"Jellal, why do you wear facemask today?"

Mira curiously asked the blue-haired man who sat quietly at the bar table. She didn't remember seeing him wearing a facemask when he showed up at Fairy Tail last night to play them, and more specifically a red-headed woman named Erza, a visit.

Jellal, who had fixed his gaze at Erza who was currently having a talk with her guild's Master at the order side of the guild hall, slowly turned his head to Mira's direction upon hearing the question and removed the facemask from his face.

"Ah…it was for hiding my identity from the public."

"But you are no longer a wanted criminal, why would you do that?" Tipping a finger at her chin, Mira asked with a puzzled expression.

"Well…um…"

Jellal uncomfortably shifted his body a little and glanced at Erza again, secretly praying that her discussion with Makarov would end soon.

He didn't talk to Erza much when he arrived last night since Fairy Tail's members immediately threw him a welcome party. While feeling grateful to the members for treating him like one of them, he also wished to spend some time with Erza alone to find out how she was doing since their last encounter three months ago. So before Erza went back to Fairy Hills, he invited her for lunch in the following day as a little reunion between old friends and received a positive answer from Erza. He offered to pick her up at her dormitory so that they could go to the restaurant together, to which Erza happily accepted. But when he met her up this morning as promised, she raised that she needed to go to the guild first to hand a report to the Master before their lunch.

That explained why he was waiting Erza in the guild which as a result gave a chance to the curious demon takeover mage to question him about his facemask.

"You see…there was an article in the recent Sorcerer Weekly in which I was mentioned…"

"I know! You and Sting were both featured as the most charismatic magic guild masters!" Mira excitedly recalled what she read from the magazine. "But how is it related to you hiding your…Oh! Wait! I understand now!" Mira clapped her hands together as realization hit her. "People must have recognized you from the magazine and approached you when you were out on the street, right?"

Jellal let out a sigh.

"Exactly." It took him and Erza double time to come back to the guild as a result, and he was well aware of the impatient look on Erza's face after she was forced to stop several times just to wait for him to give out autograph on the magazine in response to the readers' request. "That was why Erza bought me the facemask to wear so that people wouldn't recognize me and would stop disturbing me."

"The facemask was Erza's idea?"

Shit. Jellal just realized that he had said something which he originally not intended to reveal to Mira.

"Y-yeah."

Mira giggled.

"Erza was considerate of you."

"She's always considerate of her friends and comrades."

"Sure. But I think there was something else for Erza to ask you to wear a facemask. Let me guess…" A sly smile appeared at the corner of Mira's lips. "most of the people who 'disturbed' you were girls, am I right?"

It was not that difficult for Mira to imagine what happened to Jellal following the printing of that article. Every time after the magazine released her photo shot, many people, mostly men in her case, would enthusiastically came to her to greet her or to ask for autograph when she was out.

Jellal didn't answer Mira's question but turned his head to the side, coughing all of a sudden.

Ignoring Jellal's avoidance, Mira continued.

"Erza•got•jealous."

Jellal looked at Mira again with slightly widen eyes.

"But why would she? Do you happen to know the answer, Jellal?" Playing innocent, Mira asked Jellal the questions which led to an answer which couldn't be more obvious.

Jellal averted his eyes from Mira. He wanted to ignore her questions and simply walked away. But that would be very rude and impolite, especially when this woman whom he was dealing with now was one of Erza's precious comrades and his team member during the Grand Magic Games.

"No…I mean, there was no reason for her to get jealous. We are…only friends."

"Only friends, huh?" Mira repeated Jellal's answer with a questioning tone. Then, a devilish smirk flashed across her face as she noticed a shade of red approaching the bar table. She grasped Jellal's hand with both of her hands. "Jellal, I really admire you!"

Jellal froze, too shocked by Mira's sudden change of attitude to give any response.

"Jellal!"

Jellal's hand retreated from Mira's grasp as he turned sharply to face the person who called him...with a hint of threat in her voice.

"Erza…"

"Erza, finished your talk with the Master?" Mira asked Erza with a cheerful voice as if she never noticed that Erza was frowning at her and Jellal.

"Yes. And it seemed that you and Jellal just had a very pleasant chat?"

"Ah, yes, I was chatting with Jellal about that article on him published in the recent Sorcerer Weekly." Mira turned to Jellal and gave him an angelic smile. "I truly agree with what the article said about you."

"I see…" Erza glanced stonily at Jellal. "Your popularity really rockets to a new level thanks to that magazine, Jellal."

Sensing Erza's displeasure and hoping to escape from Mira's trap, Jellal decided not to respond to Erza's comment but changed the topic of discussion.

"Shall we go now, Erza? I'm afraid that the strawberry cake would be sold out if we arrive at the restaurant too late."

"Oh! Then we should go now!" Non-surprisingly, Erza's attention to Jellal's popularity was distracted immediately at the mentioning of strawberry cake.

"Enjoy your lunch!" Mira waved happily at the pair who was leaving the guild, thinking that their interactions were really too amusing to watch.

Stepping out the guild's front door, Jellal put on the facemask again.

"You don't have to, if you enjoy the attention your admirers giving you." Erza stated coldly.

Jellal looked at Erza who at the same time raised her head to stare back at him. As tension slowly rose between them in the awkward silence, a certain comment from Mira played in Jellal's head.

"Are you getting jealous, Erza?"

"Me? Why? No!" Getting flustered by Jellal's sudden query, Erza shouted a little bit louder than she intended to and her cheeks reddened against her will.

Jellal couldn't suppress a smile from forming under his facemask witnessing Erza's reactions to his question.

"Sorry, I'm just kidding. I like the privacy this facemask giving me much more than the attention received from the public. Thanks again for buying me the facemask." Jellal said sincerely.

"Y-you're welcomed. L-let's quickly go to the restaurant now! I don't want to miss my strawberry cake!"

Erza started walking quickly leaving Jellal behind her.

"Sure." Jellal answered tenderly while quickening his pace to walk beside Erza.