Surely you are wondering about the updates on Lex that I mentioned. They are not as positive as I expected, because the situation changed slightly yesterday.

I have decided not to attempt to become friends with him. The reason I'm making this choice is something that happened between Ayla and L and it's more than voluntary; therefore, nothing to complain about.

Lex did nothing wrong; in fact, he did more than what he had to and what I deserved. He gives his all for others, and I am the last person he should devote a pinch of his time and energy to. He waited for me a long time – half an hour – to play a board game and it was in vain, because when I came downstairs, I completely ignored him and went back to the library. He even reached me there, trying to strike up a conversation, but I did not answer him.

What I did was not the behaviour of a 'friend', because someone who holds that title should not burden others with matters that do not concern them and punish them in some way, as if they were responsible, when all they have ever tried to do is reason together.

Actually, I decided as of yesterday, after hiding behind a wall of books, to stop with that pathetic attempt of mine, because he doesn't deserve it, but the same applies to any of our other interactions.

In addition, I took away a passion from him.

I see how he looks at the football field, while others play, or how he acts, when others talk about things that have happened with enthusiasm, and he remains silent and just smiles, as if he could somehow feel the same emotions as them, when, in reality, I know he thinks he should never have asked me to participate.

He can continue to lie and say that 'it's nothing', but I found out that, a few days before the accident, he had asked Watari to sign him up for the local football team and the owner had set the date for the 15th of September, which obviously got postponed. I overheard his friends talking about it, saying it was 'bad luck', which is inaccurate, because it implies a combination of uncontrollable factors that caused his ankle to be sprained, and it was not.

I was the main culprit, and it wasn't just because he invited me to play. It happened when L crossed the threshold of this orphanage, which caused me to have unpleasant feelings and led me to act hostile, so much so that he had to ask Lex the reason for the matter, which became an excuse for Lex to come and talk to me.

The fault is both L's and mine. L created the ideal situation for me to hurt him and I simply reacted to external stimuli.

However, as already established, I cannot control L's actions, only my own. I must, thus, eliminate any possibility that L can put me in circumstances that create harm to others.

My choice regarding Lex should also apply to Rae and Ayla, but they are already my friends. Ayla has already indirectly forced me to stay at Wammy's House, but I hate the fact that L has to be around her so much; however, she enjoys his company, even when he forces her to jump out of a tree and graze both her knees.

I have to find a decent strategy that distances L from Ayla, but one that does not hurt Ayla or affect her position in the project, although it would be petty for something personal, such as breaking off friendly ongoing interactions, to be mixed with something professional, such as coercive participation in a disastrous project.

Unfortunately, though, L is irrational, and I resent how I cannot predict his future moves. I have to study his behaviour and mind more before I can figure out which approach is most effective, i.e. I have to go back to Elioenai's room and see what else he has added in L's part.

I am not going to waste a lot of time and stay twenty-four hours following him wherever he goes, although I would like, for example, to meet the Broker personally and find a way to communicate decisions on his behalf to the London Stock Exchange. Not to give orders directly to the Broker on Watari's behalf for various reasons: L has become an important intermediary; the Broker would not agree to sell or buy shares when their market price has not remotely reached the maximum point of profit or potential gain; they would know it was me; and no one can change their voice to resemble Watari's or L's.

Watari's tone is one of elderliness, while L's is simply of an annoyance that no one can replicate. The Broker will surely have a middle tone and I can ask one of the older boys to recite some sentences, which I will put on a tape recorder and play to the person in charge at the stock exchange. I don't think this is extremely necessary – except for sounding more grown-up – because I doubt that a trader will remember the voice of anyone who contacts them and might simply think that he has changed brokers or has two, since I will be able to provide all the data they require in case of verification. However, I think it is advantageous to imitate his tone, because it is not something I intend to do habitually, but only once and for good, so that credibility towards L is eliminated and he is no longer allowed to be anywhere near Watari's assets. That is the ultimate goal. Who it was that placed that order would remain a question mark, but they will have no evidence to blame me.

I must, first, bring others to the knowledge of L's activities because, if I am the only one who knows, it is clear that I will have all available indexes pointed at me and I cannot allow that.

Someone knocked on the door, but I avoided answering with the typical 'you can come in' or asking who was on the other side, because I didn't really have the energy to interact with other people. In fact, I had stayed in my room more or less all day.

The main reason was to avoid Lex, because I couldn't openly be mean to him so that he would see me as bad company; so, the best way to change his mind was to simply pretend that he didn't exist and that there was never any interaction between us. Pretend that he had just arrived at Wammy's House, and I had never laid eyes in his direction.

The only problem was that, in doing so, it might have seemed like I didn't care about his ankle, and that wasn't true, but that was the impression I was definitely giving, and I was going to have to learn to put up with the fact that he would think I was insensitive and heedless.

"Ethe." Lex's tone was decidedly more confident than it had been the previous day. "I know you're in there. Rae told me."

I hadn't told any of my friends that I didn't want anything more to do with Lex, because Ayla would definitely be happy about that, and I didn't actually want her to rejoice in the face of it, and I didn't think Rae would care all that much. Mind you, she would have asked me why, but in the end, Lex wasn't a close friend of mine who I'd had a fight with or who'd done me any wrong; therefore, it didn't make much difference to tell the two of them or not.

I expected, though, that in the next few days one of the two would ask me about it, so as to understand why I was no longer talking to a person I had followed for months with my gaze and with whom I had begun to be friendly. Maybe even prompted by the various negative epithets I would receive from his friends, but it would be a question confined to that interaction without any implications or influence on the future. Simple curiosity.

Perhaps, Ayla would have considered it more, especially if someone would have said something to me in public, even if it wouldn't have had any real weight, because I would have made sure it didn't.

"Me, Faust and others are deciding to have a team trivia game and I'd like my personal assistant to do her job."

"Oh..." I whispered.

I had forgotten about the pact we had made. I don't know if his goal was to make me feel guilty and convince me to walk out, but he was definitely succeeding. I had to hold out, though, because the strategy I had decided to have would definitely ruin fewer opportunities for him in the future.

"She also promised me that she wouldn't avoid me."

"That's not true." I whispered.

"At this point, I don't actually know if she deserves the pay in snacks I worked so hard to get."

I was on the verge of asking him what kind, because as much as I was forbidden to eat a lot of junk food, I could always save it for Rae and Ayla and, at the same time, take it away from L's claws, who was hoarding everything sweet that existed inside Wammy's House. I managed to resist the temptation, saying that I was sure I would find a way to take them from him without him noticing.

"I'll have to offer it to someone else, who won't be at all willing to share them, in case she changes her mind... Like L."

At those words, I immediately stood up, throwing Mazzaroth onto the bed, but managed to stop myself from leaving the room before I could even touch the door handle. Fortunately, I hadn't even made too much noise in moving, so that he wouldn't know I was close to giving in.

"I will go to him immediately. I really hope my assistant doesn't decide to stop me now, because I won't accept it." He waited for an answer from me, but I said nothing, standing still on the spot. "And I also hope she will not come and talk to me, because I will not be willing to listen to her. Absolutely not, not after refusing my snacks... I'm going, heh. I'm on my way... Tap, tap."

A few seconds of silence followed, and I actually heard Lex's crutches move away. I breathed a sigh of relief, especially since they weren't heading in the direction of L's room, where I knew the anti-justice was. I had heard him return two hours earlier and he had not yet exited.

I made a mental note of the fact that Lex was capable of lying to me to get me to do what he wanted.