Chapter 4

Ethan woke up after feeling pain in his neck. He opened his eyes and saw himself in an unfamiliar place before recalling what happened. He had come clubbing with Johnathan but after drinking for a while, he started feeling drowsy and stomachache so he came to the restroom to relieve himself. After sitting down and putting some pressure, he felt his entire body relax and then he fainted.

Ethan hurriedly checked for his phone and realized it was still in his pants, which were down on his ankles. He cleaned himself and went out of the staff exit. The club was empty, so Ethan guessed that he had slept through the night.

He took out his phone and saw several missed calls from Johnathan and Juniper. Johnathan had called a few minutes after he went to the restroom and didn't return so Ethan thought Johnathan stopped calling thinking he had gone back with a girl.

As for Juniper, he had gotten together with her a few months ago. For a while, it bothered him about getting together with his teammate's girlfriend. Later, he didn't care since the girl seemed to have no intention of breaking up with James while also making out with him. He didn't think he was wrong since James' and Juniper's relationship wasn't his business.

Ethan checked the time and saw that it was 9AM. He didn't plan to go back to school since it was the weekend. As for the badge, he just had to return it to Johnathan or drop it somewhere inside the school before Monday.

Adam woke up very early in the morning and remembered that he had slept in his new apartment. The place had a bedroom, an open living room, a small kitchen and a large bathroom fitted with a bathtub. Adam didn't know who designed the bathroom to be bigger than the kitchen, but he wasn't going to complain about the bathtub. Adam planned to buy a TV and a console and put some things in the fridge but that was for later.

Adam had purposely woken up early since he intended to go back to the dormitory and immediately complain about his badge being stolen. The warden might find it suspicious that the first thing he did after coming back to school on a weekend was bother about the badge, but Adam didn't intend to give Ethan any chances who should have woken up by now.

Adam realized he didn't have any change of clothes and couldn't shower, so he just wore previous day's clothes, grabbed some breakfast at a stall and took a bus back to school.

'Thank God! The apartment is furnished otherwise, I'd have had to look for a hotel yesterday.'

It was only 8AM when he reached the school. He went to his room and saw it was empty.

'Did James leave early and go home?' Adam thought.

He went to take a shower at the empty since no one woke up so early on weekends. After he returned, he saw that James was also back and looked like he had gone running.

'Looks like he's back to normal if he resumed his personal training.'

James saw that Adam had returned early and wasn't surprised since they had planned to meet before he went home for the weekend.

James said, "The post has been at the top since yesterday and the admins removed it yet. They will probably see and remove it soon."

"Don't worry. Just go home and don't take any calls from her."

"I won't."

Juniper had called him multiple times last night, but he ignored all of them.

Adam didn't say more before putting on clean clothes and hurried to the warden's office. The wardens, guards and nurses were always in school, so he went towards the warden's office.

The boy's dormitory wardens were Mr. Phil and Mr. Angelo. The one Adam found was the former. Mr. Phil also saw the Adam walking towards him. He didn't have much impression of the boy besides hearing that he always lost his prefect badge but never contacted the warden. The boy's parents told him he was clumsy, but he couldn't tell in the year the boy started living in the school housing.

'He keeps losing his stuff so he might be clumsy.' Mr. Phil thought.

"Mr. Phil, Have you seen the school forums today?"

Mr. Phil didn't know what the prefect, Adam, was trying to get to. He knew the school had an official discussion site run by the school, but it was mostly the students who used it. Adam saw that Mr. Phil wasn't aware, so he just took out his phone and showed him.

Mr. Phil instantly recognized the place from the statue and what the couple were doing. He didn't know who the girl was, but he knew the boy. He had been one of the two wardens for a long time, so he knew every student living in the dormitory.

Adam explained after letting Mr. Phil properly see it, "It's on top of the site so most students have seen it but, the school hasn't removed it. So, I came to you."

Mr. Phil was angry. The school didn't care about the student's personal relationships, but displaying it openly was a serious matter. And he would also need to give an explanation since one of them was his ward.

Adam saw that Mr. Phil's face was turning ugly and added, "I came home this morning and found that my badge was missing and James said Ethan had been to my dorm. I went to his room but his roommates said they hadn't seen him since yesterday."

Mr. Phil was angry about the post, but his face turned pale when he heard a student was missing. If something happened to Ethan while he was on duty, he wouldn't be able to keep his job. But soon he realized what the prefect was getting at. Boarding students couldn't go outside the school premises on weekdays unless you had one of the student committee badges. If Ethan wasn't in his room since last night, then Ethan must have stolen the badge from Adam's room and gone outside. Mr. Phil felt suspicious on how Ethan knew about the use of the badge, but he didn't dwell on it for long since this concerned his job and safety of one student.

Mr. Phil went inside his office and searched for Ethan's number and tried calling, but the call didn't connect.

Mr. Phil took Adam to the monitoring room and told the staff to check where the prefect's badge was. As they guessed, it wasn't inside the school.

'Please check where the prefect's badge was last used.'

It was last used at the main gate, so Mr. Phil knew that Adam was telling the truth. When they checked the footage at the main gate, they could see Ethan scanning the badge at the terminal and going out.

Mr. Phil was thinking about his next action when he heard his phone ring, and his features turned awkward when he checked the caller.

Adam had been peeking at the warden's face, so he knew that the call was probably from the principal or vice-principal.

'This is an escalation of the situation.'

Mr. Phil told Adam to go back and Adam quietly returned to his dormitory. He was in a good mood when he saw that Juniper was standing in front of the boy's dormitory building while looking anxiously at her phone.

Juniper had called Ethan last night after checking the forum, but he didn't pick up. Later, she tried calling James, hoping he hadn't seen the post, but he didn't pick up either. Then, she saw the comment from James' roommate Oliver and guessed he had probably seen.

She was so anxious she couldn't sleep last night and hurried to school in the morning and tried calling James again. The dormitory gate needed a key card, and outsiders were prohibited from entering, so she had to wait outside She looked around seeing if she could find a boy to go call James when she Adam coming towards the dormitory. He even smiled when he saw her.

'Maybe he hasn't seen it.'

Adam was the main culprit of her restlessness, but he put on his best smile like he didn't know what Juniper had done and he couldn't see the nervousness

Adam stopped a few steps away from Juniper and asked, "Are you looking for James? I think he went to take a shower. Do you want to go to the cafeteria and wait?"

Adam was lying as James had already left. He just needed to have a conversation with Juniper.

Juniper seemed to believe that Adam might really not know what happened last night, so she decided to take his help. James was ignoring her calls, but he wouldn't ignore Adam. As long as she could get Adam to help mediate between her and James, she won't be affected by what happened yesterday.

Juniper and Adam walked to the cafeteria. Juniper kept stealing glances at Adam's face, trying to read his expression while Adam kept a neutral smile and acted like he didn't notice. He also "tried" calling James who didn't seem to seem to pick up, so he turned to Juniper and explained,

"When I came to our dorm today, he was returning from practice so he might have entered the shower. He will call back when he sees my call."

They reached the cafeteria and Juniper sat down while Adam went to order with Juniper staring at his back. But he didn't seem to see anyone, so he poured some water in a cup and returned to the table. He handed it to Juniper and said, "The guy running the cafeteria isn't there so I could only get was water."

'If he was there, I wouldn't bother going to the counter.' Adam thought.

Juniper didn't mind and asked him, "Weren't you in the dorms yesterday"

"I had some personal matters and only returned this morning. Did something happen between you and James yesterday?"

Adam was having fun watching Juniper's face jump between nervousness and happiness since they met, and now she finally showed a look of relief after being sure that Adam knew nothing.

'As long as he can help me convince James and tell everyone they had broken up before I got together with Ethan, even if I get punished by the school, it won't be embarrassing.'

Juniper looked at Adam. He still had a neutral smile on his face. James had talked about him after he joined in his first year. He and James were neighbors before Adam's family moved to B City. He became a House Leader in his second year, then a prefect this year. He was also one of the few who didn't get pushed out of the class ranking and consistently placed within the top ten.

Adam ignored Juniper's stare and said, "Why don't you tell me what happened? I might be able to help you reconcile with him."

This was exactly what Juniper wanted, so she said, "Actually, James and I broke up on bad terms a few days ago but then someone released a photo of me with another guy on the school forum yesterday. I wanted James to clarify that he and I already broke up, but he ignored my calls."

"You mean the photo of you kissing Ethan from the football club."

It surprised juniper when she heard what Adam said. She couldn't tell from his actions until now.

"Y-You knew"

"Yeah. James and I saw it a few days ago. I was the one who posted it"

Adam was really enjoying this as he continued,

"I have something more to show that I didn't post yesterday"

He pulled out his phone and opened the video he copied from Ethan's phone and showed it to her. Juniper's eye's widened and her face turned red then white when she saw what it was. She hurriedly snatched the phone from Adam's hands before deleting the video.

"It's useless to delete the video since it's backed up in the cloud."

Juniper couldn't understand how Adam got the video unless Ethan, who wasn't responding to her calls, gave it to them. But Ethan wouldn't give this to Adam since they could use it against him. And Adam also wouldn't keep this a secret from James. Then she remembered Ethan's comment on the post yesterday and realized that he might do it.

Adam seemed to know what she was thinking and said, "We took it from Ethan's phone. If you called him yesterday, and he didn't answer, that might have something to do with me."

Juniper was afraid of Adam when she heard him. Ethan wasn't responding to her calls since yesterday, and Adam had something that Ethan wouldn't give up easily. She thought something worse happened to him and what Adam might do now that he had that video of her.

Juniper already had tears welling up in her eyes when she heard her phone ring. It was from her mother, so she answered. The caller must have said something as her face showed fear.

"What happened?", Adam asked.

"The principle told my parents to come to school with me."

Adam didn't feel the same dread as her since it wasn't his neck on the line as he said,

"At least now you didn't come all the way to school for nothing. Coming with your parents would have been awkward."

Juniper couldn't match Adam's joking tone.

"P-Please delete the video. I-I'll do anything"

Juniper cried and her voice cracked as she begged Adam.

"You seem to be under the impression that I will blackmail you."

Adam didn't let her speak and continued, "As long as you insist on transferring schools, I will delete this video and we can forget everything that happened. Well, I'll forget everything that happened. You have to live with the fear if I deleted it or not."

Juniper didn't seem to be in the right mind to reply, but Adam didn't mind, "Just remember what I said. You should go wash your face before heading to the principal's office or leave it as it is. Maybe the principal won't punish you too harshly and you can keep studying here. Although, I don't think either of us want that."