Kapitel 3: The Ice Cold Princess

Lunchtime rolled around, and a swarm of girls buzzed around Jingliu's table, peppering her with a million questions. Her answers were like perfectly cut diamonds — sharp, clear, and to the point, leaving absolutely no room for follow-up questions or casual chit-chat. It was pretty obvious to everyone that she wasn't exactly looking to make friends or shoot the breeze.

As the lunch period wore on, the crowd around Jingliu slowly trickled away, leaving her alone and seemingly content in her solitude. Meanwhile, Yasushi sat at his own table, with only Furuya as his lunch buddy.

"She's kind of an ice queen, huh?" Furuya commented, his eyes still fixated on Jingliu, a wistful look in them.

"You could say that," Yasushi replied, munching on his food but occasionally sneaking peeks at the mysterious new girl who clearly wasn't one for small talk.

"It wouldn't kill her to, like, smile or something, you know? All that excitement, all that hope, just... poof," Furuya mumbled, letting out a sigh that sounded like air leaking from a balloon.

"Well, that's on you, not her. We didn't know anything about her. She never exactly radiated warmth," Yasushi snapped back, a bit defensive.

"Yeah, I know... but still..." Furuya grumbled, taking another bite of his lunch, his voice trailing off into a mumble.

Jingliu finally cracked open her lunchbox, picking up her chopsticks with the same effortless grace as everyone else in the room. Even though she had shut down every attempt at conversation, the others were still totally fixated on her, watching her every move like hawks, their curiosity off the charts.

Sensing that Jingliu was getting increasingly annoyed, Yasushi quickly looked away, not wanting to be the one to set her off.

"What, did you just look away?" Furuya asked, a teasing grin spreading across his face. "Are you blushing or something?"

"No," Yasushi replied, his tone flat. "It's actually the opposite. Can't you feel her anger bubbling up? If we keep staring, she might actually explode. I'm just trying to avoid that whole mess by not looking."

"Hmm... maybe," Furuya said, his head tilting to the side as he stared intently at Jingliu. "I think I'm gonna try my luck."

"Don't," Yasushi warned, but his advice was completely ignored as Furuya pushed himself up from his seat and walked over to the strange and icy girl.

With a casual wave, Furuya greeted her. "Hey, Jingliu! So, how are you liking the school so far?" he asked, trying to get a conversation going.

Jingliu paused, her chopsticks frozen in mid-air as she turned her unblinking, emotionless red eyes on him. Her stare was so intense it felt like it was drilling straight into his soul, making Furuya squirm uncomfortably under her gaze.

"It's been okay so far, I guess, though the endless questions and all this attention are pretty exhausting," Jingliu replied, her voice as cool as a cucumber.

Furuya, taking her response as some kind of green light, decided to keep going. "I hear you. So, um, would you mind telling me why you turned down that dude earlier?" he asked, leaning in like he was trying to get the inside scoop.

Jingliu's gaze sharpened, her eyes narrowing into slits like a snake about to strike. "My reasons are my business. I said no, and he should just respect that and drop it," she snapped, turning her attention back to her lunch like the conversation was totally over.

Realizing he wasn't getting anywhere, Furuya shuffled back over to Yasushi and slumped into the chair like a deflated balloon. "Total fail," he admitted, his shoulders sagging with disappointment, the very picture of defeat.

"Told you," Yasushi commented nonchalantly, splitting his attention between his food and the train wreck of a conversation he just witnessed. From his past experiences and careful observations, he had already pegged Jingliu as being similar to a character from a game he used to play, not to mention her behavior from earlier that day.

'Jingliu Yang was a tough nut to crack, not one to let her guard down around just anyone,' Yasushi thought to himself. He got that she had her reasons for being so guarded, a realization that came from his own experiences in a whole different world, and maybe from being just a tiny bit more emotionally mature than his classmates.

Yasushi knew how immature teenagers could be; he was intimately familiar with this, having experienced it firsthand in his previous life, a life filled with countless errors that he still carried as heavy baggage to this day.

"But, like, why though?" Furuya asked, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice, a hint of frustration.

Yasushi responded with a gentle warning, his voice soft but firm. "Everyone's got their own baggage, Furuya. Some people just wear it on their sleeve more than others. We shouldn't, like, jump to conclusions based on what we see on the surface, you know? Maybe those actions are just, like, habits to protect herself. It's not the best way to deal, but sometimes it's all people have as a defense mechanism, you feel me? Let's try not to be too hard on her, okay? Give her some time, and she might just chill out a bit."

Furuya looked at Yasushi, his eyebrows raised in a mix of confusion and surprise. "Dude, when did you get so wise?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

"It's just how I see things," Yasushi explained calmly, shrugging it off. "You can take it or leave it; I'm not trying to, like, preach or anything."

With that, Yasushi turned his attention back to his food, leaving the conversation hanging in the air like a half-finished sentence, a stray thought left to drift away.

Furuya stared at Yasushi for another beat, his mind racing as he then turned his gaze back to the mysterious Jingliu, already planning his next move.

He couldn't help but notice the side-eyes and not-so-subtle glares their classmates were shooting her way, a messy mix of her cold attitude and the whole complicated history between Japan and China, even in this alternate universe where that tension was still a thing — a fact Yasushi knew all too well.

"I'm gonna give it one more shot before the end of the day," Furuya declared quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Some people might call that harassment, so maybe you should, like, rethink that," Yasushi warned, his tone serious.

"Nah, I won't cross any lines, trust me," Furuya replied, a hint of swagger in his voice, a confident glint in his eye.

"Alright, I'm holding you to that then," Yasushi acknowledged, their exchange carrying a subtle weight of understanding the tricky, unspoken rules of high school drama, a shared awareness of the thin lines they walked.

+-+

The rest of the day followed its usual flow, with those little moments between classes turning into prime opportunities for students to sneak peeks at Jingliu from afar. Even the Chinese students in their grade couldn't resist the urge, their eyes glued on her, captivated by her beauty. Among them, Jishiha seemed particularly interested, hinting that he might just try to talk to her after school, the wheels in his head turning.

When the final class wrapped up and the school bell blared its familiar sound, the place erupted in a frenzy. Some students bolted for home, others headed off to their club activities, but a good chunk of them stuck around, drawn in by the sheer magnetism of Jingliu's presence, unable to look away.

Jishiha, his long, silky black hair swaying dramatically as he walked, strolled into the classroom with the confidence of a guy who knew he was all that. His brown eyes had a determined glint as he approached Jingliu, stopping right beside her, crossing his arms with a self-assured smile plastered on his face.

"Jingliu, right?" he asked, his gaze traveling down to take in her appearance, his voice velvety and soft.

The classroom turned dead silent, everyone holding their breath, all eyes glued on Jingliu, waiting to see what she'd do. Calmly finishing packing up her books, Jingliu finally looked up at Jishiha, her face a total blank as she sized up the guy standing before her.

"I am Jingliu, and you are?" she asked back, her voice cool and steady, not giving anything away.

"I'm Jishiha, also from China. It's nice to meet you," Jishiha replied, his confidence not even slightly shaken. "Let's cut to the chase. I know I'm hot, and you're obviously gorgeous. How about we go out sometime?" His bluntness sent a wave of gasps echoing around the room, the audacity of his question hanging in the air.

Next to him, Furuya, who was now standing beside Yasushi, couldn't believe what he was hearing, shaking Yasushi urgently. "Is this guy serious?" he whispered, his eyes wide as saucers, his jaw practically on the floor.

Jingliu met Jishiha's gaze with her usual blank stare, her answer short and to the point. "No," she stated bluntly, getting ready to walk right past him. But, her escape was cut short by his strong grip on her arm, stopping her dead in her tracks.

"...can I ask why?" Jishiha asked, somehow managing to keep his anger in check, but the sting of being shot down in front of everyone was definitely a new experience for him, totally throwing him off balance. He had dealt with a lot of crap in his life, but this was his first time getting rejected so publicly, so openly.

"I'm not interested in dating. It's a waste of time," Jingliu replied calmly, before making her exit from the classroom, the crowd of onlookers parting before her like the Red Sea, clearing a path.

"I see," Jishiha muttered to himself, hiding his disappointment with a forced chuckle, a fake laugh. "Looks like I've been rejected," he remarked with a twisted smile before leaving the room, his charm failing him.

But, Yasushi picked up on the anger simmering beneath Jishiha's surface, clear as day even in his tone that was trying way too hard to be charming. It was a fake front that Yasushi found low-key disturbing, knowing that those kinds of bottled-up feelings could be seriously dangerous, like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

The room and hallway immediately exploded with excited chatter after Jingliu's rejection, the noise spreading like wildfire. Her turning down one of the hottest, most popular guys in school sent Furuya and everyone else there into a total tailspin of disbelief beside Yasushi, their minds blown.

"Whoa, dude! Did that seriously just happen!? She turned down even him?! Then she's definitely gonna shut down all the other big shots too! Maybe us regular guys actually have a chance!" Furuya exclaimed, practically bouncing off the walls with excitement, his voice high-pitched.

"...let's not go there," Yasushi interjected, giving Furuya a gentle karate chop to the side of the head. "Anyway, let's get out of here, unless you've got baseball practice."

"You know it," Furuya replied with a grin, shooting Yasushi a thumbs-up. "See you tomorrow, it's Friday so we usually get a day off from practice then. Later!" With that, he grabbed his bag and bolted out of the room, joining the stream of students heading for the exits, disappearing into the crowd.

Yasushi let out a quiet breath he hadn't realized he was holding as he leaned against the window frame, his eyes glued to Jingliu's figure as she walked away from the school. There was a certain elegance in the way she moved, but he couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling that some shady characters were secretly tailing her, their intentions far from good.

It wasn't just a gut feeling for Yasushi; his intuition, sharpened by experiences from his past life, was picking up on the subtle hints of danger, like a sixth sense. He didn't owe her anything, but a sense of responsibility tugged at him, a feeling that he had to watch out for her and step in if things got sketchy.

With his mind made up, Yasushi gathered his stuff and slung his bag over his shoulder, quietly slipping out of the classroom, blending into the thinning crowd. His plan was simple: follow Jingliu from a distance, stay alert, and be ready to jump in the second things started to look sideways, a silent guardian.