Chapter 8: Overthinker Dahlia's Misunderstanding

"Uh, Aliyah? Why're you staring at the wall like that?" said Dahlia. She looked concerned as she was looking at Aliyah who was staring into the wall like an owl.

"I couldn't...sleep at all." said Aliyah without blinking even once. Her eyes were red and looked like a doll's eyes out of a horror movie.

"Who hurt you?" said Flynn.

"The baby..."

"Baby?..." Both Isabella and Flynn seemed confused whilst Dahlia was overthinking every single piece of word she heard with the furthest extent.

"B-B-Baby? Wh-Who's baby?" said Dahlia.

"Why're you stuttering?" said Lucas who just happens to enter the classroom. He kept his bag and sat beside Aliyah. "*sigh* Told you..." Lucas frowned.

"WHATTTT?!" Dahlia screamed from the pit of her lungs. She went into front of Lucas and stood still. No words came out of her mouth. Her lips kept shaking as she was trying to say something.

From a distance, Ken was staring at Dahlia. He looked away from her as he tried to stroke on the paper with his pen. Dahlia's group of friends has grown even more and it became a fear for Ken to approach her since the fear of crowd was still greater than his love for her.

"Why do you mean 'told you'?...I couldn't sleep all night because you're *yawn* iwesponshible." said Aliyah. Her head fell on the desk in front of her as it look more and more tired.

From the corner, Kiyoshi was spectating them with narrowed eyes and a frown. "(Golden Knight...You are crossing your limits.)"

The bell rang but Kiyoshi was still standing there. "Hmph! Bold of you to think that I will obey your alerts of the pedagogues coming-"

"Kiyoshi." said a man gently, who happens to appear in front of the class's door.

A teacher entered the classroom with black hair that looks like silk and a rather tired pair of eyes.

It was Mr. Saqib, the history teacher. He was one of the few teachers who has a reputation among the students in the school because of his empathetic, punctual and honest persona and good looks.

"Y-Yes?" said Kiyoshi being flustered.

"Go back to your seat."

"Hm." Kiyoshi nodded in an adorable way as if she has never shown any of her oddly masculine or rather otherworldly behaviors.

Mr. Saqib kept a large batch of papers on the desk and took a deep breath. It was clear that he was tired.

At a distance, Dahlia sitting on her own seat was fighting with her mind with an expressionlessly happy face. No one in the class knew what she was thinking about.

Mr. Saqib fell on his chair as soon as he took out a batch of papers from the large one.

"(What did Aliyah mean by baby?! They've been living together for at least a month. Something must have happened.)" Dahlia sobbed internally and looked at Aliyah who was resting with her head on the desk whilst Elias kept his hand on her forehead gently. "(*sobs* Aliyah...What did you get yourself into?...But I can't just interfere either...Ah yes- Kiyoshi.)"

"Kiyoshi-"

"AAAAAAAA." Dahlia screamed out as in her mind, she thought that Saqib has perhaps heard his thoughts. "(HE HEARD MY THOUGHTSSSS)" The scream startled Mr. Saqib at a point even his resting eyes were widened.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Y-Yes. (Come on Dahlia...You can let anyone know what goes on in your mind. I have to take care of my only best friend...no matter how far I have to go.)"

"Kiyoshi, here are the answers you asked for."

"Thanks uh-" Kiyoshi scratched the back of her head. "Could you please tell me what other mythologies say about the covens?"

He smiled gently. "Why don't you search in google?"

"No! It doesn't have all kinds of info."

Lucia and Lucius were munching on their chocolate bars. Lucia asked, "Does Mr. Saqib know what fucked up personas she creates with those info?"

"I dunno man, he joined recently after all. He's probably never even done this kinda jobs. Look at him- he can't even tell that we're eating in the back of the class."

"Yeah..."

Mr. Saqib cleared his throat. "Alright class, open the previous chapter we studied yesterday-"

As the class started, Elias sighed and gave Aliyah a bottle of water. Aliyah was nodding to Elias's words or either shaking her head. It felt as if they have gotten closer than before.

Or perhaps they always have been but in Dahlia's eyes, they were not this close as they were at the moment. As she clenched her fists and looked at them with a dead pair of eyes, cold as ice, she suddenly moved her gaze alike of a night owl towards Kiyoshi.

Kiyoshi became startled in an instant. "Wha-What it is?"

"We have to talk." said Dahlia.

Kiyoshi went back to her 'cringe' personality again which of course, surprisingly suits her well which she describes here. "Hmph. Like the demon lord Darkwin has time for mere pests like you whom I have called my friend out of mere empathy. I have practiced being a demon for over five hundred(five) years and you call me to talk about such-"

"Shut. Up." said Dahlia with a cold calmness within her voice yet enough to startle someone with such a ghostly gaze.

After the class, they both went outside under the shade of the two school buildings, in a corner almost no one in the school would go unless they has a business to attend to.

It was a hazy atmosphere and Kiyoshi being her old friend did not like the atmosphere Dahlia created. Yet, she being as gullible as she is, she could not see what was coming.

"Kiyoshi...don't you think that Aliyah and that boy are going a bit too far? She doesn't even talk that much with us. It's like they're hiding something." said Dahlia with a worried face and a pout she does when she gets upset.

"Heh. You're feeling malice, Dahlia. Keep your own matters to yourself." said Kiyoshi and started to walk away.

"Isn't this how lovers act?" said Dahlia.

"Why must it matter? I shall fight to get my companion back but I shall never untruthfully invade-"

"What if they went a bit too far?"

Kiyoshi stopped walking. She slowly looked behind with widened eyes. "You...you aren't wrong. They've been acting too close lately. What could the reason be?"

Of course, it was because they live together and still maintains their friendship to this day which would be awkward for most youths. Yet, a teen mind knows no bound and thus she thought of the same thing as Dahlia.

"If you don't mind...Can you please keep Elias busy for a while? I have to talk to Aliyah. Please?" said Dahlia.

"You could have made an explanation before. Tsk, how brainless a human can be in times of desperation. Fret not, my friend." Kiyoshi dramatically kept her hands on Dahlia's shoulders and said with a wide smile, "I shall grant you my assistance...but as your friend this time. Let us meet again, Floral Knight. It has taken me some time to realize the floral blessing among my soldiers who cleansed my land of golden sand."

Saying that, Kiyoshi left.

Dahlia murmured with an expressionless face, "Cringe..."

In the cafeteria, Kiyoshi appeared in front of everyone with her demon king costume. In the costume, she looked like a different person. The ones who knew her, knew that the cafeteria was about to go through a highly cringe experience whilst the ones who didn't know were also spectating the same.

She walked in like a noble man with her head lifted high and with full confidence. As the back of her coat was swaying with the wind, who knows came from where, she stood in front of Elias who was enjoying his food along with Aliyah instead of his other friends.

"Elias Whitlock, Golden Knight of King Aurum, son of the Coven Priestesses, I command you to follow me." said Kiyoshi or perhaps one should call her Darkwin now.

Elias stared at her as if he was done with life."(It's her again...) What do you want?"

"I see that you are the same as your past life. Bold, brave, careless of positions and of course dirty-"

"Oh..." Aliyah got up from her place and wiped the small food from Elias's face with a tissue.

"AAAH!" Kiyoshi backed away.

Aliyah almost jumped out of her place out of fright and made a small humming sound that almost sounded like a squeak.

"(It is certain...They...They have witnessed nirvana.)"

"Uh- what was that for?"

Aliyah was staring into the void. It was certain that she was lost in her own mind.

"(She lost her mind. If she hadn't she wouldn't even let me carry her here. I told her not to take those meds.)"

"Elias...this is an urgent matter. Please." Kiyoshi frowned.

Seeing the frown, Elias was slightly convinced that something was wrong. "What is it? I'm sorry but I can't just leave-" He frowned.

"Ignorant!-"

Whilst Kiyoshi was ranting about Elias's 'misbehavior' Elias was saying to Aliyah, "What's this eight grader doing here?"

"Oh...She's a fweshman too. She never had any pwoblems in her life so she made shome up." Aliyah replied in the most adorable way possible for her which enhanced with her doll-like face. Seeing her in such state, Elias blushed but could not enjoy the blushing feeling for any longer than a second since he knew that there were people around him.

"(It's cute but what kind of explanation was that?)"

Kiyoshi suited her collars a little and looked at them fiercely. "I shouldn't have spared my time to such lowly mortals. And you- Ariana...You have forgotten your glory. I shall leave now." said Kiyoshi and walked away as if he was a noble man returning from war.

"She could make a good story out of all these bullshits you know...I'd read it." said Elias.

Dahlia spectated everything from a distance. She was still concerned about their relationship and there was a feeling that was slowly emerging from her that gave her an uncertainty whenever she looked at Aliyah.

Beside Dahlia, two girls walked by. "He's cute but annoying." said one of the girls.

"Yeah. He's such a smug. He gets those high grades 'cause he's freaking older than us."

"(Does Aliyah know about this?...She hates people when they aren't in their place. Elias is just taking away our opportunities. Wouldn't she hate him if she found out?...)"

She shook her slightly and looked away, trying to stop herself from the thought. She slowly headed back to her class. From a distance, a group of boys were passing by and they had someone throw a pencil at them. As they were ranting about it, Dahlia sighed and held her hands close with a frown.

The bell rang and everyone were told to go back to their classes. In the class, Dahlia was gazing out of the window instead of Ken that day who was trying to focus on his papers. In his mind, he kept thinking of resisting what he dreams for.

Dahlia looked at him and saw him writing instead of drawing. She raised her eyebrows."(Where's his pencil?...)"

"Tsk...(I got my own concerns...Still, why isn't he drawing anything now?)"

The bell rang again and school finished. Everyone were on their way home but Aliyah and Elias were waiting for everyone to leave.

In all of a sudden, the famous class clown invited everyone in their grade to go and play a game with him which he has made by himself.

All freshmen in the school gathered outside of the school to attend their clown friend's game which he has proudly named fantasy, a game where everyone has to share their cringe fantasies and make everyone else cringe. The one with the most cringe fantasy gets the grand prize which only Flynn knows what it is.

"What kind of shitty game is this?..." said Rowan.