Chapter 23

It was unexpected. No one, literally not even Koro suspected her. But after the surprise attack, she was gone. Leaving a single text message to her homeroom teacher telling him to meet her at the field behind the school at 7pm.

Kaede Kayano was Aguri Yukimura's sister, the first homeroom teacher before Koro came along. All they heard was about some kind of revenge for her sister. And she sounded pissed. Months of tolerating the person she hated all along came to the surface.

But as an assassin, she had to be the most intelligent one. Not even Y/N found a difference in all the times they spent together in class. Kayano was in disguise and her real name was Akari Yukimura. Shiro soon investigated her and discovered that she had somehow acquired information as well as a vial of the tentacle weapon which she planted into herself. Mimura noted that she looked vaguely familiar to him and found that she was a prodigal child actress who took a temporary break from her profession.

As asked, the whole class arrived at the spot trying to make her change her mind with a last attempt. Well, they didn't have the upper hand. No matter how much they tried to get angry at her, they just couldn't. She was their classmate and a friend. Kayano's tentacles were already taking over her consciousness, and if she didn't stop, her life surely would be in danger.

"How...how do we stop her?" Y/N whispered, unconsciously gripping onto Karma's sleeve, "We can't just watch her lose herself like this."

Karma looked down at her. Her worried eyes were fixed on the fight between Koro and Kayano, hands trembling. "None of us saw this coming," Karma sighed and put his hand over hers, "Technically now, we know nothing about her. It's not our fault."

"Then how will we even do it?" she asked and turned to look at him, "How are we even capable of killing our own teacher?"

Karma didn't know how to calm her down. She was asking the right questions afterall. How was he gonna convince her that everything will turn out to be fine when nothing was going right in the first place?

Well, he was glad he didn't have to think about it that long when Nagisa decided use a weapon against Kayano, which finally managed to pull her out of the bloodlust she was in.

It was kind of awkward to watch though. Watching their friends make out in the middle of a fight while Koro worked to detaching the tentacles from the back of Kayano's neck.

Y/N looked away and tried to focus on Koro.

"What are you getting shy about?" Karma chuckled and took out his phone, clicking some pictures, "We did more than this-"

"God! Can you be more loud?!" she smacked his arm, a blush covering her face. He didn't know how much it would distract her, but Nagisa's little plan worked on her too. Atleast she looked less worried now. Ofcourse, ninety percent credit went to his teacher and Nagisa, who managed to keep Kayano safe which was what calmed Y/N down in the first place. She was now lying unconscious on the ground.

"I CAN BE LOUD ABOUT OUR KIS-" Karma started saying loudly when she smacked her hands on his mouth, in an attempt to make him stop saying anything further.

He smirked looking at her flushed face and kissed her hand placed over his mouth. She gasped and quickly pulled back her hand. "Trust me, if you're gonna react like that they would know about us way faster," he said chuckling.

"They can know about us, no big deal but...I'm not ready yet, about the idea of telling them that we did...things in the forest."

"Oh baby, don't worry. I'll be waiting for you to be ready."

"How about we don't tell anything we do to our friends?"

"Really? You expect me to believe that you won't tell Rio about this?" he said and then furrowed his eyebrows, "And Asano? I wanna see his face when you tell him."

Y/N sighed, "When are you kids gonna grow up? Oh and by the way, your plan is flawed. He would be happy for me instead of the reaction you're hoping to get."

"Yeah," he cleared his throat and smiled a little, "I know that."

"Oh! Kayano's waking up. Come on," she said and pulled him closer to where her friend was.

___________________________________________

Rio looked at Y/N typing on her phone with a smile plastered on her face. She slowly peeked over and tried to look in her phone. Ofcourse, she was texting someone. She just wanted to know who. Y/N quickly flipped her phone and looked at her.

"What? We finally have a sleepover and you're texting Karma, so I just wanted to know what's going on," Rio smirked, "So did he finally ask you out?"

Y/N was ready to tell her everything. But that. The question of when he was going to ask her out was still bothering her. He didn't yet ask her out, even though they did...things. "I was about to tell you."

She filled in all the details about what happened between them. But Rio who's expression was changing every minute ended with a frown.

"Are you kidding me?" she sat up and grabbed the nearby pillow clutching it tight, "He had the time to do all of that but didn't have the guts to ask you out? Fuck, he pisses me off!"

"Oh and I did tell him not to tell anyone about what we did, but he figured out that you would be the first to know. He's probably waiting for my approval."

"You know what? This has been going on for too long. Like, I understand him having trouble talking about his feelings but really? He's ready to talk about what both of you did but not about your relationship? I don't wanna mess your head up but that's kind of a dick move."

Y/N knew that Rio was saying all of that so she didn't fall for him only to get hurt again. But this was her giving him a second chance and she was finally able to trust him. Although, her friend's words made her a bit self-conscious, she wanted to wait.

....he will finally ask her out right?

Turned out that wasn't the case. A whole week passed by and there was no sign from Karma. Yes he did flirt back and occasionally kissed her but that was it. There was no "hey wanna go out on a date?" or "hey i know it took some time but will you be my girlfriend".

And well, Y/N had had enough. Not only did she wait for so long, she realized that she was going back to her usual habit of accepting whatever he did. She didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

She absent-mindedly looked at her empty tiffin box when she felt something cold touch her cheek. She looked up and saw Karma standing with strawberry milk. She was about to take it when he pulled it away. He did expect her to fight for it but she didn't. She just sighed and closed her tiffin box.

He slowly put the milk on her lap and sat in front of her.

"What happened?" he asked looking at her face, which now looked grim.

"Nothing," she sighed and sipped on the drink he offered.

He smirked and put his hand on her cheek. This place reminded him of their first kiss. That was their spot. The broken swimming pool. It was...calm. He looked at her tempting wet lips. Slowly, he leaned in to kiss her.

Their noses brushed and just when their lips were about to connect, she pulled away and looked to her left.

"What..what happened?" Karma started stuttering, "Did I do something wrong? I'm sorry-"

Y/N looked back at him and realized that he was worried....and scared. She held his hands assuringly and said, "Nothing's wrong."

But she has to say about her side, right?

"What are we? You know that I like you but...I don't know Karma," she sighed, "you never said it back. Our feelings are...mutual right? Because if you are doing this just to save our friendship, then don't-"

"Stop," Karma said, "You should've told me sooner. You..are really..and I mean like breathtakingly adorable. It just makes me want to mark you and Y/N I don't do this with just anybody. Ofcourse...I..."

Y/N smiled in relief and looked at him, hoping that he will ask her out. But instead he dived in again, going for a kiss.

Oh well, she decided to play the game too.

She moved back, again refusing to kiss him and smiled teasingly, "I also don't do this with just anybody."

"But you like me and I.."

"You?"

She knew he wouldn't say it. Was he feeling embarrassed? Well it didn't matter to her. If he was gonna do this, he has to gather up courage and ask her out. She got up and brushed her skirt, dusting all the dirt and grass off. Looking down at him with a smirk, she said, "Well I guess kiss is off the table now."

She started walking towards their classroom. Karma was muttering something to himself and following her.

Let's see how long he can take it.