KEIFER'S POV :
She stared at me for a second, and then—without warning—she turned and ran.
Before I could even process what she was doing, she leaped into the pool.
"JAY!" we all shouted at once.
But she didn't answer.
I rushed to the edge of the pool and looked down, my heartbeat hammering in my chest. Section e gathered around me. The pool was dimly lit, the water almost black, and from where I stood I couldn't see a single movement. No ripple. No shadow. No sign of her.
The water was still.
A cold knot twisted in my stomach.
"Jay?" I called.
No answer.
"Jay?" I called again, louder this time.
No response.
"Why is she not coming out?" Someone whispered.
"Jay! Where the hell are you?"
Still nothing.
My worry kept climbing, sharper with every second that passed.
Without thinking, I jumped in.
Section E knew I could swim, so nobody stopped me. I sank beneath the surface, eyes scanning every corner of the pool. The water was darker below, but not dark enough to hide a person completely. I searched left, then right, then deeper.
Nothing.
She wasn't there.
What the hell?
How could she just disappear? She jumped into the water in front of all of us!
I ran out of breath and resurfaced, gripping the pool edge as I gasped for air. My whole body was soaked, my clothes clinging to my skin, but I didn't care. I only cared about one thing.
Jay.
"Jay, where the hell are you?!" I snapped.
Sensing my panic, Ci-N leaned forward.
"What happened, Keifer? Where is she?"
I looked up at him, still breathing hard.
"She's not in the water."
Everyone froze.
"What do you mean she's not in the water?" Felix asked, frowning. "She jumped in right in front of us."
"I know," I said tightly. "But she's not there."
We all searched again, everyone looking around the pool, under the water, near the walls, like she might suddenly appear if we looked hard enough. I dipped under once more, searching every inch.
Still nothing.
When I surfaced again, they all looked at me expectantly.
I shook my head.
Where are you, Jay?
Where the hell did you go?
"Need help searching?" a voice called out.
We all turned.
There she was.
Jay sat casually on the edge of the pool, legs crossed, feet dangling in the water, as if she hadn't just made every single one of us panic. Her clothes were completely soaked, her white shirt clinging to her body, the fabric now almost translucent under the light. Her hair hung loose and wet around her face, water dripping from the ends in slow trails down her neck and shoulders. And that smirk on her face—cocky, annoying, and somehow unfairly attractive—made my irritation flare all over again.
For one stupid second, I felt relief.
Then anger.
"Where the hell were you, Jay?" Ci-N demanded. "We were worried sick."
"Oh, me?" she said sweetly, blinking at us with fake innocence. "I was here the whole time."
"Jay, you seriously worried the shit out of us."
Her eyes sparkled with mischief.
"Oh, really?"
I said nothing.
I just stared at her.
And she stared right back.
The others kept arguing with her, but I barely heard any of it. My focus had narrowed to one thing only—her face, her expression, the way she looked back at me like she knew exactly what she was doing.
"Keifer!" Felix called again, pulling me back. "You gonna say anything?"
I still didn't talk. After a long silence, I finally moved.
"What do you think?" I asked quietly.
I took one step toward her.
"You think you can just disappear like that and show up later like it's a joke?"
Another step.
"You think you can scare the hell out of all of us and expect us to laugh it off?"
Another.
"You don't do that, Jay."
She stood up, straightened, her expression shifting just slightly.
"You don't make us worry like that and call it a prank."
I kept walking toward her, water rippling around me.
"You don't expect us to just let it go."
"Keifer…" she whispered.
She started backing away, but slower than I was moving.
"You don't expect there to be no consequences."
She kept retreating, her eyes flicking between mine and the pool around her.
"You can't honestly think I'd just leave it like this."
"No…" she said softly.
"Run, Jay."
My voice dropped low.
"Run for your life."
And then I turned, climbed out of the pool, and she bolted.
I moved after her immediately.
"Section E, catch her!" I shouted.
"Aye, aye, Captain!" they yelled back, scattering in every direction.
"Hey! I'm your president, you should follow me!" Jay shouted as she ran.
"That's exactly what we're doing!" Edrix shot back.
"That is not what that means!" she snapped, narrowly slipping past him.
"We don't care!" Ci-N yelled, laughing.
She was fast. Damn fast.
Even though Jay was short, she ran like a damn cheetah. If she ever entered a real race, she'd probably drag home gold without even trying. We outnumbered her sixteen to one, and somehow she still kept slipping away, twisting through gaps, changing direction, and making us chase her all over the place.
Every time we tried to corner her, she found an escape.
She was laughing while running, and some of us were laughing too hard to breathe properly.
At one point I got close enough to nearly grab her, but she darted around the table just in time. A few of the boys rushed in front of her. She swerved right—blocked. Left—blocked again.
Finally, she stopped.
We had her.
No way out.
She stood in the middle of the space, breathing hard, panic flashing across her face for the first time. Her eyes darted around, searching for an opening, but there wasn't one.
I moved in from behind and caught her around the waist, lifting her up in a bridal carry.
"Keifer—!"
She gasped, shocked, then wrapped her arms around my neck without thinking, probably realizing too late that she was completely cornered.
"Games over, diamond," I said, my voice low. "Now get ready to face your consequences."
"Aaahh!" she groaned, buried her face in my neck.
The whole Section E erupted.
"Go, Keifer!"
"You can do it!"
"All the best, diamond!"
"We finally caught her!"
"This is gonna be crazy!"
"Punish her, man!"
I walked to the pool and dropped her in.
"Aaah!" she screamed as she hit the water, splashing hard and coming up drenched.
She glared at me.
I crouched at the edge and looked down at her.
"Never worry us like that again. Understand?"
She didn't answer.
Then suddenly she moved fast, grabbing the front of my collar and yanking me down so hard I lost my balance and fell straight into the pool.
"Aaah!" I screamed as I went under.
Section E exploded with laughter.
Jay laughed too.
I surfaced, glaring at her, and she only laughed harder.
And for some reason, even after she dragged me into the water, I didn't feel angry anymore.
Because seeing her like this—laughing, alive, unguarded—did something to the monster in me.
It calmed me.
It made me feel lighter.
Happier.
Damn it, Jay.
I'm a billionaire's son. The future CEO of Watson Enterprises. The cold, ruthless, fearless president of Section E.
And you still did this to me.
Made me soft.
Made me kind.
Made me happy.
What kind of magic are you using on me?
What gravity do you have that keeps pulling me toward you?
What poison did you give me that makes me feel incomplete when you're not near?
What sedative is it that makes me fall into your trance every time you look at me?
What kind of alcohol did you pour into my soul that left me this love-drunk?
You're everything to me, Jay.
Everything.
I don't want to lose you.
Not now.
Not ever.
"Keifer?" she called.
"Huh? What?"
She tilted her head.
"You froze. What were you thinking about?"
I shook my head fast, trying to hide the fact that I was probably blushing. Shit.
What had I just been thinking?
Before I could recover, Section E started teasing.
"He's been staring at Jay the whole time."
"Bro is so in love."
"He can't take his eyes off his wife."
"Tsk. Shut up," I muttered, pretending to be annoyed while secretly wishing they'd stop only because they were right.
Jay glared at me like she was offended, but the pink in her cheeks gave her away.
"This is your fault," she hissed.
I raised my hands in surrender, then suddenly, splashed water at her.
She froze, wiped her face, and immediately attacked me back.
I attacked her back. We both splashed water on each other laughing like idiots. Section is teasing us, laughing, but we didn't care.
Splash.
Ci-N jumped into the water. Followed by others.
"Water war!" He announced.
That was it.
We all both laughing now, splashing each other like idiots while Section E laughed and shouted from all around us. The pool turned into war zone within seconds.
Then Ci-N shouted, "Jay, what's that on your back?"
I went still.
Jay's eyes widened.
She moved quickly toward the pool wall and turned away, planting her elbows on the edge to cover her back as much as she could.
"N-nothing," she said, but her voice gave her away.
"What is it?" Felix asked.
"It's black. I think it's a tattoo." Ci-N said.
"A tattoo?"
"Another one?"
"Jay, show us!"
She stayed silent, looking down.
She had plenty of tattoos. Everyone knew that. But this time, something felt different. The silence itself felt wrong.
"Come on, Jay. Show us."
"Yeah, it's just a tattoo, right?"
"You already have a lot. Why hide this one?"
I said nothing.
I moved toward her, the water parting around me. Drops rolled from her hair and down her face. Her white shirt, soaked through, clung to her body, and she crossed her arms tightly across her chest as if trying to disappear into herself.
I stood in front of her.
She looked up at me.
I didn't speak.
I just reached for her left shoulder, turned her gently, and she let me.
When she faced away from me, I saw it.
A tattoo spread across her back in dark, intricate lines—powerful, beautiful, and somehow deeply unsettling.
A dragon.
Wrapped in motion.
Surrounded by flowers.
But it didn't feel decorative.
It felt like a warning.
Like pain etched into skin.
I clenched my jaw.
Not because of the art.
Because of what it meant.
Because of the fact that Jay had this kind of darkness carved into her and still smiled like nothing ever touched her.
"Jay, why do you have so many tattoos?" someone asked.
"You're basically a tattoo addict."
"I bet no one has as many as you."
"Did Angelo ever catch you?"
"Did he scold you?"
"Why do you even have them?"
Jay turned slowly to face us again, her arms still folded tightly across her chest. Her face was unreadable, but her eyes had gone distant.
Like she was somewhere else.
Like she was holding herself together by force.
"These are just random," she said quietly. "Nothing much to think about."
But I knew that was a lie.
I could feel it.
There was something behind them.
Something ugly.
Something painful.
"Doesn't Angelo know?" David asked.
"He does," she said. "Trust me, world war three almost happened that day."
A few of them laughed.
"Knowing Angelo, we believe no less," Yuri said.
He glanced at me briefly, and I caught the look in his eyes. Even he knew this wasn't just about tattoos.
This wasn't random.
This wasn't teenage rebellion.
This was something darker.
"Why do you have so many?" someone asked again.
Jay shrugged.
"I just like them."
"Didn't it hurt?"
"It did," she said lightly. "Like hell. But not as much as a skull fracture."
The others burst out laughing.
Honestly, even I almost did.
She really was something.
"You're a tattoo addict, Jay," Ci-N said, grinning.
Everyone laughed again, and Jay laughed too, making sure the tension dissolved.
But I didn't laugh.
I couldn't.
Because every answer she gave only made me more certain that there was something underneath all those smiles and jokes—something she didn't want anyone to see.
And now that I'd seen even a piece of it, I wasn't letting it go.
Not ever.
I'm Mark Keifer Watson, jay. I get what I want.
You can hide it for now.
Try as much as you want.
Try to bury the darkness.
Try to bury the truth.
But one day, I'm going to find it.
And when I do, you'll never have to carry it alone again.
I'm not leaving your side.
No matter what.
~~~~~~~~~~
Guys, I'm so sorry. I know I took a lot of time. I tried. I really really tried. But I couldn't be able to manage my time. I actually wanted to write a big chapter of this Christmas. But it's ver long and hard. So I did this. I'm sorry again. Please forgive me.