She stared at him, her face calm and composed.
Inwardly, however, she couldn’t help but entertain a dark thought.
“Mm.
If you want to repay me, then you can just be my boyfriend.”
“I will definitely take good care of you.”
She shook her head with a wry smile.
“My thoughts are getting darker.”
“Is it because I love him too much?”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe what I’m feeling isn’t love.”
“Maybe something else.”
She desperately tried to come up with an excuse to convince herself.
Because if she admitted that she loved him, she was afraid she would do something crazy.
Akhil’s gaze shifted to Divya, who was watching him without blinking.
Her gaze remained unfocused and unreadable.
He called out hesitantly.
“Divya…”
Divya snapped out of her thoughts, jerking her head up as her gaze met Akhil’s.
She coughed slightly to regain her composure.
“Ahem.”
“I’m sorry.
I spaced out for a bit.”
Akhil shook his head in understanding.
“It’s okay.
Don’t worry about it.”
After a moment of silence, Divya spoke.
“Okay.
You just want to repay me, right?”
Akhil nodded, his eyes earnest and clear.
“Then you have to hang out with me once every three days.”
Akhil blinked.
A flash of confusion crossed his face.
“Huh?”
“Can you repeat what you just said?”
He could not believe what he had just heard.
Divya repeated, her tone remained calm, as if what she was saying were completely normal.
“I asked you to hang out with me every three days.”
Her expression turned teasing.
“Did you hear me?
If not, I can repeat it.”
Akhil stared at her, his face a mixture of disbelief and bewilderment.
“Are you kidding me?”
Divya said with a faint smile on her lips.
“Why would you think I was lying?”
Akhil spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Why, you say?
How does hanging out with you count as repaying you?”
Divya inwardly scoffed.
Spending a little money on you isn’t a big deal for me.
I could spend money on you every day if it meant getting to hang out with you.”
Divya feigned annoyance.
“Stop it.
To me, spending time with you is the most fun.
Of course, spending time with me is also enough for you to repay me.”
Akhil was reluctant to let the matter go.
But when he saw her expression, he ultimately decided to let it go.
Divya and Akhil took one of the window seats.
A waiter approached their table, his gaze repeatedly drifting toward Divya.
“Ma’am.
Can I take your order?”
Divya didn’t reply to him.
Instead, she turned toward Akhil and asked him.
“What do you want, Akhil?”
Akhil went through the menu, and said.
“I’d like Ibaco ice cream.”
Divya nodded and turned toward the waiter.
“One Ibaco ice cream with three scoops and a tea.”
The waiter scribbled the order down in his small notepad, and said respectfully.
“Your order will be here shortly.”
With that, he walked away.
Akhil’s phone chimed with a notification.
He took his phone and opened his chat.
The messages were from his friends.
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
He replied to each of them, completely unaware that Divya was staring at him with a darkened expression.
She gritted her teeth in anger.
“He is here with me.
Who the hell sent him a message?
I have so little time to spend with him, and someone had to ruin it?”
She didn’t like Akhil focusing his attention on someone else while she was sitting right in front of him.
Her fists clenched hard.
Her expression turned ugly when she saw him smiling at his phone.
She coughed lightly.
“Ahem”
Akhil’s eyes drifted toward Divya, a flicker of confusion on his face.
“What?”
Divya asked with barely contained anger.
“Who are you messaging?”
Akhil was confused by her question but still answered her truthfully.
“My friends.
They are pretty worried because I haven’t shown up for college today.”
Divya let out a cold snort, her face hardening.
“Whatever.”
She leaned forward, propped her hand on the table.
“Akhil. New chapters come out on g.com first.
You are here with me.”
“It’s rude to stare at your phone when you’re with someone.”
Akhil’s mouth opened slightly, and his expression turned complicated.
“I’m sorry.
I won’t do that again.”
She was already generous enough to spend her money on ice cream for him.
Yet here he was, completely ignoring her.
His guilt deepened.
He suddenly felt the urge to slap himself.
Divya’s expression eased, her clenched fist loosened slightly.
Her anger subsided a little, though it hadn’t completely disappeared.
Just a moment ago, she had the sudden impulse to grab Akhil’s phone and pinch his ear as punishment.
Divya took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
She looked at him, her gaze turned gentle, a stark contrast to her earlier cold expression.
“Akhil”
“Can you tell me more about yourself?”
She wanted to know everything about him.
His everything.
Akhil, who had wanted to say something to her, didn’t know what to say.
When Divya asked him, he responded to her with a smile.
“You know about my parents.
You’ve already seen my friends, right?”
Divya nodded at his question.
She had seen his friends that day, though she barely remembered them.
That day she focused her entire attention on Akhil.
As for his friends, she hadn’t spared them a single glance.
Her entire attention had been fixed on Akhil.
Akhil continued.
“Aside from them, I haven’t really interacted with many other students.”
As he spoke, his mind clicked on something.
His expression turned resentful.
“I also don’t like this guy, Raj.
He always finds a way to trouble us.
He is also a class leader.”
He rambled on for four minutes as if he were describing how cruel and sinister Raj was.
Divya nodded, a flicker of viciousness flashed in her eyes, though she quickly concealed it.
“The only one allowed to trouble Akhil in this world is me.”
“Not someone else.”
Whenever some other pests get involved with my Akhil, I want nothing more than to kill them.
How dare they touch my Akhil!
Dark thoughts swirled through her mind.
An imperceptible sigh of relief escaped her.
“At least he didn’t seem to have any female friends.”
Just as she finished her thought, Akhil said something that made her blood run cold.
“Oh!
I did have some brief contact with a female student.”