645 Sleepover (1)

"I'm hosting a sleepover at my mansion the next weekend," Delia handed me an invitation.

"Let me know if you can come," she passed more invitations to the others.

It had been a while since I visited my friends' mansions. Unfortunately, the last time I went on a sleepover was in elementary school at Shelly's place. Placing the invitation inside my inventory, I had to be careful in how to approach this. My time inside the clubroom had shrunk dramatically, busy with the extra lessons from Micah. Meanwhile, the length of the study sessions increased after Luke heard what happened during his absence in social week.

"I'll work things out," I whispered into her ear.

"Sadly, Rika will have to decline your invitation," Luke interrupted us.

"I'm going. It's the weekend, not even the weekday," I coldly turned to him.

"Everything had been scheduled weeks in advance. You can't miss those extra classes," his eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"It's only a day, like what's it going to change?" I struck my arm out.

My other arm trembled in anger as we both knew Micah did these lessons for Luke. His useless sidekick, basically me, didn't have to be there listening to everyone praising how Luke was the most brilliant human being they've ever seen. I nearly bit my lips as he slowly shook his head, looking at me like I was the stubborn one.

"You're already behind," Luke glanced at his schedule.

"That's why you can't go," he turned back at me.

When was I not behind? My hands tightly clenched as I was sick of needing his permission for nearly everything. It was like he saw me as the dumbest and most helpless person in the world,

making it seem natural for him to make all the decisions for me and some of them without my knowledge. That's why as soon as I received the two hundred billion Aris from him, I immediately converted them into Memors before he could take them away from me.

"Maybe next time," Delia sadly smiled, predicting this would happen.

"You don't have to worry, I'm attending," my eyes instantly blazed.

"This invitation is for me, so I have the right to make the decision whether to attend or not," I clasped onto her hands.

"We can leave the school together then," Shelly accepted the invitation.

"Can I also borrow your clothes?" I wanted to wear something comfortable.

"I already bought all of us matching pajamas!" Sienna excitedly revealed.

"Really?" My eyes brightened.

"We've actually been planning this sleepover for some time," she explained.

"I'm totally coming!" I nearly squealed.

"Here are the desserts lined up," Delia showed me her screen.

"You should add some soda, they go well with almost anything," my eyes glinted.

"You're not going anyways," Alex watched us.

"The people who don't get an invitation are the ones not going," I mumbled.

"Aren't you guys being too harsh on her? It's only a day," Oili got up to join us.

"She doesn't have the time to attend. She should know this herself," Alex slightly frowned.

"Just what do you have planned for her?" Ethan pulled out his head.

Unexpectedly, Alex passed them the planned schedule for the weekends. I wasn't surprised when both Ethan and Oili stopped talking. The schedule was packed tight, barely enough time for meals in between. I was barely surviving doing this, nearly collapsing onto my bed every night. However, my waterpark was at stake, something that could be easily used against me.

"You make her do this every weekend?" Ethan unfroze.

"This is brutal," Cillian admitted, sneaking a peek.

"It's slightly better than the weekdays," I sadly admitted.

"Is this why you look so dead when you come here?" Oili discovered.

I nodded while passing them my normal schedule for the weekdays, making my friends go speechless. This was why I looked forward to this sleepover. I needed a chance to recover to the point I was willing to take more risks than usual. Once Oili returned my schedule to me, he looked at them in disbelief, "how is this even possible?"

Luke ignored him, reminding me, "you know your teachers are taking time out of their precious day to teach you."

"They favor you more than me anyways," I groaned.

"It's only one day. I promise I'll work harder in my lessons," I made my eyes glisten.

I silently cried inside my heart as this approach wasn't working. I sighed as I was going to use this as the very last resort. The last time I used it, I couldn't stop regretting my actions, finding myself land inside a worse situation than the former.

I briefly squeezed my hands as I braced myself for the worst, pretending I wasn't about to vomit blood. I urged my heavy feet to move, dragging all the energy I had to run towards Luke to sit in his lap. It wasn't icky. It wasn't terrible. I didn't feel that intense stare drilling into my eyes.

Ok. It did. So what? It was worth the sleepover! My arms instantly reached out to hug him, my

voice extremely sad and disappointed, asking, "do you hate Rika?"

Luke shifted inside his chair, trying to adjust his posture to get a better view of his documents. His head turned back and forth to continue working, seeing my body as purely an obstacle. In fact, it was only until he couldn't ignore me, he spoke, "I don't hate you, this is all done for you."

Did he want to die? How was preventing me from hanging out with my friends for my sake? My sake! I slapped his handsome face inside my head as I tried to push down my anger to remain sane and snuggle against his chest. My finger stroked the middle of his abs, back and forth at the most effective angle as my head tilted up to beg, "rika only wants one day."

"Pleaa-see?" I pulled out my pitiful eyes.

I didn't need to point out my innocent friends watching us, did I? The way Ethan had his body turned against us, trying not to look but slightly turning his head because he couldn't not look. Or Delia dizzily looking down with her face blushing while Sienna peeked through her fingers with her head red. Did I need to add Cillian nervously gulping at the scene and Oili obviously hugging himself inside a half translucent tent?

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed Shelly glancing at the clock. Her reaction was similar to Alex, who just continued to work beside us. Meaning, they were waiting for me to fail like my other attempts. But. But what they didn't know was that this time, it was different. I had a concrete plan!

My motivation surged as I tugged on Luke's shirt, something he disliked since they would become stretched. I held in my smile when finally placed his documents on the table, frowning as expected. I needed him to pay attention to me for this method to work. This was my chance to hug him even tighter, knowing it would be more effective than poking him. When Luke looked down to face me, his answer was the same, "I can't. You're behind in some of the classes."

"Rika doesn't mind if you extend the usual study sessions so she can catch up," I was giving up the time inside the clubroom.

"I can't extend the study sessions to the point it'll cover the day you're missing. You won't be able to handle it," Luke predicted.

"We can use the club room," I pointed out the time-space feature.

"Only a few subjects can be covered inside the club room," he hinted.

Wow. Luke was really adamant in not letting me go on this sleepover, wasn't he? He had a perfect response to every one of my suggestions. I lifted one of his hands, placing it against my cheek. The perfect timing to blink several times to have my newly created tears stream down my face. I got this idea from a shoujo manga I read during the time I was able to use my new storage room. I planned to use everything in that book.

"I really can't," Luke's decision slightly faltered.

"You really can't?" I rubbed my face against his chest.

"Let me wipe your face first," his shirt was slightly wet.

However, no one was prepared for my next level tactics. Pretending everyone else was invisible, I lightly blew some wind inside his ear, the same action the female protagonist did to make the male lead shocked into agreeing to her proposal.