~Chapter 16~

"Rio~"

"Riioo~~"

"Oh you bore it well. Such a nice kid you are. Such a lovely kid."

"Oh I am so so proud of you baby."

Slithery fingers ran down the boy's naked torso making him unconsciously shiver in disgust. However that shivering was mistaken to be that due to delight by the owner of those fingers.

She cackled.

"You like it right? When I run my finger or tongue down your torso? Yes?"

"Ahhhh~ Such a smooth skin and such a good boy you are~"

"You make me wanna be with you forever and ever….you will also be with me won't you?" The fingers coiled around the boy's neck.

"After all, we both are same~"

The blonde girl is in an obvious bad mood as she slammed the door harshly making the one in the steering wheel, her aunt, give her niece a side way glance. The ride continued in silence until the aunt decided to break this deafening silence; "Bad day?"

The response was throwing her bag at the back seat of the car after fishing out a very tangled wired earphones.

"Wanna talk about it?" Once again no verbal response was provided to this question because the poor tangled earphones became the victim of the bubbling anger of the blonde as it got slammed on the dashboard of the car.

The car stopped at a red signal.

"Okay, slamming and banging stuffs, taking out your anger at them won't help you to get over whatever is in your mind."

"I might fail." Came the grave answer.

"Oh in which subject?" Miss Johannes knows that her niece doesn't like to study much and is only hanging on to it by getting the pass marks. But she isn't too forceful with studies either, if Emilia has an interest in something else she should pursue that as her future career. Studying is not everybody and not everybody achieves success in life just by studying.

"History."

"As far as I know you have been assigned with a tutor." Miss Johannes took a left turn.

"Yeah."

"Who is it?"

"Rio Sanders."

"Ah a brilliant mind, a brilliant student."

Silence ensued from the other side.

"So, what's the problem?"

"He refused to tutor me at my home since I can't stay back after school because I am grounded!" Emilia half expected her aunt to sway from her decision of grounding her but the older woman had other plans.

"Didn't you tell him all these?" She checked the rear view mirror before entering the lane towards the house. Emilia opened her mouth but closed it again when she felt that her aunt was right. She should've explained to Rio. This grounding thing made her feel embarrassed enough not to speak about it to anyone but Seon Hul.

"You must have done something to him for sure."

Once again silence continued from the other side that confirmed the suspicion of Miss Johannes.

"That's what I thought."

From next week, dark grey clouds loomed over the town threatening to wash away this small human civilized town. The weather forecast warned of a severe rain shower in the upcoming week that'd keep the atmosphere cool and there'll be a dip in the temperature too.

"Emilia! Don't forget to pack your umbrella! Also hurry up!" Emilia grunted in response after she threw back a crumpled piece of paper in the depths of her bag.

School went on as usual. Weirdly Rio was absent today as well. It's been two days straight that Rio was absent. Emilia felt the emptiness of the lonely seat beside her in Mrs. Okum's class during 5th period. She and him shared only one class. The rest she shared either Daniel or Seon Hul or with Luke Coswell. Ever since she broke up with Daniel and solidified the rumors of their breakup in the encounter in the hallway that day, none of the people who used flock around her or at least sit with her during the classes approached her anymore. They didn't even look at her any more, they reject her presence altogether. Not that she minded anything about that, she never considered to be her friends anyway because they were too fake to become her friends. Only a girl Adalicia Farsen of Fleabagh's jock group smiles at her or waves at her if they make an eye contact.

After the school just as Emilia too was about to depart, she was called to the staff room. Upon reporting there, she found out that it was Mrs. Okum who had called her. She handed her a bunch of papers that was said to be meant for Rio. They were the important notes and information that was compiled by his respective subject teachers.

Emilia was dumbfounded at this. Just how special is this Rio Sanders that he gets treated like some kind of VIP shit by the teachers!?

"Why me?" Mrs. Okum raised her eyebrows.

"Why not you?" She countered.

"I-I don't know his house…?" Mrs. Okum stared at Emilia fixedly before taking out a piece of paper and scribbling down something from a registrar book. The old lady then handed it over to the blonde. "Here, the address." Emilia checked the address and found that it was not too far from her house. "And don't worry about your aunt, or your grounding, I'll explain it her." Mrs. Okum gave a meaningful smile that irked Emilia that probably her aunt had blabbered of her being grounded to all the teachers! Ugh! Her aunt will get an earful of this from her later on. But first she needs to dump these papers in her respective tutor's house.

Just out of Emilia's rotten luck, it started to rain halfway through, she was close to her destination so she couldn't go back to her house therefore decided to walk faster in order to reach Rio's house. But nature had other plans. What started as a mild pitter-patter rain ended up in wild stormy wind accompanied by heavy rain. Even with an umbrella, Emilia ended up getting soaked.

She at that point regretted of not having a driver license if she had she could've used her aunt's car. But since she doesn't have one she was forced to walk as her aunt is yet to complete her work and also she wanted to get away from her and her questions about her day. With teeth chattering she pressed the doorbell of a two storied white and red colored house. She didn't get a response. She pressed the doorbell twice, thrice no answer once again. Since she was under the shade of the house she didn't require the umbrella so she closed it and hunted for a particular piece of paper that she had thrown in the depths of her bag. After searching for few minutes she found the crumpled piece of sticky note that became the reason of her bad mood previous week.

She called that number. It rang till it went to voicemail. She called it once again. Just as when it was about to go to the voicemail again it was picked up.

"Hah-he-hello?" Asked a coughing voice. By the sound of it, he seemed really sick, maybe burning with fever.

"He-hello? Uh Sanders? This is me, um, Johannes? I am standing in front of your door. Uh could you please open the door….." Rio was about to reply when he broke in to another coughing fit. "…..or not. I'll go then uh sorry for disturbing you man. Take rest."

"N-no wa-waiit. Just w-wait, I'll c-com—kegh ugh kegh!" He once again started to cough.

"Okay okay! Take your time. I'll wait."

Five minutes later, he opened the door. He indeed is sick, his eyelids were half opened, he had bags under his eyes, he looked so thin and seemed to have lost pounds of weight in these few days. His pajamas hanging loosely from his body. Emilia didn't waste much time and produced the documents that she was asked to deliver. Thankfully they didn't get wet because they were wrapped inside a plastic bag.

"The notes that you missed."

"Oh t-thank y-you."

"Uh no its its fine. You take rest."

She turned around, opened her umbrella to depart when she heard a thud behind her. She turned around only to find her chest getting constricted in fear.

"Rio!"