Chapter 49

Ana remembered the gift she bought for him, hiding under the clothes in her closet. Everyday, she tried to find the courage to give it to him and everyday, she failed. Somehow, the time never felt right. She had originally planned to give it to him on their getaway after the Natalie's party, but that took an unfortunate turn and Khai never mentioned the trip after that. She waited for him to make the plan, but she slowly started to understand that he had completely forgotten about the it.

"Remember the small beach trip we planned last weekend?"

He stopped caressing her hair and she felt his shoulder stiffen under her head.

"Mhmm?"

Ana took her time, preparing for his rejection before proceeding cautiously. "Why don't we do it next weekend?"

Though she waited for his answer with bated breaths, he responded with a deafening silence. No matter how much she had prepared herself, her heart seemed to have betrayed her. His recent kisses had started to feel restrained, as if to fuel Ana's insecurities.

She kept repeating to herself that he always told her not to question his feelings, but his actions only gave her mixed signals. The hot and cold behavior was becoming unbearable. At a loss of what to do, she snuggled up to him like a baby to it's blanket.

Khai heard a small sniff as Ana tightened her arms around him. He lifted her chin to see her lips curved into a small frown and her eyes glistening with tears. He felt like a card castle facing a storm. The storm he was facing right now, had the face of a sad puppy. He slumped his shoulders, as if deflated.

"Don't be like that, we can go. Let's go." He kissed her forehead as he wiped her wet eyes.

"No…I can tell that you don't want to."

He laughed in disbelief at her words. "No Ana. I want to. I want to so bad. I'm sorry, please let's go."

Khai watched her peer at him as if she was trying to discern the sincerity in his words. Within moments, her frown switched upside down into a smile that made his heart race. She smacked a kiss on his cheek and cuddled closer to him, her excitement palpable.

He silently muttered a prayer, begging for self control as he mustered the courage to survive a weekend, by the beach, with the most beautiful girl in the world without touching her body.

*****

A strand of hair escaped from Ana's braid and hung over her forehead. She tried to push it away with a puff of air, but it stubbornly fell back on her face. Frustration creased her brow as even this small inconvenience weighed on her already low mood.

Ana was feeling restless, stuck in her room all week while the rest of the school was in learning. The first three days had been bearable, but now she was sick of resting. Her body ached from inactivity, and she was desperate for something to do. She had tried to improve her mana affinity, but that hit a wall quickly. Despite Meghan's constant reassurance that she was far ahead of the rest of her class, Ana wasn't satisfied. She remembered the time when she had produced a blinding light in her room, but she couldn't seem to recreate it no matter how hard she tried.

Adding to her unhappiness, she had been receiving emails from the school library warning her that she was approaching her borrowing limit for the week. She casually flipped a book on rune design when her mind suddenly went back to the missing pages in the tome on mana principles. Although Margarett had told her that it was forbidden text, she wondered if she could check the library again to ask for a copy with all the pages intact.

With that, she picked up the tome and her ID card. She threw them in her bag and stepped out of her room, making her way to the library. This was the first time she had stepped out of her room in the past week without someone hovering around her. Her friends or Khai usually took turns spending time with her unless they were too busy in class. She also tried not to step out too much initially as the bruise on her face made her conscious. When she did leave her room, she kept her head down and hid next to Khai or George so no one would see the bruise.

However, she soon realized that no one was paying attention to it. Everyone was too busy with their demanding class schedules to worry about her. The bruise had mostly healed, with only faint red splotches remaining above her eyebrow and on her cheekbone.

The path leading to the main building was sparsely populated, as most students had already made their way to their respective classes. With thirty minutes to spare, she decided she would look for the book first and then head to the dining hall to meet her friends for breakfast. Ana ventured inside the main building and noticed that the hallways were nearly empty.

Making her way into the library, her eyes scanned around for a librarian, but she couldn't find one. Typically, librarians were stationed at the entrance, ready to assist anyone in need of help with finding books. After scouring the entire floor, Ana finally stumbled upon a deep red door tucked away in a small hallway at the back of the library. She initially thought it was an emergency exit, but there were no signs to confirm her suspicion.

Undeterred, Ana approached the door and knocked twice, only to be met with silence. On her third attempt, she heard some shuffling and rustling of pages from within the room, but still, the door remained closed. Just as she was about to turn away in disappointment, the door suddenly swung open.

Ana was met by a young woman, not much older than her, with a round face and an upturned nose. Her hair was short and spiky, with a bubblegum-pink color, but her most striking feature were her brilliant emerald green eyes. The woman's eyes were now glaring at Ana in anger.