17 Colder than I Expected

Hearing that voice, my eyes immediately lit up.

The Hall brat!

She's here!

Before I could turn around, I felt a soft but massive force jumping onto me from the back, squeezing me out of breath.

Perhaps it was because I had recently realized my feelings for the girl, but suddenly, I was painfully aware of her touch, her light lavender scent, her figure plastered against mine, and her breath that was by my neck.

Despite my high collar separating our skin, I could clearly feel the warmth of her lips, and the sensation sent tingles down my spine.

At that moment, I'm a hundred percent sure that my face was bright red, redder than a ripe tomato, and there was smoke coming out of my head from my brain circuit overheating.

I had frozen stiff, unable to face the person behind me, and nor could I even think straight.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?!

Y-You can't lose control of yourself, Asura! People are watching! How shameful! Get yourself together!

You've never felt anything before, so why are you getting so flustered now?!

I'm Asura Claremont! I'm at the prestigious Golden Rose Academy in the grand kingdom of Loen!

And! And I'm being b-b-b-back h-h-hugged by some random person.

Yes.

IT'S JUST A RANDOM PERSON!

Except… this random person has a very pretty voice, a beautiful smile, sparkly violet eyes, and smooth, inky hair. She also happens to be my—

Cough!

I felt my face that had barely calmed down start burning once more.

Nooooo! W-W-Why isn't this working?! Calm down, Asura!

Stupid Asura! A tiny voice berated in my head.

You can't get fooled by that villainess! Besides, she…

She ignored you for the past like a hundred thousand hours!

(VA note: This is heavily exaggerated, but we won't expose our mc XD)

She disregarded your feelings and left you waiting at the place you guys agreed to meet up!

She's terrible! The volume and pitch of the voice increased the longer it spoke, and it soon was the only thing I could hear.

She even made you cry! Terrible!

Terrible! I echoed.

It's BLASPHEMY!

Yeah! It's Blasphemy,

You've got to teach that Hall brat a lesson!

Gotta teach her a lesson!

Finally, after experiencing chaos for the last 10 seconds, I regained control of myself.

I gave myself an invisible pat on the back.

Stitching a cordial smile on my face, I pulled off the hands that were still around my waist and not-so-lightly pushed the person who was sticking onto me away.

"Princess Lancera, please refrain from touching me so casually." My voice was distant and cold like I was speaking to a stranger—even though Lancera and I were roommates that have known each other for years.

The tone I was speaking in was icier than I had expected, and it made even myself uncomfortable, but I didn't want to back down now.

The girl's bright violet eyes visibly dimmed as they widened in confusion and surprise.

Was she hurt?

This question pierced through my soul, and my heart shivered.

The uncomfortable feeling within me rose even higher, and for a second, I just wanted to apologize and comfort her.

But ultimately, I stopped myself.

It's fine. It's fine. She deserves this... right? Besides, it's not like I'm doing anything wrong in the first place! I just spoke to her more politely than usual, though my usual mannerisms towards her are pretty formal too.

But the bleary look in Lancera's eyes faded just as quickly as it came, and before I could think of what to say next, she grabbed my arm and sprinted inelegantly towards a destination that I didn't know, with me stumbling behind her.