Hellhound At Supernatural Academy-Chapter 44: Outing With Friends (1)

May 23, after school, I was set to meet up with Fallen. We planned to leave the school and visit Solaris, the city where our school was located. Our meeting point was Infinity Mall, one of the main attractions in Solaris. This was my first time going there, but I had heard that it had everything—from a movie theater to gyms, clothing stores, food courts, cafes, and restaurants.

When I arrived, I spotted Ruby standing at the entrance of the mall. Surprisingly, she was the first to arrive. She must have been excited.

"Sin, you’re here!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, have the others not arrived yet?"

"No, Yuan had club stuff to take care of, but he said he’d finish up soon and come here. As for Rizor, I made sure he knew he had no choice but to come."

"I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t show up."

"Well, he better. Hey, let’s take a look around before the others get here."

"Okay, where should we go?"

"Hmm... I don’t know. Let’s just browse around and see what we like."

Inside the mall, the space was spacious, with high ceilings and an organized grid-like layout. It had three floors. We walked side by side, glancing at the different stores until we spotted an accessories store, and Ruby practically dragged me inside. We looked around at their collection of jewelry and bags.

"How does this look, Sin?" she asked, picking up a heart-shaped gold necklace and holding it up to her chest.

"It looks good. Are you going to buy it?"

"Nah, it’s too tacky. I want something more mature," she said, placing the necklace back on the display. "What about you? Do you see anything you like?"

"No, I don’t really wear jewelry that much."

The only piece of jewelry I owned was a toy watch featuring an anime character that I had received from Nina when I was a kid. I used to wear it on special occasions when Nina and I would visit the city or celebrate our birthdays. Now, it sat on my dresser at home because Amelia said it was too childish to wear.

As we continued to browse, I caught a glimpse of Mia out of the corner of my eye. She was with a group of friends, also looking around the store. I didn’t see Liam or Ava with them. I wasn’t sure if she noticed me, but she continued to navigate the store without acknowledging my presence.

After a while, Ruby and I decided to leave the accessories store without buying a single thing and continued walking through the mall, checking out the different shops. That’s when a voice called out to me.

"Sin!"

I turned to see Mia a short distance behind us. She seemed to be alone; her friends were nowhere in sight.

"Can we talk for a sec?" she asked as she approached us. "It won’t take long."

"Okay, su—"

"I’m sorry, but we’re on a date," Ruby interjected, interrupting me before I could finish.

"I know, and I’m sorry to interrupt you two. I just wanted to ask him a few questions."

"Questions about what?" Ruby asked, her tone skeptical.

"It’s fine; we can talk," I said, stepping in before Ruby could deter her.

We moved away from Ruby, who wore a pouty expression on her face. Once we were far enough away that no one could hear us, we began our conversation.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"It’s about you and Rizor. He said you’ve decided to be his henchman and work under him as the leader of Class D. Is that true?"

Henchman? That moron needs to look up the definition of a partnership. I’ll have to speak to him about it when he gets here.

"No, I’m not his henchman. We’ve just decided that it’s in our best interest to work together."

"Why is that? You had a perfectly good partnership with Liam before you messed it up. I think it would be in your ’best interest’ to reconcile with him."

"Well, it seems the two of us have a difference of opinion."

"Why did you do it? I knew Julius was a jerk, but he’s still in the hospital after what you did to him. And now you’re partnering with Rizor of all people. Have you forgotten what he did to your classmates? He’ll turn against you, and then your classmates will suffer for it."

"I can handle Rizor, or Liam for that matter. To be honest, I’m surprised he hasn’t reached out to me yet. Is he planning something?"

"All he wants is for the other classes to coexist in peace. He tried so hard to get them to accept you, and you had to ruin everything for him." Her hands clenched into fists as she stared at me intently. "And Ava—I thought at least she would understand, but all she does is defend you. I think it would be best for you to stay away from her."

"That’s for Ava to decide, isn’t it? There’s something else I want to ask you about. One of your classmates, Barron Werewood, made a threatening comment to me during the special training regimen. I didn’t like it one bit. You might want to tell Liam to get him under control."

"Barron? So you’ve met him. He’s the second biggest pain in the ass—next to you, of course," she mumbled under her breath. "It’s sad, but we have no control over him. He just does whatever he wants, spouting nonsense as he goes. He doesn’t want to be the class leader, but he doesn’t want Liam to be it either. He causes trouble whenever he gets the chance."

"He sounds like a hassle. I’m glad he’s in your class. Anyway, I need to head back before Ruby decides to come over here."

"Okay, just talk to Liam," she said as I turned to return to Ruby.

Surprisingly, in the short time I had been gone, everyone had arrived—including Rizor.