━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Of course, neither Mrs. Macmillan nor the security staff found Jake's argument very convincing, especially with the person who supposedly came to apologize having such a dark look on his face.
Did that man's face look like he was here to apologize? Even a fool wouldn't believe that.
Jake knew that urging his friend to speak up to explain himself was a lost cause. Not only would he consider these people 'beneath him', but he probably also harbored resentment against them for daring him like this.
It was already good enough that he hadn't started blasting them with insults.
The blond boy could only lament in his heart that, despite his outstanding business talent, his friend really lacked certain social skills. Fortunately, Alexander was born with outstanding looks and temperament, which allowed him to get away with it for the most part.
However, Jake also knew that if Alexander remained silent, the situation would only continue to deteriorate further, and it was only a matter of time before the staff started calling for the police.
The blonde boy could only grit his teeth and hope that if he begged hard enough, his big bro Alex would have some mercy on him and explain their 'situation clearly'.
Before he could do so, however, Emilia had already arrived at their location. "Mrs. Macmillan, are you okay? What's going on?"
"E-Emilia?!" Mrs. Macmillan couldn't help but turn stiff when she heard the charming voice of the student she usually wanted to face the least in the entire school.
Of course, no matter how embarrassed she was to face the girl, she knew it was impossible to avoid her while at school.
Emilia was such a cute and obedient girl, too. Mrs. Macmillan could only lament in her heart that she had such a dark past. If only the little girl didn't know about her 'history', how great would it be?
Jake's eyes lit up the moment he saw the crimson-haired girl, and he flew to her side with the desperation of a drowning man clutching at the last straw.
If not for the death glares that made him freeze before he could get too close, the sunny blonde boy would likely already have thrown himself on the girl's thighs.
Although the girl glaring at him the hardest seemed to be a primary schooler or something, he had the feeling that the little brat might try to strangle him with that absurdly long ponytail of hers.
Moreover, he also spotted the fierce gray-haired woman who had almost torn his friend's hand off that day. Since she was here today as well, did that mean she was the little beauty's personal chauffeur or bodyguard?
Jake didn't have too much time to ponder, so he could only bow humbly, still an arm's length away from the crimson-haired beauty who had captured his heart, and make his plea. "Miss, do you remember us? We had a misunderstanding in 'The Fawn' before, and came to apologize. But I didn't expect that we would be misunderstood again! Please help us clarify, okay?"
Emilia sneered in her heart, wondering where there would be so many 'misunderstandings' if not for their ill intentions. But she could only nod while looking slightly confused. "Oh? Y-Yeah, I think I remember it? I-It's no big deal, though, really!"
Had she not been so flustered, Mrs. Macmillan would still have insisted on lecturing them on the bad influence of smoking, and also the proper 'etiquette' while approaching someone to apologize. But with the arrival of her 'nemesis', the poor teacher's thoughts were already focused on making her escape. And once she confirmed that she had really 'misunderstood', her embarrassment got even worse as she fled without looking back.
Emilia could only apologize to her in her heart, thinking that Mrs. Macmillan really seemed to get caught in the crossfire all the time whenever she was around.
The security staff could only shrug and return to their posts after the situation was 'clarified', leaving only Emilia, her friends, and the two 'dudes' who came to pick a girl up only to be embarrassed.
Of course, this was only from the perspective of bystanders, and Alexander himself seemed to feel no embarrassment at all as he got off the car with a 'charming' grin.
Sauntering over to the little girl who had previously hidden from him shyly at the restaurant, he slicked his hair back with one hand and smiled. "My apologies for scaring you that day. Allow me to introduce myself—"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jake couldn't help but sigh in admiration as he stared at his friend talking to the blushing girl in the coffee shop. Of course, the fierce woman was also seated right next to her, and her chilling glare never left Alexander's face from the moment she arrived.
Even though Emilia assured her that she would be fine with just Dixie if Noelle was busy, there was no way the gray-haired girl could leave her alone with the Gray Wolfe's heir just like that.
Dixie may be unbeatable among her peers, but Noelle knew the strength of the Nightingale fighters.
Even though no one came to defend Alexander that day, it was always possible that a few of the masters from her 'family' were secretly following the dark-haired man. And as long as such people made a move, Noelle couldn't trust anyone other than herself to protect Emilia.
Of course, the crimson-haired girl was more than happy to have Noelle accompany her when all was said and done. Compared to the intensity of the gray-haired girl's sharp glare, Dixie would have appeared more aggrieved than anything.
Emilia could only sigh at the fact that her knight looked so cute despite her deceptively high firepower, reducing her ability to 'intimidate' anyone who hadn't already had a taste of her strength.
On the other hand, Alexander had already been confident in his charisma, and the fact that he was dealing with a girl only slightly above half his age only made him more complacent. 'As expected... she's dumb and naïve. There was no need to treat her so carefully. Stupid Jake got me worked up over nothing.'
As for the glare from the wild woman who dared to touch him before… it made him even happier to infuriate her. 'Watch, woman, this is just the beginning. Soon, this dumb little lady your protect so fiercely will hand you over to me herself!'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━