The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 703: Divine Scenario Part 3

A few days have passed, and I have to say, Oriane has completely surprised me. She’s been doing surprisingly well on the normal tasks I give her, but whenever we do a test, her results are either mediocre or just plain bad.

Today I’m at her house again, which is smaller than I expected. Like, it’s still huge, but it’s not the mansion I figured she’d have.

’Weird... her grades are shit... but...’ I look at my notebook, going over the notes from class seven days ago. She got the same questions right that she missed on the test.

’Is she failing on purpose?... or not?’ The worst part is I don’t get it — not because it’s absurdly complicated, but because she got them right. If she wanted to hide her grades, she wouldn’t do well in regular class and only mess up on the test.

But only messing up on the test is suspicious when her class performance has been better than anything I’ve ever seen from her.

"Oriane, you failed again..." I say, handing her the failed test. We have little time for her to improve her grades, and still, we’ve made almost no progress.

"Oh, what a shame," she says, sucking on a lollipop.

"Oriane, why are you failing on purpose?" I ask, more of a shot in the dark, hoping for an answer that explains this situation I’m still uncertain about.

"Oh no, I’ve been caught!" she says with a little grin.

"...You were right, Oriane... someone sabotaged your grades... you!! You sabotaged your grades!" I say, standing up. What a joke. So I didn’t need to have wasted all this time trying to teach her anything.

"Hahaha, you caught me," she says, opening her arms. I shoot her a dirty look, grabbing my glasses and cleaning the lens, just wanting to leave. I do it with the glasses to make my discomfort clear.

"Why did you do this? It could ruin your future."

"...I just wanted an excuse to invite you to my house. It’s been so long since we talked. You pulled away from me so much after—"

"After you bullied me." I didn’t just stand there and take it quietly. I cut ties with her back then, breaking the friendship we promised would last forever.

"..."

"I know I might have screwed up really badly, but Pandora, I’m serious about just wanting to invite you over. Are you going to say you don’t miss me?"

"..."

"Doesn’t Pandora miss our friendship? Not even a little? We were so close in the past."

"Haaa... no, I didn’t miss you. And if that’s the only reason you chose to fail, then whatever. I’m going home. I’m not coming back here," I tell her, and she looks disappointed.

"You’ve always been a terrible liar, Pandora."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about." I grab my backpack and put my things away.

"Really? Then why do you keep that backpack charm in such a visible spot?" When she says that, I glance at the small charm on the zipper of my backpack — an adorable black dragon with gold detailing.

"I bought this..."

"Really? It looks pretty old and cracked."

"...Bought it a few years ago."

"A limited edition from thirteen years ago? The same one I gave you when you were eight? You know we’re both nineteen now, so the math doesn’t add up. That means you bought it when you were six, and I know you didn’t do that."

"It’s a knockoff, then. Stop wasting my time." I close my backpack, but before I can sling it over my shoulders, Oriane pushes me onto her couch. I try to get up, but she straddles me.

"What are you—" She shoves her lollipop into my mouth, rudely cutting me off.

"Hahaha, this reminds me of the past... when you talked too much, I’d shove candy in your mouth to make you shut up." She moves the lollipop stick, rubbing the candy against my tongue, then pulls it out and puts it in her own mouth.

"!!!" My face flushes with embarrassment.

"W-What do you think you’re doing?!" I try to push her off, but my completely unathletic body can’t move her, since she actually does sports.

"So weak. You’ve always been the frail type. I see that hasn’t changed." She presses the lollipop against my mouth.

"Come on, are you really going to say you feel nothing when I do this? We were so close. I never got the chance to apologize for what I did... you didn’t even let me try to earn your forgiveness." She pulls the lollipop out again and brings it to her own mouth.

"If you really regret it, why do you bully other girls?"

"...I’m not sure... I think... I became arrogant as Mom and Dad got rich... and also... I was feeling lonely without them, since they spend way too much time working or traveling."

"That’s not an excuse. You ruined one of my dream opportunities back then."

"...I know it was awful, destroying your school project, pushing you from dangerous places... I was a terrible friend. You were kind of weird with that whole bug thing, so other kids always made fun of you."

"I guess I just went along with it to be popular..."

"Was it worth it?" I ask her.

"Was losing your only true friend for a bunch of rich brats worth it?" I ask, irritated, while she looks sad.

"No... not as much as I would’ve liked. None of my friends are real friends. They’re more like friends of the moment — as long as I’m on top, they stick around, but if I fall, I’ll be alone..."

"B-But I really do miss you! I really wanted us to have something again. I really like you."

"...You... are really stupid, Oriane..." I bite my lip, having missed her too.

"Pandora... if I stop bullying... if I work really hard for your forgiveness, study like crazy, and then get a respectable, stable job... would you let me shut your mouth with something bitter, warm, and really thick?"

"..." She just made the worst possible confession. I pinch her thigh hard, making her let out a little yelp.

"...I forgive you, but only if I see you’ve changed... Right now, you just seem like an idiotic jerk to me, while my friend Oriane has completely vanished. So if that Oriane doesn’t come back, forget about me."

"..." She smiles.

"I’ll get better! I’ll study a ton to get my grades back up, and I’ll stop tormenting others!! So wait for me... you don’t have to stay here helping me study. I’ll do it all by myself and show you the results."

"..." I push her off me.

"We’ll see. But any relapse and it’s all over, forever... I won’t give you a third chance." I steal the lollipop from her mouth and bite it, hearing its sweet crack.

"I’m keeping this." I grab my backpack and run for the exit, my face completely red from everything that just happened. In the rush, I even left my glasses behind — they fell on the couch.