Liar and Liar - Chapter 61

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

Chapter 61

‘What’s wrong with him, seriously.’

Stomachache? Is he hurt somewhere?

When Cove said he was ‘hurt,’ only one thing came to Danielle’s mind.

‘Don’t tell me again…’

Did he get beaten up again by Bay Blanton? The furrow between her brows deepened.

‘His face looked fine though.’

Of course, she had learned painfully from the elevator incident last time that a fine face didn’t mean everything was okay.

But anything more would just be unnecessary meddling. Danielle sighed silently as she packed her things.

After directly encountering Bay Blanton and experiencing his true nature up close, Danielle found herself worried about Cove Blanton in a different way.

‘What exactly are their parents doing that they don’t stop an older brother from beating his younger brother?’

She had witnessed the beating in 8th grade, so it had been going on for four whole years. If he had been hitting him before that, it would be even longer.

‘He’s the lacrosse team captain, so it’s not about lack of strength.’

Maybe he’d been conditioned to violence from too young an age…

‘…Stop thinking about it.’

The more she thought about it, the more disgusted she felt. It should be enough to just think of him as a bad person.

“You’ve never really been hit, have you? That’s why you keep acting up, you fat piece of shit.”

‘Creepy thug bastard…’

“Danielle~ The taco truck came today! Let’s get tacos~~!”

Mari approached with a smile, books tucked under one arm. Today’s Mari had her flowing blonde hair neatly swept back with a famous brand headband.

Since Mari started attending school, Danielle no longer ate lunch with Frederick’s group. Eating lunch with a female friend was even more awkward and unfamiliar than eating with Frederick’s group.

But she didn’t dislike it. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Danielle quietly swallowed the thought that she felt like she had become an ordinary student.

“Hehe, aren’t you curious about what Ricky’s parents said after seeing you?”

“Ah… what did they say?”

Was a fake girlfriend even in a position to be curious about such things? Was it okay to be curious? But Danielle found herself waiting for Mari’s next words, pressing her fingertips against her throat.

As soon as they came out into the hallway, Emily and Jeremy entered Danielle’s field of vision.

“Ah, why did you come? I told you not to come.”

“What’s wrong~ Did something bad happen?”

Jeremy leaned in close to Emily like a pet dog, but Emily just pushed his forehead away with her hand, looking annoyed.

“Don’t get so close! And never wear chain necklaces or anything like that again. It looks disgusting.”

“You said it looked cool last time. Why are you being like this today?”

Jeremy stepped back with a bewildered expression. His ears and neck flushed as he looked around, and his eyes met Danielle’s.

‘No matter how much she dislikes and is embarrassed by her boyfriend, she’s giving him a hard time in front of everyone.’

That’s Emily Holt for you, tsk tsk. Danielle withdrew her gaze without hesitation, but Jeremy’s expression grew even worse.

Mari narrowed her eyes with a face that seemed to read ‘What’s with that bass-looking thing,’ then quickly turned her head straight.

“Anyway, Ricky’s parents said, ‘Mamma mia, mamma mia, our Amedeo brought his girlfriend~ such a pretty young lady~'”

…Am I really pretty…?

Danielle seriously reconsidered her own face.

“Amedeo apparently once said when he was young that he ‘met an interesting Asian girl.’ And do you know what he said later? That everyone in the world was overflowing with interest in him, but only that one girl had no interest in him, and he asked how he could get her attention. Ahaha!!”

“That’s impossible…”

Heat rushed to Danielle’s face like roses blooming. There was no way to hide it.

“He happened to be playing golf at the time, right? So they showed him videos of pros with good golf form and told him that if he worked hard at golf, the girl would be completely smitten. And he really worked hard at it! Isn’t that funny?!”

Golf was the sport that, among all the sports, instruments, and arts Frederick had bounced around like a mountain rabbit, people around him thought ‘Is he really considering going pro?’ He had won youth tournaments, and the school had even played videos of Frederick’s winning plays to celebrate.

‘Golf… when did he quit?’

She remembered that seeing the video at school was before Eunho received his diagnosis. When he quit was…

“I heard your brother is sick. That must be hard.”

Danielle had blocked out all thoughts about Frederick since he offered her the check. But there were things she couldn’t help but overhear even without talking to Frederick.

“Rick, aren’t you playing golf anymore?”

“No.”

“Why? I thought you were preparing to go pro!”

“…It’s useless. So I’m not doing it.”

Useless means…

Because I won’t watch? For such a trivial reason?

“Danielle? What’s wrong all of a sudden?”

She was clearly standing in place, but it felt like being on a roller coaster plummeting straight down. She wanted to press her hand against her heart.

Danielle forgot she was even wearing makeup and pressed her face with one hand as if covering it.

Just then, a female student approached Danielle with an excited expression, holding out her phone. It was the TikTok app.

“Danielle! Did you go to the World Series with Frederick?!”

What appeared on the screen was a short video of the scoreboard at Sharks Stadium. In the video, Danielle in a Sharks jersey was blankly looking at the scoreboard, then realized her face was showing and turned to Frederick in panic.

Her pink lips murmured softly.

We… got caught on camera.

After shrinking back briefly, Danielle’s eyes widened a bit more when they met Frederick’s, who was looking at her. Frederick gently kissed her cheek and pulled back.

The video returned to the starting point, and Danielle awkwardly averted her gaze.

“This… who filmed it?”

“I don’t know. It’s a popular video on TikTok right now. Probably because Frederick is so famous.”

‘Thank goodness the kiss wasn’t filmed.’

At the time, she had regretted missing the chance to kiss, but in hindsight, it seemed like a good thing. It wasn’t in the video, and they eventually did kiss… so…

Students began crowding around, saying “me too, me too” and passing around phones to watch. Someone might say it was just a cheek kiss, but Danielle was embarrassed enough.

The female students’ chatter didn’t properly register in Danielle’s flustered ears.

I’m jealous.

Frederick and the Sharks… so that’s why…

Wow, is that what it is?

Mari whispered to Danielle.

“Hehe. A team owner boyfriend isn’t bad, right?”

‘Is she talking about watching the World Series game live?’

Taking a helicopter to the stadium and touring the Sharks facilities had certainly been an amazing experience. As Danielle nodded awkwardly, she noticed someone beyond the students glaring at her coldly.

Stella, who had been staring at Danielle intently with flashing green eyes without blinking once, immediately turned and walked away as soon as their eyes met.

Emily called after Stella and followed her, leaving Jeremy alone, who sighed deeply and walked off in the opposite direction.

Pushing through the students, Danielle and Mari headed toward the taco truck.

“…Mari.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re doing girls’ lacrosse in PE today, right?”

“Yeah.”

“…”

Danielle’s eyes flashed coldly, no different from Stella’s green eyes from earlier.

* * *

“Alright, today as I mentioned last time, while the boys use the indoor facilities, the girls will do field sports. We’ll be playing lacrosse, and we’ll divide teams by uniform color.”

Two plastic boxes contained white uniforms and blue uniforms. Students went and picked up uniforms on their own.

When she turned her head, Stella and Emily were standing with their arms linked, not budging. When Danielle picked up a white uniform, the two finally approached and picked up blue uniforms.

“…”

Danielle instinctively realized that this lacrosse field was the battleground Stella and Emily had chosen.

Elmir Westlake formally taught lacrosse in PE classes. Since they weren’t pro prospects and it was a game between girls, physical contact was extremely limited, but these were already 11th graders. While boys fought with punches and kicks when annoyed with opponents, girls used lacrosse games.

During lacrosse games where players threw and caught rubber balls with the net (pocket) at the end of sticks to score in the opponent’s goal, girls would engage in private duels using sticks as weapons.

Kicking the butt of a girl who was hitting on their boyfriend, or tripping a clueless classmate to make them fall. There were various ways to deal with people.

For this moment, Danielle had even contacted Joshua during lunch to get Cove’s number. After getting his number that way, she called Cove with the mindset that whether he was depressed from being beaten by his brother or not, her situation was more urgent.

-“Hello.”

“It’s Danielle. Don’t hang up.”

-“…What?”

“I called because I have something to ask.”

Danielle picked up goggles like the other students. Then she pulled a mouthguard from her pocket and fitted it over her teeth.

“In lacrosse games, when a fight breaks out, do they judge who’s wrong by how badly someone got beaten, or do they look at who started it first?”

-“…Is that really a question to ask the lacrosse captain? Do you think lacrosse is some kind of gangster game?”

“You guys drag Bent off and beat him to a pulp, then act all high and mighty. Girls settle everything in sports games.”

-“Sigh…. Just how badly are you planning to fight.”

“I don’t know. I’ll just give back exactly what I receive.”

Cove sighed once more, then finally gave Danielle the answer she wanted.

-“The one who starts it first is always wrong. Just don’t throw the first hit.”

Danielle gripped her stick tightly and turned her head. Her eyes locked with Stella’s, who was also holding a stick.

‘I’m not letting you off easy today.’

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