Linked: The War of the Gems - Book 1 by Alexandra Johnson

Author:Alexandra Johnson [Johnson, Alexandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-23T05:00:00+00:00

Lunch was supposed to be a time to unwind. Thanks to Touya, Aoi had never felt so tense. Aoi was supposed to sip at juice, eat the cute meal her father made, and chat with the guys. And now, Aoi wouldn’t be able to see if Tatsuo liked her bento or not—or if he even ate it. It wouldn’t kill him to have some real food.

Her hands shook as she ate. She hoped it wasn’t too obvious.

Touya sat across from her in the empty room—apparently the student council’s meeting space, according to Touya. There were tables scattered throughout the room, most with a variety of papers littered across them. They looked important, but Touya’s green eyes focused on her. He didn’t eat. He didn’t speak. He just stared. That made Aoi even more nervous.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” she asked.

His brows rose. “Oh. Right.” He fetched his lunch from another desk, grabbed two bottles of water, and returned to his place across from her. He placed a bottle near her bento box. “Do you know why I asked you to have lunch with me, Arisawa-san?”

“No, not really,” she admitted. She wished it was something painfully simple—like some silly crush. But she was sure nothing could be that easy.

“I know what you are,” he said, “or at least I have my suspicions.”

“A foreigner?” she suggested. She certainly did look the part with the whole blonde hair, blue eyes thing. “That’s kinda true. I’m half Japanese, though.”

“Half?”

“Yeah. My dad’s Japanese, but my mom’s French.”

“Fascinating. How did they meet?”

“My dad was in Paris for a business meeting when he saw my mom. She was just getting out of a fashion show. Dad tells me it was love at first sight, but it didn’t last.”

“They divorced, I take it?”

Aoi nodded. She didn’t like thinking about it, let alone talking about it, even though years had passed since then. She was only a child at the time, but things had been hard back then. They still were at times.

“Forgive me. This must be hard to talk about.”

She smiled sadly. “It’s okay. You were just curious.” She hoped that had been a good enough distraction to get him off her back.

“Don’t let your guard down just yet,” Mulan warned her.

I won’t. She wouldn’t be so careless. When it came to being Linked, nothing was ever easy. And, since he’d already asked about her hand, a sinking feeling in her gut told her this had to be related to the Linked.

“Is that all?” she asked, half-standing.

“No. You simply distracted me.” Touya didn’t even wait to admit that.

Aoi sat back down with a thud. She knew, of course, that he couldn’t care less about her race or ethnicity. He had a real reason he brought her here.

“Then what did you want, Senpai?”

“I want to see your hand.”

This again . . . “Why?”

If he saw, she’d have to explain who the Linked were and what they could do. That was the last thing she wanted.

“I want to see why it’s bandaged.

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