The main hallway of St. Helix Academy was, as always, filled with the sound of firm footsteps, the rustle of books, and the soft hissing of students spreading the latest news—whether about exams, parties, or petty gossip that barely lasted a week.
But this morning, one figure effortlessly stole the spotlight.
Nereza Armand.
Her hair was neatly slicked back, a thin ribbon blending into the gray St. Helix blazer that fit perfectly on her shoulders. Her gaze was sharp. Her steps, unwavering. Not a single strand of hair dared stray from its place.
She was the axis around which reputation and power spun. Daughter of the Armand Group conglomerate—an heiress even the teachers bowed to more often than they corrected.
But this morning, something was off.
Something made her walk a little faster.
Her jaw clenched slightly tighter.
Someone.
A face with a goofy smile and a wrinkled hoodie had been looping in her mind since yesterday afternoon.
Elior Reign.
Nereza tapped her fingernails against her locker door with a frustrated rhythm.
"Why is he still in my head?" she muttered under her breath.
Just as she opened her locker, that voice returned.
Soft, innocent… and infuriating.
"Good morning, Miss Nereza!"
Elior stood beside her, grinning like the world was a playground and he was a rain-soaked clown who wandered into school by accident.
He was holding a clear plastic bag filled with golden-brown dried leaves.
"Can I borrow some tape? I wanna make a fox mask out of these," he said excitedly, like a kindergartener in a crafts competition.
Nereza shot him a flat, sharp glare, completely unimpressed.
"Why the hell are you bringing leaves to school?" she asked quietly, laced with scorn. "Trying to summon rain?"
Instead of getting offended, Elior simply nodded.
"Ooh… good idea. Thanks, Miss!"
He gave a short bow and walked away, leaving behind a faint scent of dried leaves that—somehow—made her chest feel tight.
She didn't even get the chance to fire back a snarky remark.
And that… was annoying.
Why do I even care?
She pressed her lips tightly together, trying to ignore the unfamiliar flutter in her chest.
In class, everything proceeded as usual.
Tasha sat beside her, twirling the ends of her freshly blow-dried hair. The girl couldn't resist gossip—especially when it came to one hot topic.
"Nez, did you hear?" Tasha whispered. "Elior made the chem lab get completely scrubbed down yesterday."
Nereza kept writing, not bothering to look up. "Why?"
"He spilled some weird liquid on the desk. Messed up the experiment. But get this—none of the teachers got mad. They laughed. All of them. Isn't that insane?"
This time, Nereza paused. Her brows furrowed.
Not because she was shocked…
But because it wasn't the first time she'd heard something like that.
She'd seen Elior do ridiculous things before—yet somehow always got away with it. Worse, he often earned sympathy.
"Maybe he's funny," Nereza replied quietly.
Tasha rolled her eyes. "What's up with you? You used to be disgusted by that weirdo."
Nereza shrugged. But her eyes flicked toward the back row—where Elior sat in the corner, putting a cutesy cat sticker on his math book while humming softly.
"Ridiculous," she muttered.
But for a split second, her lips curved into the smallest smile—one she quickly hid.
At lunch, the skies over St. Helix turned gray.
Some students lounged in the back garden, scrolling through their phones or chatting in clusters.
Nereza and Tasha sat on a stone bench beneath a small sakura tree that hadn't bloomed yet.
Tasha glanced at Elior, who sat a few meters away by himself, trying to fold a plastic straw into a flower.
"He's like… a weird kid," Tasha commented. "Seriously, Nez. I don't get why you're so quiet about him lately."
"Don't," Nereza said suddenly.
Tasha turned to her. "What?"
"I said don't. What if he's just… malnourished or something? Don't be mean."
Tasha blinked. "Are you… defending him?"
Nereza was silent for a moment.
She didn't even know why those words left her mouth.
But something inside her… didn't like seeing Elior mocked.
"I just don't like the way you said it, that's all," she finally replied.
Yet inside, doubt had begun to grow.
Even she didn't fully believe what she said.
Later that afternoon, after all the classes had ended, Nereza walked alone to the main reading room.
She opened her notebook—and a thin slip of paper fell from between the pages.
She slowly bent down to pick it up. The paper was pale gray, worn like an old love letter kept too long in a wallet.
No sender name. Just one sentence, written in neat black ink:
"What you see isn't who he is.
What you feel isn't what really happened."
Nereza froze.
She glanced around, but the room was empty. Silent.
As she turned to the side window, her eyes caught sight of Elior in the school garden, standing alone, staring up at the sky.
His face was blank.
His eyes… too still.
She clenched the paper tightly, then ripped it up and stuffed it into her blazer pocket.
"What the hell," she muttered softly.
But her heart beat faster.
And for the first time…
She didn't feel like the center of the world anymore.
There was something—or someone—watching her from the shadows, tracking her every move.
---
Rain arrived without a sound.
Tiny droplets seeped against the glass windows of the music room, making the afternoon feel far more hollow than usual.
Nereza sat by the window, her chin resting on her hand.
She stared out at the soaked garden, now deserted.
Her heart felt empty.
But her mind… was in chaos.
That face returned again in her thoughts.
The foolish smile. The vacant stare. The absurd behavior that defied any logic.
Elior Reign.
And she was sick of it.
Not just because that boy haunted her thoughts—
But because someone like him had no right to touch the world Nereza had so carefully built.
A world of order. Precision. Control.
She couldn't even sleep the night before.
Not out of fear.
But curiosity.
And Nereza Armand hated that feeling more than anything else in the world.
---
She stood up.
Grabbed her phone, opened the gallery, and deleted a photo she had unconsciously taken—a picture of Elior standing in the rain, wearing a clear plastic raincoat, smiling while playing in the puddles behind the school.
"Insane."
She exhaled sharply, then opened her contacts.
Her eyes scanned the list. Searching. Anyone.
As long as it wasn't… him.
Then, her finger stopped on a name.
Jules.
The basketball team captain.
Friendly, popular, and attractive enough to be a distraction—even for someone like Nereza Armand.
---
That night, they met at a rustic-style café near school—
a place usually visited only by the more privileged students.
Jules arrived wearing a denim jacket and an overpowering cologne.
He sat down with a wide grin, jumping straight into casual chatter.
"Didn't expect you to invite me out. For a second I thought you were heartbroken," he laughed.
Nereza offered a faint smile. "I'm not that cheap."
"Well, that's exactly why people chase after you," Jules replied smoothly.
They talked about school. About Tasha's gossip.
About debate competitions.
All the usual things Nereza could normally flow with so easily.
But not tonight.
With every second, her mind drifted.
Every time Jules laughed, she imagined Elior's awkward snort.
Every time Jules talked about his game, she pictured Elior quietly picking up stray basketballs at the edge of the court.
And when Jules reached out to hold her hand on the table—
her whole body tensed.
Jules's face blurred in her mind.
What appeared instead… was Elior.
---
"Nez?"
Jules looked at her, brows furrowed.
Nereza slowly pulled her hand back. "Sorry. I'm tired."
"I'll walk you back?"
"No. I can go alone."
She stood, grabbed her bag, and walked out without waiting another second.
The night air met her with a biting chill.
Her steps quickened, the heels of her shoes striking the pavement like the ticking of a clock—one that haunted her more with each second.
She walked aimlessly. Her mind overloaded.
Her chest… heavy.
Why won't he leave my head?
---
And when she finally reached the dorm gates, someone stood beneath the streetlamp.
Soaked.
His hoodie dripping with rain.
His hands holding a plastic bag containing… sandwiches and boxed milk.
Elior.
He looked up slowly.
Staring at Nereza from behind wet strands of hair clinging to his forehead.
"Out for a night walk, Miss?"
Nereza held her breath.
"What are you doing here?"
"Just bought some bread. There was a discount."
"At this hour?"
Elior smiled. "I got hungry."
He lifted the bag. "Wanna split it?"
Nereza blinked. Her mind screamed no.
But her lips, for some reason…
"I'm not hungry."
But she didn't move.
She didn't go inside.
She just stood there… staring at the strange boy who kept showing up in her life like a shadow she couldn't get rid of.
And in the distance, thunder rumbled.
Softly.
But loud enough to make something unmistakably clear—
Nereza wasn't chasing an escape.
She was being chased.
And she hadn't realized it yet.
---
It had been three weeks since that night.
Three weeks since Nereza chose Jules.
Three weeks since Elior stopped appearing in the school halls, no longer standing in the garden, no longer offering dried leaves or cat stickers.
As if the universe had collectively agreed that the strange boy was nothing more than a passing glitch—a brief distraction from the flawless life Nereza had always built.
And truthfully, at first, she was relieved.
Jules knew how to treat someone like her.
He wasn't loud, not annoying, and always knew when to stay silent or crack the right kind of joke.
Nereza didn't fall in love.
But she felt safe.
And for a girl like her, safety was worth far more than butterflies in the stomach.
---
That afternoon, the sky was neither bright nor gloomy.
A pale gray hue cloaked St. Helix Academy, blending with the cooling air as the season slowly began to shift.
In the back garden, Jules sat cross-legged on the grass.
Nereza leaned against his shoulder, listening to music through the shared earphones.
From the corner of his eye, Jules glanced at her.
"You never get tired of classical music, do you?"
"It's calming. I need calm, Jules."
"And I give you calm?" he asked, a faint smile playing on his lips.
Nereza didn't answer. But she nodded slowly.
For the first time in the past three weeks, her mind wasn't filled with Elior's face.
No foolish grin.
No crumpled hoodie.
No dried leaves, boxed milk, or absurd questions.
There was only Jules. Light rain. And a heart beating in rhythm.
---
The days settled into a pattern.
Morning: Jules picked her up at the school gate.
Afternoon: They ate lunch together, sometimes with Tasha.
Evening: Nereza waited for Jules to finish basketball practice, and they went home together.
Night: A fifteen-minute video call before bed.
No drama. No anxiety.
Perhaps… this was what people called a "healthy relationship."
But—
beneath all that order, something lingered.
Something unseen.
Something unspoken, yet quietly growing—like mold in the dark.
---
That night, Nereza opened her desk drawer to grab a pen.
And by chance, she found a small piece of paper she once ripped and hid.
It was still intact.
> "What you see isn't who he is.
What you feel isn't what really happened."
She stared at the words for a long time.
She didn't know why she hadn't thrown it away.
Maybe… a part of her knew something wasn't over yet.
She let out a deep breath and turned off the lights.
That night, she slept soundly.
And outside her window, the rain fell gently—
Silent. Without a sound.
---
The next morning, Jules didn't show up.
At first, Nereza didn't think much of it.
She figured he overslept or simply forgot.
But when she arrived at school and saw Jules's seat empty—not just in class, but also in the gym and the multipurpose hall—her chest began to tighten.
Even Tasha looked confused.
"I've been texting him since earlier. No reply."
"Did you call?"
"Yeah. His phone's on, but he's not picking up."
Nereza tried to stay calm. She typed a short message.
> Where are you? I'm waiting at the back garden.
No reply.
---
That day dragged longer than usual.
The sky was gray. The wind carried a strange damp scent.
As if the world knew something had changed, but everyone chose to look away.
By late afternoon, nearing dusk, Nereza waited in the back garden.
The bench they used to sit on was empty.
She sat alone, hugging her knees.
It had been twenty-four hours.
Jules was still missing.
No messages. No updates. No one—neither teachers nor students—knew where he was.
And just as the sun dipped beneath the horizon, a shadow appeared at the edge of her vision.
Slow. Silent. But unshakably present.
His steps were light, yet echoed in her ears.
Elior Reign.
He stood beneath a tree that had begun to shed its leaves.
The same gray hoodie he wore the last time she saw him. But this time, it wasn't wet.
It wasn't wrinkled.
It wasn't messy.
His face was calm. His eyes focused.
And his smile… was not foolish.
It wasn't the Elior smile Nereza knew.
It was the smile of someone who knew everything.
Nereza rose slowly.
Her heart pounded—not out of longing, but from a creeping sense of dread that gnawed at her mind.
She opened her mouth, but Elior spoke first.
"You're sitting alone again."
His voice hadn't changed. But the tone… was colder. Deeper.
"What do you mean?" Nereza's voice wavered.
Elior looked at her for a moment, then walked past her without answering.
There were no other students in the garden.
No sound but the quiet rhythm of Elior's fading footsteps.
And in that creeping silence, Nereza realized something.
She had never truly forgotten Elior.
Because Elior… never let her forget.
---
End of Chapter 2