Smile of an Angel

Bryce and Damien stood in front of us with faces of angst.

“Alex, why did you bring those people here?!” Bryce said.

“They’re survivors, of course. Why wouldn’t we?” Alex said.

“That girl Ori, she’s an evil woman!” Bryce said.

“Do you understand how many hearts she’s broken?” Damien said, teary-eyed. “She’s a sad soul.”

Alex and his companions had looks of confusion.

“I don’t know what sort of relationship you’ve had before, but can you please just push it aside?” Alex said. “It’s obvious that they’ve been through a long journey, can’t you see how drained they are?”

It’s true. We went through a lot just to get here and we’ve experienced despair from one place to another.

I…..no….We are sick and tired of living out there by ourselves. We just wanted to rest and finally have some peace at the resort, but these two idiots just decided to ruin it.

“Please give it a rest guys, we don’t want any trouble,” Agnes said.

“Why are you taking her side, Agnes?!” Bryce screamed in her face. “Don’t you hate her too?!”

Agnes shrunk in fear. I walked over to her and caressed her forehead.

“It’s ok…thanks for trying.”

“Ori should stay….it’s Perci that needs to go,” Damien said. “He’s the one corrupting her heart.”

Perci tries to intervene, but Robin stops him and confronts the two.

“Quit your bullshit. Why can’t you just ignore them and leave them alone?” Robin said.

Damien grabbed Perci’s collar and looked at him coldly.

“Perci!” Robin called out.

“It’s fine, Robin. Let me talk to him,” Perci said.

Perci sighed. He maintained a calm composure despite being grabbed like that.

“What are you trying to do?” Perci asked Damien.

“You said I didn’t care about her. How am I supposed to let go of that?”

“I was just telling you what I observed. You didn’t even bother keeping her safe. Saying that you love her, yet you can’t protect her…..Stop lying to yourself.”

“You!”

Damien tries to punch Perci in the face, but Alex grabs him and drags him away.

“Let go of me, Alex!” Damien said.

“We shouldn’t be fighting here,” Alex said. “You’re disturbing the peace.”

“Just Ori being here is disturbing the peace if you ask me!” Bryce said and gripped Alex’s shoulder like a claw.

“Phew, what a pain….” Alex muttered. “As your senior, I’m asking you to stop this farce, now.”

“Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you get to order us around!” Bryce said.

“If you don’t behave right now, then I’ll have to-”

Bryce and Damien tried to attack Alex before he could finish, but Alex easily evaded their attacks and pulled on their ears.

“O-Ouch!”

“You brats better cut it out or I won’t show any mercy.”

A sudden laughter came out from the crowd and the sound of claps could be heard.

“All right, that’s enough. Let them go, Alex. Can’t everybody just have a good time?”

T-that voice!

My senses felt the shivers as I heard the voice and I suddenly felt like trembling in place.

W-why am I shaking so much?

“Hey, Ori…are you ok?” Perci tilted his head towards me.

“I-It’s him….”

The person who laughed showed himself with an angelic smile on his face. His beautiful blonde hair and radiant golden eyes stole the show and his demeanor exhibited a feeling of warmth and gentleness. His easy-going voice was enough to calm everybody down.

He was basically every girl’s dream guy. Even I was still enchanted by his looks.

“Lucio, these guys were being rude to our guests,” Alex said. “I just had to discipline them.”

“It’s fine,” Lucio said. “So you guys are in a rather nasty dispute, right? What seems to be the problem?”

“Lucio! Ori’s here! I can’t allow her to live with us!” Bryce said.

“Ori?”

Lucio looked directly towards me for a moment. Then he smiled.

I looked away flustered, trying to escape from his gaze.

D-damn it…..that guy….

My body started to feel stiff…..like it was frozen cold….

“Well, it seems to me that Bryce and Damien can’t let this go, that’s too bad,” Lucio said.

“But we can’t just kick them out…” Alex said.

“Don’t worry. We won’t be doing that!”

“Huh? Are you fucking serious, Lucio?” Bryce said.

“I have a wonderful idea,” Lucio put his hands together. “Why don’t you settle it down at The Cage?”

“Lucio….are you serious?” Alex said.

“Yeah. That’s what The Cage is for. If we can’t solve it with words, then we can solve it over an official fight. Isn’t that fair?”

“Hey, are you seriously going to let Ori fight Bryce?” Robin said.

“Of course not, that isn’t fair!” Lucio said. “But I believe that guy can!”

He walked over to Perci and extended his hand.

“Hello! I’m Lucio, what’s your name?”

“It’s Perci, pleased to meet you.”

They both shook hands.

“Well then, Perci…” Lucio patted his shoulder. “You seem like a strong guy, would you be willing to fight for Ori’s sake?”

Perci smiled.

“Of course. As a gentleman, it is my duty to protect women.”

“That’s the spirit. It’s settled!” Lucio said. “Perci will fight Bryce at The Cage. Is that fine?”

“Fine by me, I need to get my revenge on him,” Bryce said.

“I’ll fight him too, “ Damien said.

“Oh? Then there will be two fights tonight. Is that ok with you, Perci? Or is it unfair for your stamina?”

“Let them fight me both at the same time,” Perci said.

“Ha? Aren’t you getting a little too cocky?!” Bryce went right up to Perci’s face.

Perci maintained a stoic expression and stared at Bryce.

“You really think you can take on both of us?” Damien followed Bryce and stared back at Perci.

The three had an intense staredown.

“Now, now, let’s save that intensity for later…”

Lucio gently pushed them aside and looked at Perci.

“Are you sure about this? We’re not taking any responsibility if you get hurt, okay?”

Perci closed his eyes.

“Yes, I’m sure. I’ll take responsibility for myself.”

“Interesting…..I’m giving you one last chance to back out…are you in….or out?”

“I’m guessing you can already tell,” Perci said.

“Ok then! It’s Perci VS Bryce and Damien at The Cage tonight! Feel free to watch and cheer for whoever you like!” Lucio said and patted Perci on the back.

The people cheered as they anticipated the fight that was to come.

I noticed Lucio walking closer to me…so I closed my eyes and hugged myself.

I’m scared……..

He whispered into my ear with a soft breath.

“Let’s talk sometime, ok?”

Lucio left me and walked away.

My seventh ex-boyfriend………also my last.

“Ori……” Agnes muttered.

………………….

Below the resort was a huge dark underground area lit up with neon lights. At one part, there was the training center, where most of the gym equipment was. The other more notable part would be the fighting cage where most of the people gathered around to watch some deadly violent action-packed entertainment. I guess this place was supposed to be some sort of stress-reliever?

Do normal resorts even have such a place like this?

Noises from the crowd cheered as they watched the fighters take the stage.

On one side was Perci, wearing only shorts, which showed off most of his body. And somehow, he’s still wearing that fedora…..

Hmph! I’m not getting charmed by that body again! I’m not the type of person who only goes for physical appearance anyway!

I like his abs though…….

I’m an idiot…..

On the other side was Damien and Bryce. They both had decent looking bodies, but their personalities were too much of a turn off for me to even care.

“I’m cheering for the duo!”

“Me too!”

“That guy’s probably just acting arrogant, he’s definitely going to lose.”

People were mostly against Perci’s side. It’s understandable, since he’s only one person against two.

Suddenly, there was a panda mascot entering the stage and performing some dance moves.

“C-cute..” I said.

The panda walked up to both fighters and hyped them up with hand signals.

Everyone cheered as they watched the dancing panda take the stage.

Perci smiled at the panda, but Bryce and Damien just coldly brushed it aside.

Afterwards, the panda left the stage and did a high-five with Lucio.

Lucio stood in between the fighters to explain a few things.

“This is a match to settle your conflict. Once the match is over, you are no longer allowed to continue your disputes. So fight your heart out and vent out all your frustrations against each other. ”

“I definitely will…” Bryce punched his fists together.

“I’ll show him my despair,” Damien said.

“But of course, we’ll stop the fight if it gets too dangerous, so don’t go too far! We don’t want to kill anyone!”

“You know I can’t guarantee that, Lucio,” Bryce said.

“That’s why we have Alex here to be the referee! Right, Alex?”

Alex entered the ring and scratched his head.

“Fine, fine. What a chore….”

Lucio looked at Perci and chuckled.

“Oh, Perci. Please remove your fedora,” Lucio said.

“Ah, sorry. It’s almost a part of me, so I barely notice it’s still there,” Perci said.

“Yeah! Get rid of that stupid fedora, you idiot!” a voice from the crowd screamed.

“Booooooo!”

The crowd didn’t seem to like Perci for some reason…..

Perci took off his fedora, showing off his black hair and gave it to Lucio.

"Please hold on to this for me."

"No problem!"

Lucio twirled the fedora around then held it with his two hands.

“Remember, what happens in The Cage, stays in The Cage. Good luck, fighters!” Lucio said.

Lucio left the cage and the bell rang.

DING DING DING! The fight has started.

“Perci…..it’s time to give you a beating!” Bryce said, crossing his neck with his arm.

“Hey Bryce, let’s attack him together!” Damien said.

“Buzz off, I don’t need you.”

“Hey!”

Bryce immediately dashed towards Perci to throw a punch, but he was greeted with a deadly kick to the face in an instant.

He dropped to the floor unconscious.

The crowd immediately fell silent for a moment with their jaws dropped.

“Sorry, I’m not in a good mood right now, so I’d like to get this over quickly,” Perci showed his cold indigo eyes towards Damien.

“Bryce, you idiot!” a person said.

“Perci’s actually pretty cool!” another said.

The crowd immediately switched sides and started cheering for Perci.

What a load of bandwagon jumpers…..

“Get Damien! Beat him up!”

Perci walked towards Damien, who felt intimidated by his piercing stare. He began to back away and stuck to the borders, but the people pushed him forward instead.

I’ve already seen Perci’s scary side, but it still gives me goosebumps. He’s usually so gentle and kind, that’s probably why.

“Both of you hurt Ori’s feelings. This gives me enough reason to be mad at you. But I’m giving you a chance to give up and escape. You should be grateful.”

“D-Damn you!” Damien said.

Perci launched a roundhouse kick towards Damien. He covered his face to protect himself, but realized that the foot had stopped right next to his head.

“Consider this a professional courtesy,” Perci turned his back and walked away.

Isn’t that line from Wicky Jhon?

“Booo! Why did you stop the kick?!”

“We want more!”

The crowd complained about Perci’s pacifist action.

Damien gritted his teeth and ran towards Perci’s back to attack him, but Perci had already anticipated this and kicked him in the chest, causing Damien to cough out saliva and fall down on the floor.

“I-I give up….” Damien said.

“I knew it, you were never a man of honor,” Perci looked at him disappointingly.

“Damn it…..”

“The battle is over, Perci is the winner!” Alex said and lifted Perci’s arm.

The crowd cheered for his victory.

Ah jeez….Perci is so cool!

I squealed in celebration and hugged Agnes.

“Gah…you’re hugging me too tightly!” Agnes said.

The panda mascot ran over to the stage again and raised Perci’s other arm while jumping up and down.

“Pfft. That panda is really cute!” Agnes said.

This isn’t really that surprising though. Perci was always a good fighter. He’s come across stronger opponents anyway. Even with Damien and Bryce's strengths combined, they still couldn't beat someone as strong as Kenji.

I saw Lucio smile and walk away from the crowd.

That boy….what exactly is going on inside his head?