Chapter Nine

I felt pain in my head as I watched my math teacher did example on the board. I was never good at this subject no matter how much I focus my attention on it.

I took a glance at Diana but she was busy doing doodle on her notebook. She got a long face today so I guess it's about her brother.

I sighed and thought about how irresponsible his brother was, putting his girlfriend first before her sister.

I met his brother many times before whenever I go to Diana's place. His brother was actually kind and always seemed to care about her so it was surprising that their relationship would end up like this.

I even envied Diana at those times because she still had her brother with her. I would always crave for my brother's presence every time I see them together.

But now that I met my brother again after six years of thinking he's already gone really burst my heart in happiness. Yet everytime I would remember Alto's situation, that short moment of happiness would be replaced by pain.

I needed to find that ring. I couldn't lose Alto again.

We ate our lunch in silence. Diana wasn't herself throughout the day. She didn't bother hiding her emotion anymore and stayed quiet most of the time. Every time I'd call her name, she'd just smile at me then sulk again. I didn't try opening the subject about her brother since she didn't feel like talking right now.

After school, I headed straight to my work. I still got permission to keep living my normal life until the Formal Ceremony.

Ray greeted me right away as soon as I entered the restaurant.

"Hey, Medley. You feeling well now?"

"Yeah, I'm good now." I sighed.

He grinned at me then patted my back. "Good. Now back to work."

Since there weren't much customers today, I spent my idle time chatting with my co workers. After a few minutes, I heard the sound of door opening and Ray cleared his throat, and gave my shoulder a tap.

"I guess we have another important customer."

My eyes and mouth widened when I saw Apollo and Jazz. As they took a seat, Apollo smiled and waved at me while Jazz had his usual lazy face. He just gave me a glance before he went busy with the book he was holding.

Apollo raised his hand to call for our attention. "Can I request for Medley to be the one serving our table?"

The blood rushed up to my face and I could feel the heavy stares of my coworkers on me.

Damn, why would he say something like that? He just put me on spotlight. Now they would all be wondering how these Songs know about me. I suddenly remembered what the King said, that me being a Major Key should be kept as a secret for the meantime. Maybe it was changed?

Ray cleared his throat. "You heard him, Medley. Go and serve our dear customers."

"Y-yeah." I stuttered and eyed the floor.

"You have some explaining to do later." He grinned.

I coyly walked my way towards the table of the two Songs.

"Good day, Medley. How are you today?" Apollo greeted me with a gentle voice as soon as I approached them.

My face reddened even more so I tried to focus my eyes on the menu book on their table instead. "What are you doing, Apollo? I thought my relation with you guys should be kept as a secret?" I whispered and Apollo just stared at me innocently with his ocean eyes.

"Screw secrets. Just blame Apollo for this." Jazz murmured without taking his eyes off the book.

"What?" I asked, confused.

Apollo sighed and I looked at him. "Don't mind that guy. He's being grumpy because I dragged him with me."

Right. I was actually surprised myself to see Jazz here. He seemed to be a lazy guy who just read and sleep all the time. So he was also here because Apollo forced him. But what were they doing here? I thought they weren't allowed to go out the Sky Castle over personal interest. I remembered Banjo scolding Apollo about it once.

"Banjo will get mad." Jazz muttered under his breath and I nearly giggled.

Was this guy afraid of the hate prince? Seeing Jazz like this made me thought of a little kid being afraid of their parents when they knew they did something inappropriate.

"Anyways, Medley, you don't have to worry about it. We just have to put that you are friends with us, okay?" Apollo said.

I nodded at him and we smiled at each other while Jazz was watching us out the corner of his eyes.

I broke our stares when Jazz suddenly grabbed the menu book and looked at me. His lazy brown eyes boring into mine. "So what's the best seller here?"

After bidding goodbye to my coworkers, I exited the restaurant and found Apollo and Jazz waiting for me. They actually insisted, or rather, Apollo insisted they wait for me since it's just an hour before my shift ended when they arrived at the restaurant.

The cold night breeze greeted my skin and I shivered. Apollo put his jacket around me, making me look at him in surprise and he smiled.

"It's rude for a man to let a lady freeze."

"Thanks." I said sheepishly.

While we're walking, I broke the silence by asking them the question that had been in bothering me ever since.

"So, how's M–Alto?"

"The same. Rhap was able to make him eat his meals, so don't worry." Apollo responded quietly.

Well, I was glad that Rhap was taking care of Alto. Jazz mentioned once that they're good friends and I know he really did care for him considering the way he acted the other day. He was also the reason why I found out that Alto was my long lost brother. But I couldn't deny that I still feel uncomfortable around Rhap for some reason. Maybe it's because he seemed like a teaser.

"I hope we could find that ring soon before Alto's condition get worse." Apollo said and suddenly a thought came in my mind.

"Oh right. Now that you mentioned it, can I ask you for a favor, Apollo?"

We stopped walking as I faced Apollo. Jazz just watched us but his face seemed uninterested.

"Yeah, sure. What could be it?" Apollo asked, confused.

I took out my phone and opened the camera. "Well, I will have to take a picture of your ring so it would be easy for me to ask someone about it."

His eyes widened and held out his hand to me where his ring was resting on his finger.

I held his hand and hovered my phone on the ring on his finger as I took a picture of it.

"Done. Thank you so much for the cooperation." I said and let go of his hand but he grabbed it, making me look at him in surprise.

His eyes were on our linked hands and the surrounding felt like gotten even more quiet.

"Your hands are pretty, but cold." He said quietly and his eyes met mine. "Are you still feeling cold despite that you're wearing my jacket?"

My heart skipped a beat and I could feel my face burning. I couldn't even find words to say to this handsome guy who's suddenly blurting out things that weren't good for a lady's heart.

Apollo seemed to be unaware of what he just did to me so I did my best to sound calm and cool. "I'm good, really. You don't have to worry yourself about it.".

Apollo opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off by Jazz.

"What are you two doing?" His brows furrowed and I quickly took my hands from Apollo.

"Nothing." I muttered.

Jazz raised his eyebrow at us. "Then don't just stand there. It's getting late. We have to get back to the castle and you have to get home, you." He said as he shot me a glare.

We followed after him and I lowered my head.

"I'm sorry. I just took a picture of the ring." I said quietly, stealing a glance at Apollo but his eyes were on the road ahead.

"I know." Jazz sighed and patted my head.

I was surprised at his action that I took a sudden step backwards, but he was just wearing a straight face. He returned his attention on the road ahead us so I decided to just ignore what happened and kept up with them. I eyed my phone instead to check the picture of the ring I just took. The glint of jade stone from the screen reflected on my eyes.

As I entered the classroom, Diana hurried over to me before I could even go to my seat.

Our english teacher didn't arrive yet and we still have eight minutes before the class starts. Diana held out her phone to me as she showed me the text she received from his brother.

The text said "Just stop bothering me" and I frowned.

When Diana saw the expression on my face, she clenched her teeth. "I knew it. I know you know it too. Brother would never send me a text like that."

I took a seat while Diana was still staring at her phone, her hands shaking in anger.

"He's at that Cherry's house. I knew it. And this text was sent by her. How dare she?" Diana hissed.

"Did you send a reply yet?" I asked her and her face changed.

"No, I can't. I don't know." she said quietly then buried her face on her arms against her desk.

I took out my phone and looked at the picture of the ring. I had been wanting to tell Diana everything but I couldn't. I should keep everything a secret for a while. Besides, Diana was also having her own problem with her brother.

I yawned as I stared at the sky through the window beside me and our English teacher soon arrived.

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