Chapter 7

This university's facilities were top-notch.

The indoor basketball court was huge, and the bleachers were already full, even the aisles were packed.

The game between the two schools had the students hyped, but the name I heard most often was Jax.

Rumor had it his family had serious ties to the local underworld, and he was known as the infamous bad boy of the other school.

"Excuse me, could you let me through?"

I called out to a student blocking the way. He turned around and exclaimed in surprise:

"Anya's here!"

At that shout, I instantly became the center of attention.

"Anya actually showed up?! Hasn't she humiliated herself enough? She's utterly shameless."

"You don't understand, that's true love. Even after a thousand rejections, she still loves Jax like her first crush!"

"First crush? The kind where she throws herself at him for sex?"

There were plenty of whispers, but they also instinctively cleared a path for me.

I walked down the steps as if deaf to their words, easily reaching the front row.

Jax saw me too.

He deliberately blew me a whistle, then silently mouthed two words. I could read his lips:

"Eighty bucks."

He was still trying to humiliate me, utterly full of himself.

So I mouthed four words back to him.

"Your face is swollen."

That's right, I'd slapped him twice, left and right, and now his face was slowly turning red and puffy.

He clenched his jaw and glared at me.

I raised an eyebrow. What are you looking at? You can't even beat me.

Jax was right, our school's basketball team was pretty weak.

I watched the score widen, surrounded by shouts of "Jax is so hot!"

It wasn't long before he secured the victory.

Basking in the cheers of the students, he walked up to me.

"Anya, why are you still bothering me?"

The guys around him started booing and jeering, and everyone's gaze was hostile.

Rumors spread like wildfire, but trying to extinguish them is a losing battle.

In their eyes, I was just a desperate, promiscuous girl.

No one would listen to my explanation, at least not right now.

So I stood up and challenged him:

"Jax, do you dare to play me one-on-one?

"Most baskets in a set time wins."

He froze for a second, then burst out laughing. "Are you serious? You, Anya, challenging *me*?"

I nodded.

He suddenly roared with laughter, and the crowd around him joined in.

A delicate girl challenging a highly skilled male basketball player?

Utterly delusional.

I even heard someone say, "Is she trying to get Jax's attention? Or maybe create some 'accidental' physical contact?"

Ignoring their malice, I calmly repeated myself.

"Do you dare to play me?"

He looked at me with disdain. "Fine, but there has to be a stake, right? Otherwise, what's the fun?"

"What do you want to bet?"

"If you lose, you have to dance for everyone. And it'll be... a strip dance."

It was blatant humiliation, but under everyone's watchful eyes, I calmly nodded.

"Okay. What if *you* lose?"

"Me lose?"

He laughed. "What do you want me to do?"

I pointed to the court. "If you lose, you'll get on your hands and knees, bark like a dog, and crawl three laps around the court."

"Anya, are you out of your mind?!"

He clearly hadn't expected me to be so bold.

But if he wanted to humiliate me, he needed to be prepared to be humiliated himself.

I asked him one last time, "So, do you want to play?"