Acceptance - Chapter 24

“Hey. Are you okay?” Ilyan asked the pale girl in front of him. She looked quite shocked.

He shoved his hand in his pocket and after a couple of moments, pulled out a bar of chocolate from it and held it in front of her. “Have it. You will feel better.”

“Your pockets have everything, no?” Irene stated, chuckling and it was meant to be taken as a joke but her smile faltered looking at his face that did not acquire the slightest change of expression.

She let out a sigh and blinked at Effie, signaling Effie to take that chocolate from him.

Effie slowly reached for the chocolate. “Thank you. I am okay.”

“Well you don’t look like that right now but I am sure you would be fine soon.” Putting his hands in his pockets, he stood there with a warm smile on his face.

Irene darted a look at him but he did not budge despite being aware of it.

“Fine. I am sorry.” She could not handle the frustration that was building inside her with his silence and blurted it out.

As expected, it did catch his attention.

“What did I say back then there? Yourself. You owe this apology to yourself. Not to him. Not to me. But yourself. How hard is that to understand?” He shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head at her.

“Ugh. Alright. I am sorry, Irene.” She dramatically apologized to herself while he watched her, amused.

“Who is he?” Effie asked, taking a bite of the chocolate. She had really freaked out and coincidentally, chocolates always helped her calm herself when anxious.

“Why are you asking her? Ask me. Hello. I am The Shield. My sole purpose of existence is to shield this woman.”

Irene rolled her eyes as he finished introducing himself. “That was lame,” she sarcastically commented.

“Was that?” he asked Irene and turned to Effie. “What do you think? Was that lame?”

“I think that was cool.” Effie accepted truthfully only to earn a smack on her arm by Irene.

“You are my friend.” Irene chided.

“I am but I really think it was cool.” Effie, disregarding Irene’s irritation, reasoned. “Also, he gave me chocolate.”

“Of course. Isn’t that how he has got you on his side?” Irene pulled Effie closer, and slowly poked her forehead. “And you fool do not even realize it.”

“Wow. What a way to thank someone who has run to tend to your injuries once and saved your life once! Wow! I am truly impressed.”

Ilyan’s sarcasm further increased Irene’s irritation, more because she knew he was right and for some reason, she did not like it.

“I will get going then if this is how you get treated after saving someone’s life.” His voice suddenly got low as if he was truly upset.

“I am sorry. Thank you,” she quickly muttered when she watched him leave. How awful she was being! Why was she talking to him in that tone when all that he had done so far was to help? She could not help but scold herself mentally for doing that. Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click www.webnovel.com www.webnovel.com for visiting.

He did stop at her words but did not turn around. His back faced her and she felt more guilty.

It was not until she noticed his shaking shoulder, she realized that he was actually laughing. She advanced toward him. Holding on to his arm, she turned him to her side and was met with his futile attempt of suppressing his laughter.

The moment she saw him like that, he burst out laughing without bothering to control anymore because she had anyway seen it.

“Ugh.” Whom was she getting upset for? Balling her hand in a fist, she hit it on her forehead.

“Hahaha. You are so innocent.” He giggled, having a hard time stopping his laughter even after coming across her scowl.

“I am not.” She argued.

“You are.” He had slowed down by then but his lips were still curled up in that sweet laughter.

“I said I am not.” She stressed every word to emphasize in a complaining tone.

“Hahaha. It is so easy to get you annoyed.”

There he was. Again. “Is it like your go-to line or something?”

He snapped his fingers to himself, his face brightening hearing her. “So far it was not but now that you are saying it… It does not seem like a bad idea to me.”

“What the -”

“No swearing.”

“Ugh. Fine.” She stomped her foot on the ground before she looked at Effie who was silently laughing, enjoying the scenario.

“Sorry but this is an entertaining sight,” Effie confessed. “I will just put this wrapper in the dustbin over there.” She showed the dustbin across the road to Irene.

“Okay. Be careful,” Irene said.

“How are your knees? Did you get them a proper dressing?” Ilyan’s gaze dropped to her knees that were covered because of her long floral skirt.

“I did, and thank you for today. I sensed you were quite mad at me, no?”

Ilyan looked away momentarily. “No. I was not.”

“You were. I remember your words about getting bothered when any animal or bird is hurt. It’s okay. I understand you being mad. I was being ridiculously careless.” Her downcast eyes refused to look at him.

“You indeed were. Life is precious. You can’t afford to be this careless.” He pulled out his one hand from his pocket and felt an urge to keep it on her head but he resisted it.

“I know.” She moved her head upside down in agreement.

“Have you learned your lesson? That matters.”

“I have. I won’t do this again.”

“Good.”

“What were you doing here though?” Her curiosity finally found a voice. Somehow, stumbling upon him again, seemed strange.

“I was in the cafe. I recognized you and did realize that you were walking absent-mindedly. I could have called you from there but obviously, you wouldn’t have heard so I just got out and you know the rest.”

“I know the rest.”

“Oh, wait. Don’t tell me that you are thinking that I am stalking you.”