Chapter 4

Rinaiane’s POV

”Found you.”

Just two words yet it brought me so much confusion. I’m about to ask him what does he mean when Lili’s thoughts caught my attention.

(Shoot! Why is he here? This is not good)

I looked at Lili, studying her facial expression and I didn’t miss how her eyes became unstable and panicked. Maybe she felt my gaze cause she looked at me but looked away immediately. 

“I never thought I would find you here.” the guy said while looking at Lili then back at me.

”Who are you?” I asked.

”Fino. Fino Parris.” he simply replied still with his amused expression. I can hear the girls’ gasps when he smiled but it looks sarcastic and fake to me.

”Fino, never heard of that name before. Are you sure you’re talking to the right person?” I ask in a calm way despite being in panick mentally. 

I mean who soen’t panick right? Without even saying my name, he just simple said that he found me and I don’t have the slightest idea what does mean and what got me more confused is Lili’s reaction. It seems like she knew this person but they’re, like, not in good terms, I guess. I don’t know.

”Salvador. Rinaiane Salvador, right?” 

“Yes..” I answered with hesitant.

”I know who you are, you’re somehow...” he said then tilted his head like he’s thinking of a right term to to express it. “Pri-“

”Princess.” said Lili, interfering Fino’s words. Both of us looked at her while she fakingly smiled at both of us but i can see her subtle glare to the guy in which he just replied with a smile, I bet that’s kind of pissing someone off. “She’s the princess in their family, actually she’s the one and only princess. You know, she looks like a princess that just came out from a fairytale, right?” 

“Yeah. Princess.” Fino said then smirked. “Just the right term to call her.”

I can sense that he’s being sarcastic about that one and I can also sense Lili’s urgency to push the guy away from me. 

(Go away, you psycho!)

Are they in a relationship before? But that’s impossible, from what I know, Lili has never had a boyfriend given that her brother is very strict about her having a boyfriend. But what if they’re in a secret relationship before? Gosh. I hate thinking too much.

Before I could even ask both of them, our instructor arrived. Since, the next seat from mine is empty, Fino just sat there without even asking if that seat is taken or not. 

(Uggghhhh... Can he just go away? He’s trying to destroy everything)

What does Lili mean that? Now, I can really confirm that something’s fishy about this teo but i can’t also deny the fact that he kinda look familiar to me, I mean, maybe we bump into each other before or maybe I just saw him somewhere.

With that thought, the image of the strange guy that I saw in the mall came back to me. I secretly scan this guy’s body structure. Now that I think about it, they have the same built but that’s impossible. Well, now that I am the “Campus Beauty” he might have known me, maybe one of my fans? or something? Forget about it. I rather think about vampires, werewolves, mermaids, priestess—

Priestess

It’s the second time that i heard this word today. What’s the meaning of this? Is this some kind of a fantasy genre life? Oh well, let’s just forget thta. I’d rather listen to these discussions than overthink this kond of things.

”Lili, can i drive the car?” I asked while we’re heading to the parking lot after our last class for today. All throughout the class, I just focused on the class but once in a while get distracted by Lili’s murderous thoughts about Fino while the latter was just focused in the class but there are times that  I caught him looking at me. Yeah, so weird.

I stopped my tracks when I noticed that lili is not by my side so I turned around and there she was, deep in thoughts while slowly taking her steps. Since Fino appeared, it seems like she’s always deep in thoughts that she can’t even hear me talking to her just like this moment. She’s walking straight still in deep thoughts without realizing that  I’m on theway until she bumped into me. Startled, she looked at me, eyes wide open.

”Are you even listening to me?”

”Oh, sorry.” she said and then composed herself. “What are you saying again?”

I look at her with dead eyes then rolled my eyes.

”I said, I will drive the car to the condo.” 

“Oh, yeah, sure,” she then handed me the keys and smiled.

”What’s wrong with you? Ever since you saw Fino a while ago, you seems bothered and always deep in thoughts. Do you know him, like, personally?”  I asked as we slowly made our way to the prking lot.

”Uhmm...she’s my brother’s nemesis?...”  she paused, then continued, “yeah, my brother’s nemesis.” 

Her nervous laugh just made everything clear: she’s lying. Her brother’s strict but I never heard of him having a friend nor enemy in his university. And I’ve known them since we’re still kids, so i pretty know both of them.

“So, whay don’t we go to the supermarket and buy some ingredients for tonight’s dinner?” she said, diverting my thoughts.

”Yeah, that sounds good. Let’s go.” 

I cling my arms to hers until we arrived at the parking lot and rode her car. Since it was still early, we arrived at the mallshortly and went directly to the supermarket.

”What’s for dinner, anyway?” I ask as she chose some vegetables carfeully.

”Bibimbap and kimbap,” she said, looked at me then dropped the cucumbers in our cart, “your favorite.”

”Woaaahhhh...what’s with you today? You’re spoiling me today. I might as well call you my sugar girl friend.” I said and she just laughed.

”Well, it’s just for today, since you cook dinner last week for five straight days, so I’m just trying to repay that.” 

“Okiedokie~”

We were just planning on buying the ingredients for our dinner but we bought everything we wanted to eat and now we’re carrying 4 bags each full of groceries.

We’re actually living in a condo near our university. My parents disagreed at first but later agreed after Lili’s parents convinced my parents that we’re gonna live in a two-bedroom condo owned by her family, so that’s how we lived together for three years now.

”You go first.” I offered after opening our condo.

”Thank you”

I went after her and was about to close the door when I got a glimpse of a figure of a man standing in the end of the hallway in my peripheral view but when I fully looked there, no one’s there.I shrugged my shoulders and thought maybe it’s just my imagination.