Chapter 390

Shi Yao's fingers twitched. He was itching to make a move.

These days, the news of Alaricka winning the National Exam with a landslide victory had been trending nonstop. Her past was dug up again by internet bystanders. He’d seen most of the McIntosh Piano Competition drama online too, pretty much grasping the relationships between key players.

Kieran.

Rose.

Shi Yao silently repeated those names, his intense gaze fixed on Alaricka’s back.

He understood the stakes behind the McIntosh Piano Competition mess–that’s why he admired her even more for making such a dignified statement under nationwide cyberbullying pressure.

Netizens claimed Alaricka's relationship with Kieran and Rose was messy–some melodramatic love triangle where she played the dishonorable role.

When Kieran and Rose’s engagement news blew up recently, Alaricka got dragged through the mud again by Rose’s fans, like they were hunting down a mistress.

Shi Yao knew online rumors mixed truth with lies–never fully trustworthy.

Was Alaricka’s connection to those two really what netizens described?

If not, she’d been wronged–bearing burdens she never deserved.

Countless questions burned in Shi Yao’s throat, yet he couldn’t voice a single one.

Alaricka stared blankly ahead when a nearby couple suddenly started sucking face.

Speechless for a beat, she spun around and met Shi Yao’s hesitant stare.

She mocked: “What? You wanna suck face too?”

Shi Yao: ?

Meeting her eyes, Shi Yao tensed up–his expression freezing–but her random comment baffled him: “What’d you say?”

Alaricka shifted sideways, revealing the couple still making out passionately behind her.

A second later, Shi Yao got it and laughed bitterly: “What’s wrong with you?”

Alaricka pursed her lips.

Shi Yao turned away awkwardly, mouth opening and closing silently with unasked questions.

Eerie quiet settled between them.

Finally steeling himself, Shi Yao feigned casualness: “Oh yeah, forgot to ask–that thing you mentioned before…”

“What’re you talking about?”

Right then, Jaylene charged over clutching melting ice creams, shouting while wedging between Alaricka and Shi Yao. Tamika appeared beside Alaricka too.

“Hurry! Eat up before it melts!”

Shi Yao’s face hardened as someone shoved an ice cream into his hand.

Turning, he saw Alaricka carefully holding hers, pink tongue darting out for a delicate lick.

Her white ice cream melted against that pink tongue…

Shi Yao couldn’t watch anymore–his throat was drying up.

Jaylene elbowed him: “Why not eating? Hurry! It’s melting!”

Shi Yao glared at the ice cream.

He had planned to blurt out all the pent-up questions in his mind, but the sudden interruption deflated his resolve like a punctured balloon, leaving him unable to voice those queries again anytime soon.

Jaylene Irwin stood between him and Alaricka Huston, chattering away: “This heat is unbearable! Everything at the amusement park costs a fortune–can you believe they charge twenty bucks for an ice cream? Might as well rob people blind!”

Shi Yao couldn’t vent his anger on others, so he took it out on the ice cream.

He opened his mouth and chomped off the entire top in one savage bite.

Jaylene stared wide-eyed: “Mr. Shi, what’s gotten into you? Doesn’t that freeze your mouth?”

Others turned to look.

Shi Yao swallowed the icy lump with visible discomfort, deadpanning: “I’m burning up.”

Alaricka offered her portable fan: “You have it.”

His tone turned rigid, eyes never meeting hers: “Keep it.”

Alaricka arched an eyebrow and promptly withdrew the fan.

She figured that teenage awkwardness had reclaimed him, while intelligence took a backseat.

Jaylene stared fixedly at the fan in her hand: “Where did this fan come from?”

Alaricka jerked her chin toward Shi Yao: “He bought it.”

Jaylene immediately turned her head, staring at Shi Yao with suspicion: “Where did you buy it?!”