Liar and Liar - Chapter 60

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 60

* * *

After pushing Frederick away, telling him she didn’t need him to escort her to class and sending him off to his own lesson, Danielle headed to the classroom alone.

Male students standing in the hallway were chattering. It was always like this the day after an important sports game.

“Did you hear? Mateo missed that snap yesterday? I heard the coach totally tore into him.”

“That’s really not like him to make that mistake. What’s gotten into Mateo?”

Danielle recalled Mateo’s essay she had edited recently. It was unusually flawed, which led her to mark the final comment as ‘Not Good.’

‘I guess he really was in poor condition.’

Danielle passed by the male students without much thought. Whether Mateo made mistakes or not was none of her concern. It wasn’t her fault anyway.

Meanwhile, someone came down from the upper floor of the stairs, swinging their arms rhythmically. Lost in thought, Danielle barely managed to stop just before colliding with them.

‘Ugh.’

“Watch where you’re going—”

The man’s loud voice cut off abruptly. Danielle looked up with a flustered face to identify who was standing in front of her. It was Jeremy.

‘He was at fault too.’

Jeremy had a dumbfounded expression. Danielle was about to respond irritably when she saw his face and burst into laughter.

She couldn’t help but think of rapper Jeremy from the video Frederick had shown her recently.

Watching that video, presumably filmed when Jeremy Marquez was around 8th grade, Danielle had laughed harder than she had in years.

「Jem is the real Gem, Gen-Z Genius☆

No Tom vibe, I’m the Jerry in this story, okie?」

“You watch where you’re— pfft, hehe… pffft.”

Oh no, I shouldn’t be laughing here.

Danielle couldn’t contain her laughter.

That insane (negative) rap didn’t make waves in the hip-hop world, but it certainly made waves in Danielle’s world. She eventually collapsed with laughter.

“Pfft, ahahaha.”

Though laughing at someone to their face was rude, since it was Jeremy Marquez, what did it matter?

Half of it was mockery, but the other half was genuine respect. To film such a video with a straight face—you’re really something, she thought.

“…”

“…Ha, ah, that’s hilarious.”

Despite her sudden outburst of laughter at him, Jeremy strangely didn’t fly into a rage. He just stared intently at the laughing Danielle. Rather blatantly, in fact.

After she finished laughing, only awkward air remained between Danielle and Jeremy. Since she had chosen a path with as few students as possible, the hallway was completely empty.

“Are you… really Tryel? For real? Did you get plastic surgery over the weekend or something?”

“No. I’m busy. Move.”

Danielle instantly composed herself as if she had never laughed and hurried past Jeremy. Too accustomed to being stared at, she didn’t notice the piercing gaze fixed on her back.

Like a fuse being lit, Danielle found herself thinking about Jeremy. More precisely, not about Jeremy Marquez himself, but ‘How would Emily Holt react to the rapper Jeremy video she would have received this morning?’

When Frederick showed her the rapper Jeremy video, Danielle had made one request. She asked if he could send this video anonymously to Emily Holt.

Frederick had agreed, so now it was time to wait for the results. It was the first time since Lower School that she felt excited about going to class.

‘No matter how I think about it, she doesn’t seem like she’d just laugh it off.’

As she entered the classroom, gazes poured down on her once again. Emily, sitting in the center, glared sharply at Danielle with narrowed eyes.

‘Hmm.’

She wasn’t sure. Emily clearly looked upset, but so did the other girls in her group.

Frederick was just in the hallway earlier too…

Stella…

There must have been a reason they dated.

Though they whispered quietly, everything reached Danielle’s ears. Even with her eyes on the books on her desk, her ears were open.

“Good morning.”

Miranda, who appeared through the classroom door, noticed the strange atmosphere and turned her head toward where everyone’s gazes were focused. Naturally, Danielle’s eyes met Miranda’s.

“…”

Miranda’s eyes widened as much as they possibly could, then she quickly looked away. Her expression became even more menacing than Emily’s.

* * *

‘Has Frederick been dealing with stares like this since birth…?’

Classroom, hallway, restroom. Wherever she went, gazes poured down blatantly.

Male students constantly blocked her path, while female students huddled together whispering about something.

‘I just can’t get used to this…’

Danielle swept her hair back as she entered the Science Classroom. Mari, who had already arrived, waved with a smile. Cove was nowhere to be seen.

In the flood of stares, Danielle swallowed a sigh as she headed to her seat. It would be better if they just talked to her—being endlessly scrutinized was a new kind of torture.

‘It would be better to keep getting into stupid arguments with Cove Blanton.’

But Cove didn’t come until class was about to start. He appeared at the very last moment, just before class began.

Cove strode over and set down his gray bag, then froze as if time had stopped the moment he looked up. Meeting Cove’s eyes, Danielle frowned and asked with her gaze.

‘What are you looking at?’

“…”

She hadn’t intended to start a staring contest. She was just waiting to see if he would pick a fight, but the eye contact prolonged in the silence.

Eventually, Cove Blanton looked away first. But Danielle didn’t feel like she had won.

You’re one step above me. It could be called Cove’s victory for not even reacting. Acknowledging her defeat, Danielle watched the teacher walk around handing out materials.

Since Cove received the materials first, he should look at them and then pass them to Danielle.

‘…What?’

But Cove was acting strange. He handed her the materials without looking at her. It was almost like he was shoving them at her.

“Now, today we’ll conduct experiments in the order shown in the materials—”

After that, Cove didn’t look at Danielle at all. Though she was tired of being stared at, being completely ignored was irritating in its own way.

As if Danielle were invisible, as if he were sitting alone at this table, Cove only looked at books, materials, and experimental equipment.

‘What the hell.’

She wondered if something was wrong with him—this uncharacteristic behavior was puzzling, but the quiet wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

Danielle twirled her mechanical pencil as she stared intently at the materials. Her expression grew serious as she became absorbed.

While Danielle’s attention was focused elsewhere, like the moon that finally wanes after waxing, only when Danielle looked at the materials did Cove slowly lift his gaze from the experimental tools. Very slowly.

Danielle, absorbed in the materials, didn’t notice the gaze directed at her. Cove’s eyes touched her chin, lips, and nose in turn. His brow was slightly furrowed.

“Ha…”

Noticing the faint sigh, Danielle looked up. Cove was looking elsewhere.

‘What is he looking at?’

Following his gaze, she saw the wall clock. The long minute hand clicked as it moved.

Ring—

As soon as the class bell rang, Cove roughly gathered his belongings from the desk. Then, before Danielle could even react, he left the classroom with long strides. As if fleeing from some natural disaster.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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