The bright sun spotlighted Leansei's face as he napped at his table during the break. He had fully intended to wake up after a quick thirty-minute rest, but the sheer exhaustion of the past week anchored his eyelids shut. The gentle chirp of birds outside, the simultaneous hum of students gossiping in the corridors, and the rowdy shouts from the sports field failed to break his deep, peaceful slumber.
"Revin!" Revin snapped his head up, his fingers pausing mid-stroke as he seriously tapped away on his phone screen. The troubled look darkling his features softened into neutrality the exact microsecond Corshe stepped flush to his side.
"I barely see you two these days. What's up?" Corshe asked, pushing his round glasses up the bridge of his nose.
Revin cast one final, lingering glance at his device before aggressively shoving it into his trousers pocket. Corshe's face looked entirely blooming and radiant, as if he had showered several times over just to shine brilliantly under the morning sun.
"Ever since the elite dinner meeting wrapped up, Kean has been completely buried under his duties as the vice president of the student council," Revin muttered as they walked down the corridor. "We barely get a single chance to talk to each other anymore."
"I guess the officers are violently rushing to finalize the preparations for the upcoming acquaintance party," Corshe noted, idly flipping open the thick academic textbook he was always reading. "I barely even catch a glimpse of Xeilin lately either, since he's excused from a few morning classes almost every day." Corshe paused, tilting his head to inspect his companion. "But what about you? You seriously look like you're not yourself these days."
Revin checked his reaction, completely caught off guard that Corshe could decipher his inner turmoil with zero effort. He pulled his phone back out to look busy, forcing an artificial smile. "I'm perfectly fine, don't worry about it," Revin lied smoothly. Corshe merely stared at him, dropping the matter without pushing for further details.
"Enough about my boring life anyway. You look exceptionally glowing today, Corshe," Revin added, aggressively trying to divert the topic.
Corshe abruptly halted his stride, turning a dead-serious gaze onto Revin. Revin blinked in surprise, defensively putting both of his hands up. "Hey, look, I was just asking a simple—"
"Have you ever felt a sudden, extraordinarily loud pump in your chest?" Corshe interrupted softly. Revin went entirely speechless. In a fraction of a second, a vivid, overwhelming memory of jerk's face flashed behind his eyes. He vigorously shook his head to banish the thought, letting out a sharp breath.
"No..." he lied through his teeth.
Corshe studied his face for a lingering, silent beat before resuming his walk down the hall. "Lately, my heart has been beating in such a weird, erratic way," Corshe exclaimed, flattening his palm against his chest as if actively reminiscing about the sunset with Tael. "I haven't felt anything remotely like this for the past nineteen years of my entire existence."
Revin watched the smaller boy walk, realization hitting him. ' Look at him, ' Revin thought with a quiet smile.
' He looks like he fell straight into a pink, sticky pool entirely full of floating heart leaves. '
Yet, a wave of genuine happiness washed over him; he was glad Corshe was finally exploring these beautiful, chaotic emotions instead of mindlessly burying himself in school activities as usual. They navigated the crowded paths toward the campus canteen to grab a quick snack. Revin purchased a cold bottle of water alongside a few slices of assorted bread.
"Oh, I totally forgot!" Corshe suddenly gasped, frantically flipping through his notebook pages. "Are you currently enrolled in Mr. Mury's advanced lecture class?"
"Yeah... but only every Tuesday."
"Ugh, I completely forgot to retrieve the mandatory assignment sheet he instructed us to pick up directly from his office," Corshe pouted aggressively. Revin knew all too well that Corshe treasured his academic ranking above everything else, and a single, trivial mistake like a forgotten document was enough to make him feel like his entire existence was ruined.
"Just come with me back to my home classroom," Revin offered, lifting the plastic grocery bag. "When I went down to the faculty room earlier, I accidentally grabbed two copies of the paper instead of one."
Corshe's distressed face lit up in an instant. "Really?! Thank you! you're a savior!" Revin nodded firmly, stepping away from the canteen counters. Together, they marched back toward their department building, taking the wide stairs straight up to Revin's classroom.
Pushing the heavy wooden door open, they found Leansei still sleeping peacefully, his head resting against his folded arms at his desk. Revin reached into his plastic bag to pull out the cold bottle of water he had bought for his friend, but his hand froze mid-air.
Sitting right on the edge of Leansei's desk was a fresh, sweating bottle of water. Corshe's forehead knotted into a hard, suspicious line as his eyes swept across the empty classroom rows. Revin reached down, lifting the mysterious bottle from the wooden surface to inspect the seal. It was clear that someone else had entered the room ahead of them.
Leansei's eyes fluttered open, his consciousness returning as a rapid flurry of intense, whispered arguments drifted into his ears. The blinding midday sun was stinging his pupils, forcing him to sharply turn his head away from the glass window.
"Who on earth gave this to him?!" Corshe hissed quietly, waving the mysterious bottle.
"I don't have a single clue!" Revin whispered back frantically and grabbed it back.
"Well, you better tell him the second he wakes up!"
"What?! Why do I have to do it? You tell him!"
"Why should I—"
Leansei let out a long yawn, aggressively stretching his arms upward. He blinked away the sleep, thoroughly surprised to find Corshe and Revin standing right in front of his desk, squabbling like a pair of stray cats and dogs. His gaze drifted down to Revin's hands, noting that the boy was clumsily holding two separate bottles of water.
"Are those... meant for me?" Leansei asked, his throat feeling dry.
Without waiting for an explanation, Leansei reached out and took the bottle that was on his right hand—the one that had already turned slightly warm from the sun. He cracked the seal, drank the liquid in several thirsty gulps, and idly checked his wrist watch.
Shit.
"Oh hell! I am almost late for the briefing!" Leansei bolted upright, frantically snatching his leather carry bag from the chair hook. Corshe watched his frantic movements with deep, worried eyes. "I'm so sorry, guys! I owe you two immensely for waking me up! See you right after class!" Leansei shouted over his shoulder as he bolted out of the classroom doors.
He ran down the long corridor as if a cold, bloody killer were chasing him. Navigating the skybridge, he accidentally bumped hard into a passing student. He blurted out a frantic, breathless apology without breaking his stride, his eyes remaining glued to the ticking hands of his watch.
Finally reaching the restricted wing, he threw open the heavy doors of the Supreme Student Council office. He paused at the threshold, smoothing down his wrinkled uniform and desperately fixing his ID lanyard. "I am incredibly sorry that I'm late. I've been—" The excuse died squarely in his throat.
Sitting casually around the large conference table were the Vcheroi brothers, flanked by four other students whose faces Leansei didn't recognize at all.
"Oh, look who finally decided to grace us with his presence—the vice president of the council," Felina, one of the senior officers, teased with a sharp smile as she neatly organized a towering pile of event schedules.
Xeilin offered a warm, welcoming smile, gesturing toward the empty swivel chair right beside his own. "Come in, Kean. Take a seat." Leansei hushedly walked across the room, sliding into his usual leather chair to keep a low profile. Instantly, an absolute, suffocating silence seemed to settle within the four closed walls of the council room.
Leansei closed his eyes for a split second, his mind spinning. He had spent the last seventy-six hours trying his absolute best to bury himself in work just to erase the memory of the elite dinner gala. But the moment his gaze drifted across the table, his heart skipped a violent beat. Seeing that flawless, dashing face along with those piercing, mercurial blue eyes up close made the hallway confrontation completely unforgettable.
' I was fully planning to execute a strict strategy to avoid him all week,' Leansei wailed silently behind his teeth. ' What a thoroughly unfortunate situation. '
He could physically feel the weight of a heavy, darting glance originating from those blue eyes. Leansei nervously played with his hands under the table, desperately trying to operate as if Xerchin simply did not exist within the room, but the psychological defense was failing miserably.
"Alright, the executive officers have already finalized the core itinerary," Xeilin announced clearly, breaking the tension as he flipped through the printed proposal sheets. "This year's acquaintance party is going to be executed in a highly unique way." Leansei forced himself to focus on the text, but his eyes locked onto a specific clause at the bottom of the page.
' Wait... Beidhen and Xerchin are listed as part of the main live performers? '
"Since our timeline is incredibly tight, the official academic excuse letters will be handed out later today for tomorrow's sessions," Xeilin continued, his sharp voice echoing against the walls. "Every single one of you..." He paused, turning his head to look directly at Leansei. He blinked, a sudden wave of confusion hitting him. He had a remarkably bad feeling about the direction of the sentence.
"I know all of you have already meticulously prepared your respective performance pieces," Xeilin smiled reassuringly, tapping the desk. "But the official mandatory rehearsals will commence first thing tomorrow morning... and your entire progress will be strictly monitored and evaluated by Kean."
Leansei's eyes widened in absolute shock, his jaw dropping as the words vibrated through his ears. He stared at the council president, his defenses crumbling completely. He was supposed to spend the next seven days trapped inside a closed rehearsal hall, explicitly monitoring the one man he had sworn to never see again.
"We have exactly less than two weeks to perfect the showcase," Xeilin concluded proudly, oblivious to the panic beside him. "Let's all do our absolute best."
"That's all," Xeilin concluded, offering a definitive nod as the four remaining student performers stood up from their chairs and quietly exited the council room.
The heavy oak doors hadn't even fully clicked shut before Beidhen sauntered across the linoleum floor. Without a shred of hesitation, he slung his heavy, athletic arm right around Leansei's neck in his customary, overbearing manner. Xeilin let out a synchronized sigh, turning his back on them as he focused entirely on meticulously arranging the towering stack of folders on the side desk.'
"So, when exactly are you going to announce the official theme for the acquaintance party?" Beidhen asked, his voice dripping with playful curiosity. Across the room, Xerchin remained perfectly silent, leaning his broad frame against the brick wall while his light blue eyes intently tracked the pair.
"Tomorrow. Felina and Luo will be the ones to officially announce it to the student body," Leansei muttered, his muscles locking as he aggressively tried to shove Beidhen's heavy forearm away from his shoulders.
At the sound of their names, Felina and Luo nodded their heads in absolute agreement. Nearby, Delia and Nenia remained entirely absorbed in their duties, their fingers flying rapidly across their laptop keyboards as they finalized the digital floor plans.
"Get off me, you absolute jerk," Leansei hissed under his breath, his gray eyes narrowing. Beidhen merely flashed an unbothered, surprised look, deliberately tightening his chokehold around Leansei's neck instead of releasing him.
"Come on, tell me—have you actually asked someone out to be your date yet?"
"What on earth are you talking about?" Leansei grumbled, his forehead knotting.
"Don't play dumb. Isn't the climax of the event literally a mandatory slow dance?" The casual question struck the room like a bolt of lightning. Every single student council officer—save for Xeilin, who desperately tried to look busy—froze mid-movement, their gazes sharply snapping toward Beidhen and Xerchin.
Driven by an explosive burst of pure irritation, Leansei used all his strength to violently shove Beidhen's arm off his neck once and for all.
"Student council officers have absolutely zero time to participate in the actual social aspects of the event," Leansei stated flatly, dropping back into his leather swivel chair with a rigid posture. "Our priority is to actively monitor and execute every single detail behind the scenes." He rolled his chair closer to his desk, waving a dismissive hand through the air. "Now, stop bothering the this officer and leave. Shoo." He pitched his tone into a cold register, as if he were talking down to a completely lost, annoying stray dog.
Leansei sharply turned his face toward the computer screen, tapping the wooden table. "And for terms of record, Xeilin and I haven't actually finalized the technicalities of the 'monitoring' assignment yet. There could easily be a sudden shift in roles here." He cast a sharp, warning glare directly at the council president's back.
"There will absolutely be zero changes to the roster," Xeilin countered instantly, a thoroughly amused, mocking smile spreading across his face as he turned around. He looked as though he were profoundly enjoying the suffocatingly awkward situation. "We have zero time to rearrange the schedule, and we both already have distinct, mandatory roles. You are assigned to monitor the solo or duo singing and dancing rehearsals. I will personally handle the bands."
"And what exactly are Delia and Felina supposed to be doing then?" Leansei pressed, his jaw clenching.
"Exactly what we discussed during the initial briefing," Xeilin supplied cheerfully, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "They will be the ones checking off every single item from the logistical master list: the budget allocation, the audience numbers, and the catering. Meanwhile, Luo and Nenia are strictly assigned to the physical materials and the actual decoration layout for the entire grand hall."
The four mentioned officers nodded their heads in unison. Beidhen let out a low, mocking laugh, shooting Leansei a thoroughly annoying smirk. "Well, well. It seriously looks like the little prince is desperately trying to avoid a certain someone. Unfortunately for you, prince, this entire rehearsal schedule is completely inevitable."Leansei stayed entirely quiet, a deep, defensive frown clouding his handsome features as he aggressively began typing into his laptop to finalize the project timeline.
Beidhen opened his mouth to drop another provocative remark, but he abruptly froze. A freezing, terrifyingly cold stare rolled off Xerchin's shoulders, pinning him to the floorboards. Beidhen swallowed hard, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips as he quickly raised his hands. "Just kidding, just kidding... my more-than-just-a-friend."
Leansei's scowl deepened at the ridiculous title, but the irritation withered away in a fraction of a second as the heavy office door suddenly swung open. "Hey, Xei, have you forgotten something—" Xeilin started to ask, but the sentence died squarely in his throat.
Rell strode into the council office, looking exceptionally attractive, sharp, and confident in his formal uniform. "Rell?" Leansei blinked, completely caught off guard. "What on earth are you doing here?"
The exact microsecond Rell entered the room, Xeilin went entirely rigid. He violently snapped his back toward the entryway, burying his face in his folders as he frantically pretended to review the budgets.
"Well, Mr. Lefo practically recommended that I attend the showcase—or rather, he aggressively encouraged me to sign up," Rell explained smoothly, a playful glint in his eyes as he hefted his instrument. "I'm apparently slated to perform with one of the live student bands. I'm incredibly late for the briefing, aren't I?"
Hearing his voice, Beidhen's playful smirk faded away in an instant, his expression turning cold, while Xerchin's unbothered poker face remained completely unreadable.
"Not at all," Leansei replied, quickly reaching across his desk to retrieve the official roster sheet. "Come over here and fill out your information for tomorrow's academic excuse letters. Delia, since Rell wasn't present during the initial roll call, could you please fill him in on the core details from the meeting?"
"Of course," Delia nodded politely, her long, silky brown hair waving gracefully as she stood up from her workstation to assist them. Rell walked deeper into the room, gently lowering his heavy leather guitar case onto the floor before sliding into the swivel chair directly beside Leansei.
Across the room, Xeilin stood completely frozen. His hand trembled as he gripped the plastic edge of a folder, a cold layer of sweat breaking across his temples and running down his flushed cheeks. His heart began to throb violently against his ribs, a frantic, deafening pump that completely drowned out the ambient noise of the room.
Felina noticed his sudden, rigid posture, her brow furrowing with concern. "President? Xeilin?" she called out softly.
But Xeilin couldn't hear a single trace of her voice; his entire consciousness was trapped by the frantic hammer of his own pulse. Leansei glanced up, his sharp eyes darting between Felina's worried expression and Xeilin's unmoving back.
' Odd... '
He thought silently, a quiet suspicion twisting inside his chest. He shifted his gaze over to Rell, noting that the boy was staring down at the registration form with an intensely serious, entirely focused look.
"Xeilin," Leansei called out, his clear voice slicing through the silence.
The command snapped Xeilin straight out of his trance. He swallowed hard, taking a long, ragged breath to stabilize his nerves as he slowly turned his body around, the exact microsecond Rell finished signing his name on the line.
The heavy, unyielding layer of awkwardness between the two boys spiked violently, filling the room with an undeniable tension that Leansei could practically feel on his skin.
' Something is going on between those two, ' Leansei reasoned silently, his mind racing.
Deciding to restore order, Leansei slid the finalized paperwork into his folder. "Alright, the council will officially distribute the academic excuse letters by the end of the afternoon. Tomorrow will be a full-day, mandatory rehearsal block. Xeilin will be the one explicitly monitoring your band's progress, Rell."
Leansei shot a look at the council president, and Xeilin offered a stiff, highly awkward nod of agreement, his cheeks still burning a bright crimson.
.
The final bell of the afternoon finally rang across the courtyard, signaling the end of the grueling academic periods. Leansei stood up from his desk, aggressively stretching his aching arms upward as a heavy yawn escaped his lips. He desperately wanted nothing more than to commute straight back to his condo and sleep for the next twenty-four hours; his entire body felt like it was on the dangerous verge of collapsing from sheer exhaustion, having barely secured a single hour of peaceful sleep all week.
"Honestly, you look entirely too tired to hang out today, Kean," Revin noted softly, sliding his heavy school bag securely under his arm as he walked over.
Leansei offered a quiet, weary nod of absolute agreement, struggling to keep his eyes wide open as he stood on his own feet. Revin and Leansei exited the classroom together, meeting up with Xeilin and Corshe in the long, crowded corridor.
"What an absolutely brutal, tiring day," Xeilin groaned, throwing his arms back to ease the tension in his shoulders.
"Well, I think I'm doing perfectly fine," Corshe chimed in energetically, a bright smile lighting up his lips as he fixed the frames of his round eyeglasses. Leansei kept his mouth tightly sealed, completely devoid of the physical energy required to participate in the small talk.
The four boys eventually navigated the paved pathways, reaching the concrete perimeter of the main university gates. Leansei idly shifted his weight, his eyes drifting across the busy traffic lane—but the drowsiness vanished from his brain in a single fraction of a second. His blood ran instantly ice-cold.
Standing directly across the asphalt was a face he never, in his transmigrated existence, expected to see within Kean's world. A face he wanted to erase from his memory forever.
Mr. Bien stood near the curb, flanked by two of his heavy, imposing men. They were engaged in a serious, quiet conversation with a wealthy local businessman, before exchanging stiff bows and climbing into the rear passenger seats of a sleek, black luxury vehicle.
In a terrifying flash, the dam broke. A violent, suffocating wave of horrific memories crashed straight through Leansei's mind—recalling every single brutal beating he had endured under Mr. Bien's fists, and the cruel, unyielding way the man had squeezed his throat for the unpaid debts back in Levous City.
Leansei's hands balled into tight fists inside his pockets, his breathing turning ragged and desperate as his chest heaved for air. The terrifying truth he had managed to temporarily bury under Kean's luxury came roaring back to haunt him: his presence in this beautiful, safe world was merely an accident. Sooner or later, the clock would run out, forcing him to abandon his amazing friends and return straight to the living nightmare of his real life.
Standing frozen by the iron gates, Leansei couldn't decipher whether the cold sensation paralyzing his limbs was born of profound sadness or absolute, raw fright. A deep, heavy wave of hesitation settled over his ribs; he had allowed himself to grow entirely too close to Kean's mutuals—connections he should have never allowed himself to touch in the first place.