"These past few weeks passed by faster then I thought."

Ellen let out a small hum as a reply, "To think the play is tomorrow. Feel nervous?"

"How could I? I’ll be glad when its finally over, then we won’t need to spend hours every day practicing."

Turns out, the two of them were basically naturals at this.

Who knew that having an extra twenty something years on your peers would help this much? In Raymond’s case, it was more like an extra half century however.

"Aren’t you nervous? There’s still one scene left we haven’t been able to fully practice yet."

He asked this knowing full well what scene it was that they hadn’t been able to fully carry out. They had managed to ace every single action, montage and even the dialogue. Most of it coming naturally to them. But there was still on final small piece they hadn’t managed to fully finish.

It was naturally, the final scene of the play.

She smiled back, "We can practice back in your room if you’re so desperate~"

Seeing her smile,combined with her words. He took a step back, followed by a step forward from her. Then again, and again.

Feeling his back touch against the coke wall, he smiled nervously.

"Ellen, aren’t you taking too many steps?"

"Why are you walking backwards?"

Slam!

She slammed her hands into the wall, pinning Raymond in between both of her arms. Trapping him from all four directions. His sides against her arms, his back against the wall, and his front being blocked by her.

With her hands placed carefully next to his head, she leaned in slightly. Brushing a few strands of his hair away as she whispered into his ear.

"Why don’t we practice it right now~?"

He flinched, feeling Ellen’s warm breath tickling his ear.

’You’re stealing my strategy!’ He shouted inside of his mind, forcing himself to remain still. Unable to retort much.

"How about you give me a little bit of space first?"

"Answer my question first."

Her eyes, a dazzling mix of different colours stared intently into his. A blue that resembled clear icy waters. Glimmering as she teased him and watched him shrink.

Since they were about the same height currently, the two of them were supposed to be looking at each other head on at equal eye level.

But faced with Ellen’s direct assault, Raymond unknowingly bent his legs slightly. His back sliding down the wall until there was about a head of height difference and he had to look up instead.

The feeling of her soft lips, brushing against his body briefly was very...stimulating to say the least.

Pop

The space where Raymond had been was now replaced by nothing. Teleporting away the moment he realized he was out of his league.

Ellen grinned. That was one win for her.

This was just evening out the score a little bit.

...But to think he ran away so quickly, he was more innocent then Ellen had thought.

She quite liked that.

***

Raymond splashed his own face with water, causing him to let out a gasp as the shock fully woke him up.

Today was the big day after all, he couldn’t be sleepy or tired on stage.

It was also his last chance to win.

That little offense yesterday had caught him off guard. Allowing her to get another one up on him, evening out the score which was at 38-37. In Raymond’s favor.

At some point, they had formed another unspoken agreement to end this after the play concluded. It was the natural course of action after all, they couldn’t exactly keep this game ongoing forever.

Even waking up early, something he normally despised became easy once the purpose was to defeat Ellen.

Even wearing the full costume and makeup became easy once the purpose was to defeat Ellen.

Even withstanding the heat and sweat in those costumes became easy once the purpose was to defeat Ellen.

Nothing was more motivational then immense pettiness, and Raymond could be very petty if he wanted to.

Not that he could match the queen of pettiness Ellen herself, but he still considered himself second place.

"You got this Raymond."

"...do you always talk to yourself?"

"Only for this one instance, I need to hype myself up."

The person doing his makeup quietly side-eyed him.

Raymond felt a bit wronged at that side-eye, but he didn’t want to ruin his current mood so he let it slide.

"All done, I’ve installed the fake blood packets inside. They take a pretty hard pull to burst so make sure you account for that."

Since in the play he would be fighting monsters quite often, there were plenty of moments when he would have to be covered in blood.

Raymond gave a light tug to each packet, roughly estimating the amount of strength required.

"Whew. Thanks for all the hard work you’ve put in. If you ever stop by the cafe run by Willow in the commercial district. Tell her that you’re a friend of mine and she’ll treat you for free."

"Thanks, I also enjoyed these past few weeks as well honestly. Getting to work on someone like you has been a real treat."

Looking in the mirror, Raymond let out a small wow.

He looked really good right now.

Like really good.

But knowing Ellen was probably in the room next to him receiving the same treatment, it made him a bit scared.

It was hard to keep composure when faced with someone so beautiful after all.

Naturally he was referring to Ellen, what if she collapsed and fainted at his looks? Then he would be blamed for it. He felt scared for her.

In the other room.

Ellen blew a few stray strands of hair from her face. Her long purple hair let down, with half of it tucked behind her ear. It was an unusual sensation for Ellen, considering she never let her hair get this long. Nor was she used to having it down for significant amounts of time.

Her vision was slightly off as well. The magic they used to change her eye color slightly blurring her vision.

Raymond hadn’t noticed any changes, but that was mainly because his regular vision wasn’t good enough to perceive it. For Ellen however, she could notice the faint purple tinge very easily.

But the most pressing part of the current outfit...

Was that her shoulders felt a bit heavier, and looking down slightly. The reason was clear.

’Hmm...at least two sizes bigger...’

The corners of her lips curved.

...not bad.

Her regular size was quite small, and it was mainly on purpose since otherwise it might interfere with her archery.

But she figured she looked pretty decent in this as well.

Although she still preferred her regular appearance, and Raymond seemed to prefer her regular appearance as well.

"Where’s the rest?"

"You mean Thomas, Lin Qingyi, Arthur and Audrina?"

She nodded. There were several dozen people involved in this play after all, and she didn’t really care for most of them except for a few.

"Probably still getting ready like us, except for Lin Qingyi. They all have pretty decently long stage time."

"And her?"

"...probably with Raymond right now."

The final question was naturally referring to Ellen’s new enemy. Or maybe rival was a better term. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Despite the fact that Ellen was protecting Lily from Raymond (because no one should ever have to go through the experience of kissing him) , she was still massively irritated by that decision. Often glaring at Ellen for ruining her plan. Even when Ellen was so selflessly sacrificing herself.

Because Ellen obviously managed to figure out her plan. When questioned, Raymond was unaware of the kiss scene even being in the play. The one that managed to coax him into auditioning being Lily.

Ellen didn’t care about the dislike, she was doing this for her own good after all.

Having a crush on someone like Raymond...she pitied her if anything.

Clearly she was unaware of just the type of person Raymond was. There was no other explanation for how she could possibly develop a crush on someone like him. It just didn’t seem real.

Sure, he looked good. Like a refined, intelligent, gentlemanly prince in shining armor.

But the moment his mouth opened, and he spoke his first words. The illusion broke almost immediately, revealing an ugly character that only a devil could love. One that begged on his knees and pleaded with her for ice cream, ate messily and oftentimes, acted not very refined at all.

For someone like Ellen, who had basically spent every day with Raymond for the past five years and counting. The number of truly shameful and dark moments she had witnessed was enough to fill books and create an album if she had taken photos.

Well, there were a few times when he was really cool...

And there were a few times where he was quite charming as well...

...only a few times.