Arina surely wasn't aware of her serious condition. Her northern complex drove her to extreme fatigue again this noon when they were visiting Bali swing. Out of all people, Asano activated his strong hero instinct and immediately rushed to her. He carried her in his arms and brought her to the seats and bought her water, making the others gape, and whispered among them what was going on between those two.

For a moment Arina hesitated to take the water bottle Asano bought her. She had an odd, newly awakened consciousness under all her outraged dignity that the eager expression in Asano's violet eyes was something very good to see. Her heart gave a quick, queer little beat. But the bitterness of her yesterday hatred promptly stiffened up her wavering determination. That scene of Asano daring to trash others' feelings flashed back into her recollection. He had called the people who love him 'pathetic' and seemingly his mind-centered self had no place for a heart after all. She hated Asano Gakushuu! His existence was purely clashing with her life principle!

"No," she said coldly, "I do not need your help, Asano Gakushuu; and I don't want you to!"

But Arina had no idea her rebelliousness toward him only made Asano grow more excited for her. He deeply embraced this newly discovered feeling and acted upon it.

"Listen now, you're going back to the resort," ordered Asano, sounding genuinely concerned. "I should've known beforehand that your complexion is unsuitable for this weather condition as I don't want to see you suffer from fever. C'mon, let's go."

"NO WAY!" cried Arina in bitterness.

Despite her extreme exhaustion under this roasting weather, she insisted on staying there and having fun with everyone. Asano ignored her plea and dialed the bus driver.

"You can NOT make me! I'm perfectly healthy. I swear I AM!" -- Asano effortlessly picked her up and carried her away whilst she tried her best to break free but was too weak to do so as she began to sob in anguish -- "it's just that I need a little practice, that's all. Oh, Asano-kun, I used to be allergic to peanuts but I'm not now and you wouldn't guess how I overcame it. I did it by stuffing my mouth with peanuts EVERY DAY and bearing the outbreak every time. But as soon as it was done, I feel good about myself for overcoming my weaknesses and after a while I was completely immune to peanuts; so I guess it should be the same case here! Oh, please!"

It was a continuation of whining from Arina on their way back to the bus. Asano despite representing himself as ignorant was actually being attentive to every of her whine. During then, she mentioned how awful she felt leaving without purchasing any souvenirs for it was their last day in Bali. Asano took it to his heart and promised to buy her using HIS money and insisted upon it. Arina, however, was irritated by his offer. How on earth would she gift her acquaintances and especially class 3-E souvenirs bought by Asano Gakushuu's money?

He carried her to the bus and before he left, Arina bawled her eyes out and shoved her money into his pocket with strong determination. Asano for wanting her to be unbothered and get back to the resort as soon as possible, he reassured her he was going to use her money to buy souvenirs and wiped her tears away. He asked the bus driver to look after her and closed the door to Arina's grieving face.

Asano was secretly feeling bad for her the whole time after listening to her whining about being a little Normadian girl who lived most of her life in a grey, cold, gloomy country and was taken away on her last day at this sunshiny paradise. He DID have a heart after all. To make up for that, he was gonna lie and spend his money on top of the amount of money she gave him for souvenirs, and at night he could bring her outside to visit the night market.

Back to the rest in class 2-A. Everyone was in a daze at their out-of-nowhere intimacy over the night. The Big Fives suspected that it had something to do with Asano having a kink for being a masochist; when in reality, Asano had a kink for being a sadist against people who treated him horribly. However, he had taken notice and realized that his queer feelings toward Arina were frankly a mixture of both infatuation and Storge's love; therefore, the thought of dominating her had never occurred to him.

Seo and Arina originally had a duty to take advantage of this trip and get Teppei and Ami together. Now that Arina was gone, Seo was all alone in this mission. The problem was as of now it had been their last day and Ami was being too much pain in the ass by being annoying. Ami was in fact, as talkative as Arina was. However, the major difference was that while Arina was vocal about her feelings and romantic, Ami was simply...annoying. She talked about unnecessary stuff consistently and as if she acknowledged her ability to annoy people, used it to her full advantage. Most of Ami's classmates had to block her on social media for constantly receiving her message saying 'hey' and when they replied, 'what?' she proceeded to text 'nothing' and 'hey' back and it evolved into a never-ending cycle. (A/n: Ami is my real classmate just in a reversed gender ;))

Hence why people might think Teppei was out of his mind when he took a liking to Ami's character. During the span of the trip, he did nothing but film her going then and there annoying people. Seo and Arina, of course, were unhappy about failing to get them together all the time. When they confront Teppei about it, the shock of knowing Teppei only ever wanted to observe Ami from afar was too unbearable for them.

Their today trip consisted of the Bali swing and stopping for souvenirs, then heading to visit some sacred temples. It was a pity for Arina to miss out on the entire thing. Asano was constantly having Arina in his mind for the duration of the trip and his minions were too busy having fun to be reminded of that. Seo was teasing Fujii for not daring to go on one of the swings. Teppei, again, was filming Ami annoying people by taking bad photos of them and leaving. The K-squad members -- being Ami's victims -- were somewhat sobbing after pouring their efforts into posing hundred of poses in different places and targeted Kokomi for praising Ami's terrible skill and wishing her to be their personal photographer. Mei was missing her boyfriend, to which she video-called him and wandered around showcasing him the magnificent sites. The janitor guy, for the nth time, was cleaning up Akeboshi's barf after he insisted on wanting to swing to the end of the earth. His tears rolled down his cheeks and dropped on the puddle of barf, diluting with it. Ren and Koyama took a break from having fun at the site at times to practice for their upcoming World Scholar Cup participation. Sae upon seeing this was cursing under her breath every time for also wanting to get picked since Japanese wasn't included in the tournament. Sadly, no one acknowledged her intelligence due to her quietness. Juria and her betrayers were still locked in their resort rooms and were receiving detentions until the end of the trip for their deplorable actions, which Edirusdimand couldn't bare their peace disturbing faces. Sejiro and Iori were missing Juria, thus they did no activities but sat down and sighed, plus buying Juria's bikini photos from Yano the perve. Torii, you can guess it, he refused to go on the swings without wearing his bell helmet.

At midday, after lunch, they stopped for the souvenir shops. Mostly the female students were the most excited about this destination. Amid the excited girls, Asano was also excited at the thought of doing things for Arina. It was a questionable feeling. A part of him wanted to impress her with his buying, another part wanted to see her happy receiving them.

Entering one of the biggest souvenir shops, he pointed at this and that without hesitation. Most of the things he picked were either very quality-looking or expensive. The students were stunned witnessing him carrying bags and bags of souvenirs and still, entering another store, thus forming a belief of their leader was a shopping addict underneath that flashy image.

Halting his steps when passing by a toy shop, his gaze lay on something that triggered his recollection.

"If you were to choose between hugging a sheep or a stuffed animal which would you pick? I'd like to hug that chubby sheep rolling down the hill over there -- see? If I ever have it as a pet, I'd name it Captain Cotton."

Without self-restraining, Asano's heart softened, and proceeded to enter the toy shop. Minutes after he came out with the biggest stuffed lamb he could find. There was a moment of contemplation that occurred to him while choosing the lamb or the sheep. He could've just bought both, but despite his heart now surrendering to Arina, his mind was still as active and as strong as ever and overwhelmed it. Asano reckoned he shouldn't spoil her by buying both and was reluctant to pick the lamb since it resembled Arina's childish characteristic more.

Asano had officially beaten the supposed-to-be shopping addicts Minami Mei and the K-squad members in the number of things shopped. Returning to the bus, class 2-A students' dropped their jaws upon beholding their almighty leader carried more souvenir stuff than their fortunes and placed them in the popular girls' empty seats. That was who Asano was. Actions always speak louder than words for him.

Nobody had acknowledged that during the time they spent at the temples, somebody at home was already bursting out crying stormily and taking out their photos to mourn over for she had serious separation anxiety. Hence why the moment the 2-A students set their feet back at the resort, Arina immediately ran outside and flung herself over some of them, acting as if she hadn't seen them in thousand years.

"Oh, Asano-kun! Asano-kun!" exclaimed Arina in joy, already ebbed her negative feelings toward Asano away when him returning with a massive amount of souvenirs came into her sight. "Oh! Oh! what did you buy for me?"

"All of them," he said, smiling down at Arina's surprised little face.

"Why -- why, did I give you enough money—?"

Without waiting for her to confront him, Asano dropped the big shopping bags down to get the stuffed lamb out from one of the bags and handed it to Arina.

"You may call it Captain Cotton as you like," said Asano kindly, a warm smile flickered on his face.

For a moment, the same little beat Arina felt in her heart once again occurred to her. She stared at Asano with an expression full of gratitude gleaming in her green eyes.

"Captain Cotton — oh Asano-kun! You remember! It's such a perfectly unique name! I wouldn't have named something like Fluffy or Cotton alone it just sounds SO bland! Oh, my — my — Asano-kun! Thank you!"

Getting through her extreme expression of gratitude Arina rapturously cast herself into Asano's arms. It was the first time in his whole life that tiny body had voluntarily pressed again his. Again that sudden sensation of startling infatuation thrilled him. There he reckoned it was all very worth it.

It was a quick, friendly hug filled with platonic tendencies from Arina's side. She received Captain Cotton from him and giggled nonstop. Her cheeks were a rosy color and so were Asano's staring down at her joyful sight.

Never had he had such butterflies in his stomach and without realizing how addictive it was, Asano opted to ask her out to the night market.

"Just the two of us!?" gasped Arina. "No — no! That would be pretty boring! How about we invite everyone?"

"That would be unmanageable," reasoned Asano, wincing.

"Oh, Asano-kun, a little challenge here and there once in a while wouldn't be so bad I reckon."

Here's one fact about Asano — he wasn't as good in one on one interaction as he was in a group setting. He wasn't necessarily a people-loving person like Arina, it was just that he was more comfortable interacting in a group than being intimate with someone. However, whatever addicting feeling he was having was telling him to go against his nature and be alone with her.

"No," insisted Asano, trying to find some excuses. "Rubbish challenges wouldn't exist if you have a clear vision for things. Keep in mind that having the right vision is inevitable for your future."

In the name of the almighty Asano Gakushuu, he somehow convinced Arina to go out with him at night. Just the two of them.

At six p.m. they caught a taxi and headed to the night market. It didn't take too long for Asano to realize this destination wasn't worth visiting. Since it was Arina's last day in Bali and she failed to survive the burning weather and had to be sent back in the morning, tonight was the last chance for her to explore this island. Asano chose the night market because he wanted her to grasp the culture here but was excruciatingly angry when every guy in the market was staring and drooling at Arina.

Knowing Asano, he marked these disgusting guys as 'low-life' and needed to perish from his sight. Even worse, now they were unashamedly eyeing the girl he was hanging out with.

Arina on the other hand loved every kind of person on this planet. It appeared that she also saw Asano's new gift -- Captain Cotton -- as a person, to which she brought it with her to the night market despite Asano's advice that she should leave it at home. However, to witness Arina cherishing his gift was almost too much for his heart's capacity, and let it slip. He swore to himself that he'd get her more gifts in the future.

Some guys whistled at Arina as she waved back with a bright smile. Asano immediately flashed an indignant glare at them, telling them to get lost, and turned to Arina and scolded her for being uncareful around these types of people.

"It really IS that you have no heart whatsoever!" was Arina's unexpected reply to startled Asano, causing his mood to drop drastically.

"I'm telling you that there are situations when you have to set your unnecessary feelings aside in order to protect yourself. At least learn the correct types of people to be friendly with. What if I'm not here to guide you?"

That's it -- Asano noticed Arina's happy expression turned infuriated. It took him a while to finally convinced her to hang out with him. He couldn't just fail like that. But Asano now acknowledged something -- this butterfly feeling he spared for Arina was actually harmful to himself, for she could've manipulated him every time she wants. It was a sort of VULNERABILITY.

Fortunate arrived at him when in the mid of not knowing what to do or say, a guy who drooled for Arina asked her if she could try his food, and being a forgetful person as she was, Arina delightfully said, "Well, of course, yes! I'd LOVE to try it out! I could already see that it indeed is scrumptious just from the way it looks! But don't you think people might take advantage of try-out food? Hmm."

Decisions followed decisions and eventually it brought both of them to sit down at a table so Arina could order some food. Asano, however, wasn't happy at all.

"Eating street food is highly risky for your health. Drop it, I will take you to a fine restaurant."

"Oh, Asano-kun, taking risks is as important as having a correct vision in life. I learned it through some circumstances in my life. You must be too since you were there with me during the Tragic Fate of the Outcasts and it was so dreadful that you ought to be. You wouldn't know how things would turn out if you don't take risks, as is the day after I ate this;  so interesting isn't it? Now, Asano-kun, try it!"

She gestured for him to open his mouth so she could shove the spoon of Babi Guling into his mouth. Most people will think it was a romantic gesture reserved only for couples, Asano however thought it was none but public humiliation.

"No, thank you," declined Asano in a dignified tone. Arina sighed and ate it away herself.

Arina usually went full mode silent when she was eating, and it resulted in Asano sitting there holding Captain Cotton and watching her chew her food for the following minutes.

"Let's go," said Asano in assertion, after Arina finished eating as he went to pay for all her food.

"Oh, Asano-kun, it's such a pity that you didn't at least try one of the foods here out before you left this place."

"I'd rather get them at a proper restaurant."

"Such a pity that you will die before enjoying yourself then."

From there on, despite getting sick of this filthy place and wanting to go away, Arina tugged Asano's sleeve and urged him to stay and explore the market. Originally, it was his idea to take Arina here to make up for the time she lost; therefore, of course he'd agree to stay out of his personal dislike.

Wandering around the market Asano was disgusted when he saw numerous no-brand clothes and shoes. Luckily, that was one thing that he was compatible with Arina -- she also thought the same thing, just not as extreme as he was. As a result, they merely stroll around observing things instead of stopping for buying anything. 

During the stroll, Arina mentioned Juria, Morikawa, and Tanaka, telling him to visit them after this to clear things out with his feelings for them. Or else they would suffer with their own feelings for quite a time.

"It's best if you could give them a big hug afterward!" advised Arina eagerly, smiling brightly. "And tell them how grateful you are for their love! Here's how I imagine it would go, you say, 'Oh, you don't know how much gratitude I'm keeping within myself at this moment. I'm honestly grateful; thank you for loving me. Love is such a beautiful thing.' and they reply, 'Oh, Asano-kun, I'm awfully glad you say and feel so. Even if you don't feel the same way as I do for you, I shall always have you engraved in my heart.' My! How romantic!"

"How absurd!" rebuked Asano straight away. His eyebrows grimaced in disapproval.

Little did Arina know mentioning those three girls would fire up a huge fight between them. Hereafter Arina swore to herself she HATED Asano and shall keep it to her heart and bring it along to her grave.

"I HATE YOU!" she cried indignantly without time to reflect, drawing nearby strangers' attention to them.

"I should've known it -- I should have known to never gonna forgive heartless people EVER! Here, I don't want it!"

Asano retrieved the stuffed lamb through Arina's habit of throwing stuff at her target whenever she was mad, as he watched her run away -- also another way to express her anger.

Asano had a realization that this girl was simply too childish for him. Heaving a sigh Asano ran after Arina in fear of her being lost or taken advantage of by the guys here.

Eventually, he found her sobbing behind one of the trees in the rear of the market. After a moment of reflecting back, Arina began to feel guilty for marking Asano as 'heartless' considering he spent nearly a day to make sure she was well and happy. He was about to reach her when Arina's phone rang of a sudden, as she wiped her guilty tears and answered the call. 

Asano heard Arina speak in her native language. Although he couldn't understand a word, he could sense the urgent tone. Arina broke into an alarm as she proceeded to head back to the market to find him.

"Oh, there you are, Asano-kun!" she gasped upon seeing him not so far from her. "I must leave now -- this very time! Oh, Asano-kun, I'm so extremely sorry for the wicked words I used against you. Oh, please bear with me! I'm about to leave now; can you report that to Gojou-sensei? And -- and, my stuff! Asano-kun, I would be very grateful if you help me pack my suitcase and get it back to Japan for me. Oh! It's fine for you? Oh, Asano-kun!"

She pulled him into a quick hug and got her dearest Captain Cotton back whilst giggling.

"I'm leaving now -- I will make sure to pay you back later!" announced Arina, waving her arm as she fled away before Asano could open his mouth to ask what was going on.

'What exactly was happening?' contemplated Asano in confusion, a hand on his chin.

Back at the resort, the first thing Asano did was pay Juria, Morikawa, and Tanaka a visit for Arina's well-being.

A/n: since I'm back in Europe, I'm getting busier than before and will have to update slower😭 Ig one chapter per week will be the norm from now. But I have no intention to ever drop this book. We only made it to 15% of the story and since I have planned everything I will keep up and write it 'till the end even if it will take years. Stay tuned for more chapters!