Chapter 42: Jealousy

"As expected, Mei is the best!" Kiana said while she stretched her arms. Sitting for too long has made her body a bit stiff, she felt a relieved when she heard some cracking sounds from her shoulders and back.

"Geez, you don't have to say that out loud." Mei said as her face blushes a bit. She wasn't really weak in flattery since she grew up in a high society where people always wanted to go to your good side. However, when her friends tell her compliments, knowing that it was from the bottom of their hearts, she seems to become embarrassed a bit.

"I really can't argue with what Kiana said..." Glynne totally agrees with the white-haired girl. He never have thought that teaching Kiana would be that hard. There is a lot of things he needed to manage, like how the girl would always get distracted by random things, how she would scribble random things when he was not looking, and how she would sometimes whine when it gets hard. Long story short, he needed to pay a lot of attention when teaching her. Oh, not to mention that it would took him about half an hour to make her answer a single problem.

Yeah, Glynne can't help but have a distant look on his eyes upon remembering what happened a while ago. He can't stress enough how fortunate he felt when Mei arrived at the library. She was like a goddess that made a miracle on front of his eyes, she was able to teach Kiana most of the questions in just a short period of time. Adding to that, she also tutored the white-haired girl other subjects, while also giving some helpful pointers towards the boy's problems on the two subjects he was not good at. Glynne has renewed his impression of her.

Mei cleared throat as she was getting embarrassed. "Anyways, we should get going." she suggested upon looking at the orange tilt of the sun rays that penetrated through the library windows.

The other two didn't see any problem with it as they agreed with their friend's suggestion. The trio begun to clean up their desk as they gather their textbooks and putting them in their bags. They then proceeded to return the book towards their respective shelves. They were about to leave when Glynne noticed his phone vibrating in his pockets.

He wondered what is it and pulled out his phone. He powered it up and noticed Bronya has sent him a message.

"What is it?" Kiana goes to his back and got curious when the boy stop to check his phone. She didn't get a glimpse at the message though as he quickly turned the screen off and returned it to his pockets. This, for some reason made her pout.

"You two should go first. Seems like Bronya is calling for me at the weapon development center." he said while he picked up his bag and hang it on his shoulders.

"I'm coming too!" Kiana quickly suggested and also grabbed her bag. Her instincts is somehow telling her to go. She don't know the reason why but it never failed her before. "You're coming too right, Mei?"

"Eh? Ah, yeah." Mei was surprised by the sudden development and just subconsciously go with the flow. Though it wasn't like she has any problems with it since she wasn't the one on duty for cooking for the rest of the week. This is because of the presence of Rita and  also so that she could focus on her preparation for the upcoming exam.

Glynne stare at them briefly before he shrugged his shoulders. It isn't like he could decline them. Letting out a sigh, he agreed with them coming as they walk out from the library doors.

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"Ah, Glynne." Bronya called out when she noticed the boy appearing from the corner. She quickly ran to him and meet him with an embrace. "What took so long?"

"Sorry, I had something to do at the library." Glynne was surprised when the girl suddenly hug him. However he doesn't stop the girl as she snuggles her head on his clothes. A smile creep into his lips seeing Bronya acting like a spoiled sister.

"Ahem" Bronya was distracted when someone cleared their throat. She look behind Glynne to see a certain white white-haired glaring at her.

"What is Idiotka doing here?" she asked as her grip on the boy's clothes became stronger. She was like a cute animal hiding behind the corner as she was wary about the white-haired girl.

Both of them started glare at each other, invisible sparks seems to fly between them. They do this almost everyday but for some reason it was more intense this time. Glynne being the one who is in the middle of this, has a wry smile on his face. He look to his side to signal the other girl for help.

"Alright you two, cut it out." Mei, a specialist in mediating quarrels between her two friends, interrupted their staring contest by getting in between their sights. "Can't you see you're bothering Glynne here."

"Hmph, whatever.." Kiana responded while looking away.

"Bronya is sorry" Bronya look up and apologized to Glynne with puppy eyes, though that is what it look like to him. He smiled at her cute antics and pat the small girl's head.

"Don't worry about it, just please get along with Kiana from now on." he gave an advice, in which the girl seems to nod in agreement. "Anyway, isn't about time you tell me why you call me here?"

"Ah," Bronya has a realization upon Glynne reminding her about her original purpose. She begun to rummage her bag and brought out a silver colored M1911 handgun. She puffed her chest as she proudly presented it to him while saying "Tadaah"

"Eh?..... This is?" Glynne wasn't really sure on how to react. That handgun was that same handgun he stole back when both him and Mei was attacked in an alleyway. It was obvious from the first glance that it was modified as the usual black color has became silver. This might be so that it reflects the one who modified it.

"Go on... " Bronya urged the boy to pick it up as there was a smug look on her face.

Glynne was still confused when he received it and tried to have a closer look into it. In just a few seconds, his eyes widen in surprise as he realized the modifications that the girl put. It is seems to have the same specs as his other gun... No, it was definitely identical to it. He glance over to Bronya to see her puffing out her chest and pound it with "pon" sound.

"Bronya thought that Glynne might need another spare since M1911 can only hold seven bullets before reloading. With this, Glynne can have double that amount." Bronya explained, seemingly proud of herself.

Glynne has a wry smile on his face towards the small girl's consideration. Though what she said was true, this means that he would need to dual wield the two handguns. Not that he has any problems with, but he was pretty sure she doesn't know about it.

"Thanks, I appreciate it. " nonetheless, Glynne still was grateful for it. He kneeled down and patted the girl's head again. Bronya seems to be enjoy it as she is letting out a "Mhnnn" sound at every stroke.

Kiana has a mixed feelings watching how Glynne and Bronya interact with each other. She has no special feelings for the boy, at least that was what she thought. But for some reason, she has this prickish feeling inside of her chest.

She put her hand on her chest as she tries to understand what is wrong with her. She was unsure if it was jealousy but if that was the case, then why? She was confused, her heart belong to Mei, that's the fact. However it seems like it is slowly wavering as she don't know anymore.

She clenched her fist as shadows cover her eyes. A sudden thought raise inside of her mind as she can't believe what she is about to do.

"?!" as he stood up, Glynne was surprised when something soft bump him from behind. A pair on arms goes around his chest and embraces him fully. He jerk his head unconsciously to see who was it. And to his surprise, what met his sight was the top of the head of a certain white-haired girl. "Kiana!? What are you doing?!"

"........" she didn't respond to the boy's question and just hug him tighter. She was lucky that she was burying her face on his clothes and that she was behind him. If not, he would surely noticed how red her entire face was.

"Uhm, Kiana?" Glynne tried calling her name again but the girl only squirms in response. He tried asking for help but when he look in front of him, he noticed the silver-haired girl has a confused look at her face. This was also the same as Mei as he glance over to her to see her eyebrows being knitted.

He was clearly bothered by this, however it seems like he can't do anything about it. The two nearby people seems to be also a bit lost on what to do.

Glynne has no choice but to just let her be. It was very fortunate that school hours has already ended thus there are no students nearby. It would very awkward if anybody would see this.

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It has been quite a while since Kiana let go of the boy from her embrace. However she still stayed silent while looking down to the ground. Glynne has a feeling it would take a while as such he suggested to sit down for now.

As the group found a bench to sit, both Mei and Bronya left to get some drink in hopes that it would help Kiana to calm down. Though that was just on the surface, in actually the two wanted to give their friends some time to talk alone.

Glynne scratched the back of his head. There is this awkward silence between them and he really don't know how to break it. "...., Have you calmed down now?"

Ah!!!!! Are you an idiot me!? Why did you start with that!? — Glynne is shouting in his head as he quickly regretted his words.

"....., Mn" There was a pause before Kiana nodded her head a bit. This captured the boy's attention and manage to calm him down. He heave a sigh as he leaned his back on the bench and look above the skies.

Fluffy clouds tinted by the orange glow of the sun setting at the horizon. Glynne look at it in dazed while they are slowly passing by overhead. He closed his eyes and begun to gather his resolve. "......., Hey, can you tell me the reason why you did that?"

He noticed how shaken Kiana was when he uttered that question. She hang her head down further as she muttered, "I don't know.... "

Glynne stared at her for a while before he closed his eyes and put both of his hands behind his neck. "Is that so."

"Eh?" Kiana was surprised with the boy's nonchalant response. She glance over his direction to see the neutral look of his face. "T-that's it?! Isn't this the time when you're supposed to press me with for answers?!"

"Why?" Kiana was taken aback when Glynne look at her with a confused expression. "Didn't you already said it yourself? You don't know it so it means that you really don't know. Very simple right? Unless.., you're lying to me."

He white haired girl shut her mouth when the boy glared at her. It isn't like she could even rebuke his words either. Kiana look down on the ground again as she begun to arrange her jumbled up mind.

"Hey would you mind looking this way." Kiana snap out of her thoughts and turned her head towards Glynne. However it only goes halfway as her cheek was met by a pointed finger.

Glynne chuckled when the girl fell into a simple prank. He withdraw his hand and look at the Kiana pouting for doing something uncalled for. "As expected, you look cuter this way."

"Eh?" Kiana was surprised by Glynne's unexpected words. She felt her cheeks heating up as her mouth open and close, not knowing what should she respond.

"Seriously though, you've been quite depressed this passed few days. I would rather see that grumpy and arrogant side you cuz that is much better." Glynne stared at the face of Kiana that growing redder by the second. He chuckled at the sight and put his hands on her head. "That's why.., If there's anything bothering you, you're free to tell me anything so I help you solve that problem of yours as quick as possible."

That was the final nail in the coffin. Kiana heart has skipped a beat when Glynne told her those words. She breathed in deeply as she tries to calm her thumping heart that seems to be attempting to burst out of her chest.

She look up and gave the boy her brightest smile, "Yeah, I'll do just that!" before she leaned in closer and gave him quick peck on the cheeks.

It was Glynne's turn to be surprised this time as he cover the place where the soft lips touched. He was too late to ask why she did that as the culprit quickly ran off.

However when she was at a certain distance, she turned around and stick her tongue out. "Bleeh, that's your punishment for pranking me earlier!" and proceeded to ran away again.

Glynne let out a huge sigh as he leaned and look above again. "I really should have paid more attention when the old man was teaching me about girls." he muttered.

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"Oh my, quite a player aren't you, Glynne... " Rita muttered as she was watching the whole scene from upper floors of the school. Though she can't hear them, their actions alone was enough to tell her what is going on.

As she judge that she has seen enough, the maid begun walking down the hallway. Since school was so quiet after school hours, every tap of her heels on the floor echoes around.

Rita brought out a communication device and operated it to connect to a certain individual. She has a smile of her face thinking that her superior would likely be glad to hear about the information she has gathered.

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2443 words....... I did not expect that. I guess I just wanted to wrote a lot of things in this chapter..... Well, lets just say this is a treat for reaching 1k votes — YAY!!!

Seriously though, I didn't expect to reach this so soon..... So that is why ladies and gentlemen, am bowing down as I appreciate all of of your support by reading, voting, commenting, and adding this story to you library.

Onto other the news, we're nearing the climax of this arc.