Demon's Protégé

Time

It was almost one in the morning when it happened.

The sudden burst of people coming out from the pub had me immediately retreating myself behind the tall bushes on the side of the building. I quietly hid and tried to take a few peeks to see if Nari was coming out. Spreading away like bees from a hive, the locals gradually disappeared into the stillness of the dark morning with their echoing noises subsiding as they walked further away. I sat on the grassy part of the ground beneath me, sighing in relief that I had managed to avoid meeting any of them. Soon after, I heard another group of people walking out of the pub and talking at the entryway.

“Go home now,” I immediately recognized the voice of Chris speaking to somebody, “Let me and Ferrer do this. Mari is waiting for you, Nari. I don’t want her staying up so late every night especially when she just got out of the hospital.”

As soon as I heard Nari’s name, I instinctively stood up from where I was crouching behind the bushes and marched towards the front. I could still hear them talking when I quickly rounded the corner to see Nari. The moment I had finally shown myself there, all the talking stopped. The three people before me, gaped at my sudden appearance.

“What are you doing here?” Nari was the first one to speak as she sneered at me.

“I was thinking of driving you home. Hi.”

“You’re the creep,” The bulky guy, whom Chris had called Ferrer from before, grimly noted behind Nari.

“He’s not a creep,” Chris defensively countered and turned to Ferrer, who was standing beside her, to give him an angry scowl.

“I’ve already told you to leave last night,” Nari said, scowling at me, “Why are you still here?”

“Let me drive you home this one time. It’s really late,” I appealed back.

“I can go home alone fine,” she declined right away. “Leave me alone.”

“Yeah, just leave creep. Or else, I’ll be the one to carry you out of here. And I bet you, it’s not going to be pretty. I’m gonna make sure you’ll never returned back again.” Ferrer morbidly threatened me with a deathly stare.

“Stop scaring him,” Chris angrily chided, giving Ferrer a hard smack on the head.

“What the hell-”

“Why can’t you just let him, Nari? For Pete’s sake. He seems like a very nice man.” Chris demanded in a stubborn voice, snarling at Nari’s way. She just ignored Ferrer’s scowl as she gave me a smile of support from the distance. “It’s several blocks away and really dark out there. Why can’t you just try and be a forgiving woman for once and accept the kind offer of this charming gentleman?”

“But he’s a creep,” Ferrer retorted again.

“Shut up,” Chris turned and snottily shoved him back, “Give the guy a break, will you?”

“Let me drive you home, Nari.” I muttered in the midst of the noises and blankly stared towards Nari.

Nari just glared at me the whole time. But she looked like she was already contemplating. I gave her a pleading smile, one last attempt to make her say yes as I silently begged. My eyes remained lingering on hers. And I didn’t back away, letting her judge me with that stern look.

Then after a very long moment of just staring, she finally sighed.

“Fine,” she said, grumbling the word. “Just this one time.”

And I beamed.

“Only this one time.”

It might still felt like she was just heavily being pressured by the moment, but I was not really going to complain if she was agreeing anyway. I grinned with utter happiness and looked over at Chris who smiled back.

“Now that things have been settled,” Chris said, grinning smugly. “You two can go now and we will do the rest for you.”

“Thank you.” I mumbled back to Chris.

“I’m Chris, by the way,” she finally introduced, which I felt was already too late now.

“I’m Taiyo.”

“You’re foreign?” She gaped back.

“Half-Japanese.”

“Interesting. Well, since it’s really getting late. Just take care of our Nari, Taiyo.” She told me, smiling. “Make sure she gets home safe.”

“I will, Chris.” I courteously responded.

“Here.”

I had instinctively reached out for the door handle as fast as I could, intentionally beating Nari to it, that our hands ended up brushing against each other in a slight caress. Nari joltingly pulled away upon the contact and turned her face to the opposite side. I didn't want to think too much about her immediate reaction but she looked rather annoyed as if the mere touch had disgusted her. I tried to act like it was nothing to me though—even when I was actually swooning inside. And I just gave her a small smile as I smoothly opened the passenger side for her. She hesitated for a second, glancing at me in a cautious regard as she took a step back to put a decent distance between us before she eventually moved to get inside. She didn’t dare to mumble any other word, not even a simple ‘thanks’, but it was okay. I don’t really mind her keeping the vow of reticence as long as she was no longer running away again. And when she finally settled herself on the cushion of the front seat, I quickly leaned down against her side to pull the seatbelt beside the headrest.

It was not really intentional. I hadn’t actually thought it through until I found myself staring face to face with her in a very close distance. It was too sudden that I quickly got flustered upon the mere proximity.

“I can do it,” Nari quickly broke the gaze, eventually relieving me from the gesture, as she moved further to the other side and snatched the strap from my hold. She quietly tugged the seat belt around her body in a haste, eagerly trying to avoid my eyes.

“Suit yourself,” I said awkwardly after she had clumsily secured the safety strap around her. I stepped back from the car after that and gently closed the door on her.

What a way to start, I thought to myself. 

“Bye, Nari.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow,” The hinted threat was very apparent from Nari’s voice as she regarded Chris with a menacing glare.

“I can’t wait, sweetie,” Chris just snorted, smirking back. “Good night.”

“See you, Miss Chris,” I said afterward, for the last time. Chris eventually gave me a thumbs-up while Ferrer just grunted, still glowering my way as I moved to leave. Nari stood beside me, waiting as I begun to round back to the path leading us to the motel and she soon followed me behind in silence.

Slowly, the quietness begun to surround the air above us with a heavy weight of awkwardness and I quickly tried to come up of something to say just to break off the ice between us. But when I turned to look at Nari over my shoulder, I unexpectedly caught her staring at me from the back. It was too startling that I felt my heart pounding at the mere sight. She quickly turned her face away, avoiding my eyes and it left me meekly befuddled. She was cute, though. And I grinned to myself all the way down the rocky route until we had finally reached the motel’s driveway where my car has been parked.

It was—it seemed—going to be a very pleasant late-night drive. And my chest instantly warmed up to the very thought.