It was only then, that she turned and walked away. She didn't run. She didn't flinch. She left silence behind her.
At first everything around her felt numb, like hearing sound underwater. She crossed the horizon of lockers alone. She kept walking until she reached the back stairwell of the science building. No one usually sat there between classes. She climbed the steps until she reached the landing with the tall window and sat down against the wall. The quiet closed in around her.
Only then did her breaths begin to shake.
Her grandfather's face surfaced in her mind. The way he used to walk her to the library when she was six, saying little, just holding her hand the whole way. The soft rasp of his voice reading stories to her. The way he never once boasted about the money he donated to the university. He believed in quiet generosity. He believed in her.
He gave her this scholarship not to hide her truth but to protect her from this exact kind of cruelty but from having too much money. She had promised herself she would carry that gift with pride, not shame. And yet the moment someone twisted the narrative, she felt small anyway.
She blinked tears away. She would not cry over this. Not now. Not because of Claire.
The stairwell door creaked overhead. She startled and sat up straighter, wiping a hand quickly across her cheek.
Yunho stood at the landing above her, shoulders rising and falling like he had been running. His eyes searched for her, found her and then softened.
He stilled at the sight of her. He walked down the last step and sat beside her on the cold concrete landing. He didn't speak a word, just stayed there with her. Yet silently asking her without saying a word.
Understanding flashed across his face. Bella thought to herself. He knew. He heard.
Bella didn't respond right away. Her voice was a whisper when she finally spoke. "They make it sound like I don't deserve to be here. Or like I should be ashamed of help."
"You know that's not true," he said.
"I know." Her voice was barely audible. "It still hurts anyway."
Yunho gently brushed her hair back behind her ear and she realized that her hands were shaking worse than she thought. He took both of them in his and held them still.
He didn't rush her. After a long moment, she decided he deserved the truth: the one thing Claire would never have.
"My grandfather paid for everything," she said. "He's been donating to this university for years. He set up a private fund in my name. He wanted me to go here without worrying about money. He never told anyone because he knows I hate being treated differently."
Yunho listened. His gaze held no pity, just a deep quiet pride.
"You know what that sounds like?" he said softly. "It doesn't sound like charity. It sounds like love."
Bella's throat tightened again. "I wish people like Claire could understand that. But they probably never will. They have always craved for attention so they will never understand how much we crave for anonymity."
She tried to laugh once but it came out as a watery sound. "I hate how much it got to me."
"Of course it got to you." Yunho squeezed her hands slightly. "You're human. You care. That's not weakness."
Bella looked at him then. His eyes were so steady it unnerved her. She leaned forward until her forehead rested against his shoulder. He wrapped one arm around her and pulled her in gently. It took a long minute for her breathing to return to normal, but eventually her shoulders stopped shaking.
After a while, she pulled back and looked at him. There was distance in his eyes, something controlled, and she realized he was angry too on her behalf.
They sat there until the hallway outside the stairwell grew quieter, until Bella's heart stopped racing, until the burning in her chest slowly cooled to a steady warmth.
Yunho kissed the top of her head once, slowly, a silent promise rather than a gesture of pity. She closed her eyes just briefly.
Then she pulled herself up to her feet. Yunho stood up beside her. She fixed her bag strap and took a breath. He offered his hand and she took it without hesitation. They walked back toward class together.
People might still talk tomorrow. Maybe even the day after. But Bella realised something important as they stepped into the light of the corridor:
Yunho heard about it from a freshman who passed him in the campus center.
"Hey, isn't your girlfriend Bella?" the student asked, voice hesitant. "You should probably check the quad… Claire Prett's saying some really messed up stuff about her. Something about a scholarship?"
The freshman hesitated, then gave a quick lowdown, but Yunho didn't wait to hear more. He was already moving, every step urgent, his thoughts a mix of worry and quiet fury. The corridors blurred past him, students giving way instinctively as he strode with purpose.
It didn't take long to find the aftermath. The crowd had begun to thin, whispers fading, but Claire was still there. She leaned casually against the fountain, smiling as if she'd just delivered some brilliant punchline, oblivious to the lingering tension. Bella, however, was nowhere in sight.
Yunho's chest tightened. His stomach clenched. He pulled out his phone and typed quickly:
Yunho: Where are you?
No reply.
Yunho: I heard what happened. Tell me where you are. Please.
He didn't wait for a response. He followed instinct, retracing her usual paths until he found her ten minutes later, sitting alone on the stone steps behind the science building. Her arms were wrapped around her knees, chin resting on denim. Her phone lay silent beside her. She glanced up, startled, like a deer caught in headlights.
He wanted to say something, anything, but words felt shallow. Instead, he just shifted closer, careful not to crowd her and allowed himself to sit in the shared quiet. The gentle scrape of her sneakers against the stone and the distant murmur of the campus were enough for now. He didn't try to fix it immediately. Sometimes presence was the only comfort.
When Bella finally looked up at him, her eyes glimmered, wet with restrained frustration and hurt. She began to explain the situation: the whispers, Claire's cruel words, the assumptions made about her scholarship. Yunho listened, every detail burning itself into him but not with anger. Not with disbelief and then with admiration.
She had carried this quietly, shoulders squared, without ever using it to gain favour or justify herself. She had allowed people to talk, to judge, to misunderstand and still walked forward with dignity and grace. The weight she bore could have bent most people, yet she held herself steady. And finally, when she confronted Claire, Yunho felt a sense of pride.
At the same time, Yunho's chest ached, not with shock but with awe. The sheer strength it took to endure years of silent judgment, to let assumptions hang in the air without flinching, left him speechless.
She pretended to be okay and went a pitch higher. "I hate how much it got to me."
"Of course it got to you." he said, squeezing her hand gently. "You're human. You care. That's not weakness."
She finally tilted her head, meeting his eyes fully for the first time since he had arrived. There was relief there, but also vulnerability, a rare openness that Yunho had been lucky to witness before. His heart clenched at how much she had hidden, how much she had endured quietly, and yet how fiercely she still carried herself.
Bella exhaled, the sound shaky but steadying. Yunho remained still, giving her space, letting her regulate her breathing, letting her know he wouldn't let her face the aftermath alone.
After a long moment, she shifted, curling slightly against him and Yunho leaned gently, letting her rest her head against his shoulder. Her hair smelled faintly of the courtyard breeze, and he felt a deep surge of protectiveness.
He extended his arms to envelope her, trying to block out all the ugliness in the world from his beloved. He brushed his thumb over the back of her hand, a gesture so soft it could have gone unnoticed, but he knew she felt it. He kissed her forehead to assured her that he's here without trying to take advantage of her vulnerability for love.
Yunho remained beside her, quiet but present, until her breathing evened out and the tight knot of anger and sadness began to loosen. "I'm ready," she said finally, pulling back slightly and looking at him. "Ready to face it again. Ready to go back."
Yunho nodded. "Then we go together."