Amber obstinately replied, “Yes! I hit myself.” She tilted her face towards him as she then said, “I feel like, given what’s happened, I don’t have the face to be with him anymore. So, I decided to break up with him. He refused, so I could only hit myself until he was willing to do so.”
Ruby frustratedly yelled, “Are you crazy?!”
Amber adamantly replied, “What else could I have done? Do you think that I could still be with him after all this?”
The siblings glared at one another, one calm and still, and the other angry and huffing. Finally, the angry and huffing one surrendered, stamping his feet and squatting on the floor. “Alright, I just need to tell him the truth and get his forgiveness without hurting him, right? I’ll do it!” Ruby looked up at Amber, gritted his teeth, and unwillingly said, “I’ll do whatever you say, alright?”
He was such a cowardly man that he didn’t even have the courage to own up to what he had done.
Amber really wanted to strangle him!
Luckily, Ruby at least truly did care for her, and he would do anything to pacify his only sister when she was upset. Thus, he had reluctantly promised to think of a way to explain things clearly to Daren without hurting him further, and he actually did find such a way.
It wasn’t a good idea to go to the Axton household-that would be too overt and public-this kind of matter was best settled privately.
***
On Monday, Daren had class, so Ruby planned on finding him then. That day, Amber coincidentally also had to go to the university, so they drove over together-the two schools were adjacent to each other, and even the front doors were right next to each other.
But because she didn’t feel at ease, Amber secretly tailed Ruby. As if nothing had happened, he walked up to Daren’s classroom with large confident strides and asked a random passerby, “Ah, you, can you call out Daren for me?”
Daren was called out. He had a suspicious expression on his face, and when he saw Daren, he shyly asked, “Who’re you?”
Ruby curled his finger at him, beckoning for him to approach.
Daren carefully took two steps forward.
Ruby abruptly grabbed his neck, dragged him to a corner, and elbowed him viciously. “You little brat, are you the one who’s slandering my sister? Who’s saying that she’s a fickle and licentious woman?”
Amber, who had been following behind them all the while, saw the entire thing.
“….”
She wished that she could drag Ruby out and kill him right now.
But the following sequence of actions were so bizarre that she was frozen in place as she watched on, speechless.
After Daren figured out Ruby’s identity, he was actually quite happy to see him. After a moment of panic and blank stares, he said somewhat shyly, as if he were pleasantly surprised, “Brother ….”
He truly was Ian’s brother only in name, as evidenced by his sweet and intimate call towards a non-family member.
Ruby was somewhat disturbed by his response, as was Amber, who was still hiding in a corner.
Ruby hesitatingly asked, “… If you knew that I was her brother, then why would you slander my sister?”
What surprised Amber the most was that, even though Daren behaved a little awkwardly in front of Ruby, he was more courageous than usual. With a red face, he then stammered out, “You really don’t look like ‘icey’ at all.”
This time, it was Ruby’s turn to be speechless, and he fiercely replied, “Don’t spout nonsense! Don’t expect me to let you go just because you helped me out before. I’m only going to tell you this once. If you keep smearing my sister’s name and make her any more upset, I’ll give you a big beating!”
As Ruby said this, he even waved his fist around threateningly, and his big fist finally roused Daren from the reverie he had fallen into upon seeing his “sweetheart’s” brother. With a wronged tone, he quickly protested, “I didn’t slander her. I was the one who met her first.”
“You stubborn mule!” Ruby pulled him upright and slapped his head. “What did I tell you before? Was that all for nothing? Everything over the Internet is just a lie, alright? A lie! At one point, I had ten female characters as a wife at the same time over all the games I played. Do you think that I had to take responsibility for any of that in real life? Are you crazy?”
When Amber heard her brother’s words, she felt like she had a good idea of what he was planning. This fellow wasn’t actually going to admit to the fact that he had used a female character to tease Daren. Instead, he was probably going to try to persuade Daren to think more clearly using his identity as Ruby.
After mulling over Ruby’s strategy for a little bit, Amber felt that it might have a chance of working. After all, even though Ruby had been a terrible student, he had deep insight into how people thought. It was so much so that it made Amber a little jealous.
When they were small, both siblings helped out at their parents’ diner, and no one, from a five year old kid to an eighty something old grandmother, had ever disliked him at all.
Her brother had a big mouth, and was able to make others laugh and feel at home from the very beginning. Even Daren seemed to have bought into his act.
If Ruby could merely hide his guilt and convince Daren of the truth, it would likely work.
Since Ruby wasn’t just messing around this time, Amber felt relieved. Even though she would still have to bear the crime of seducing Daren, as long as it was a result of her brother’s actions and there was peace afterwards, she didn’t mind.
When Amber returned home that night and told Ian about Ruby’s plans, she also asked him, “What do you think the probability of my brother succeeding is?”
Ian replied with three terse words. “Well, we’ll see.”
He had replied to her lazily, as if he couldn’t care any less about it.
But Amber wouldn’t let the topic go that easily. She insisted that he talk about Daren some more, even requesting, “Please help me check up on Daren. And if you’ve got nothing better to do, you should chat with him a bit.”
Ian frowned in annoyance. “Why do you care so much about this?” From his perspective, this wasn’t a big deal at all.
Amber staunchly replied, “He’s your brother. If we don’t deal with this problem thoroughly, it’ll affect the relationship between us.”
Amber knew that Ian didn’t care too much about Daren’s situation because Ian’s stance was that since the person who had played around with Daren wasn’t Amber, then if Daren couldn’t wrap his head around the truth, then it was his own stupidity to blame.
As a result, Amber had to bluntly say, “If his thoughts don’t change, I’ll start to feel guilty, and in order to absolve that guilt, then even if it meant going bankrupt and destitute, I’ll definitely break up with you.”