"DO YOU THINK YOU CAN WIN AGAINST ME? DREAM ON!"
Hari was yet to recover from the sudden disappearance of a certain woman who came from nowhere, roasted her about her boobs, and then vanished without a trace. Still in daze, the abrupt sound made her body jolt in response.
She immediately ducked down, hiding behind the bushes and peeking through the gaps between the leaves.
Ren glared at Blake and stepped forward, carrying a baseball bat over his shoulder.
On the other hand, Blake stood there coolly, unbothered by the certain blonde who screamed at the top of his lungs like a soap opera lead who just found out the baby isn't his.
Blake sneered elegantly. "Why dream when I make it real?" he said, his voice neither high nor low, just like a perfectly tuned piano.
"Bring it on, then." Ren shot back fiercely. "Loser calls the winner 'Master' for a week."
Hari, the eavesdropper behind the bush, perked up her ears, making sure she didn't mishear any dialogues in the ongoing drama… ahem, 'fight.' She subtly moved behind the bush, trying to get a clear view of the upcoming fight.
"Master?" Ace grinned widely, his eyes crinkling at the corners, revealing a seductive charm. "Master of what? Foolishness or madness?" he taunted.
"Huh… foolishness? Then you are already my disciple," Ren smirked back at him.
Ace frowned unhappily and was about to step forward to start the fight when Rumi stopped him.
"Dear brother, the sooner you finish here, the sooner you'll get home. There'll be a bunch of vessels waiting in the sink for you to wash," Rumi said with a satisfied smirk, her eyes twinkling innocently—very much contradicting the words she spouted.
Except for Blake, every member of Coffee & Saccharine chuckled at Rumi's remark. For extra dramatic effect, Ace even clutched his stomach and wiped the non-existent tears from the corners of his eyes.
"My, my… never knew the leader of T&D had such an interesting part-time job," he commented with a chuckle.
Ren's face darkened, his eyes zeroing in on his sister but he neither reacted to her words nor responded. He just stared at her with an uninterested gaze.
The siblings exchanged a look, silently plotting each other's doom in over 101 different ways.
"Dishwashing is better than bootlicking."
A cold voice interrupted their eye battle. The voice was smooth, like parallel lines that would never intersect. Everyone's gaze, including Rumi's, shifted to the girl in black.
One look at her and Blake, and one could detect the strong copy-paste energy radiating off them.
Nina stepped beside Ren, defending her leader.
Rumi folded her hands across her chest and stared at the duo, who were behaving like blood siblings when they were not. She snorted at them and averted her gaze.
Behind the bush, detective Hari was growing impatient with the war of words. What she wanted was fists flying and hair-pulling, not some fancy war of words. But soon, her wish was fulfilled when the clean freak Jason stepped forward and addressed both groups.
"Let's start. Our lunch break is about to be over," he said, folding his sleeves neatly, revealing the elegant Cartier Tank Must hugging his wrist like a clingy mistress.
Opposite him, Jamie, his twin brother, nodded in agreement, finally dusting off his lazy hair, from which a piece of popcorn fell—a leftover from language class.
"Yes, yes, we should finish it soon," Jamie repeated, finally delivering a pre-fight dialogue from his part.
The only one left out was Kai, who preferred showing his power with fists rather than words.
Hari rubbed her hands eagerly.
"Finally, my wish is going to come true. Pity, the 'god' vanished before the fight," she muttered resentfully, looking at the now-empty place where a certain woman had just been squatting and snacking alongside her.
"Fine. Kai, you go first," Ren said arrogantly, his lips crooked into an excited grin.
Kai nodded and threw his bag to Jamie, who staggered under its weight.
"Sheesh! Are these books or dumbbells? So heavy," he muttered, throwing the bags over his shoulders like sacks of potatoes.
Blake regarded his group members out of the corner of his eyes and said solemnly, "Ace."
Ace acknowledged his leader's order and stepped forward. Rumi took a broken branch from the side and drew a big circle on the ground, and both parties stepped inside it.
Inside the circle, Ace and Kai locked eyes, the air between them crackling with unspoken hostility