Chapter 6: His Many Faces

I just sat on the passenger seat, staring at Vin. Sorting out all the thoughts I have with this man. He turned his attention on me, he was sitting there behind the steering wheel with that smirk on his face again. I reverted my gaze but then felt him move closer to me. I turned to face him but was taken aback with what I saw.

His smirking face was inches from mine. I stared at him not even daring to move, any sudden movement could result in something that I don't even want to think about. His eyes twinkled with amusement, he was staring back at me with a playful smile across his, what I assume is, soft lips. I closed my eyes by instinct when he suddenly moved even closer and waited for his lips to touch mine.

I felt his hand graze my shoulder to my back, reaching for something. My mind grew fuzzy and I couldn't think straight. My eyes remained close the whole time until I felt a rough fabric-like material touch my shoulder then I heard a click before hearing a deep masculine laugh from beside me.

I opened my eyes and clenched my jaw in annoyance, Vin Andrews Dela Cruz was almost dying of laughter, hitting the steering wheel, in the driver's seat. I looked down at myself and saw my seatbelt already buckled. Sh*t Michihiko! What were you thinking? You're seriously waiting for a kiss? I stopped myself from smacking him in the head, technically, he didn't do anything wrong. He helped me put on my freaking seatbelt, it was me who imagined things in my head.

I looked out of the window avoiding his gaze, I could feel his stares piercing through my body and that was enough to make me redder than I already was. He started the engine and before driving away he whispered to me.

"Believe me sweetheart, I'm trying so hard not to envelop you in a kiss right now. So, don't make it harder for me to resist the temptation." he whispered in a deep voice which somehow I find sexy.

Oh my gosh! Stop it Mitch! Can you stop thinking of him in that way? Did you turn into a pervert over night? I think I'm losing it! I'm going crazy! I was having a heated internal argument with myself when he started driving out of the carpark.

Staying put inside a car, beside a man that can switch on different levels of crazy within me is hard. I was uncomfortable the whole ride, fidgeting with anything that I can lay my hands on. I can feel that he was stealing glances from me, but I ignored it and refusing to meet his gazes. Just imagining his perfect handsome face smiling is enough to quench the infatuation that I am feeling right now.

YES, infatuation, that the conclusion that me and myself had during our heated and quiet internal argument, on why I'm acting like a teenage girl in front of her crush. You know, the typical bad boy crushes every girl have been through and because he is the first bad boy type of guy I encountered, it's what's inducing my attraction to him. That's it! Eventually, I'll grew out of this phase, right?

"Who's the guy from before?" He asked stopping me from having another unpleasant conversation with myself. I was confused by his question and it looks like my brain is refusing to function properly.

"Who?" I said when I finally found my voice to speak.

"The guy who gave you that." He replied while raising an eyebrow to the paper bag that I forgot that I was still holding.

"Don't know." I simply answered. "I didn't have the chance to ask for his name. He walked away after giving me this. He was nice though." I replied smiling at the memory of that stranger smiling back at me before going his way.

Silence fell over us, he didn't reply to me, so I curiously turned to look at him. The same grim look was present in his face again. Did I say something wrong? The hell happened to him. Just seconds ago, he was teasing and flirting with me, then now he's looking deadly again. What am I going to do to this man?

The car then stopped and when I looked out of the window, we were already in front of our house. Shin immediately caught my attention, he stood up from the sidewalk between our houses as the car stopped in front of him.

"Thanks for the ride." I said in an almost inaudible whisper without even looking at him. I placed my hand in the buckle of my seatbelt when he suddenly held my hand causing me to finally look at him.

I looked back at him and saw a smile across his face. It wasn't one of his cocky and mischievous smiles that he always wears, whenever he was teasing me. This smile looks the same but sure enough it felt different. The smile that is across his face right now, has danger written all over it. Like a lion who finally caught his prey, and to Vin Andrews Dela Cruz it felt like I was his prey.

He removed his seatbelt and leaned closer to me while still holding my hand that's on the buckle. He placed his lips near my ear and whispered something that made the blush crept in my face again. I was so shocked that my body went in overdrive. I quickly pressed the buckle and removed my seatbelt, got out of the car and almost ran towards Shin as fast as I could. Vin opened his window to acknowledge my best friend.

"Thanks." Shin said as he nodded to Vin.

"No problem." He replied to Shin then focused his eyes on me.

"Good night sweetheart!" He called out staring at me with that dangerous smile still intact then before I could react, he closed his window then sped off into the night.

"What was that about?" Shin asked me as soon as Vin's car was out of view. He looked at me curiously, asking for answers.

"I don't know. He's always like that." I answered him and quickly walked to the door with Shin following me.

Since that night, I can't look at Vin the same way. I tried my best to avoid him, but it seems that no matter where I go on campus, he's always there. Whether, he's surrounded by his friends or group of girls or alone, there isn't a day that I didn't see him. It was like he knew my schedule and was making sure to keep an eye on me every day.

The nail on the coffin of my suspicions was when Shin actually brought him on our once a week lunch time together and what shocked me was how close they were acting. Angel didn't mind and I acted like I didn't mind either, but my head was running a whole bloody marathon while we were eating that day. I was fidgeting the whole time.

Thank goodness and we weren't from the same department, there were less chances that I could bump into him in the hallways, I just have to endure that once a week lunch with him, because I'm positive that seeing him every day will actually drive me insane. Even with just the memory of what he whispered to me that night was enough to make me lose sleep and have internal arguments with myself, his words echoing in my head every time I'm reminded of him.

"Seeing you with another man makes me want to mark you as mine."

That are the exact words that he whispered before I got out of the car. He said that to me in the slow, deep voice that makes me go crazy! Mark me? I don't even know what he means about that, but it still churns the pit of my stomach not knowing if it's a good thing or bad.

There was a threat in his voice when he said those words by the way he said those words. There was a sense of authority and a hint of jealousy in his voice. I know that he's just playing with me, but it still doesn't help me sleep at night while I'm pretty sure that he is laughing his ass off with my reaction as soon as he got home that night.

I dreaded going to school after that weekend, thinking that her would just tease me about it from the moment that he would see me. To my surprise, he never brought it up. I don't know if I should be happy about that or disappointed. He's acting like he didn't acted like a predator wolf, fierce and ready to pounce and devour me that night if I choose to say something he didn't like.

The Vin I saw that night was the complete opposite of the Vin sitting opposite of me right now. He looks like he is having the time of his life, laughing and joking around with me and my friends while having our weekly lunch together. His smiles and laughs right now are full of life and wonder, he seems so carefree, but as soon as his eyes would meet mine, his child-like smiles would turn into that mischievous dangerous grins that I saw that night.

"SH*T" I explained loudly as I checked my phone and saw that I only have fifteen minutes left before my next class. The three of them looked at me curiously as I started gathering my things. I got up from the table and was about to sprint out of there when Vin grabbed my hand.

"I got to go! I'm going to be late! See you later!" I said to them and he immediately loosen his grip on me and I sprinted off to my next class.

"See you later Mitch!" I heard Angel yell at me as I run off. I raised my hand and waved back to them without looking back. I reached our building within five minutes and went straight to the elevators, but when I got there, there was an overwhelming number of people queuing for the elevator, so I decided to just use the stairs. I ran through the hallway and up the stairs trying my very best to not bump into people as I pass by.

I'm so scared to be late right now because I have Marketing next, any our professor is very strict about tardiness. According to him, we have to learn how to market ourselves first before learning how to market our product. Who would buy and trust products from people who can't even be bother to be punctual.

I ran up the third floor and slowed down on the last flight of stairs. I was catching my breathe on top of the stairs looking down and I'm truly amazed of the distance I just ran. I was about to turn around and walk towards the classroom but before I could even turn and revert my gaze from the stairs I felt a sudden push from my side and I lost my balance. I screamed as I fell down the stairs trying to grab onto anything that I could but no luck. I closed my eyes, helpless, bracing myself for impact. I fell a few steps down then started rolling the rest of the way, uncontrolled, then everything went black.

I caressed my head as I felt a splitting pain before I could even open my eyes. I tried massaging my temples hoping to relieve the pain, but it didn't help. I felt a mesh-like cloth wrapped around my head, I grabbed onto it to unravel it from my head because it was really uncomfortable, but someone stopped me.

I opened my eyes taking a few moments to let my pupils adjust to the light. I blinked a few times and when my eyes finally readjusted to the lights, I realized that I was in an unfamiliar room. Everything is colored white, the side where I was, is lined with beds, the same as the I one I was lying in. There were health related posters and equipment everywhere.

There was a familiar scent of cherry blossoms around the room, probably from a scented candle or an air freshener, it was very calming for me and my head started to clear up and it eased the pain of my throbbing head a bit but I was still in disarray.

"How are you doing?" said a voice that I am familiar with. I looked beside my bed and was greeted by a familiar face. I looked at my hand and saw his hand caressing mine. It was him who stopped me from taking off my bandages and until now, he is still holding my hand with so much gentleness that I couldn't bring myself to remove them from his grasps.

"I'm fine. Just a bit of headache, but I'm fine." I said while trying to get up from the bed, but before I could haul myself of the bed I felt a shooting pain from my right ankle and realized that it too was bandaged.

"Good. You're awake already Michihiko. I'm Doc Mindy. How are you feeling?" The new comer caught my attention. She was wearing a white coat with a stethoscope dangling from her neck while smiling at me.

"I'm feeling better Doc. How long was I asleep?" I asked her.

"Maybe a bit over thirty minutes. You were already unconscious when your boyfriend brought you here." She replied to me, eyes lingering at my hands cupped inside Vin's hands. I blushed at the mention of the word boyfriend and instinctively pulled my hand out of his grip.

"Its fine. You don't have to be shy about it. I don't mind. My boyfriend was just like that when we were younger especially now that he's already my husband." She jokily said to me, making me blush crazily from embarrassment, while this man with me is truly enjoying the jokes that Doc Mindy was throwing at us.

"Anyway, you have a sprain in your right ankle. You don't seem to have any concussions but better to be safe than sorry, I want you to take this and have your MRI and x-ray as soon as possible just to be sure. Then come back to me when you have the results. Okay?" She asked while giving me a prescription but rather than medicines, it was a request from MRI and X-ray procedure. I nodded as an acknowledgement that I understood her.

"Okay. Don't strain yourself from walking too much. You can go anytime you want." She said to me with a smile then turned her attention to Vin.

"Can you help her in getting around for a while? It's going to be hard for her to move a lot because of her ankle." She asked Vin in which he just nodded as an answer. She then left us and went back to what she was doing before I woke up.

"Are you sure you're fine?" Vin finally spoke, still seated in the chair beside my bed. I nodded then turn my head to look at him, I was about to say thank you when no words left my mouth. The look on his face has a mixture of fear, worry and anger. His eyebrows were furrowed probably waiting for what I was about to say. He was biting his lower lips maybe due to worry and anxiety. His hands were fidgeting with each other as he waited. And when my eyes met his, I felt a sudden comfort but at the same time guilt.

He's eyes were calling me out on being clumsy and not being careful but at the same time it looked genuinely worried if I was okay, if I was hurting somewhere. I felt guilty for making this man worried and anxious but at the same time my heart skipped a beat with the thought of this man watching over me while I was sleeping soundly.

The longer I look at him, the faster my heart beat. How many personalities those this man have? How can he look so similar but ooze a different vibe with every expression made by his handsome face? Will I ever get used to these many faces of him and the different but somehow identical feeling that I feel every time I look at him? Just which one of his many sides is the real him?