Anfractuous (Narrated by Danzel Lee)

"I need to go to my cousin's house. That's why I can't go home together with you today..."

I felt the piercing feeling again, striking my head as if it wanted to shatter my brain into pulp. I always got that kind of feeling and pain inside my head whenever someone lied to me. The girl in front of me was one of that someone. She even had done it quite often. I stared at her beautiful round face, a winning proof of how great the mixture between Caucasian race with Asian could be, with the high cheekbones and dimpled chin, and soft complexion. I used to think that she was adorably cute. My eyes lingered for a while at her plump lips which now drawn to make a fake smile, which I used to consider sweet and at her big, coffee-brown eyes, those I used to relate with sincerity and innocence. This face in front of me used to make me fall head over heels, but now I could only feel disgust.

"You're not angry right, Danzel?" She asked with a fake sweet voice and put her puppy eyes on.

How could I get angry to something or someone that I don't really care for? I said to myself, while pulling the sweetest smile I could plaster on my face.

"Then, I'll go ahead," I said hastily, couldn't wait to flee from the place before she tortured me furthermore with another lie. She waved to me, which I replied with another sweet-fake smile. If I had to face such a pathological liar every day, it'd be sooner than later that I become one of her kinds too. Such an irony...

I walked eagerly to the parking lot, to get my motorcycle and to go home ASAP. I did not want to spend another minute in this dreaded private international school that packed with such fake, rich-kids. If it wasn't because of my eager older brother who wanted to make sure I could receive the best of education that he could afford and solely motivated by the fact that my one and only best friend was going to this school too, I'd rather go to a less-fancy school, but filled with more descent, real, and humble students. My steps stopped when I saw the said best friend was sitting on his CBR motorcycle that was parked next to mine. Clearly, he was waiting for me.

"Irene doesn't tag along?" He asked, playing with his helmet by tossing it between his hands.

I smiled to Han Meng, my one and only best friend, and resumed my steps. Meng was a Chinese descends, with square strong jaws, high cheekbones, long nose, and thick lips. His eyes were slanted under a pair of heavy brows, drifted at me at the moment. He was very tall for a high schooler. I was guessing that his height had reached 180 cm already, three centimetres shorter than my brother. We first met when he and his schoolmates were visiting our orphanage as part of their school project. That time, he and I were both just started the seventh grade. After some misunderstandings that led to a short brawl, we surprisingly had been best friends ever since, until now, when we were on grade eleven.

"Cousin's house," I answered, as I made an air-quote.

Meng nodded, understood. "Another new excuse it seems. I've never peg her for a creative..."

"You can ask her if you need any excuse to skip class."

My best friend broke in laughter. He reached for my shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Chin up, man. You could always break things up with her and find your happiness elsewhere. You don't like her anymore, anyway..."

I rolled my eyes. It was not that the idea to break up with that girl never crossed my mind, as Meng advised, but I was kind of lazy to do that.

"You do know that she is a hard-core drama queen, and I hate to be involved in any drama. If I break up with her, she undoubtedly will take the role of a victim. I also hate to be the centre of her cronies' attention, not to mention all the gossips that I'll be hearing. Can you imagine all the hassle? Maybe later, if my patience has reached its lowest level, I may do so. Moreover, I got the proof of her cheating on me straight from her head. How I could explain that?"

"Yeah, that girl is careful enough to hide her 'infidelity' with that neighbouring high school's basketball captain. But if you want me to, I could help you to gather the evidence you need."

I waved the offer, asking Meng to dismiss the idea. "No need to bother you. If I wanted to, I could make her spill out all of her beans in front the whole school, anytime, without her even realizing it."

Meng smiled so wide, flashing lines of white teeth. "I forgot. You have that ability..."

I laughed along with him. Yes, I did have an 'ability' that I was quite sure not everyone has. At first, I noticed that I could tell if someone was lying to my face. Since I was little, as an orphan, I was raised in the orphanage. I had seen a lot of hypocrisies and lies in my whole life. There were only few people that I knew who'd never lie to me or betray my trust. Meng was one of them, therefore I trusted him so much. When I entered high school, I realized that my power started to evolve. If I added more energy, I could retrieve any fact or truth I needed from anyone who had been succumbed under my power. Exactly with this ability did I draw out truth about how my girlfriend had two-timed me with another boy, without having her realizing it. Those who were subjected to my power would never have any memory about me turning their head upside down to find any information I needed.

"What about you? How's training?" I asked Meng in turn.

My best friend also had 'special ability'. This became another reason why we could constitute a powerful bond in our friendship and we could support and trust each other so much. Meng was born in a Shaman family. Shamans were people that had talent to access the spirit world. They could talk to spirits and in the highest level, they could ask one of their sanctified ancestor spirits or deities to become their guardian spirit. They could also borrow their guardian spirit's power to attack their enemies.

If the Shaman family had ancestor that possessed strong power and skill during their lifetime, then the family would become stronger. For example, Meng's family. He told me that the Han family, which came from the same ancestor as the Han in China, had three ancestors who possessed great power. Meng's father and older brother had been successfully summoned their powerful army general ancestors as their guardian spirits, while Meng was still struggling to summon his family's deity ancestor called Han Xiangzi. After I looked it up online, I noticed that Han Xiangzi was the name of one of the Chinese Taoist deities.

I patted my best friend's back as he sighed heavily, tried to give encouragement. We always spoke about our ability in secret and hid it from our other friends. Actually, I did not comprehend well how Meng's ability work, nor did I have any understanding about a Taoist god, Han Xiangzi, who was often portrayed playing flute, surrounded by white cranes. However, I promised myself that I would always support him and to be there for him.

"Change the topic, please. I don't wanna talk about that piper..."

"Your ancestor," I reminded him and laughed.

Meng rolled his eyes. "Whatever. By the way, do you ever notice that you've changed a bit?"

"Oh great, you don't wanna talk about your ancestor and decided to talk about me instead?" I mockingly punched him on his upper arm. "I changed how?"

"I don't know...more easy-going, I guess. If it was the old you, I'm pretty sure you've made sure Irene got what she deserved."

"Do you mean I was crueller before?" I jeered, which replied by Meng with a grin.

I pondered. I guessed he was right. I did become more easy-going and patient than before.

"It seems your brother's influence is quite significant, considering that you've only been living together with him for a year and half."

I pondered even deeper. When I was on grade 9, just shortly before the national exam, the head of the orphanage introduced me to a guy. They told me that that guy was my long-separated older brother. My brother told me that we were separated when I was still a baby. According to the woman who raised him, a relative of our mother, my brother said, our mother had died from illness. Meanwhile, our father's whereabouts was unknown. Well, for me, unknown was equal with no longer around. After the death of our mother, the woman took the role of guardian for my brother and me. However, she had her ugly past that forced her to constantly in run. Since I was still a baby and she feared for my safety, the woman put me at the orphanage and took my brother Abel with her. Together, they were always in move until my brother was old enough to live on his own. Before they got separated, the woman reminded my brother to find me back. He tried to locate my whereabouts for some years and eventually found me on that said week.

Initially, I was sceptically listening to his story. However, since my 'lie detector' did not give me any sign that he was lying, I decided to trust him and accept the offer to live with him. Moreover, I hated that orphanage, so I would accept any getaway offer on the table. Since then, I had been living together with my older by five-year brother. Then, as Meng had said, my older brother's strongest trait was his easy-going character. He always lived his life in positive state of mind and attitude. He always had strong empathy and always had faith toward others. I, in the contrary, had been exposed to other's maliciousness and hypocrisy for so many years. Therefore, I had never been able to garner such empathy for others. From my experience, empathy would only lead to self-destruction. I could only rub on his easy-goingness, which eventually made me ignore and tune out those who had hurt and betrayed me.

"I'm wondering, does your brother have 'ability' too?"

I shrugged my shoulders. I did think of that for several times. However, my brother never mentioned nor told me about some sort of special ability or super power, so I deduced that he might not be having it. It came across my mind too to ask him about it straight out, but I was afraid if he did not have any ability and listened to my question about ability, he would think that I was crazy and 'need help'. I loved my life now, and to be honest, I was afraid that I would lose it by doing so. Therefore, I kept silent about my power to him.

"Oh no... They are at it again..."

I snapped back from my train of thoughts and followed Meng's line of sight. Not too far from us, on a slightly remote area of the school, near the dumpster, we saw some girls surrounding another petite girl with long, raven hair. I narrowed my eyes to see the surrounded girl a better look and tried to pull any information from my head, to no avail.

"Who's that?"

"Right, popular kid like you might not know her. Her name is Megan Lukas, our junior by a year. She's just got transferred here around three weeks ago."

I frowned to the word 'popular' that Meng used for me. I really had no idea why I could be grouped in that category. Well, one reason did occur in my mind. I tried not to attract any unnecessary attention as best as I could for my whole life, but since I entered this school, I received Irene's attention more than necessary. And, since she was the 'queen' of this school, as her boyfriend, my social status had moved up to the peak of the food chain. Plus, I befriended Meng, one of this school's favourite jocks. Hence, popular also applied for him. It was not like we needed it though.

"And how come a popular kid like you knew her?" I retorted cynically.

Meng grinned. "Because I am less popular than you are, Irene's boyfriend, one of the top three students and the captain of soccer team... In your comparison, I'm still down to earth and low profile. Plus, my long-lost childhood friend, Kencana Nimms, is her classmate and she's get along well with her. According to Ken, Megan is all right. It's just that she is quite shy and reserved, so most of her classmates see her as a nerd. But, she is really cute, don't you think? The boys are often talking about her in the locker room, so in matter of days she has been targeted by the popular girls."

"That group are the ten graders?"

"You really are very ignorant with Irene's community, aren't you? Two of them are her BFFs, popular girls from basketball club and cheers."

My brows shot up, as they usually were, whenever I found something interesting. "Is that so?"

"D', what are you doing?" Meng was looking at me bewildered when I walked approaching the girls. "D', are you serious?"

I ignored my best friend and kept walking forward. Some of the juniors saw me walking by and poked their friends, who poked their other friends, until that group cleared a path between me to the cornered little Megan. They glanced to Meng and me with combination of adoration and embarrassment of being caught doing something that certainly was neither elegant or proper.

"Senior..."

"Danzel, Meng..."

I ignored them and looked straight to Megan. Well, Meng was certainly not kidding. She was cute, gorgeous even. It was not the kind of artificial beauty like Irene(that was highly supported by her application of make-up(but a more of natural beauty. Megan had waist-long raven hair, styled in two ponytails, each on her side of her head, screaming all cuteness in the world. I think she wasn't mixed blood like Irene and me, despite the colour of his hair. She had heart-shaped face with a small turned-up nose that sculpted so perfectly above her natural-coloured, red lips. Her cheeks were a bit chubby, but two dimples that adorned them made her look even prettier. She did not look at me, as if did not realize our coming. Her cognac eyes seemed more interesting to observe her black, flat shoes, while her body was leaning backward leisurely to the wall. She did not seem care about the threat from the bullies, nor needed anyone's help to escape from them. A glimpse of regret flicked in my heart. Why should I stick my nose to where it doesn't belong like this? I suddenly felt stupid, but there was no way for me to back off. I reached for the petite girl's hand and dragged her away. She still showed no expression and found something interesting to see on the ground instead, but she followed me and did not deny my hand.

"Danzel, what are you doing? Do you know her?" One of Irene's BFFs asked.

"Danz, Irene would be upset if she knew about this...," the other one carried on.

I turned my head and glared. From my peripheral vision, I saw Meng face-palm himself. Oh yeah, my best friend knew what kind of stunt I would make to slap those girls with my sarcastic pointed comments. Especially, previous incident with Irene gave me this strong urge to lash out to her friends.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?" I asked coolly to the girls. "Why would you meddle on my business? As for Irene, you have no need to worry. Irene won't be upset since as we speak, she is having a great, jolly, sweet time with...Err, what was his name again, Meng?"

My best friend sighed helplessly, and replied. "Zack..."

I noticed that the neighbouring high school basketball captain's name managed to make Irene's bitches' faces turned as white as the walls next to them. Seeing their reaction, I flashed a satisfied smile and enjoyed the sensation of winning.

"Ah right, him...," I nodded to the name and with a warm hand of Megan still clinging in my own, I dragged her walked away from that place.

**

"A simple thank you would be enough," I sneered when Megan was leaving us with her head still hanged low. There was not even once that ungrateful girl looked up to see me properly.

The girl stopped. Her head nodded so swiftly, while her lips moved as if she was mumbling something. I guessed she was mumbling the 'thank you' I asked from her. After she was done doing that gesture, she resumed her steps and not turning back anymore.

"She is so not cute," I commented.

"You can't blame her, she's never asked for your help," Meng patted my shoulder. "Besides, you were helping her not because you care for her."

I smirked and did not deny the sarcasm.

"Okay, I need to go home now. Abel had work and did not come home yesterday, but he just texted, said that he will be home in the evening. I wanted to be at home before he does, to prepare dinner and do chores."

Meng smirked back to me and mouthing "Such a good baby brother..." I stuck out my tongue to the sneer and waved to him. On the next second, I had saddled myself on my white CBR and drove it home in bullet speed.

**

As I wanted, I arrived at home before Abel did. Our home was a forty-five square meters wide apartment with two bedrooms, located just at the outskirt of J City. The apartment complex had five towers, all painted in soothing brown colour and surrounded by clusters of housing. The complex was far from the city-centre, but that would mean less traffic, the way I liked it. Abel had bought this place long before he found me. After he took me in, he once asked if I preferred to live in a house instead of an apartment. He said he could make arrangement and put the apartment on lease to buy a house for us, but I said no. I liked the place, since it was not too big, yet had enough room for the two of us. At the very least, I had my own room for privacy. Abel did not have too many furniture as well, only one long, dark grey couch with a coffee table, a TV stand where the stereo was and the wide LED TV bracketed to the wall on top of it. Next to the living room was the kitchen with several built-on cupboards and drawers, along with the sink, cooking utilities, and stoves. Abel did not have dining table, only a bar that also functioned as the prepping table. I could see that Abel traits of easy-goingness also applied on his choice of minimalistic style for his interior. I felt grateful for that, since less furniture meant less time to do cleaning.

I took time to take a shower and to do some chores. After done cleaning, I started to browse the fast-food pamphlets to call take-away for dinner. Abel could cook very well, but I had no skill on that department and preferred to entrust my fill of nutrition to the Chinese or Japanese takeaway. I finally decided to call Chinese takeaway as our dinner for today. After my ordered fried noodles, rice, and kungpao chicken arrived, I spent time to watch TV. My mind flashed back to the girl whom I 'rescued' this afternoon. Meng was truly not mistaken. That girl was really beautiful and cute, but her attitude was plain rude. However, my last life-lesson also taught me that pretty girls were more often than not cannot be trusted. Girls like Megan might be better. She seemed genuine, not fake.

I could not hold a smile when I relived the feelings of softness and warmth from the delicate hand that I held firmly just then. She smelled like fresh-cut flowers, fresh and sweet, urged you to stop over and take a deep intake of breath, savouring her fragrance to the fullest. Truth to be told, the girl seemed mysterious and she had aroused my interest. She could be a good distraction, since I did not want to be occupied nor overwhelmed with my problem with Irene. Not to mention, if I were to make a move at Megan, it certainly would shatter Irene's pride and choke her with her own ego.

"I think that would be nothing in comparison with my patience for her these past months," I assured myself to the plan and grinned from imagining Irene's expression.

I snapped back to reality when I heard the sound of keys used and the front door next to me was opening. I looked up and saw my brother walk in with his friend. Or should I say, limping in with his friend. My brother's well-built and tall body was leaned onto his smaller-framed friend's body.

"D'? You came home already?" My brother glanced at me stupefied.

"You said yourself that you will be home in the evening. That's why, I went home before you did," I gave him a stern look, observing him.

The first weird thing I noticed about my brother was his outfit. It was different with what he was wearing when he left for work yesterday and it was definitely out of his element. Abel loved hip-hop style and always dressed himself with loose T-shirts or hoodies and equally loose board shorts or sweatpants. However, today he was wearing a number too small punk rock-styled T-shirt. If I were to guess, the T-shirt must had been belong to Shyu, the smaller guy whom he was leaning on, my brother's best friend. Shyu caught my gaze and smiled at me awkwardly. I flashed him a smile too. The shorter guy helped Abel to sit on the couch, as my brother frowned and clutched his ribs. It looked like Abel have a hard time to suppress his pain but tried to give me no hint of it, although it was obvious that he was badly injured. I could notice healed scratches and bruises on his oval face, be it on his defined chin or on his sturdy jawlines, even though they were slightly screened by his orange hair. Some of the scratches also could be found stretching under his trim eyebrows, just inch next to his deep, black eyes. Abel's thin lips formed a hard line whenever he tried to hold a painful moan from the shifts he made for the most comfortable seating position. It took him to fidget and shift for about five minutes until he let out a satisfied sigh.

"What happened?"

Shyu looked befuddled and dead of words on how to answer my inquiry. Abel finally opened his mouth. "I'll tell you later," he promised before looking back at Shyu. "Thanks, man. Say thanks to Pats too, especially because she's willing to explain everything to Miss B and save me from her majesty's wrath."

Shyu laughed. "Don't worry about it, it was nothing. Miss B only loves to grind our masculine pride. She would do no harm to the female agents. I'll take my leave then, since Pats is waiting for me at home. Bye, Danzel..."

I escorted the smaller guy to the door and shut it close once he walked away. I turned my head and gave a pointed look toward my brother, demanding the explanation he promised.

"Work hazard," he explained. "We got a rough job and got injured in the process. For the details, I'm sorry D', but I can't share it with you."

This was one of my brother's characters that I liked and appreciated, but in the same time irritated me a lot. Abel had never lied, but he was very discreet about his job. He only told me that he works for Law Inc., world's number one conglomerate, owned by a multibillionaire named Alpha Law. He said he's a field worker for Brilliant Law, Alpha Law's daughter. My brother's main job description included dangerous tasks to assure civilian's peace and safety. That's why he always advised me to simply write 'field worker' or 'security worker' to fill any form that required me to write down my guardian's line of work. More than that, he would never breathe out any detail about his job. True, he did not lie, but that did not mean I would not be tortured with uneasiness whenever he went to work. Who could guarantee that he would always come home in one piece, safe and sound?

"Was it a success?" I asked bitterly, almost chocked on my own words. I caught a glimpse of a thick bandage that was wrapped around Abel's ribs and frowned.

My brother flashed a weak smile. My brother was a cheerful person. He smiled all the time, but this one smile made me stunned because I could see trace of guilt and sorrow in his eyes. It was something that he never brought back home before.

"You could say so. I'm starving, D'. What did you buy for dinner?"

That was the hint for me to stop asking because my brother did not want to tell me more than what he had shared, but he also did not want to lie to me.

"Chinese food....," I answered meekly.

I went to the kitchen bar where the takeaway boxes were and grabbed his, along with the chopsticks. I gave the boxes to Abel, who ravished the food in instant. I seated myself next to him, still observing him. My brother seemed genuinely hungry and he tried to act as normal as he could. However, that trace of guilt still lingered in his eyes. I sat quietly, yet deep down I was in battle with myself.

**

"No way D', you can't do that."

I sighed when I listened to Meng's expected reply. When Abel went to take a shower, I snuck out to call Meng for his opinion regarding my brother's problem. Now I was sitting on the emergency stairs at the end of our hallway.

"You promised it yourself D', that you would respect those who never lied to you and would never mess up with their head to get any information you need."

"Dang it Meng, I know that..."

"Abel has never lie to you, right?"

"No..."

"He only doesn't want to tell you, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Then it's the end of conversation. Do not break your own promise, D'! Not to mention, what'd happen if your brother actually has special ability too? There is no certainty that it would have the same effect with when you use your power to 'normal people'. What if you hurt your brother with your power instead? Have you ever thought about that?"

Meng's last argument struck me. That was right. So far, I'd never applied my power to people with ability. For those who had no ability, my power had no after effect. But as Meng said, the case might be different with those who had ability. My power could be useless to be applied to them, or, the worst scenario, created a damaging effect.

"But he is my big brother Meng. He suddenly came home broken, how'd you expect me to just sit still? I do have rights to find out, right? Plus, he may not have any ability," I tried my best to reason.

"That's not an excuse, D'. If Abel refused to tell you, then you should just drop it. He must've had strong reason for that. I say, it will be best for you to support him and just focus on easing his burden at work with your role as his little brother instead of obsessing yourself to find out the story he clearly does not want to share with you."

Meng was right. I knew it. I just..., I couldn't let go.

"D', I shall remind you of my grandfather's words. Nothing happened as a mere coincidence. Everything has its own purpose, happens for a reason. Similar with that logic, there is no evil power, bad ability. Our power and ability are part of something big, to give meaning to something good. If there was power used for evil, it wasn't that power which was evil per se. It was the user, who chose to use his power to hurt others..."

"For those who are understand, the fine line between good and evil is thin, since the two are depending on man's subjective point of view and the two are in resonance with each other. However, true goodness will never display evil and true goodness will make many people happy," I recited the words taught by Meng's grandfather to us when we were still in middle school.

"You do remember," Meng sighed. "Please don't forget those words D'. I'll tell you this. To be honest, I will extremely upset if you ever use your power to get any secret or story that I don't want to share with you, just because you're curious. If I've decided to hold something from you, that does not mean I don't trust you. It means I could bear and solve it myself. If at the end, I do need your help or have solved the problem, I will definitely tell you. Have faith on your brother, and have faith on yourself! It's enough for him to know that you're there for him. There's no need for you to be bothered with his work problem. To an extent, he is protecting and cherishing you, D'."

"Do you think so?"

"I know so. Have faith on someone who have enjoyed a healthy family life for 17 years with a father and an older brother who always say that and do just that."

I laughed and felt relieved. I decided to take his advice.

**

I didn't need a second look to recognize Irene's back. My steps stopped when I saw that familiar silhouette was standing hesitantly in front of our door. She seemed mustering her courage to press the doorbell, but I stopped her before she could. How the hell was she able to get up and found our apartment? I had only told her where I live, but never gave her our apartment number. Luckily, I was back just in time. I reminded myself to scold the doorman once I saw his smug face.

"Why are you here?"

Irene was surprised. She turned her head and the adorned with fake eyelashes and mascara pair of eyes of hers bugged out.

"Danzel, you surprised me. I thought you're inside..."

"Do I need to report my whereabouts, even in my own apartment? What do you want?"

I guess I had used my rudest voice and sharpest tone to her, because she looked petrified. I knew that in my schoolmates' eyes, if I were a female, they would surely give me the 'ice-queen' nickname. I was well-known for my ice-cold and expressionless face, two things that I suspected caught Irene's and most of my fan girls' interest in the first place. When Irene eventually managed to have me as her boyfriend, she had added her popularity one more level. I was still that cold personality, even though I had joined the popular kids' community. However, to spare myself from any drama and hassle, I hardly spoke in rude manner. I tried to be as charming as I could with my verbal expression, without elaborating it too much.

Irene tried to compose herself and had now played with a strand of her dyed, light-brown hair. She gazed at me under her eyelashes, fluttered it several times, trying to charm me with her 'cute expression'. If I were the five months ago version of me, I certainly had succumbed to her charm and took her in my arms. However, I fed up with her, thus, seeing her like this, I could feel only disgust.

"I missed you," she whispered.

I winced when the piercing pain struck my brain and eardrums. She even abled to flush in spite of her lie. How on earth she managed to do that? Now I was sure that this girl was created to make me suffer.

"I wanted to see you," she added. She was honest this time. "Could I come in and see your place?"

We had been together for quite some time, but I never invited Irene to my apartment, or moved on beyond making out and touching each other necessarily, especially after I knew she often lie through her teeth to me. I did not want to let her filth presence pollute the nice atmosphere and sincere relationship I shared with Abel.

"My brother is sick, let's just talk here. I ask you one more time, what do you want?"

Her plump and covered with pink lipstick lips flashed a seducing smile, while her manicured fingers tried to reach my arms and her body had leaned forward to me. I pulled myself back, diverted her 'attack'. She looked surprise with my withdrawal, obviously did not see that coming. Her flirty smile changed to an awkward one.

"I... heard from Giselle, that somehow you have been listening to a hearsay of me cheating on you..."

"Yep. Except, it was neither a hearsay or rumour, right? That was the truth."

I shunned once more when I saw she try to reach my arms again.

"You're wrong, Danzel!!" Her voice was hoarse, as if she wanted to cry. What a drama queen. "I admit that I got close with Zack and I did know he fancies me, but I don't like him. He keeps make a move on me, no matter how many times I've told him that we are together and I love you. I admit too, I went out with him several times, including this afternoon, but I did that to explain to him how serious our relationship is. I didn't tell you all of these because I didn't want to make you jealous. I initially planned to tell you once I convinced him to stop make a move on me."

I frowned in pain and clasped my ears that were currently stabbed with piercing pains.

"Danzel...?"

"Don't touch me!!" I groaned and panted, feeling that sweats had dampened my forehead. I threw her a stern look. "Could you...please..., at least once..., stop lying?! I knew about the real nature of your relationship with that Zack, so there's no need for you to fabricate such excuse no more! How about this..."

I paused to take a deep breath and shake my head to fully dismissed the pain that linger. I clenched my teeth and resumed my words. I would say these words as firm and as clear as possible, so they could be easily understood even by someone who's so thick-skulled.

"Irene..., I've stopped liking you, stopped caring for you for a while now. Therefore, let's just end this useless relationship."

Irene's lips were shaking. Her eyes stared at me, genuinely looked shock. "You... dumped me?!"

"That's right!"

"Because of that b-, girl?"

I frowned. Why, oh, why did this woman never do self-reflection and always find a scapegoat to blame?

"What girl? I don't know what you mean..."

"That... Megan...or whatever her name was! That disgusting girl who thinks that she's so pretty and is the centre of attention..."

"Are you talking about yourself?"

"DANZEL!!"

"Sorry, slip of tongue," I mumbled, with no regret at all. I waved my hand. "Were you talking about Megan who was bullied by your gang today afternoon? That Megan? She has nothing to do with this. If you need to blame someone, just blame yourself."

The manicured fingers swung once more to slap (or scratch(I really had no mood to find out) my cheek. Fortunately, I had good reflex. I caught her hand and pushed her away from any part of my body.

"I've dumped you, so you are no longer my girlfriend. Now, you're just a random schoolmate for me. And, I hate it if my schoolmate had her tantrum at my place, so please leave. Or, you prefer I call security to escort you out?"

Irene yanked her hand from my grip and stared fiercely. She, then, turned away and ran. Well, I believed that was her wisest decision to make tonight.