Chapter 4: Distracting

Heli’s Point of View

I FORCED myself to remain calm the days following my visit to the Frenieres house. I almost lost my cool during the brief moment I was there. My mate’s grandparents were infuriating. How dare they try to stop me from taking my mate to our world? They are just mere humans. What can they do to stop me?

They should be grateful that Akiro was there or else I might have drained them of their blood. They were trying to tell my mate to avoid me and not to listen to whatever I was going to say. Fucking ridiculous humans.

I badly wanted to return to our world to calm myself down, but I couldn’t. Time works differently in Eldritch and the human world, so if I go back home to the palace and return here to the human world just a few hours later, weeks or months could pass by immediately. And I can’t waste more time. I should be focusing on convincing my mate to return home with me, especially now that his grandparents seemed adamant not to let him go near me.

I scoffed at the thought. As if anyone could ever stop me. 

“Are you free later?”

I turned to where my mate was hanging out with his friends. They’re sitting on the bleachers watching those boys on the field running around and passing a ball to each other.

Akiro’s friends were surrounding him, as if he were the center of their group. I couldn’t deny he really stood out among the others. Aside from his extremely good looks, his friends look so plain and boring. I don’t even know why he chose to hang out with those people.

“I have a paper to finish later. Our leader wanted to at least finish the draft so we could have it checked already,” Akiro responded.

The girl who asked him instantly frowned, the look of disapproval on her face was so obvious. “Your leader’s Jennifer, right?”

Akiro nodded.

“That bitch should learn how to calm her ass down,” the same girl said.

“Hey, don’t call her that,” Akiro reprimanded the girl softly, which made her flush. “I agree with her. Finishing this paper earlier is better so we could enjoy the days before the semestral break.”

Like a sycophant, the girl hastily nodded her head in agreement, as if she had never said anything about whoever that Jennifer was a while ago. 

I followed my mate all through his classes, waiting for the time he'd be alone so I could finally show myself to him. 

I’m sure he’s curious about me. He may look terrified when he sees my ability, but I caught the hint of awe and curiosity behind it. I’m also quite sure his grandparents didn’t explain anything to him.

Which made me curious how they knew about us. Were Akiro’s parents from our world? But that would mean Akiro is also a vampire, which I’m sure is not. I smelled his blood— it was so human. Not even a trace of any vampire blood. 

So how did that old couple know about our kind? If a human who has no connection to our world finds out about us, their memory of knowing our kind will immediately get wiped out. But Akiro’s grandparents still knew about us. How did that happen?

I shook my head to get it out of my mind when I finally heard Akiro bidding goodbye to his friends. I followed him towards a shop near his university. The strong scent of caffeine and sweet pastries immediately attacked my nose. There were only a few people around as well, but Akiro chose to sit at the farthest corner. Seeing that no one was looking in his direction, I took the seat in front of him and let myself become visible.

He was taking out something from his bag so he didn’t notice someone sitting in front of him. But when he was arranging his things on the table, he finally saw me. As expected, my mate jumped in surprise. His beautiful eyes were wide in surprise, lips parted slightly as he gaped at me.

“Y-you! Where the hell did you come from?” He asked in a tight voice, trying not to yell despite his surprise.

The side of my lips rose at his question. “What do you mean? I came here first. You were the one who sat in front of me.”

“What?” He muttered, looking at me in disbelief. “No, I came here first. I’m pretty sure no one was occupying this table before I got here.”

“But here I am.”

“You snuck behind me, didn’t you? Because if you were really sitting here before I did, I wouldn’t have come here at all.”

He’s so fucking blunt. I like it.

“What are you going to do?” I asked, changing the topic.

He cast a suspicious glance, but didn’t point out the way I had changed the topic. “We have a research paper to do, so I’m staying here to finish my part.”

“Research paper? What’s that?”

“You don’t know what a research paper is? How did you finish high school and college if you didn’t know what it was?”

I leaned back on the chair as I crossed my arms on my chest. “I don’t have an idea about any of what you said.”

Vampires' education is quite different from humans'. We study a few same subjects like them, but we only study it for five years and once we finish it, we’ll have practical activities awaiting us. 

“What?” Akiro frowned at me. “Who doesn’t know those things?”

I shrugged. He just rolled his eyes and focused back on his things. I glared at it for taking my mate’s attention, but it wouldn’t cower in fear and leave, so I just turned to look at my mate.

“Stop staring,” he suddenly said after a few minutes of silence. He lifted his head and I saw how his ears turned bright red.

I smirked. “What?”

“Stop staring at me. It’s distracting. I have to finish this,” he said while glaring at me, though he didn’t seem mad.

“I’m not doing anything besides looking at you. How was it distracting?”

“Being stared at makes me feel conscious. I can’t concentrate on what I’m doing,” he hissed in irritation. I can’t help but to admire his frowning face. He looks adorable when he’s annoyed.

“Hey! I just told you to stop staring!”

“Stop being attractive first then,” I replied, grinning as his cheeks turned into an adorable shade of red.

“I’ll just do this at home. I can’t concentrate with you—”

“Do you think I won’t follow you to your house?” I raised an eyebrow, challenging him.

Does he think his grandparents scare me?

“My grandparents won’t let you in,” he confidently said.

I scoffed. “As if a mere human could stop me, Akiro. If I wanted to be with you, no one could stop me.”

Akiro shot me a glare. “You are so annoying. I don’t even know you, mister. Why did you even follow me here?”

“Finally, you asked,” I said, leaning forward as I prepared myself for the long explanation. “You see, there’s this—”

“Wait, no. I was told not to entertain whatever you’re going to tell me, so keep those things to yourself. Besides, I still have work to do and it looks like you have so much to say,” Akiro cut me off before I could even start.

My lips parted in bewilderment as I stared at my mate. 

“If you’re not going to leave me alone, then just be quiet there and don’t disturb me. Or I’m really going to leave and just finish this at home,” he added while shooting me a glare.

Before I could even speak, he averted his gaze and turned his attention back to his books and papers.

What the fuck. My mate has the nerve to fucking interrupt me from speaking.