"C'mon, [Name]. Let's go on a date, if you really like me that much."

"I'm telling you again," you said in exasperation, "Kaen, that letter wasn't from me."

You two were bickering back and forth. Or at least, it was a one-sided conversation where the welfare head simply wouldn't listen to you. For someone who was supposed to care about student affairs, he didn't seem to care much about your well-being. And besides, the two of you had a project to do.

"Hmm." Kaen ignored your words again, instead shuffling the papers on the desk. You were at his dorm, and the two of you were supposed to be discussing your assignment—that was the only reason why you had accepted his invitation. But for some reason that eluded you, he seemed very interested in making small talk instead. Well, you supposed you could let him off a little bit as he had been obediently finishing his part of the group project.

"I have a snake." You reminded him, sighing. "It bit Tanaka, remember?"

"I like snakes." Kaen tilted his head. "They're cute."

Terry poked his head out. Kaen shot him a smile. A warm, seemingly genuine one and for the briefest of a moment, you wondered if he was an actual good person. The previous members of the council all seemed to be rather dodgy.

"Whatever. This is still way worse than the time my grandmother poisoned me," you muttered under your breath. Terry gave you a little nip on the skin as if to tell you you were being rude. Whatever sorcery Kaen did, you didn't know. Terry seemed to like him, and perhaps the feeling was mutual.

Kaen looked at you with interest. "How exactly did you befriend...Terry? Do you like all kinds of snakes?"

"Sure, they're cute."

"Wait. What's your favorite animal?"

You pondered over your answer for a while. Did you have a favorite? It was a little hard to decide, if you had to be completely honest. There were sharks, but one killed your cousin, there were elephants, but one unfortunately stampeded on your great aunt...

"Tigers," you said eventually, "they're cute." They were like gigantic cats, except they were stronger and had a larger tendency to kill you. Your liking for them had started after your father had brought back two from some country. Again, you had to send them back, but those days with them had been delightful. Granted, they had almost given you a hole in your stomach with their sharp, gleaming claws...but they were cute, so you could let it pass.

"That's an odd choice."

"Is it?" You shrugged. "Can we please go back to the assignment?"

"We have two weeks to do it."

"I'd rather get things done first," you furrowed your eyebrows. "Hey, you're part of the student council, aren't you? Should you really be procrastinating like this?"

"I got an idea." Kaen ignored whatever you were saying, snapping his fingers, "there's a cafe down the road. Why don't we go there?"

"There are plenty of cafes all around the campus." You sighed, "Terry—are you nodding your head? Why do you like this guy so much?"

"Even your pet agrees with me." Kaen smiled. "Come on, cutie."

"You know, for a guy that really has the whole boy next door look, you act like the opposite. Looks can be deceiving," you muttered. "My niece looks like a coquette doll, but really, she's a menace. As revenge for sewing up her mouth once—she came and poured poison in my shampoo bottle. My scalp was on fire for like, four weeks."

"Did anyone tell you you have a really interesting family?" Kaen looked at you, mystified.

"Once or twice. They are just a little weird."

A little weird? Screw that. They were mega strange, Kaen thought to himself. It wasn't exactly like you were weird, to be honest—it was more that your sense of what was normal and what was clearly not was so tilted and completely off it made you seem...

It was concerning, actually.

"Well?" You closed your laptop, looking at him expectantly. Truth to be told, your fingers were also becoming sore from typing. And your flask that held your steaming coffee had been finished.

"You're coming to the cafe?"

"Unless you were joking, then yes."

"Good choice," Kaen gave a small smirk, "because I know the best places. There's one called Cat's eye, down the road."

"Ooh." You brightened up. "I like cats."

Kaen took your bag, slinging it over your shoulders. You were surprised at that kind gesture—yet was also slightly wary. Was he being nice to curry favor with you? To do a scheme that would involve your downfall? Or was he trying to be friends with you, after possibly being flattered by your non-existent confession? You were still extremely suspicious of Tanaka and his actions—unless they were led or created by a bigger force.

"Thank you." You said sincerely, walking next to him. "You don't really have to go that far as my work partner, you know."

"Well," Kaen smiled, dimples showing on his cheek—without smiling, he usually looked expressionless—"you're cute."

Cute? You? Cute?

Was Kaen trying to do something? After all, he was a council member. You couldn't quite bring yourself to fully trust him, considering how suspicious he was.

"Uh, thanks," you replied, a bit caught off guard. "But seriously, let's focus on the project. We can't afford to procrastinate—we have like..."

Kaen chuckled, seemingly unfazed by your attempt to redirect the conversation. "Work can wait a little. Besides, I think it's good for us to get to know each other better."

Better, you rolled that word over in your head, feeling the edges of your lip tug up, well, you did need at least one friend...

.

.

"One black coffee." You ordered at the cashier, "no sugar, no sweeteners."

Kaen observed you incredulously. Black coffee? He didn't bring you all the way to such a grand cafe, with its arching columns and a water fountain just for you to order that. Well, the cafe probably used some exclusive beans, but still!

Meanwhile, you were satisfied. The cafe was playing Mitski in the background.

Moon, tell me if I could

Send up my heart to you?

And like its name, there were arrogant, pompous cats wandering around. A cat cafe—Kaen had brought you to a cat cafe! Your reading of Kaen immediately became positive.

As you waited for your order, you took a moment to observe the cafe's surroundings. The dim lights and the aroma of brewing coffee gave the place a cozy feel. A few students huddled together in corners, engrossed in their books or laptops, probably fellow procrastinators like yourself. Well, you usually liked to procrastinate, but certain times you felt this driving need to do the work...

"There's donuts too," Kaen said offhandedly, "and cake. Biscuits. You don't have to only get that, [Name]."

The barista handed you the steaming cup of black coffee, and you noticed the way her eyes flickered over your uniforms, widening in amazement.

Daisei Institution was extremely renowned. People tried to become friends with students from there as it meant an automatic ticket to some level of luxury.

"Ah," you blinked. "Does there happen to be red velvet here, or...?"

You had eaten Red Velvet recently, but who cared about that? You started to dig into your pockets for a card, but Kaen shook his head—

What the hell? Was that a black card? A student had a black card?

You should have known that everyone in the academy was filthy rich.

"Go find us some seats first, [Name]." Kaen called out to you, "and be sure Terry doesn't bite any of the cats."

You felt a gentle, soft rubbing against your thigh. A beautiful Siamese cat was purring at you, its blue eyes looking innocently at you.

"Hey, pretty girl," you murmured gently, "what's your name?"

You squinted at her tag. It said Sakura, which was a cliche, but nevertheless, beautiful name. It followed you even as you found a secluded corner near the window and settled into a comfortable chair.

'Cause my love is mine, all mine

I love mine, mine, mine

Nothing in the world belongs to me

But my love mine, all mine, all mine

Sakura was still against your leg, purring with contentment. It was exactly how a tiger would sound like, except it was louder and tended to have a deeper, rolling feel to it. More like a growl.

Terry slithered out of your bag and onto the table, seemingly content in the new environment. You absentmindedly stroked his scales as you waited for Kaen to return. When he did, he had two steaming cups of coffee in hand, and two plates with the most delectable cake you had ever seen.

Taking a sip of your coffee, you winced at the bitter taste but welcomed the jolt of caffeine coursing through your veins.

"You don't even seem like you like black coffee," Kaen said with amusement, "why put yourself through that suffering?"

"That's when the red velvet comes in." You said flatly.

The first bite of the red velvet cake was pure bliss, the sweetness dancing on your taste buds. You must have looked funny, of sorts—your eyes closed with satisfaction, and a little smile on your face.

"You finally seemed to relax."

You chewed the morsel in your mouth, tilting your head. "Do I usually seem rigid?" You had heard that before, truthfully. People claiming you were intimidating, menacing, cold. Hard to approach. You didn't see it.

"Well." Kaen twirled his fork, absentmindedly pressing down onto the chocolate cake he had gotten for himself, "not exactly. But you are hard to decipher. You are aware that no normal human would have sustained such a ridiculous amount of injuries, right? And live to tell the tale?"

"Oh, no." You politely shook your head. "I'm perfectly normal. I got lucky with my genes, that's all." Your body language was unsuspecting, languid. You weren't lying, that was for sure, but with you, Kaen knew you expected the unexpected. You could very well be a brilliant liar.

Genes, as you put it. Yes, perhaps that was one factor in your superhuman body and traits, but Kaen also knew a large part of it was contributed by the fact—that from your wild tales of your family—you had simply grown in a different environment. You were a strange puzzle to solve, and there were only bits and pieces scattered around that Kaen wanted to catch. He didn't know how much Daichi had learned, or even Saito, or Jun—

But he wanted to be the one to solve it. To solve you. The mystery of [Name]. Perhaps this would be his backward plan, unlike his vicious one last year—he would learn and analyze every part of you, get you to fall for him, before making you leave. If you fell in love with him, you wouldn't even have to be forced into it.

You could simply be coaxed.

You were utterly unaware of your capabilities. The other council members were beginning to realize you were a foreboding opponent. Soon, it wouldn't become a matter of money. It would very plainly become a matter of pride.

The member's hubris would be the cost of their downfall. Kaen would approach it differently—he would approach you differently.

He would take it slow, easy, relaxed. He would get your trust.

Then he would be the one to win.

.

.

"It's time we head back." You finished the last few drops of your coffee, placing the fork down. "It's getting late. We can finish the rest of the project soon, tomorrow. Do you want to meet at my place, instead?"

"And see Jun?" Kaen's voice was deceitfully calm, but you sensed a little hostility inside, "we can meet at my own place."

"You two aren't on good terms, I take it." You patted the little cat goodbye, seeing how Terry hissed in jealousy—"surprising, considering you six are known as the Golden Council."

Kaen gave a dry chuckle, tossing his own cup of coffee into the trash. He hadn't finished drinking it, you noticed. In fact, it was still almost full. What a waste—did Kaen buy the black coffee to try it, or was it to simply match your taste? You noticed that he had one earbud plugged in his ear, the other empty.

On his phone was Eleven, by IVE. Another one of your favorite songs.

"Oh, you would be surprised by how many of us don't get along," Kaen said lightly, like he wasn't too bothered by it. "We simply have differing views. But when it does come to council matters, we do care. We are obliged to. We can't leave a school and the student body to rot, after all."

"You are the welfare head, aren't you?" You kicked a stone, sending it tumbling over. It hit the drains with a little splash. "What kind of things do you have to deal with?"

"Nothing much, really." Kaen pursed his lips, looking deep in thought. He was a handsome boy, like you had already thought numerous times—the kind of handsome where beauty simply became objective, and not subjective. Something about those high cheekbones, that defined jawline, those deep, mesmerizing eyes—with him with such an expression, you would have been embarrassed to think that he could very well have been someone's Dorian Gray.

"Actually," Kaen started, "well, at times there are little things that are essential towards the school's mental health. Little confession boxes, for example. Sounds childish, but it works. Having top tier mental health personnel available."

"Do people privately consult with you?" You asked, curious. That did sound like a ton of work, if you had to admit. Work that you yourself would be quite pleased to do. No, you very much preferred to laze around, preferably with a bottle of vodka by your side. Ever since that grandpa had fed it to you...

Well, let's say you wouldn't wish for Jun to know that secret of yours.

"No." Kaen's answer was simple. "I don't. I was not trained, I'm not a professional. My words could be detrimental to some."

Oh. That was—

"Let's go, cutie." Kaen gave that slow, easy smile of his. Relaxed, confident, slightly teasing. "Why are we talking about such mundane topics?"

Again with the nickname. However, you willed yourself to be unfazed this time, and merely gave a nod back.

"I thought you wanted us to know each other more. That was the whole purpose of the cafe visit, no?"

"You have a point."

You were about to answer before there was a strange, choked sound behind you. Whirling around, you squinted your eyes to find an elderly man choking. You didn't know what he was choking on—he held a half eaten donut in his hand and a cup of coffee, but from his pallor and the way his knobby hands trembled...

"Hey. There's a guy dying there." You pointed at the elderly man. "He kinda reminds me of—wait, nevermind. Shouldn't we help him, Kaen?"

He's already that old, Kaen thought silently, maybe Mother Nature's just calling him. You were surprisingly nonchalant about this, but from the way you were tugging him, maybe you had a humane side to you he could—

"I've always wanted to try something." You muttered.

"Try something...?"

Right before his eyes, you picked that old man up, squeezed his ribs so hard that the man immediately started moving about desperately; but you showed no sign of relaxing.

"[Name]? What are you..." Kaen paused. "What are you doing?"

Kaen didn't sound bothered that the man was choking, to be honest. He only sounded bothered by what you were doing.

"Trying something out."

You did not say I'm helping him, or he needs my help. Your words were simple, just three of them, and your tone was blandly polite and straightforward when they rolled off your tongue. Kaen made no effort to move, and instead watched what you were doing.

The man was—

"I'm trying to do the heimlich maneuver, " you frowned. "It's not working. My father said it would work, though?" You continued to squeeze the man harder, and a little blob of spit fell onto the ground, dissipating through the cracks.

The man went slack in your arms.

"Huh?"

"What?" Kaen stared at you and you looked innocently back at him.

"[Name], you just..."

"He stopped choking," you furrowed your eyebrows as you stared at the motionless man before you, "what does this mean? Did it work?"

You noticed how Kaen immediately looked around the premises—and he seemed relieved that there was no one in sight, and you two weren't wearing your school uniforms. His voice lowered, and seemed more mirthful than panicked.

"I think you knocked him out—or killed him."

"Oh." You glanced at the body in your hands, before letting go of the man and allowing him to hit the ground with a thud, "oh, well. Where should we dispose of the body?"

Again, you did not think of trying to revive him. Like to do CPR, for example. Your immediate concern was to hide your tracks, which really made you wonder what your home environment and situation was like. Were your parents as blatantly flippant as yours? As twisted, in such a toned down, calm manner that it was easy for people to miss the warning signs?

"Wait. Now I remember. My father didn't call it the Heinlich maneuver. He called it drop dead," you had the decency to look embarrassed, "I must have confused you."

Choosing to ignore what you just said, Kaen gave a lengthy sigh. "Those are completely different things. How did you confuse them?"

"Don't know. Probably because they both involve squeezing organs, or something. Hey, I think I know what to do with this guy." You poked his skin, which was thankfully still warm to the touch. The coffee had spilt all over his denim jeans, and unfortunately now it looked like he had peed in his pants. You pressed your fingers against his wrist, seeing that he was still alive. His pulse had been a bit faint, but he would survive, nevertheless.

"What do you propose?"

"Let's abandon the body."

"There's no one watching at the moment, but it's still highly risky—"

"Hey," your voice was tinged with a little irritation, "I checked his pulse. He'll be fine. I'm not that careless to actually not care about killing someone. I do have a moral compass."

Kaen doubted that. But if he chided you on being inhumane, it would be a pot calling the kettle black.

"And," you continued, "the security cameras are not facing us. It's tilted and slanted at a forty three degree angle, so we're safe. They revert every three minutes, and we have about forty seconds to leave."

What? If the earlier things hadn't surprised him, now this did. The way you had said it was casual, lofty. Calm. Just who were you, really? This whole thing was on a completely different level—security levels, really?—what the hell? If anything, it only made Kaen more and more intrigued in every action you took. Every single one.

"He has a bunch of medicine in his pocket—things that he has to take, probably." You assessed the situation, "so this was a pre-existing medical condition that made him ill. I didn't do anything...okay, maybe I did. But I just wanted to try something. I'll pay for the hospital bills privately and apologize to the person."

Wow. Now you were deflecting the blame.

"So? We have twenty six more seconds."

Kaen sighed. "Whatever you say, cutie."

Discarding bodies. Now, that was something you were familiar with. Back in your family, this was common—very common. But instead of doing such a niche, uncomplicated trick like this, your family preferred to use garbage bags.

As you were prepared to exit the place, along with Kaen, a young woman came rushing up. She was soaked with sweat; tears rolling off her cheeks and a bag clutched to her side, which you noticed, was empty.

"Did you happen to see a man nearby? He—" She struggled to catch her breath, "he stole my wallet—he's been doing that to the neighborhood people for months. And the police are useless. They are never able to catch him. He wears a really ugly pair of denim jeans—and he has knockoff brand shirts too..."

Ah. The ugly denim jeans made a lot of sense.

"Oh, yeah," you blinked your eyes and pointed to the man behind you, still sprawled on the floor, "is that him?"

The lady gaped. "How did you...the man has been escaping the police for months!"

"I tend to have very good luck."

The lady knelt next to the man, reaching into his pockets. You saw the way her eyes lit up, sparkling with unbridled glee and pure relief as she recovered a wallet. "This!" She exclaimed, "I've been so worried about my funds..."

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that," you nodded your head. "So he's a bad guy?"

"Yes," The lady nodded her head fervently, "he may look like an elderly person, but he's really not. He wears disguises, look at that ugly mustache he has on—but he's only twenty, I believe. An elderly couple he stole from went bankrupt as they had their life savings inside. It was horrible."

.

.

"We get rid of bad people, [Name.]" Your father smiled at you. You did not remember much except for the slight stain of red on his cheek, smudged and trailing from his cheek to his mouth. It took you a small moment to realize—

"It's not your blood, daddy." You blinked your eyes at him, your hands itching to touch his cheek. How did blood feel like, you wondered? Was it slimy? Wet? Did it feel sinful?

"Well, you have always been an intelligent child." Your father grinned, "but one day you will be the one to take over, y'know? There are tons of things I can teach you," he suggested, "like methods. There's drop dead—stupid name, I know, but it gets to the point; and there's dolls."

.

.

"Kaen." Your eyes were still on the person on the floor, "let's stall for like, a minute before we leave. The cameras will shift back then."

"I still don't know how you know all about camera positions, [Name]. What are you planning to do?"

"Hmm," you smiled, taking Kaen off guard, "I don't really have anything to do right now, and I can't do much in my injured state."

"So—"

Then you took Terry out.

The snake.

The woman took one singular look at the snake and fainted. Oops. Now that was two casualties...

"Ooh. It worked. I don't know what's with people fainting after seeing a snake, but..."

Whatever. Nevermind this person's hospital bills. You cared a lot more about doing whatever your father would have liked to do.

Your smile was practically devilish as Kaen would have liked to describe it. It resembled Akabane Karma, which really wasn't a good thing. Your eyes were flashing with mischief and something else that the welfare head just couldn't decipher: there was something off, odd, unnerving.

...Everyone is really underestimating you, Kaen thought quietly. I wonder if Daichi has already done a background check on [Name].

"Hey, what's your favorite anime? Or favorite character."

Kaen didn't exactly watch anime, but he said the first thing that came to mind. The one who resembled you.

"Akabane Karma."

"Oh," you brightened up, "the one from Assassination Classroom? I really liked that anime. They killed the teacher, didn't they?" You wrinkled your nose. "I found it pretty relatable as I nearly did the same."

Kaen looked warily at you. Well, he didn't quite follow where you were going with this, but he was definitely concerned with the whole killing part...

"Tada! Wasabi!"

To Kaen's utter amazement, you pulled out a tube of wasabi. Did you just have that casually in your pocket?

"Terry likes it," you said as a way of explanation. Like that even made the situation less incredulous.

"Are you..."

"Are you going to say no? Come on, Kaen. It'll be fine."

Kaen considered it for a moment. He knew he wasn't exactly a good character—that much was obvious from when the previous game had happened and he had won—and parts of him were viscerally twisted and there was a craving that even he didn't understand. A craving for some sort of foolish, violent fun...

Kaen had said the members weren't close. And yes, they weren't. But there was something in common with all of them despite the different personalities they all had; and that was the fact that they all seeked a wild fun that could only be satisfied through the games.

And now you could offer it to him.

He should just join the council, Kaen closed his eyes, letting out a sigh, yet we are going against him. We are making an enemy out of him.

It helped that they all had connections. Daichi was filthy rich, Saito's father owned a long line of companies that frequently sponsored gaming equipment—Akio was the son of a businessman and heir to conglomerates. Jun was, well...

With a frown, Kaen realized he really didn't know anything about Jun. He had been recommended to join by another member—Akio, was it? But other than that, Jun seemed somewhat familiar to him...something about his curt demeanor was also reminiscent of someone.

"I'll go." Kaen blurted out, heading to where you were already beginning to squeeze the wasabi out, "give me a moment."

"We have three minutes."

Kaen glanced at the man on the floor, then at you.

You were such a mystery. You were really a mystery. Kaen briefly wondered if any of the council members had already really seen this sight of you. The previous victims had been desperate, begging. They had been utterly wrecked, and Kaen had gone to extreme lengths to prove somewhat that he was above the council members.

There were so many victims. Five, or six, by now? Seven?

There was Itsuki, Ruta, the list went on. All of them were the same kind. Eager to impress, proud, also intelligent. Some of them took days to break, others took weeks. But none of them had been this level of strange. This level of madness. You weren't morally right, and now Kaen saw that in plain sight. You had the same problem that every single one of the council members had too; except you were completely unaware of it.

Completely unaware.

"Hey, hurry up." You frowned. "You just took seven seconds staring off into space. It's a pity he's unconscious. My mother always said that torture is better when the person is alive... and he's knocked out."

"Relax." Kaen watched the sight in front of him—the man's—well, he was a thief, of sorts—nose was now clogged with wasabi, and he would definitely have trouble getting up or even breathing. How he was still alive, he marveled at. He would ponder over your strange words the minute he analyzed you more.

He mentioned his father, his mother... Kaen was assuming that they were the ones who had influenced you. Killing. He mentioned killing too.

"And now let's take a selfie." You nudged Kaen, "you didn't even do anything."

"I was thinking."

Thinking about you and who the actual hell you are.

Snap! was the indication that you had taken a picture of the both of you.

"Who's the social media manager? Wouldn't it be funny if we posted this on the school page?"

"It beats the whole we can't let the cameras catch us idea, don't you think?"

"You have a point." You huffed. "Well, I'll just send it to my father instead. I think that'll be fun. Maybe he'll send more of that Milan stuff as a reward."

"Mm." Kaen answered non-committedly, pulling you to the side and finally letting go when you two were out of the crime scene, "what's your family like?"

"Normal, just a little weirder than average. It's mostly my mother." You shrugged. Your legs were starting to hurt from squatting down so much. You have decorated the man's face with wasabi in the shape of a heart. What you really wanted to do right now was to blast Stray Kids with your headphones, and grab a soft drink with ice cream. Granted, you had just eaten cake, but that was irrelevant and unimportant to the story.

"That's a CD store. Let's crash there. The weather is getting pretty bad." Above you two, thunder crashed and you saw the tell-tale signs of a thunderstorm—the flashes of lightning, the ominous gray clouds. And while your mother had technically taught you how to bottle lightning with a kite, you didn't exactly have those materials now.

"Huh? Oh, fine. Whatever you say, cutie." Kaen's smile was lopsided and his body movement was languid, slow. He followed you into the CD store, looking around.

"I've never been to one of these places before."

"I don't expect you to," you replied, pleased that they were playing Salvatore, a song you liked—"but it's like a little haven. There's like a certain..static smell to it, if you get what I mean."

Kaen raised an eyebrow at your description but decided not to press further. Instead, he watched you curiously as you combed through the shelves, going from one side to the other.

The CD store was a haven indeed, with rows of shelves filled with eclectic music genres. You could even smell the scent of the printed music covers—some new, yet most of it was old. Vintage, which you preferred. Your home had loads of it; your mother liked collecting them.

"So, why are we hiding from the rain in a CD store? Couldn't we just use an umbrella?" Kaen asked, flipping through vinyl records with mild interest.

"Do you have an umbrella?"

"I—" Kaen rummaged around in his bag, before he gave a defeated sigh. "No, I don't."

"Nevermind. We can get a cab in the worst case. Do you want to leave first? We can finish the assignment tonight."

Kaen shook his head, his dark strands of hair falling over his eyes. That only made him more attractive—and you shifted your gaze to the vinyls you held in your hand to distract yourself. The council could very well have been a kpop boy group.

"I have basketball practice tonight."

Ooh, one of your father's clients was a basketball superstar once. Granted, your father had been tasked to, well—

Nevermind.

"No pressure," you nodded your head, "we can finish it tomorrow. If you really need to leave first, then do so."

Kaen paused. He did need to go for practice. He really couldn't afford loitering around here any longer, considering that he was bound to be late for basketball.

"I'll see if I can watch." You added wryly.

"See you later, cutie," Kaen decided after a while. Are you watching? You were watching his basketball practice? Why? Did you somehow catch feelings for him? His plan...

I heard somewhere they give out free drinks and snacks there at the court, you thought. I'll drop by later.

.

.