บท 23: Chapter 23: Just Like Ava
The girl who just walked in on Aqua glaring at Arsha was a second-year student who went by the name Maya.
A red-haired girl with pale skin who seemed to be one of the shortest in her class being up to about five foot five. Her eyes as blue as the sky always radiated with a warmth of positivity and she was always smiling just as she was smiling at her classmates now.
Just like Aqua, Maya had a number displayed on her watch but it wasn't as bold as Aqua's.
Ordinarily, it would be hard for someone sitting in Arsha's position at the moment to see it but he could clearly see the number fifty-six displayed on her watch's screen.
Being ranked fifty-six, it was apparent that she was one of the weakest in the class but having a rank like that in a class of over eighty students wasn't really anything to be ashamed of.
After explaining to Maya that she was there to talk to Arsha about something, Aqua turned to him with that death glare still there.
"Hey, I challenge you."
"To what?" Arsha responded, feigning ignorance.
"A duel at the arena, I got information that you'll be busy today so let's do it during lunch break tomorrow." She expressed.
"We're doing this again?" He sighed before taking a sip from his drink.
"I had a feeling that you were holding back last time and I was right. Besides, that was last year so it's mandatory. Just like last time you're only allowed to use your water ability so it won't count as a ranked match."
"You can go ahead and make it one, I don't care."
"So, you don't care about being below me?" She inquired.
Her gaze softened a bit at that moment as a subtle grin appeared on her face.
"I see, just make sure you show up or I'll make sure your nickname among the first years becomes, 'The Fraud." She remarked with a little chuckle before making her way out of the area.
Now that she was gone, Arsha took a deep breath before turning to his drink, completely ignoring Maya who was standing in front of him.
"Um…..Arsha." She called.
"What?" He responded, still not bothered to look at her.
"You're eating alone again." She uttered, sounding quite timid.
Well, that was her personality, Maya was quite a shy girl but one who went out of her way to talk to people if there was a need for it and she didn't really have any trouble talking to approachable people but she always struggled with talking to the secluded type of people. So, it didn't really make sense that she was going out of her way to talk to the least approachable person in her class.
"I never recalled people drinking this and calling it food." He responded with a calm voice that had a bit of harshness hidden beneath it. "If you're asking if you can sit and eat beside me, I don't really mind."
Maya's eyes brightened as soon as she heard that and she was able to take another step forward.
She slowly made her way to him and sat down beside him before proceeding to drop the lunch box and small plastic bag on the floor.
Arsha on the other hand acted like she wasn't there as he stared at the beautiful flowers in the garden while slowly taking down the contents left in the can.
'Why does it have to be the girl that looks like Ava trying to befriend me?'
Maya stared back and forth between him and the flowers he had his gaze on for a while before turning to the plastic bag.
"So, the cafeteria lunch isn't still to your liking?" She inquired.
"I already told you, I just don't like food in general except…."
"Meat, right?"
He turned to her at that moment and despite her timid personality, she didn't try to break the eye contact.
"Yes." He muttered before slowly turning away from her.
"Well, look what I got." She said before opening the plastic bag to bring out a sandwich, a beef sandwich to be precise. "It's a beef sandwich."
'I could already tell from the smell.'
"You brought me a beef sandwich?"
"Mhm." She responded with a nod. "And if you feel like you don't like that."
She opened her lunch box at that moment to reveal a piece of steak.
"Steak?"
He couldn't ignore that smell and now he had his gaze on the thing.
"Yeah, it's cooked medium rare, you said overcooked meat tastes just like every other food to you so I told the chef to make it medium rare." She disclosed. "You can go ahead and have a bite if you want."
'I told her all of that without thinking much of it but she actually took note of them and brought me these today.' He said subconsciously before raising his gaze to look at her. 'But still… '
"Isn't this supposed to be your lunch though?"
"Oh, don't worry about that, I already had lunch at the cafeteria." She responded with a smile.
'If you're going to look like Ava at least adopt another personality.' He said subconsciously before biting his lower lip.
"Here, you can have a bite."
She cut a little part of the beef and proceeded to pick it up with the fork in her left hand. Now she was pointing it toward his mouth.
After staring at the piece of meat stuck on the fork, Arsha finally let out a sigh of defeat.
"Fine, just give it to me."
"Huh? You're not just going to open your mouth?" That sounded really faint, like she didn't want him to hear it but Arsha had very sharp ears.
'What's that supposed to mean?'
"You mean like they do in those cheesy anime?" He responded.
"You heard that?" She stuttered.
"Yeah, sort of."
The fact that Arsha showed no form of reaction to that be it facial or even through his voice sort of triggered something in her.
"Forget I said that, I didn't mean anything by it."
She was starting to turn into a nervous wreck now, her face was red and her right hand was waving non-stop.
Arsha didn't really know what to say to her at the moment.
"There you are, Arsha."
The two quickly turned to the left at that moment to see Claudia standing there and that was the moment Claudia herself caught sight of Maya.
"And Maya." Her voice dropped a bit there with an aura of awkwardness as she slowly took a step backward. "Am I interrupting something?"
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