Chapter 86: Personality and Hidden Dilemma. 

[Jenna POV]

"See here, X needs to be brought over to the left side, making the value of x is…?"

"Hmmm….3?" I answered.

"Don't look at me, look at your calculation." Alex said in slight annoyance. I could sense that she was becoming increasingly frustrated the more she taught me, and it pained my heart when I realized that I had no talent in studying.

"It's…it's okay to give up Alex. I'm dumb. I know it." I said using a self-deprecating tone. It seemed that I couldn't win the bet after all.

"(sigh) Nah. You can absorb things, albeit slowly. I tried to teach Luke before, and trust me, he's the dumb one. What we lack now…is time…" Alex comforted me before turning the workbook to another page.

I smiled wryly and thanked Alex from the bottom of my heart, but I knew inwardly that I should give up on the bet. Not only did I take Alex's precious time to study, I…didn't want to lie to myself anymore. With the finals starting on Wednesday, what other options do I have?

'After all, it's an impossible bet.' I thought when suddenly a warm hand touched both Alex's and mine's shoulder from behind us.

"Arghh- Oh it's you." Alex was startled at first, but then she just ignored Ed and said to me, "This time, we're going to cover a little bit of history. Are you okay with getting home late?"

Alex pushed her dinner time backward to help me study, but she was still being thoughtful to me.

"Or, you can just eat here with me." Ed said, surprising both of us. We looked at him with shaky pupils, making him shrug and say, "It's not fun eating alone."

"O-O-kay. I'm going to text my mom to tell her." Alex said before she grabbed her phone.

"If-If you okay with me…be-being here, then I-"

"I don't mind. Do you have any allergies I need to know about? Otherwise I'm afraid that I will accidentally kill you." Ed joked.

I blushed a little and said while avoiding his gaze, "...Strawberries."

"Oh. Strawberry allergies. That's rare." Ed said with a smirk before he walked to the kitchen.

"Hey! You didn't ask me?!" Alex shouted in dissatisfaction.

"Don't be so loud Peanut Allergy!" Ed shouted back. Alex smiled and before she could start with the subject, Ed said, "Alex, inside my top right desk drawer, there's a history notebook. You guys can use it if you want."

"Hmmm? Okay." Alex said before she stood up and ran lightly to his bedroom. Oh how I envy her. But, with her gone, only Ed and I were left in the kitchen.

I blushed hard in anticipation before turning slightly towards him. I wanted to observe him more, and I barely got the chance to do that in school today. My mind was a mess when I saw him skillfully handling the ingredients.

The way he seductively takes out a pan, bending over to put things in the oven, his hair flailing around as he chopped the carrot. I swear that my eyes were turning into a love shape like that perverted cook in the anime 'One Piece' we just watched.

"Ahh…so…beautiful." I exclaimed unconsciously.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Ed turned his gaze from the carrots to look at me and asked in confusion.

"N-Nothing…Ed…Can I ask you a question?" I braced myself to ask.

"Sure. What is it?" Ed said before turning the heat on the stove.

"A-Alex said, you like girls..with personality. So…you don't look at anything else?"

"Hmmm…That's a hard question. I do look at her appearance too. I can't deny that a pretty girl will catch my attention more."

I smiled gleefully as I heard that. That meant I had one of the criteria he was looking for. After all, I'm the prettiest girl in the entire town. (A/N: Her unconfounded confidence…)

"So…what kind of personality do you like?" I asked with my heart palpitating fast.

His gaze sharpened before he returned to his usual smiling face, and I was stunned as I saw a glimpse of his other face. The face that made me fall deeply in love with him after he insulted me. I bit my lower lips, hoping that he would show that kind of face more.

[Edward POV]

As I needed to start the history subject from scratch, I had written every important thing that the students needed to know inside a plain notebook. This was before I got the eidetic memory curse from the gacha system.

The book was no longer useful for me, but it could help Jenna. I wanted to help her, as despite everything, she was listening to Alex's tutoring intently and didn't slack off during the session today. That raised my impression on her, even though she was studying to win the bet.

We got into a conversation after Alex was gone, and I was confused by her sudden question about the personality I like. I looked at her with a sharp gaze, wondering if she would change herself once more if I told her the truth.

"For me, I like girls who are honest with themselves." I said after thinking about it for a while.

She seemed confused, and she asked, "Why?"

"What do you mean why?" Now I'm the one who's confused.

" I mean…Isn't it better, if the girls are everything you ever dream off?" Jenna asked with the greatest confusion she ever had.

"Why do your thoughts sound similar to a Playboy magazine tagline?" I mumbled to myself before replying to her, "I won't lie. That would be great. But, in the end, it's a DREAM. A fantasy. I want girls who can share with me their passions, likes and dislikes and even fears so we can share adventures together, and have a positive outlook on life."

Jenna scrunched her brows and asked with a slightly raised voice, "That's…all obscure…what can I do with that information?!"

"How should I know?" I replied playfully as my sadistic side enjoyed basking in her frustration.

"Hey. I borrowed your biology book and …a few more." Alex said as she walked back into the kitchen.

"What does 'more' mean exactly?" I asked while scrunching my eyebrows. "What did you do there?"

"Please. It's not like I was snooping around." Alex said dismissively.

[Alex's commentary]

"I was totally snooping around." She confessed. "Mom told me that boys will keep their important 'treasures' hidden in their desk drawers, or in the sock drawers, or underneath their bed. I want to know what kind of 'treasures' those are. I asked her but she wouldn't tell me anything more about it."

[Commentary ends]

I nodded slightly as I trusted Alex. Then, I continued cooking for 20 more minutes before finishing dinner. Roasted carrots, steak cuts, and ravioli were served at the cleaned up dining table, and I enjoyed eating dinner with Alex and Jenna as the sun set.

"I thought you were going to be working at 7?" Alex asked curiously with sauce on her lips as she ate the ravioli. I had to use ready made ravioli I bought from the store, which was an insult to my italian teachings.

Wiping her lips with a napkin, I said, "I'll start after dinner."

Jenna scowled in jealousy but she had too much pride to stain her lips like Alex so that I would help her too. She stabbed the carrot with her fork before eating it in annoyance while eyeing Alex and I.

Alex blushed a bit before saying, "Really? It seems to me that you're deliberately dawdling. If you don't want to work, just take a day off. You deserve it."

[Alex's commentary]

"What? You thought I stained my lips on purpose?.....Maybe…"

[commentary ends]

"True. You work hard. You can take a day off." Jenna agreed with Alex.

I did consider it, but I still needed to do a few more things before I could feel at ease. Before I could finish eating, I received a call from Claire.

"Alex, it's your mom." I muttered before picking up the phone. She was startled and anxious for a few seconds before she realized that she had told her mom her whereabouts before, and wasn't in any trouble.

"Hey Claire. Did you finish your negotiations?" I asked.

[3rd Person POV]

-Port, Whitebeard Tourism meeting room-

Claire nodded slightly while her eyes kept glancing behind her, in the direction where Ted was talking with the other sea captains.

"Y-Yeah. The negotiations are finished. We've merged with 3 more companies now…." She said with a slightly shaky voice.

"What's wrong?" Ed caught her tone and asked.

"Well, the sea captains wanted to settle…who's going to be…the Captain of the company…using the old sea ways…and your Dad…agreed to it." Claire said with a slight confusion as she wasn't familiar with the old sea laws.

Ed tilted his head in confusion before he understood it. He nodded and said, "Claire. You might want to move out of the room for this one."

"What- What do you mean?" Claire asked.

"Just trust me." Ed said calmly.

Claire nodded and walked out of the meeting room and closed the door behind her before she heard sounds of fighting coming from inside the room. Chairs were breaking, glassware shattering, and loud grunts terrified her very being.

"Oh MY GOD!" She exclaimed.

"Move Claire. Move." Ed urged her. She was baffled by the situation and hesitated for a while before she decided to walk away.

"Bring me the meeting minutes okay?" Ed said in a calm tone to comfort Claire.

"Sure. I'll stop by before I go home." Claire said as she pushed the event ongoing inside the meeting room to the back of her mind. "Also, shouldn't we get Dwayne here…you know, in case your dad loses?"

"Nah. The rest of the captains are over 60, so it's just a formality. There's no way they can beat my dad in the game."

"The game?" Claire asked in confusion. "Aren't they fighting?"

"No. They are arm wrestling." Ed explained.

Claire breathed a sigh of relief and finally could calm herself down. Then, she smiled and said, "There's still a lot I need to learn in this industry."

Ed chuckled and said, "Yeah. But don't worry. You can go slow. There's no rush as long as I'm still around."

Before Claire could say anything else, Ed got another call. "Sorry Claire, got to go."

"Okay. I'll send the details later." She said before ending the call.

-Desert Studio, Entertain Company-

"Hi Ed. Did you have a nice rest today?" Pepper said in a kind tone after Ed picked up the call.

"Yeah. Sorry for letting you guys deal with the issues alone. Do you want my help now?"

"Oh No No No. I'm only calling you to ask if you're okay. Also, we're giving Harvey a 20% raise."

"That's normal. She was severely underpaid before this, to the point I even wondered if she was just doing us a favor." Ed replied without being surprised.

Pepper shared with Ed various pieces of information about his successful debut, and at the end of the call, Ed asked, "So. You sure you don't need me to do anything?"

"Of course. Leave it all to us." Pepper said confidently.

…

[Edward POV]

*beep*

"Why do you look so sad?" Alex asked after she saw me ending the call.

"Nah. It's nothing. I guess…I wasn't needed after all." I said before changing the subject and getting back to my dinner.

Alex shrugged as she couldn't figure out what was going on, while Jenna looked at me with confusion.

"Tomorrow we're going to study again." Alex said to Jenna. She nodded and said, "We'll just meet at the library next time-"

"Before that, here." I interjected their planning and slid my hard drives to each of them. Jenna gulped her saliva while Alex was annoyed.

"We Want To Study! NOT WATCH ANIME!" Alex retorted.

"You can do both. Just watch it during your free time." I channeled my inner devil to tempt both of them.

Dazedly, Jenna succumbed to the temptation and stealthily put the hard drive in her bag. Alex saw it, scoffed, and did the same thing before saying," We're only going to watch it… After the final exam."

"Y-Yeah. Or when I'm eating, or before going to sleep-" Jenna unconsciously blurted out her true thoughts.

I laughed while Alex glared daggers at me.

[Alex's commentary]

"I admit that the anime is a good distraction. But… It's also poisonous. I need to NOT let myself be lost in it like today. Otherwise it'll cut my study time short, make me get a B in my exam, lose my top place in school, and have to apply to a normal top university– Anyway, I can't let that happen."

[commentary ends]

Alex and Jenna soon left the house, leaving me alone in my living room. I walked to the piano inside the second living room and sat down on the piano chair.

I opened the keyboard cover and cracked my fingers, making popping sounds.

"It's been a while." I muttered as if speaking to the piano.

[Yiruma- Rivers Flow in you]

"This is the first time I'm playing this."

My fingers skillfully alternated between the keys as I played the song.

Inside my heart, a whirlpool of complexity was raging, as my repressed emotions couldn't be held back anymore.

"After I come here…Have I ever…mourn yet?" I asked myself as I looked upward while my fingers kept playing the song.

"No. I was a coward. I delved into work, into finding money…and I pushed the acceptance away."

"But then, I was given the eidetic memory, which turned my life into a living nightmare."

"Your image that wakes me up from my sleep, can't leave me alone as I go through my day. The voice of the only…ONLY person who accepted me…and loved me…through my entire life before… kept whispering in my ears."

I slammed the keyboard, making a discordant noise resounded in the entire house.

"How pathetic am I?!" I said with gritted teeth. The windows were pried open by the sudden gust of wind, and it started to shake the things around my living room. However, I ignored the wind as I continued playing.

'After…I got the eidetic memory, I couldn't even forget if I wanted to. Time heals all things, but for me, time only turns the memories I have into empty husks. The memories inside were deleted, only leaving me with the empty shell of what once was my life.

"I guess…That's why I was sprinting…I want to shut all the noises down." I realized something as I kept playing. The song ended, and I played another song by the same artist, Yiruma – Kiss the Rain.

"No matter how much I tried to move away, you kept standing there beside me, in my memories." I muttered.

"Thank you Bella." I said as tears flooded my eyes. I kept playing as I held back my tears from falling, while saying, "Thank you…for making me…a human being that knew what love from a parent was…"

"I wanted to tell you that sooner, but the bruises in my heart were too big for me to say. For me to accept…that you were gone from my life."

The soft wind brushed my face as I wiped my eyes.

"I'm sorry…that I couldn't be there…at your last moment.."

I couldn't hold it back anymore, and tears started falling down my cheeks.

"I'm sorry that I held on to you for so long." I muttered while sobbing.

"Now…Please…I hope that you find peace…Please…"

"I'll always keep you in my memories…I won't try to avoid it again."

As if I was talking to her, I tried to smile as I said, "I'm happy here, with my new family…They treat me well…although some of them are dumb… I have a complicated mom, but that doesn't bother me much. I have money now… If I were back in the past, then I could help you more with the money that I have now…"

Suddenly, I felt warmth coming from my back, as if I was hugged by someone. That was when I broke down and couldn't continue playing anymore. I covered my eyes as I sobbed as I accepted the fact that she was gone. She had moved on, and so should I.

-3rd Person POV-

As Claire came to Ed's house to send the meeting details, she heard the piano sound coming from his living room.

"He still kept the door unlocked. I need to lecture him about it!" She said angrily as she barged into the house.

However, as she walked to the living room, she found Ed holding back tears as he played the piano. She couldn't listen to what he said as the sound of the piano covered his voice.

It pained her heart as she heard the melody, without her knowing it, tears fell from her eyes.

She walked to him and hugged him from behind. He stopped playing and broke down while Claire kept comforting him, "It's okay..It's okay…I'm here…We're all here…"