Jay-jay's POV
"It's your turn!" I shouted at Ci-N.
"Come on... Your cousin might see me. He'll pick a fight with me."
He pleaded while stomping his foot.
I scratched my head in frustration. We've been like this for a while. He's been ordering me to get ice cream from the kitchen. He refuses to leave the room because Aries always picks a fight with him whenever he sees him.
That feeling when I'm the owner of the room, and he's the one staying over, yet I'm the one being ordered around.
Nice!
"This is so annoying!" I told him and stood up from my seat in front of my study table.
"Yehey! Thanks, Jay!" he said, clapping his hands.
Ugh, whatever!
I left the room and headed straight to the kitchen. Only Manang was there when I arrived. I grabbed some ice cream for the Annoying Brat and a glass of water as well.
On my way out of the kitchen, I ran into Uncle Julz.
"It's late... Your throat might hurt from that."
"It won't... Besides, there are two of us eating." I replied, smiling at Uncle, who just smiled back.
I continued walking back to my room. As soon as I entered, I was greeted by Ci-N clapping in excitement.
"Where's the spoon?" he asked when I handed him the ice cream.
Oh, great!
"I forgot." I said and immediately left the room again.
I nearly slipped while running. So annoying! I quickly grabbed what I needed and ran back to my room.
I even passed Aries in the hallway, but he didn't acknowledge me.
Of course! What else is new?!
When I got back to my room, I was practically gasping for air. I looked at Ci-N and the ice cream. I felt utterly embarrassed!
The ice cream I brought was almost gone. What the hell?! Damn it!
"Hey! That's so unfair!" I shouted at him.
"Hehehe... You took too long!"
Out of frustration, I threw the spoon at him, but the little punk dodged it like a ninja.
Annoying!
"I hope you get tonsillitis." I muttered.
I just returned to my study table. I needed to focus on studying properly.
Properly! Not diligently!
Because the phrase "study diligently" no longer exists in my vocabulary. Of course, what else would you expect from someone like me? So, I'll just try to do things properly.
But how can I do that when I can't get Keifer's face out of my mind? I was really scared. I may be a girl, but I still get frightened sometimes.
Like with Kuya Angelo.
"Ci..." I called the Annoying Brat.
"Hm?" he responded, still devouring the ice cream.
"Have you ever seen Keifer get angry? Like, really, really angry?"
I asked him since he had been with Keifer longer than I had, so I couldn't help but be curious.
"Of course... Many times." he answered.
"Really?"
"Yeah... But the one I'll never forget was when he got extremely mad at Yuri." he said, stopping his eating.
I adjusted my seat so I could face him properly.
"W-what happened?"
"We didn't know the reason. He was just furious and wouldn't stop punching Yuri. Ella was crying so hard, trying to break them apart." he explained.
Once again, I got some juicy gossip from this kid!
That was during Ella's time. What could have happened back then?
"What did you guys do?"
"Nothing... No one could stop him. If we got close, we'd get dragged into it, so we just stayed away."
Is that how he gets angry? I don't know, but I don't think I ever want to see that. Just recently, he only yelled at me, and I was already terrified. What more if it was like that?
"Poor Yuri."
"No... Yuri's an idiot." He quickly replied, making me raise an eyebrow.
"Idiot, my foot!"
He straightened up and looked at me seriously. Something he rarely does.
"Yuri is a coward. That's why he always sticks to Keifer—because he's actually scared to face the other one." His words made me freeze.
"...He doesn't even fight fair. He moves in secret, and we don't even realize it."
As Ci-N said those words, something inside me didn't want to believe him. This was the first time I'd heard him speak like this about his classmate.
Yeah, he tells stories, but never in this tone.
"...That's why I don't want him for you. Don't say yes if he tries to court you." He added before going back to his food.
Too late! We're already getting married…
I turned back to my study table. It felt weird. It was hard to believe, but those words came from Ci-N. He had spent more time with Yuri and Keifer than I had.
I just wasn't sure if this annoying brat was a reliable source.
"Let's watch a movie!" He suddenly shouted and grabbed something from his suitcase.
A small bag. He opened it, revealing a laptop. He actually brought one?
I checked the time on the wall clock. It was still early, so we had time to watch. I packed up my things and immediately sat beside him.
As we waited for his laptop to boot up...
Ppooooooottt!
"Ci! That stinks!" I shouted at him while covering my nose.
The shameless brat farted!
"Jay-jay! Come on! There are only two of us here, and you're still accusing me?!"
I was about to flick his forehead, but then his stomach suddenly rumbled, followed by another fart.
"My stomach hurts..." he murmured while rubbing his belly.
I grabbed his laptop. "Run to the bathroom! Hurry up!"
He immediately got up and dashed to the bathroom. Just as he entered, his laptop finished booting up.
I knew how to use this, at least somewhat. I thought about snooping around for a bit. I knew his password.
This idiot is terrible at passwords!
12345! Hahaha… Welcome Ci-N_Pogi, huh? Pfffttt!! So full of himself!
I checked the movie folder first to choose one. There were so many that I didn't know what to pick.
Then, I looked at the pictures. I saw three folders:
'Random', 'With_Jay-jay', and 'Secret'. Since I'm naturally nosy, I opened 'Secret'.
Another folder appeared. I don't really like snooping like this. It's tiring! I was about to press the back icon when I noticed something.
Kiko_Matsing.
Suddenly, for some inexplicable reason, I remembered Kiko Evans.
How was he doing? I hadn't heard anything about him since Freya attacked me. That time she nearly ripped my scalp off while pulling my hair.
Something pushed me to open that folder. There were about 10 to 12 pictures inside.
I clicked on one to enlarge it and see it properly. But I froze at what appeared on the screen.
K-Kiko!
Lying on the floor, covered in blood and unconscious. What happened?!
I clicked next, hoping for an answer to my question. But it was just another angle of Kiko's position.
I clicked next again. There was a picture of Kiko sitting down. Ci-N and a few others were in the frame, flashing peace signs, acting like nothing was wrong with how he looked.
W-why?! W-what happened here?!
I kept clicking until I came across a video. I played it and watched.
The camera was focused on Kiko, who was struggling against Kit and Eren, who were holding him down.
"Beat him up!" A voice shouted—Ci-N's voice.
"Smash his b*lls so he learns his lesson!" Someone else yelled.
"Let's just cut them off to be sure!" Another voice joined in, followed by loud laughter.
Even though the video wasn't entirely clear, I knew they were all there. Aside from their shouting voices, I could see their shadows—there were a lot of them.
Suddenly, Yuri and Keifer appeared from the other side, both holding cigarettes and casually smoking.
"You know why you're here, right?" Keifer asked seriously.
"Obviously! So you can all gang up on me!" Kiko snapped.
"You're unbelievable! Of all people, you really had to target Jay-jay." Yuri said as he lit another cigarette.
"She was supposed to be mine! You guys just had to interfere!" Kiko shouted, only to receive a strong punch to the stomach from Yuri.
He nearly collapsed from the pain, but Kit and Eren forced him to stand.
I couldn't understand why they were doing—or had done—this. I thought they already dealt with Kiko the night he tried to attack me. So why was this happening now?
"I'm getting impatient! Let's start this already!" Keifer yelled, flicking his cigarette away.
The one recording—who I assumed was Ci-N—suddenly moved to a different position. He was now on the other side with Kiko, seemingly standing next to Keifer. Once the shot was steady again, I noticed the others had lined up in front of Kiko. David was first.
"I have a lot of reasons to hurt you back, but I'm choosing Jay-jay for this one." David said before suddenly punching Kiko in the face.
He collapsed to the ground, but Kit and Eren immediately pulled him back up.
I covered my mouth in shock and pity.
David was done, and the others followed. If they weren't punching his face, they were hitting him in the stomach—or worse, kicking him between the legs. But what I couldn't take was how they laughed while doing it.
"You messed with the wrong person!" Someone shouted.
"Jay-jay is ours!"
"Let this be a lesson!"
"Finish him! Finish him! Finish him!" They chanted in unison.
I felt the pain for Kiko. I knew he was wrong and that he hurt me, but did it really have to go this far?
Someone else took the camera. Ci-N stepped in front of Kiko.
"My turn!" He yelled.
He suddenly kicked Kiko in the face. They let him fall to the ground, laughing loudly as they did.
He was covered in blood and barely moving. His eyes were swollen shut, and it was clear he was struggling to breathe.
Dear God…
"I'm not done with you yet!" I heard Keifer say before he suddenly kicked Kiko in the knee.
Kiko was so weak that all he could do was cry.
I could tell he wanted to scream from the pain, but he couldn't.
I ran my fingers through my hair. This was my fault. Keifer and the others wouldn't have hurt him like this if it weren't for me. Tears fell from my eyes out of frustration, guilt, and anger.
"Jay-jay! I'm done!" Ci-N called out as he came out of the bathroom.
I immediately stood up and faced him.
"Why? Are you crying?"
"Why did you guys do that to Kiko?!" I screamed at him.
He looked confused at first, but when he saw his laptop on the floor, he froze.
"Ci-N! Why?!"