Emma’s POV
Jake stared at me with a mix of concern and affection before cradling my hand in his. “Beloved,”
“Yes?”
“You are the girl who stole my heart. The one who completes me. The one who understands me the way no one does. The missing piece of my soul! The one who tried to get away. My beautiful, little, white fox.” His eyes gleamed. “You are mine and I am yours forever.”
I looked away dissatisfied with his answer but to be honest, I expected it from him. Maybe he didn’t phrase it well? He his hand snaked onto my face and I turned to look at him with a sad expression on my face.
“I mean, who was I before I met you?”
He cocked an eyebrow at me in confusion before flashing a wide smile at me. “I understand. Do you want to talk about it over cake?”
I nod and he quickly went to the kitchen to grab some plates, some forks and a knife. He cut me a piece and gave it to me.
“Your name is Emma Cross-wood. You are a sixteen-year-old currently attending Akademi High School, and your friends are Brianna, Ralph, Andrew, Caroline, and Aubrey. You joined a team of students to unlock the mystery behind the school, but they died due to ‘unfortunate circumstances’. You are trying to unlock the history behind the school in order to bring peace to a woman named Raibaru Fumestu, who blackmailed you into helping her summon the ghost of her late friend by the name Osana Najimi.” He cut himself a piece of cake and leaned back on the couch with a smile on his face. “You are courageous, independent, observant, stubborn, beautiful, and fluent in martial arts, calligraphy, ballet, cooking, but you are bad at swimming because of your fear of water. You have a motherly nature around children, you love classic Japanese Opera and drama, you are obsessed with ancient Japanese traditional architecture and garden because of how beautiful they are, and you know how to do the fan and sword dance and how to play the violin.”
He put a forkful of cake in his mouth and ate it while I blinked at the avalanche of information. “A…anything else?”
He smiled. “You can see ghosts. You can communicate with them. You have supernatural abilities, including an unknown power source that you possess…”
Then he stopped short, letting silence take over the room. Curiosity slowly replaced shock inside me. “What do you mean I have a …”
Before I could finish my sentence, he stuffed my mouth with a forkful of cake.
“Shh…” he cooed with a sinister look on his face. “Forget I said that,”
I gave a stiff nod and swallowed.
“Do you need water?” he asked, holding the cup to my face.
“N…no,” I replied and put a piece of cake into my mouth. “Do you know anything else about me?”
“Oh, Beloved…” he sighed, eyes glowing and half-lidded with obsession. “I know everything about you; all the happy things that happened to you and the sad things like your parents passing away, the bullying you faced at your former school, your toxic relationship with your ex-partner, how you friend zoned me, the many times you nearly got yourself killed…” he shook slowly shook his head and sighed. “You made such ugly, painful memories before I came into your life. But I’ll erase them. I promise.”
My hand trembled slightly, so I put down my fork. “You…you seem to know a lot about me, huh?”
He nodded happily. “What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t know everything about my Sweetheart?”
This comforted and scared me at the same time because it reminded me of how I acted when I was dating my ex. ‘What’s the use. I didn’t know her that well.’
‘Not as well as how he knows you.’
“What do you know about my childhood?” I ask, ignoring the voice in my head.
His eyes widened at that. “I…I am sorry, Beloved. I did not dig up on that since it was a tragic part of your life.”
My face fell at that, and I dropped the plate on the coffee table. “The reason why I am asking this is that I don’t remember much about myself.”
I could feel his eyes bore into me in shock, curiosity, obsession…? I don’t know, but his voice sent shivers up my spine when he asked, “Why?”
“The Detective told me my late parents were not found in the government computer system. Does this mean I am an orphan or the memories of my childhood a lie?”
Jake wrapped his arms around me and sighed, his strong arms tightening around me. “I…I am not so sure, Beloved. Maybe there was a mistake on his side.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are so many people registered in the government system, and some aren’t registered in the system due to some private or personal issues. Maybe it’s a glitch on their part, or he didn’t dig deeper on his part.” He looked at me lovingly. “So don’t worry about it, okay?”
I looked into his eyes and snuggled deeper into his chest. “Thank you.”
He tightened his grip on me.
“I can’t help but feel that most of my childhood memories aren't real,” I muttered.
“Why?”
“I can only remember them in fragments.” Tears pricked my eyes at the thought. “I can’t even remember going to my parents’ funeral or where they were buried or what happened to me before I clocked thirteen. It’s like my life just replayed itself after the incident, and I don’t know why.”
His chest rumbled as he hummed and stroked my head. “It’s okay. Memories take time to remember, but I promise to help you.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know how, but I don’t break promises.”
Then he reached out and cradled my face in his hands.
“I want to take you somewhere tomorrow morning. Are you up for it or should we go later?” he asked.
I was unsure on where he wanted to take me but I nodded and hugged him again. The silence overtaking the room.
The following day unfolded with the sense of anticipation as he took me to the park in the middle of the city. During the day, it was bustling with energy with people walking and talking, children playing, street vendors selling snacks and the homeless sleeping on the benches but rumors about its nightly activities spread like wild fires.
Jake held my hand tight as he led me through the concrete path and we arrived at the lush greenery like forest situated at the end of the park. The air hummed with the symphony of nature as he guided me deeper into the foliage. Sunlight filtered through the emerald leaves, dappling the ground in a mesmerizing mosaic of light and shadow. Soon we arrived at a clearing where a wooden table and a martial art’s training dummy.
“What are we doing?” I asked.
Jake raised his arms and stretched. “We are sharpening our martial arts skills, Beloved.”
I was taken aback by this because it didn’t make any sense why we needed to do that especially when he put me in this ‘situation’. When I looked up at him, he was wearing that sadistic grin on his face that slowly faded into confusion.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“But what about the curse?” I quietly asked.
“Oh that,” He shrugged nonchalantly and paced towards the wooden table next to the training dummy and picked up a worn-out slightly burned book which I immediately identified as my old dairy.
“Where did you get that?” I asked.
He just smiled. I looked around until my eyes laid on the weapons rack and I immediately recognized my old weapons. Then I looked back at the table which held a small scroll, a blue worn-out book, and fighting bandages.
‘I thought I left that life behind,’ I thought. ‘How did he…’
“You know, after our fight in the labyrinth, I did my homework, and you have no idea what I discovered about you.” He flipped through the pages of the book and started to read, “Tsukihana taught you the ways of the fighting fan blades in the art of ‘Whispers in the Moonlight’, a monk by the name ‘Atishari Momoto’ taught you the art of the ‘Path of the Iron Wind’ with the bo staff and the spear. Master Akari taught you how to hand-to-hand combat, and an old man taught you how to use the twin blades and the katana.” Then he put a hand on his chin. “It’s a shame I couldn’t find the old man. It was fun fighting the rest of them.”
My heart sank when he said that. “Y…you didn’t kill them, did you?”
He threw his head back and laughed loudly. “No, Beloved. I didn’t kill them.” He gasped between laughs. “I did teach your master Akari some manners for being so cocky. The idiot thought he could steal you away from me. The way he was acting like he owned you.”
I didn’t buy that because I remembered Master Akari was a huge boast, but his martial arts skills made up for it. The recollection of every punch, every blow, and every kick he gave me during my final fight against him landed me in the hospital for a week.
‘She never came to visit me. She only sent me a dying white rose and a flimsy handwritten card to my hospital room when I was discharged.’ I ruefully thought to myself and sighed. ‘At least I won the fight against my Master.’
“Your Master?!”
My head snapped up at the tone of his voice, and I froze when I saw him reading a page from my diary. I tried to snatch the book from him, but he swiftly switched it to his other hand and moved behind me while waving the forbidden book in his hand. I quickly moved to grab it, but he kept moving it out of my grasp.
“Ah, ah, ah,” he cautioned wagging his finger at me. Then he started tossing the book up and down in his hand. I stared at the book as it went up and down recalling what Tsukihana taught me about foot movement then swiftly towards him. As expected, he moved but I spin around and stick my foot out to make him trip.
Jake stumbled a bit before getting his footing and turned to look at me. I was smiling at him while holding the book in my hand.
“Wow! I didn’t know you could do that,” he gasped when I turned my back to him (big mistake on my part), and I started flipping through the pages in the book.
The pages were empty.
“I will tell you what happened to the original if you spar with me,” his husky voice whispered into my ear and I flinched when he poked my back. “If you win. You can destroy the original and if I win, its going to be one of my treasured possessions.”
His footsteps slowly drifted away from me, and his chuckle was distant. When I turned to look at him, there was a cocky but sexy smile on his face.
‘Gosh! I hate that smile.’ I thought as I turned my attention towards the replica in my hands. ‘Did he forget the curse he placed on me?’
‘No, he didn’t.’
‘What does he have to gain from this?’
‘There is only one way to find out.’
It was right. I took a deep breath and sighed loudly. “Okay. I accept.”
He happily clapped his hands. “That’s the spirit! Now, please take off your clothes.”
I jerked back in shock. “Wh…what?”
“Beloved, you can’t fight me with what you are wearing.” He commented with half-lidded eyes hinting that he meant that as a point and not an insult at my choice of clothing; a long red skirt reaching down to my feet accompanied with the peach long-sleaved blouse but he was right; it wasn’t the appropriate attar for a fight.
Sighing deeply, I unbuttoned my shirt to reveal my dark-red push up bra and ignoring his gaze just as I was about to unhook the buttons on my skirt his hand stopped mine.
“Let me help you.” He murmured in a husky voice.
“No, I got it.” I protested.
“Please,” he whispered, and I felt his hand snake around my waist. So I pursed my lips and looked away as his hand slowly undid the rest of the buttons on my skirt, and it slipped down, exposing my skin to the warm air. I stepped out, and he picked it up from the grass and neatly folded it along with my blouse. Then I tied my hair into a bun, grabbed the pair of fighting fans, and posed for battle.
“Show me what you have,” I demand.
“I’ll be gentle.” He purred, picking up a wooden knife from the table, and crouched down without taking his eyes off me.
‘Why is he in that position?’ I asked, wondering if I should strike first. So I opened one of the fans and tried to hit him with a closed one. To my surprise, he grabbed my wrist, spun me around, and pinned my arm behind my back.
“Never do that when someone is in that position,” he whispered into my ear.
I stick out my leg, did a spin and released myself from his grip. Then I blocked his oncoming attack with the open fan followed by a ‘spinning kick’. He evaded my attack and quickly closed the distance between us. I saw his leg stick out to swipe at mine so jumped back still keeping the fab open for defense.
“Good,” he purred, playfully spinning the wooden knife in his hands before rushing towards me with the knife pointed directly at me. I positioned my fan to trap the knife in between the spaces, closed it, and tried yanking the weapon from him, but he held tight to it. Then he shoved me back, put his leg underneath my ankle, moved it, causing me to fall onto my back, and before I could get up, he pinned me down with the knife to my neck.
“Instead of disarming me, try throwing me over your shoulder,” he said, his eyes gleaming with excitement. He got off me, turned his back on me while spinning the knife.
I saw my chance. Charging directly at him, I did an upwards fan strike followed by a series of fan jabs, but he countered all my attacks, and before I knew it, he pinned me down again with a chuckle.
“Yep, we need to work hard on that,” he giggled, placing the tip of the wooden knife close to my collarbone. “You seemed to have forgotten most of what that woman taught you, Beloved.”
‘At least I remembered one technique.’ I angrily thought. Without warning, I grab the sides of his chest with my legs, bring him closer to me, and lock him, trapping him in between my thighs and tightening my grip.
His eyes widen in surprise as I slowly close them. “I…I c…can’t b…breathe!” he gasps.
I take that as my cue and finish the move. He goes limp and falls on me while I fall back with a sigh.
‘I think you killed him.’ My inner voice says.
I sit up in shock. ‘Really?’
Before I could reach out to check his pulse, he got up and pinned me to the floor, knocking the wind out of me. Wincing from the pain at the back of my head, I open my eyes and jerk back when I see his face. He was…happy?
“That was amazing!” he gasped, grabbing my shoulders in excitement. “Can you do that again?”
‘That didn’t kill him?’
‘You did something else,’
Then I recalled what he told me in the labyrinth; his favorite body part was my thighs. From the tone of his voice and the glimmer in his eyes, I immediately realized that I had unlocked a kink in his sexual arousal.
I felt my face turn red and my chest heave as I looked away in shame. ‘She would be ashamed to call me her student if she saw this.’
“Maybe she didn’t teach you everything.” His voice whispered into my ear, causing me to look at him because he was correct in a way. Seeing that he caught my attention, he leaned back and grinned. “Did you know she’s an assassin, Beloved?”
My eyes widened at his words, and I slowly shook my head.
“I bet you didn’t know that she worked for the same organization that recruited me a long time ago, did you?” he asked.
I shake my head. “What organization?”
“I’ll tell you about it when we get home,” he purred, closing the gap between our faces. His hands slowly cradled my cheeks while his thumb caressed my lips. “Can I kiss you?”
I didn’t know how to respond. No one had ever asked for a kiss before and I was expecting him to go for it since he set up the scene in the first place and…I wasn’t sure I wanted him to kiss me.
‘Say yes,’ my inner voice said.
‘Why?’
‘Just do it. Trust me.’
‘The last time I trusted you…’ My train of thought was interrupted when he leaned closer and sniffed my neck.
“You smell beautiful as always.” He murmured while taking deep breaths. “I am so happy we are together.”
I felt the lids of my eyes half-close and my instincts lowered despite my best efforts to stay firm. When he finally looked at me, I gave a stiff nod, and he placed his lips on mine. It wasn’t forceful like I had expected, and it wasn’t quick or dismissive like a peck. It was…I can’t actually describe it. By the time it was over, I realized that my arms were wrapped around his shoulders to keep him from leaving, and my mind was foggy.
“Who taught you how to kiss like that?” I whispered.
He slowly blinked at that and smiled. “I practiced a lot.”
A wave of disappointment hit me like a brick wall when I heard that. “With whom?”
“With my hand,” he chuckled and sat up to show me part of his right hand that was bruised. “Sometimes I wondered what technique I should use when we kiss, so I practiced different types on my hand.” He combed fingers through his hair and gave me a toothy grin. “It looks like I found the right one.”
Hearing that made me blush then something stuck me. It wasn’t embarrassment or guilt, it was regret. The kind of regret that pricked you. I pursed my lips and turned my head away to avoid looking at him when he crawled off me.
“Should we continue our training, or do you want us to go home and try again another day?” he calmly asked.
I decided to pick the latter and which disappointed him, but I needed time to think about my actions, how I failed my sensei, and well...everything that happened.
“Do you remember the ‘Fan Dance’ you did in the Fox Village?” he asked suddenly as I slipped into my skirt.
Puzzled, I stopped midway, looked back at him, and pulled up my skirt. “Umm…yes. I remember.”
“Do you know it is a form of martial arts?” his voice sounded like one giving a lecture. “If you quicken your movements, you can perform quick strikes and blocks.”
I shake my head in disbelief and button up my blouse. “I don’t agree with that logic.”
He huffed loudly, and although my back was turned to him, I knew he was pouting. “Where did you learn that dance?”
“It was from an old notebook I found in my former school’s library.” I reply, recalling the texture of the thin paper felt in between my fingertips as I flipped through the pages, but the cover was thick with the title, ‘The Dance of the Fox Princess’ written in white. “The dance looked magical, so I decided to learn it.”
“Magical?”
I shrugged. “I learned the dance when I was just thirteen and thought something magical would happen.” I sighed. “It’s a shame nothing happened.”
“Too bad,” he wrapped his arms around my waist and nuzzled against the nape of my neck. “It’s a shame our training session had to come to an end. I really wanted to see what else you could do.”
The scene grew silent with the chirping of birds and rustling of leaves, but it did nothing to quell the internal war inside me. Something uncomfortable grew, and it churned my stomach.
“Let’s go home,” I muttered loud enough for him to hear.
The sun was still in full force as we walked out of our ‘training ground’. We took a walk around the spacious place until we came to a stop at an open café situated at the entrance. There, Jake paid for two strawberry and cream crepes with a huge cup of boba tea and two straws. It wasn't until we shared the boba tea that it finally hit me; this was a date.
‘I can’t believe I fell for that,’ I thought as we walked home.
‘It wasn’t that bad.’ My inner voice pointed out. ‘It was just like your type of date; quiet with enjoying each other’s company.’
Hearing that made me recall the ‘dates’ I had with Agatha. That is if you can call them dates. Anytime we made plans to see each other, she always canceled on me at the last minute until I nagged about it. When she did give me her time, she always brought her delinquent friends with her making the setting less romantic and less said about the money I spent making food or footing the bill for them, the better.
“I am an idiot!”
“No, you are not.”
Hearing his voice made me snap back to reality and I realized we were standing in before my apartment door. Then I looked at Jake who stared back at me with eyes full of worry.
“Is something wrong?”
I looked away instead. The last thing I wanted him to see was the internal conflict through my eyes. He sighed deeply before opening the door.
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