the wolf in a sheep's clothing and myself. To hell with gladly showing him around—why would he intentionally request for me, of all people, to show him around?

"V,"

It's very infuriating; I still have laboratory shit to work on—shit, did the juniors unplug the microscope and the other equipment's? I think they did... did they?

"Hey, V,"

I placed my index finger at my chin, wondering and thinking back if they unplugged every equipment in the laboratory—because I'm pretty sure the juniors forget about it most of the time, and I don't want any fire happening, no one does.

"Ah—" I almost shrieked when Gabriel poked my shoulder. I seriously forgot about him for a moment. "What the hell?" I glared at him, placing a hand on my chest, "You scared me...!"

He blinked at my chosen set of words. A smile then formed on his lips, "Oh? You can easily get scared, V?"

"So?"

"Hm," He hummed before giving me his closed-eye smile, "Nothing." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Anyways," He opened his eyes, his tall figure looking down at my small self, "what are you thinking about? You were completely ignoring me."

I snapped my fingers, "That's right," I quickly went back to my task, "Come with me for a moment."

We successfully reached the laboratory in the school's fourth building, making me shuffle through the keys that I had in my pockets before opening the said area's door. I quickly looked around and, "I knew it," I saw that most of the equipment's in the lab are not unplugged.

Those seventh-graders.

"Help me unplug these equipment's," I said as I started to unplug the computers and other things on the first row, not really thinking about it, "The seventh-graders forgot to unplug these stuff again."

"Again?" Gabriel asked as he managed the second row, "How many times did this happen?"

"Thrice this week—this is the third," I explained, gathering up some papers and trash that are around, "I keep reminding them to unplug the things they used, and clean up after themselves because uh, just because there's a janitor, it doesn't mean that they come here often. This area's off limits for the most part."

"Why's that?"

"Hm," I hummed moving over to the third row to check up on things. I quickly scooted to the fourth, seeing that the third is pretty much okay. "Some robbers managed to get in the laboratory a few years back, and the school doesn't want that to happen again," I wiped the bead of sweat rolling down my forehead off with my jacket's sleeves, "So, they only give out copies of key of this place to trusted people and—"

"Ah," Gabriel chuckled, "so you're telling me that you're trusted? Really?"

I paused upon hearing his remarks. It seems like I've said too much and... maybe I got a little chatty. I may have also just unconsciously treated him as Aubrey. "You know," I sighed, turning around and making my way towards him, "I won't be trusted if I'm not the student council's head, right?"

He blinked, his hair bouncing as he tilted his head to the side, "Oh?" He seemed quite interested, "You're the school president? Seriously?" He chuckled again, "You don't look like one though."

"Oh, please," I proceeded to go towards the door, "shut up." I then went out, "Run along now, if you don't want to get locked in."

"Yes, ma'am."

After the laboratory interfering with Gabriel's supposedly arranged adventure with me, he finally got what he wanted—to be shown around the school, with me, as per requested by his highness. Of course, I also managed throw in some lectures about his haircut that is against the school's rule-book, but I didn't get away with his remarks.

He touched his long, platinum blond hair with his fingers, his lips forming a frown, "Is it really long? I don't see the problem with it," He then directed a smile at me, "but if it's you asking, I'll gladly do it."

"Stop with your crap," I rolled my eyes, "pervert."

"Ah—" He raised his hands, "you're still mad, okay..."

"Now that you've been showed around," I placed my hands in my pockets, "please do refrain from coming near me in the future, thank you." I started to go on my merry way to get my ass out of his presence—I still have something to pick up from the office before I go home.

Weirdly enough, he silently left me alone. Don't get me wrong—I seriously expected him to follow me to make my head hurt or something, but I didn't expect him to silently oblige with my obvious request of him leaving me alone. I was getting pretty content with him not being in my line of sight during the duration of me doing some shit so, when I suddenly got stopped near the school gate by his handsome face, my peaceful way back home got ruined.

I tried to play it cool and go to the opposite direction, but I failed—horribly.

"Oh, there you are. I got tired from waiting," He smiled, pushing himself off of the wall.

"No one asked you to wait for me, dumbass," I rolled my eyes, bringing out my phone from my pockets to text Aubrey that I'm already at the gate, only to internally die as I read over the message she had sent me a tad bit earlier.

[ Aubbie: sorry vinnie! my brother picked me up... I hope you're okay with that... ^^ ]

[ Vin: Yeah... I'm absolutely fine with that. Say hi to Vic for me ^^ ]

I... really can't blame her. Her brother comes home every other day, and it's not my place to ruin their fun day together. I sighed, turning my phone off.

"It seems like you're in a pinch," Gabriel blew into my ear, making me jump forwards to get away from him.

"You mother fu—trucker—" I fumed, placing my hand over to my ear he just blew into. "You're nuts, Gabriel—who in their right minds would do that?!"

"Me, apparently," He proudly pointed at himself, pressing his thumb against his chest that he had puffed out.

"Oh. My. Go—"