As soon as I thought of Kinn, he appeared. Speak of the fucking devil!
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Pete quickly got up from his chair and stood at attention, Pol and Arm following suit.
“Mr. Kinn, have you finished eating?” Pete asked.
Kinn had to wave his hand and tell them all to relax.
“Hello,” Tem and Jom greeted Kinn, their wai gestures stiff.
“Make yourselves at home. Oh, Arm, go get some water and snacks for them,” Kinn said. I squinted at him as he slid a chair over to sit next to me. They’re my friends, not yours. You don’t have to provide such good hospitality.
“Of course.” Arm went to do as Kinn ordered.
“You don’t have to,” Tem said quickly. “It’s… We’ll finish up and go. We won’t bother you for long.” I saw Kinn smile, his eyes staring past me. I scooted over a little, blocking his view. I still remembered that he called Tem cute.
“It’s fine, you can stay however long you want. My friends are coming over, too,” Kinn replied. His friends, really? And why was he being so creepily polite? How come he was never this nice to me? He was always shouting his head off when it was just us. What a fucking hypocrite!
“Y-yes,” Tem said, looking at Kinn and freezing up for a moment before turning back to keep cutting paper.
“If you want to check him out so bad, why don’t you jump over my head?” I grumbled. Kinn glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and smiled even wider.
“What’s the big deal? He’s cute,” Kinn said, half joking. I felt weirdly irritated. I wanted to stab his head with those scissors. I huffed at Kinn without reason until he let out a laugh.
He leaned over to me. “Have you eaten yet?” I leaned away, glaring at him in silence.
“Come on, don’t give me the silent treatment,” he said. I tried to ignore him, but he reached over with his finger to poke playfully at my mouth.
“Fuck off, Kinn!” I smacked his hand away. He quickly reached over with his other hand, placing it on my head and ruffling my hair.
“You’ve really learned to pout lately,” he quipped. I twisted away, pushing at his shin with my foot.
“I’m not pouting!” It was like the more I scolded Kinn, the happier he became. He reached over to squeeze my cheeks until my mouth puckered up. I swatted his hand away again, so focused on his nonsense that I forgot about the group project…
“Ahem… Where should we stick this?” Jom cut in. Kinn and I jumped away from each other. I looked around to see my friends staring at me in stunned silence for a moment—then they turned away and acted busy. Fuck!
Kinn chuckled and leaned back contentedly in his chair, crossing his arms. I turned to silently mouth “asshole” at him, then went back to work. Not long after, Arm came by with a large tray of snacks, but who had time to eat except Kinn? He sat there enjoying his food, still doing his best to provoke me. He kept trying to touch my waist, my neck, my arms, and my legs, whatever he could do to get a rise out of me. And he kept grinning so cheerfully, the psycho!
Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore. I turned to him. “Don’t you have anything else to do?”
Kinn brushed crumbs onto me. “I’m waiting for my friends, can’t you see?” he said, holding up a cookie to my lips.
“Then go wait somewhere else! What the hell are you bothering me for?” I asked. I couldn’t work in peace. I wasn’t putting up with his bullshit any longer!
“It’s my house. I can wait wherever I want,” he said with a straight face. Bastard! If he wouldn’t go, then I would! I dragged my chair to sit between Pete and Pol.
“Scoot over and let me sit,” I said. My friends quickly made space to let me sit between them. I turned to glare at Kinn, but he only laughed, then made an expression like he just thought of something. He scooted closer to Tem, picking up a plate of snacks and offering it to him.
“N’Tem, would you like some?” he asked. Tem looked a little confused, but he picked up a cookie out of courtesy, glancing at me in confusion.
“Oh! The gang’s all here. Hey, guys,” Tay remarked brightly as he walked over. The whole table greeted Tay, Time, and Mew with wais. I sat there motionless, not really wanting to pay my respects—not that Kinn’s friends treated me badly or anything, but I was annoyed.
“Hello.”
“We’re working here?” Mew asked, pulling his laptop out. I figured they were here to do their schoolwork, too.
“Right here,” Kinn answered. Arm and the rest had to bring another table and some chairs over for Kinn’s friends.
“So, are you guys here to work on your reports too?” Tay asked. He always acted way too familiarly with my friends. They all nodded in reply.
“Good! When we’re finished today, let’s go out for dinner, yeah?” Tay continued, turning to his friends for approval.
“Sure. But before you think about anything else, you’ve gotta finish this first!” Mew declared, holding Tay in a headlock and forcing him to look at his laptop. I just sat there looking at my report, but I was barely able to concentrate because Kinn kept staring at me.
“The fuck are you looking at?” I mouthed to Kinn, as slowly and clearly as possible so he could read my lips. He shrugged before trying to provoke me again.
“Are you almost done with your report?” he asked Tem, who flinched a little and turned to answer him awkwardly.
“Uh… We’re nearly done,” he said. “We’ll hurry up so we can leave soon.” I looked between Tem and Kinn in irritation, a strange itch tugging at my heart.
“Hey, no, I’m not chasing you away, I’m just asking,” said Kinn. “When you’re done tonight, do you want to go for a drink?”
Tem glanced at me, then at Kinn, looking pretty uncomfortable. He seemed even more tense than when he first arrived.
“Er…Porsche, what do you think?” Tem asked me.
I said nothing, staring at Kinn in silence. He looked back, smiling mischievously. He was clearly trying to piss me off.