We Are NOT Friends

The Encounter(s)

"In the name of the royal family, I order you to come back here in one week, and to have another duel with me!"

"No way!!" I protested

"I order you to! Do you dare to go against the royal family?"

"Oh no, wait. I must have misheard you. You did not just threaten me using your status, did you?! You little tyrant! Sore loser!" I immediately rushed after him, wishing to pound him into the ground. Seeing how serious I was, he immediately ran behind the twins who were watching this scene in amusement. 

""Oh, no you don't,"" they exclaimed and stepped away from each other, leaving Jared confused and wide open. I immediately rushed right after him, making a grab for his wrist. He somehow twisted away from me and escaped, running back into the forest. Before I could go running in after him I felt someone cover my eyes. When the hand covering them let go, I could no longer see Jared, the twins, or the heroine anymore. Me and Cal were left all alone in the valley. I was getting kind of annoyed at Cal, because Jared was now no where in sight. Then Cal spoke,

"Nee-sama, do you hate me now? Before, you flinched away from me, yet you let another man hug you, and right now, you are chasing after the prince," he accused, looking like a husband who had just found out that his wife was cheating on him.

Oh, no! He must have lost his faith in his Nee-sama thinking that she was a man-chasing idiot. Thinking along these lines I patted his head reassuringly. "Don't worry little brother, I'm not attracted to any of you."

He froze stiff like a statue for several minutes, and it was to the point where I was beginning to get impatient. That idiot Jared could be anywhere by now.

I poked him several times, and when that didn't work I started tickling him. Cal's ticklish spot was his neck, and right after doing so, he immediately snapped out of his daze with a dispirited air hanging around him. "Is that so. I guess I'll have to try harder to get the message across then. That thick head is both a blessing and a curse." He sighed in dejection. "Well, at least I know that there are no rivals," he muttered to himself while I stared at him confused. Was he talking about a game? Thick heads? Rivals?

"Cal? Where did Jared go?" I asked, getting slightly impatient. 

"Nee-sama, you are mine," he said with an innocent smile, ignoring my question.

I nodded absentmindedly, "Yes, yes, your Nee-sama will always be your Nee-sama. Now where did that idiot go? I'm going to kill him."

Cal grabbed one of my hands and dragged me in one direction. "Then, let's ditch those eyesores and go back home. I bet that Catherine has prepared cookies for us for when we get back." That was quite a tempting offer. Just as I was about to agree, a small gust of wind broke our hands apart and Cal tripped onto his face. 

"Cal, are you-" I was cut off when a hand wrapped around my waist and whisked me away in the blink of an eye. "Hey! What are you-" My protest was cut off when I felt a hand cover my mouth. I struggled, trying my best to conjure a mist to fend off my attacker, but it was unneeded, because I was soon let go. I whirled around, ready to hurl a mist bottle at him, but then I stopped.

"You? Why did you attack me? Where's Cal?"

Aaron shrugged. "We wanted you to continue to beat up the second prince."

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, "Why?"

Asher spoke up. "We didn't have any bad ulterior motives, really. It was just because we find him annoying. Well, actually, we also thought it would be fun to watch his futile struggle and his "beautiful" face died black and blue." He tilted his head, "and the fact that we would be able to use this information to blackmail a prince of our country to do whatever we want, is a pretty big plus. Basically, yes, we do have ulterior motives."

"Just not bad ulterior motives," Aaron piped up. I was rendered speechless. 

"Um... please don't take offense... but is there any chance... that you guys are sadists?" I asked, crossing my fingers. 

""Bingo,"" was their reply. I nearly fainted. Being left alone with two sadists in the middle of a forest was the last thing I wanted to do. Just as I was about to creep away, they struck up a conversation between each other.

"Well, not really." Aaron spoke up. I heaved a sigh of relief.

Asher tilted his head, "Yeah, I guess. We only pay attention to things that are fun or interesting, so it depends on the person. If we find you boring, or if you are uninteresting, we will create some... scenarios to make you more interesting." I started creeping away again. "But don't worry," Asher reassured me. "We find you quite interesting already, so the pranks *cough* help is unnecessary. So we will leave you alone. For the time being." I shivered, hoping to never get on this kid's bad side. I didn't have a death wish. Literally.

"Now, stop it Asher, you're scaring her." I looked gratefully at Aaron who had just spoken up. Truly the reliable, mature, adult figure in the heroine's harem. "Isn't it the most fun to catch our prey unaware? You just totally spoiled the surprise."

"Oh, yeah." Asher thought about it for a second. "Sorry, bro, I won't do it again."

Aaron patted his head. "As long as you understand." Who the hell said that Aaron was the a reliable, mature, older adult figure! And that Asher was the mischievous kid! Aaron was the real culprit! He was the bad influence! It was like a grown up mentoring a child... on the worst things possible!

I could not take it anymore, and I darted away, fearing for my sanity. I heard the twins behind me laughing, and I caught them saying something about how the chase made catching the prey more fun, and I ran even faster.

I did not hear sounds of pursuit, and eventually I stopped to take a rest. I bent over, gasping for breath, and only when my breathing regulated did I stand up straight again. When I looked up, I nearly fainted at how bad my luck was. What did I do to deserve this karma?!

In front of me was the heroine, in all of her sparkly blonde and large eyed glory. Shit. When I meet Jared again, he is going to have the largest thrashing of his life for pulling me into all of this. 

Somewhere in the forest Jared felt a cold shiver run up his back. He quickly looked around warily, trying to find the source. Jared shivered again. Just what was that? he wondered.