"I hope I didn't arrive at a bad moment," Derek said, pretending not to know what was going on.
"Am I interrupting something?"
"Did I arrive at a bad time?" Derek asked again, acting as if he had no idea what they had been talking about just moments ago.
"No! You arrived at the perfect time!" Hitomi said as she ran toward him. She hugged one of his arms, then turned to Ali Jr. and said,
"Kozue, Ali—this is my boyfriend, Derek."
She kissed him on the cheek, shocking both Ali Jr. and Kozue.
"Oh… right. He's also Karura's boyfriend," Hitomi added, as if she had just remembered.
Karura stepped closer, wrapped her arm around Derek's left arm, and kissed him as well, proving Hitomi's words were true.
That action only made Ali even more jealous.
Kozue, on the other hand, was only mildly surprised. They had told her before that he was their boyfriend, though she hadn't really believed it. Now, with proof right in front of her, she could no longer deny it.
"How can you share the same boyfriend?" Ali Jr. asked in disbelief, with a hint of jealousy.
"What's the problem?" Karura asked.
"What's wrong with us sharing the same boyfriend?" Hitomi added.
"It's just—" Ali Jr. was about to answer when Derek interrupted him.
"I'm here just to pick up my girlfriends, not to talk about my love life," Derek said impatiently.
"Oh… when I arrived, I thought I heard something about a date or something like that," Derek added.
"Well… Ali Jr. wanted to ask Hitomi out on a date," Karura said.
"Oh? Really?" Derek asked.
"Well… I just wanted to invite her to lunch with Kozue. Just as friends," Ali confirmed.
"I see…" Derek said as he slowly walked toward him.
"Are you a man?" Derek asked.
"What?" Ali Jr. asked in disbelief, thinking he had misheard.
"I asked if you're a man," Derek repeated.
Ali Jr. didn't answer. Instead, he stared Derek straight in the eyes, wondering why he would ask something like that.
"I'm asking because you obviously want to go out with Hitomi, but you don't have the balls to admit it," Derek said, still walking toward him.
When he was just a few centimeters away, he asked again,
"So…
Are you a man?"
Derek smiled widely.
"…"
"Yes, I am!"
"I want to go out with Hitomi and make her my girlfriend!" Ali Jr. shouted as he stepped back and assumed a fighting stance.
Derek's smile faded, his expression turning serious. He didn't move for several seconds, only staring Ali straight in the eyes.
"Hahahaha."
After a long silence, Derek laughed.
"See? That wasn't so hard to admit," he said as he returned to Hitomi and Karura's side.
"It's fine."
"If Hitomi wants to, she can go out with you."
"Eh?" "What?" "Huh?" "What did you say?"
Hitomi, Karura, Ali Jr., and Kozue all exclaimed at once.
"I said it's fine. You can go out with Hitomi," Derek repeated, while Hitomi, Karura, and Kozue stared at him strangely, still unable to believe he had actually said that.
Meanwhile, Ali Jr. tried—and failed—to hide the happiness on his face.
"You're okay with me going out with Hitomi?" Ali Jr. asked again, just to be sure.
Derek stayed silent for a few seconds before slowly walking toward Ali Jr., his hands in his pockets.
"Of course… after all…"
"She's the one in control."
"I can't interfere with who she wants to go out with."
"It's not my decision. She can be with whoever she wants."
His words made Ali Jr. visibly excited, while Hitomi and Karura narrowed their eyes, waiting to see what he was really trying to do.
Kozue watched him oddly, feeling like she had heard those words somewhere before.
"So… Hitomi…"
"Do you want to go out with me?" Ali Jr. asked.
Hitomi didn't answer him. Instead, she stared at Derek and asked,
"Do you really mean that? You don't mind me going out with Ali Jr.?" she asked suspiciously.
Derek didn't respond immediately. After smiling faintly, he paused, then continued walking toward Ali Jr. and said,
"It's true."
"After all, Hitomi belongs to no one."
"But she's your girlfriend," Ali replied.
"That's true, but that's a promise we made between ourselves."
"Anyone can fall in love with her. Anyone can ask her out."
"She's the one who has to decide who she likes more."
Ali Jr. felt strange hearing those words, as if he had heard them before but couldn't remember where. Still, he ignored the feeling, happy that he could go out with Hitomi if she accepted.
"See, Hitomi? Your boyfriend doesn't mind you going out with me," Ali Jr. said excitedly.
"So, Hitomi, you like—"
Before he could finish, a powerful kick slammed into his chest.
"Seriously?"
"Did you really get full of yourself?" Derek joked, sending Ali Jr. flying and crashing into a lamppost.
The sudden action caused nearby students to scream and run away in panic.
"What a hypocrite," Derek said, spitting on the ground.
"Trying to go out with a woman who already has a boyfriend."
"And what's even worse—you want to have two women at the same time," he said, looking at Ali Jr. like trash, forgetting for a moment that he was doing the same thing himself.
Derek walked over to Ali Jr., who was lying on the ground, and crouched down until their faces were level.
"So… if I'm not mistaken, you were saying something about wanting to go out with my girlfriend, right?" Derek asked mockingly.
Ali Jr. responded with a straight punch.
But before his fist could connect, Derek countered with a powerful blow to Ali Jr.'s face—one that actually landed.
The impact was so strong it completely broke the already-bent lamppost and sent Ali Jr. rolling across the ground.
Before he could react, Derek was already beside him, kicking his right arm.
The kick was so strong the sound of bones breaking could be heard.
As Ali Jr. rolled again, before he could stabilize himself, another kick struck his left arm.
When he stopped once more, Derek kicked him in the chest.
For several minutes, Derek continued kicking Ali Jr.'s body like a soccer ball, striking his arms and chest again and again.
The scene was so brutal that Kozue and the people around them turned pale with fear.
Hitomi and Karura, however, were the only ones who weren't afraid. One could even say they were pleased that Ali was finally being taught a lesson.
"Didn't you want to go out with my girlfriend?" Derek asked as he kept kicking him.
"Come on, say something. I'm not a stingy person. If you want to go out with her, you just have to say it," Derek joked, increasing the intensity of his kicks.
'Tsk… looks like that's all he's got.'
'Now that I think about it, when I was talking to him, I noticed a wound on his tongue. Looks like he already got beaten up by those three guys.'
'You could even say that by beating him like this, I'm helping him get stronger for his fight with Baki later.'
'Let's see if this way he doesn't lose as fast as he did in the anime.'
Just as Derek was about to kick him again, a small hand touched the side of his arm, stopping him.
'Huh?'
When Derek turned to see who had stopped him, he saw a small elderly man with glasses looking at him kindly.
'When did this guy get here?'
"Young man, I think that's enough," the old man said as he slowly removed his hand from Derek's arm.