Published at 7th of August 2022 11:52 am

Chapter 848 - Poses

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At first, it was just normal poses and Zero had no issues with that.

Leaning against the tree, sitting down, facing away, looking down. Simple things.

Then, Lianne started asking for slightly more complicated poses like a side-kick, some stabbing motions, and holding a 'gun' up in the air.

Lianne wasn't quite satisfied with the poses he made, however.

"Zero ..." Lianne said to him sweetly while blinking her eyes at him.

"I don't know what you want," Zero said helplessly, his hands up in the air.

Ask him to kick, he can. Ask him to sit down, he can.

But what is this looking to the side with the head tilted thing?!

Lianne came over to him and pursed her lips, tapping her chin. Looks like she really was asking too much from this block of wood.

Wait.

Block of wood, like her miniature wooden mannequin that she uses when she's visualising poses.

Zero looked warily at her, "What's with that look in your eyes?"

She grinned at him, her eyes sparkling, "Just let me do the poses for you, okay?"

Zero had a bad feeling in his heart about this, but he just nodded dumbly.

"Okay, pretend you're holding your gun," Lianne said.

"I don't use a gun," Zero countered.

"Pish, ignore the minor details. You know how to use a gun, so put your hand in that position," Lianne instructed, rolling her eyes at him.

She then bent his elbow, made him turn so that he was facing slightly to the right. Then, she held his chin and tilted his head a bit to face upwards. She took a step back to look at him and crouched. She made him move his feet in a certain position then clapped her hands.

"Perfect," she said to the frozen Zero.

"Now, without moving your head, look at me," Lianne said as she started clicking her phone. She took from the front, side and back.

"Okay, now pretend you're holding a sword," Lianne said, "Swing it down. Stop!"

She quickly went to him and started adjusting his feet position and the other hand to be facing outwards. She tilted his head down a bit.

"Perfect!" she said gleefully and started taking pictures from all angles again.

This went on for a few more poses and it exhausted Zero far more than all the training Sir had ever put him through.

"It's almost time," Zero warned her after looking at his watch.

Lianne pursed her lips, thinking hard then said, "I need two more."

"What?! Haven't that hundreds, if not thousands of pictures you took enough?!" Zero asked, his eyes wide.

Lianne grinned, and put up two fingers like in a peace sign, "That was for my sketches. This is to get rid of Byron."

Zero scratched his head, "Fine. Two. No more."

"Don't worry, it's really the final two," Lianne assured him, "I have more than enough to last me for a long time, too."

Zero looked at her and sighed.

That didn't mean she wouldn't be asking for more in the future … just that not for now. Still, he knew he wouldn't deny her taking those pictures. It really couldn't be any worse than it was today, right?

*cough*

Lianne had Zero lie down on the grassy slope and she lay on his shoulder. She gave a smile and a peace sign then took a picture of them together.

In the first picture, Zero was looking up and one could only see the side profile. She took another picture and this time, it was a close-up with their cheeks smooshed together.

Zero had to bend down for that one.

In order to give the illusion of it being pictures taken at different times, Lianne had messed up Zero's hair in the second picture so that he had bangs covering part of his eyes as he looked at the camera phone. Lianne simply tied her hair back, which showed her baby pinchable cheeks even more.

She deliberately did not show their clothes in the second pic, giving more to the illusion that it was taken at different times.

Lianne looked through the two pictures and nodded in satisfaction.

"Thank you!" she said happily to Zero, who had a long suffering face.

She patted his chest and showed him her sketchpad, saying, "You can choose two out of there, if you want."

"What? Really?" Zero asked in amazement.

He knew how possessive - or, protective - she was over her sketches. She didn't like anyone looking at it, partly because it was very personal to her and partly because she was not confident in her drawing.

The fact that she allowed him not only to look at them, but to also choose two of the pictures?

Zero felt a lump in his throat.

This was a move that showed her absolute trust in him that moved him beyond what words could say.

He gingerly opened the sketchbook like it was some precious treasure - which, to him, it was.

Each and every single sketch in there was of him. They were all black and white sketches, and although 'he' was the main focal point, some sketches had him doing something with some background of buildings or nature, while some just had a sketch of him without a background but a frame of some kind.

Like a portrait.

He also saw some loose sheets of paper with sketches of landscapes and buildings, most likely her practising it.

The details on all the sketches were amazing.

Zero's eyes couldn't get enough of all of them.

He finally chose two, and Lianne carefully cut them out of the sketchbook, then placed them in an A4 size clear folder. The sketches were placed back to back so that you could see the sketches through the file, no matter what angle it was.

"Here, my present for you for being such a good sport today," Lianne said with a smile, "Really, Zero. Thank you. I truly appreciate it."

Lianne knew very well that Zero went out of his comfort zone for her, and this was the least that she could do for him. She waved at him and quickly ran off, as the end of lunch was going to ring.

Zero held on that precious clear folder, watching that figure disappearing into the school before he finally turned around to get back to work.

? Author only posts on w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l. ?

After the last class, Lianne saw with a groan that Byron was already outside her classroom.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that he'd be able to find out who she was due to her actions at the school entrance. It wasn't exactly low-key but she wasn't going to allow him to grab onto her like that just to remain low key.

Lianne had already briefed Anne about Byron and the incident at the school entrance, so Anne had a rough idea of the situation.

"How do you want to do this?" Anne asked Lianne under her breath as they started packing up.

Lianne had already warned her that Byron would most likely show up and try to be an irritating fly, and Anne had learned long ago to accept that what Lianne deduced would normally come true.

Okay, it's always come true, but Anne always hoped that Lianne would be wrong once.

She thought she would be wrong this time, since Byron was the typical egotistical type of person. Why would he lower himself to come and find the girl that not only had ignored him, but also nearly maimed him?

Maybe it was for revenge?

Was he here to make sure she apologized or something?

Lianne zipped her bag shut and looked indifferently at Anne, "Nothing."

"Huh?"

"Just ignore him," Lianne replied, "He's not here to make any trouble. I'll handle him."

"Huh?"

Lianne looked at Anne in exasperation, "Is it that incredible that he is here to try and woo me rather than beat me?"

"Er …" Anne began, thinking whatever answer she gave would indirectly be insulting Lianne.

"He's fixated with the image he has in his mind," Lianne said, "Once he sees the boring and uninteresting old me, he'll back off."

"Lianne!" Anne now said in worry, grabbing her arm, "That's not what I thought at all."

Lianne tilted her head a bit, gave a wisp of a smile, and patted Anne's shoulder, "It's fine. I know."

Yes, she did know.

Anne didn't mean anything by it, but it was a fact that Lianne was not the sort of girl that Byron would be attracted to. She didn't like social events (hence, boring) and she preferred to be alone (hence, uninteresting).

In fact, Byron and Lianne have had their paths crossed many times before, but he had never even looked at her. She was never someone that he would ever be interested in.

She was just a passing fad.

Unfortunately ... she soon found out how wrong she was.

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