"Kashi, what do you want to be in the future?" Zarri asked.
She had no class that day, so naturally, she had decided to linger around Kashi as if she belonged there.
Unfortunately, the two of them had bonded just fine.
Kashi sat at her desk, chin resting against her palm, eyes half-lidded with boredom as usual. Zarri sat close by, filing her nails with the kind of focus most people reserved for examinations or war.
"The future?" Kashi repeated, sounding thoroughly unimpressed by the concept.
"Yes, the future, mi bebé," Zarri said, clicking her tongue. "And do not say something boring like taking over your family business."
Kashi thought about it for a moment. Not seriously. Just enough to entertain Zarri.
"I don't know," she said eventually. "Maybe I'll walk a fashion show for you."
Zarri's eyes lit up immediately. "Really?" She nearly dropped the nail file. "I'll pay you well."
Before Kashi could stop her, Zarri leaned forward and hugged her excitedly.
Kashi allowed it, though her face carried the usual expression of someone tolerating affection because murder would be inconvenient.
"Zarri," she said with a faint chuckle, "you would go broke if you attempted to pay me for anything."
Zarri froze as reality, cruel and unnecessary, settled over her beautiful little dream. She sighed dramatically. "Ow. I was really looking forward to having you on the Mathias runway beside me."
She pouted, looking genuinely wounded. "Why does your family have to be so damn rich?"
At that, Kashi laughed. I was rare. Soft but real enough for Zarri's pout to turn into a smile.
"Don't worry," Kashi said. "I might do it for free."
Zarri gasped.
"If I like the dress," Kashi added.
"It's a deal, then." Zarri smiled brightly.
Just then, a group of girls burst into the classroom, giggling among themselves.
The noise cut through the quiet like an insult.
Zarri's eyes shifted toward them with piqued interest. "What is their deal?"
Kashi followed her gaze and saw the girls huddled near the doorway, whispering and nudging one another forward. Then one of them finally stepped ahead.
Jima.
Kashi's expression dulled. Just great!
Jima walked toward the desk behind Kashi, where Adrian Riegrow was sleeping with his head resting on his folded arms.
The new boy had become the school's latest obsession.
Quiet. Beautiful. Mysterious. Cold in a way that made foolish girls believe they could be the one to warm him.
It was nauseating.
Jima stopped beside his desk and tapped him lightly.
Adrian woke instantly. His head lifted, and for one fleeting second, annoyance flashed across his face. Then it vanished. Gone so quickly most people would have missed it.
He looked up at Jima with a calm expression.
"Hey…" Jima said, a faint blush colouring her cheeks.
Zarri's face twisted. "Don't tell me…"
Kashi nodded lazily. "Happens every damn day." Her frown deepened slightly. The new boy certainly attracted attention.
Adrian forced a polite smile. "Hi," he said. "Can I help you?"
Jima tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her voice dropping into something soft and deliberately sweet.
"Yes, um…" She glanced down as if embarrassed. "I can't open my locker, and since you're the only one around strong and tall enough, I was wondering if you could help me."
The lie was painfully obvious. Even Zarri seemed offended on behalf of storytelling itself.
Adrian stared at her. He knew nothing had happened to her locker. He also knew this conversation was already taking too long.
"Maybe you should find someone else to help," he said.
Then he laid his head back down on the desk, dismissing her completely.
Jima's face changed. The sweet expression cracked.
She had heard rumours about him, of course. Everyone had. The handsome new boy who turned down every girl who approached him. The quiet Riegrow heir who smiled gently and refused people like their feelings were minor inconveniences.
But Jima had assumed she would be different.
She was beautiful. Wealthy and popular. From a family good enough to make people think twice before offending her.
Who did this little thing think he was, refusing her?
Her palm slammed down against his desk. The sound made a few students look over. The soft smile she had worn earlier disappeared entirely.
"Who do you think you are?" Jima snapped. "If I tell you to help me, then you will help me."
Adrian remained still.
Then he sighed.
Typical elite brat. He did not even lift his head immediately. His mind was already working through quiet, efficient solutions.
Something simple.
Something that would remove her without attracting too much attention.
Should he cripple her meridians? No. That would kill her if he did not undo it within fifty-five seconds. Messy.
Caesar had asked him to blend in. Apparently, killing classmates over irritation was not considered blending in.
Jima's anger worsened when she realised he was not even looking at her.
Her pride burned. She reached out, intending to grab him.
Before her fingers could touch him, another hand caught her and yanked her back. Jima lost her balance and stumbled hard, nearly falling to the floor.
"He said he does not want to," Kashi's bored voice cut through the room. "Do you not know how to take rejection, Jima?"
Adrian finally lifted his head.His gaze moved to the girl sitting in front of him.
Kashi Saints.
The girl who spent most classes staring out of the window like the world had personally failed to entertain her.What was she doing?
Jima pushed herself upright, humiliation burning across her face.
"Kashi," she snapped, "stay out of this."
Kashi rose slowly from her seat.Her movements were lazy, almost graceful, as though even standing required more effort than Jima deserved.
"And if I don't?" she asked. A smirk curved her lips.
In truth, Kashi had not interfered out of kindness. Not even close.
It was break period, and she had intended to spend it quietly with Zarri before this attention-hungry little tattle queen walked in and started performing desperation beside her desk.
Besides, Jima's voice was annoying. That alone was reason enough.
Jima clenched her fists. "This has nothing to do with you."
Kashi tilted her head. "You slammed your hand on a desk behind me."
"So?"
"So," Kashi said, her smile sharpening, "your shrill voice disturbed me."
The room quieted.
A few students who had been pretending not to listen were now openly watching.
Zarri leaned back in her chair, eyes bright with interest, as if someone had just served entertainment with perfect timing.
Jima looked around, suddenly aware of the attention.
"You're defending him now?" she scoffed. "Since when do you care about anyone?"
Kashi laughed softly. "I don't."
Her gaze flicked briefly to Adrian, then returned to Jima. "But I care about peace. And you are noisy."
Jima's face flushed with anger.
Adrian watched silently from his seat.
For the first time since he had arrived at that school, someone had stepped between him and another person's touch.
Not because they feared what he might do. Not because they knew what touching him meant.
But because they were irritated. How strange and absurd.
Jima laughed. It was a cold, cruel little sound, sharp enough to scrape against the silence that had settled in the classroom.
"What?" she asked, eyes narrowing with mockery. "Are you interested in him too, Kashi?"
Kashi's smile did not falter. "And what if I am?" she said lightly.
Then, for the first time since Adrian Riegrow had transferred into their class, Kashi glanced back at him.
Only briefly. "He is quite catchy, is he not?"
Jima's fists clenched at her sides. "This one is not yours to toy with, Kashi."
Kashi's smile thinned. "No," she agreed. "But if you are so adamant about having him…"
Her gaze returned to Jima, cold and bright. "I might just make him mine."
The words landed softly and somehow, that made them worse.
A shiver passed through Jima before she could stop it. She hated that. Hated the way Kashi could say the ugliest things with the prettiest face. Hated the way the room always seemed to bend around her.
Jima looked past Kashi, toward Adrian.
"You haven't even looked at him since he transferred," she snapped. "You don't like boring toys, Kashi." Her mouth twisted. "Give him to me."
For a second, the classroom went completely still.
Then Kashi moved. Without turning fully, she reached back and grabbed Adrian's hand.
He froze. The contact sent a jolt through him.
Not through his body alone.
Through something deeper, sharper, buried beneath years of discipline, blood, leather, and old warnings whispered in his mother's voice.
People did not touch him. They were not allowed to. He had never let them.
Not the maids. Not the guards.
Not the girls who followed him through hallways with trembling confessions. Not anyone.
His hand, even gloved, was not something people simply took.
And yet Kashi Saints had taken it.
Effortlessly. Possessively. As if his hand had always belonged in hers.
As if he was something she had reached for and claimed without needing permission from the world.
Chaos's expression faltered.
Only slightly. Barely enough for anyone else to notice.
But he felt it. The disruption.
The hesitating strange violent absence of disgust.
He had expected irritation. Revulsion. The familiar crawling sensation that came whenever someone dared touch him. He had expected the urge to break her wrist, to rip his hand away, to punish the audacity.
But none of it came.
Kashi's fingers wrapped around his hand firmly, her grip bold and unafraid.
She did not flinch. She held him like a possession.
Like a prize.
Like something that belonged to her simply because she had decided so.
For the first time in years, someone other than Selene had touched him and Chaos did not feel the need to destroy them for it.
He did not understand. Worse, he did not let go.
Kashi smiled at Jima coldly "Does this satisfy your curiosity, Jima?" Her fingers tightened slightly around his. "This one is mine."
The room seemed to inhale.
Jima's face flushed with fury.
For a moment, she looked ready to explode. Her eyes moved from Kashi's face to their joined hands, then back again. Humiliation burned through her so visibly it might as well have been written across her skin.
But she did not attack.
Not this time. Instead, she forced a smile, a poor, thin and shaking smile at the edges.
"This is not over, Kashi."
Kashi's expression remained bored. "I would be disappointed if it were."
Jima's mouth tightened.
Then she turned sharply and stormed out of the classroom, the girls who had come with her hurrying after her like frightened little birds fleeing the wrong branch.
Only when they were gone did the tension loosen.
Kashi immediately released Adrian's hand.
The absence of her touch was almost louder than the touch itself.
Adrian looked down at his hand. Then slowly, he lifted his gaze to her. Kashi turned at the same time. Their eyes met.
Pale blue.
That was Kashi's first thought.
Had his eyes always been that colour?
Cold. Clear.
Almost unreal.
She stared for half a second longer than she meant to.
Then she blinked and looked away, dismissing the thought before it could become anything interesting.
"What a hassle," she muttered.
Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked toward the door.
Zarri, who had watched the entire exchange with eyes far too amused for someone innocent, rose from her seat and trailed after her.
Adrian remained where he was. Confused. His gaze lowered again to the hand Kashi had held.
The leather glove looked the same. Nothing had changed.
And yet something had.
For the first time since he could remember, someone had touched him and walked away unharmed.
For the first time, Chaos had let them.