14 Truth - Part 1 (1/2)

”Why are you dating Scarlet?”

She asks me bluntly.

Without sugarcoating her words, without beating around the bush, and without so much as a hint of modesty in her voice. The silent, elegant, and ever so poised Momoka Kudo asks me the most pressing thing on her mind.

A faint darkness stretched over the Sci-fi/Fantasy club room. It was only 10:15am, but the room-darkening curtains that were normally used for more atmospheric role-playing sessions had cast a strange shadow over Momoka. The lack of proper lighting made her seem especially intimidating.

No, it wasn't just the darkness making her feel like this.

Before us, on the table which stretched across the center of the room, is the chess set she had carefully pulled out from her backpack.

It was strange.

She hadn't said a single word to me since we'd arrived. She only spoke now that the chess pieces were finally all lined up on the board. In a way, it made that simple question feel like a challenge.

Seriously though, what a straight-forward question.

Why was I dating Scarlet?

Well, in the first place our relationship was a complete facade. It's only purpose was to hide her phobia of men from the popular kids.

There was absolutely nothing related to romance going on between the two of us, meaning that there is no way of answering her question truthfully without hurting Scarlet in the long run.

Which is why, for someone like me who was bad at lying under pressure, I absolutely had to get the heat off of me.

Otherwise, I'd say something that I shouldn't and end up making a huge mess of the entire charade.

But what should I say?

I scratch at my neck as my brain scrambles to find a distraction.

The tension caused by her piercing gaze is steadily hacking away at any semblance of a logical thought that I could hope to put together in my mind.

I search the room for an excuse; anything I could find to distract her from the question she had posed.

I quickly realize however, that the perfect segue existed right before my eyes the entire time.

”U-umm, Momoka I don't know if you know something about me that I don't, but... I'm not very good at chess. I mean, I kind of only know the basics so I don't think I would make a good opponent.”

”Don't worry about that, I'm just playing to help pass the time. We're going to be here a while.”

”A while…? How long is a while? I don't want to miss any classes today.”

”Classes?”

She asks me as if I had said something completely naive. As if the idea of me going to classes was so amusing to her.

”You don't seem to understand the position you're in Chase.”

”Position? What are you talking about?

”You won't be going to any classes today.”