The Debt of Stars

The person who used to bully me at school has now become my brother.

During the day, he'd shove me into the school bathroom to humiliate me; at night, he'd ruffle my hair in front of our parents, smiling with feigned tenderness.

My nightmare had extended from campus into my home.

1

Lucien pushed open my bedroom door at one in the morning.

Hands in his pockets, he looked satisfied as he watched me curled up in the corner.

"Good girl. Didn't lock the door tonight."

…

The day before, I'd locked him out. The next day, he cut the thin strap on my shoulder in the bathroom.

In the darkness, he strolled over to me.

That nearly perfect face, even when smiling, looked to me like a demon crawling out of the abyss.

He pinched my chin, then skillfully unbuttoned the front of my shirt.

His fingers stopped at my collarbone.

The unfamiliar warmth of his fingertips made me instinctively flinch, which only earned me a mocking laugh.

He leaned down, close to my ear.

"Right here."

The strange heat instantly spread through my skin.

"Let me carve my name here, okay?"

Terrified, I shoved him away.

He straightened up, laughing indifferently.

"I was just joking."

…

But every joke Lucien ever made eventually came true for me.

His gaze lazily swept over my clothes rack, then he casually pointed at a dress.

"Wear this tomorrow."

Yes. Ever since Lucien became my stepbrother in our blended family,

he even controlled what I wore every single day.

2

Lucien hated me.

This was something I realized clearly and unmistakably the first time I saw him after transferring into his class.

He was the student council president, top ten in his grade.

Handsome, popular.

So it was easy for him to inflict violence on someone.

At first, it was isolation from classmates.

Once they knew Lucien didn't like me, almost no one wanted to get close to me.

Then, they started using physical violence.

Actually, Lucien didn't like to get his hands dirty himself.

But he had countless ways to grind my dignity into dust, to make sure I never held my head high again.

He cut off my long hair that I'd been growing for years, then forced my head down to make me look at my own despairing expression in the mirror.

He had someone use permanent markers to write obscene words all over my desk, drawing laughter from the whole class.

They harassed me, making it impossible to focus on my studies.

Every time exam papers were handed out, a group would be waiting to loudly announce my scores.

So when I found out that the son of the woman my father was going to marry was Lucien Warrington,

I felt like my entire world was about to collapse.

3

"He's your brother now."

My father patted him on the shoulder and pushed him in front of me.

Lucien curled the corner of his mouth and smiled at me gently.

"Lucien does very well in school."

"If you have any questions about your homework, you can ask him."

So that night in my room, Lucien "tutored" me on my homework.

He stood behind me, leaning over the desk, his fingertips brushing the edge of my paper with deliberate nonchalance.

On the surface, he was the "good brother" concerned about his sister's grades.

In reality, his knuckles pressed unhurriedly against my waist.

"Of course, you can tell your dad everything I've done to you."

"But you can probably guess what the consequences would be, right?"

…

The next morning, I didn't wear the outfit Lucien had specified to school.

Lucien raised an eyebrow at the breakfast table but said nothing.

One thing about him: he always pretended to be a well-behaved, accomplished child in front of our parents.

But by the shoe rack, in a blind spot where no one could see,

Lucien kicked my shoes and spoke with displeasure.

"Didn't I tell you to wear that dress?"

"…"

I bit my lip and looked up at him.

"Why do you have to treat me like this?"

Before we met, I didn't even know him.

His hatred for me was direct and inexplicable.

But he didn't deign to answer that question. Instead, he bent down slightly and looked at me seriously.

"Disobedient? You're done for."

…

4

I thought that if I just stayed in the classroom, following the group, attending class, I could avoid being pranked.

But I underestimated their methods.

After morning exercises, I came back to the classroom and casually pulled a pen from my pencil case.

I touched something wriggling.

I looked inside and was so startled I threw the entire pencil case away.

My biggest fear was bugs.

And there were several squirming caterpillars in my pencil case.

Some things were a double terror, both physical and psychological. With bugs, just one look made my hair stand on end.

So I stumbled backward in fright, making a loud noise at the back of the classroom.

I was truly, utterly terrified.

But my cowering form quickly became the butt of everyone's jokes.

"Damn, you scared me."

"Big Huang, what did you stuff in her pencil case? She's terrified."

Lucien happened to walk back into the classroom with some papers. Seeing me like this, he crouched down in front of me.

"Hey, you're crying."

His fingertips gently brushed my eyelids, but I turned my face away.

That action clearly annoyed Lucien again.

His knuckles pressed against my chin and forced my face back.

"Such a coward."

"…"

For the rest of the afternoon, those guys kept loitering around my desk.

Afraid they'd bring more bugs, I just kept my head down on my desk.

"Hey, you…"

After school, Lucien walked behind me.

"Mad that we're messing with you?"

"Didn't you used to never get mad no matter what we did?"

He toyed with the charm on my backpack, intrigued. I took a deep breath and stopped to look at him.

"Lucien, do I have some kind of grudge against you?"

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"…"

The setting sun reflected a beautiful arc in his pupils.

He smiled, gentle and considerate.

"You're so cute."

…

Psycho.

5

My father raised me alone. He always said I had a very mild temperament and never told anyone anything at home.

Yeah, the truth is, I'm very good at enduring things.

The fact that I hadn't had a mental breakdown after two years of Lucien's relentless bullying showed that I didn't really take them to heart.

But those bugs really disgusted me.

So when I got home, I didn't interact much with Lucien.

His "good brother" persona was cracking.

I thought he'd fly into a rage, but instead, he just walked into my room after his shower.

He asked me meaningfully, "Tsk, are you really mad?"

I kept my head down, working on my math problems, ignoring him.

"I didn't put the bugs there. If I'd known you were so scared of them…"

"I would have made sure they appeared in a much more stimulating way, right?"

…It was like the whisper of a demon.

But the guy beside me was in a good enough mood to ruffle my hair.

"You got the fourth problem wrong. No wonder you're so dumb."

…

I frowned, annoyed, and scratched out all the formulas on the paper.

He responded with a mocking chuckle.

6

The next day, the guy who put the bugs in my pencil case apologized to me in front of everyone.

He stammered out his apology, but the bruises on him were plain to see.

I kept my eyes down, writing problems, not looking at them again.

My desk had long been covered in filthy words written with permanent marker, but even worse, they'd given me the worst desk in the class. It wobbled every time I wrote, making a racket when I pressed down hard.

But someone held the desk still.

Lucien crouched in front of my desk, folding a piece of paper to wedge under the wobbly leg.

"…"

This guy had been acting strange lately.

Of course, I didn't think he'd suddenly have mercy on me. I just assumed he was planning something big.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked down at me.

After a long moment, he gave me a light, dismissive smile.

…

It was my birthday.

In previous years, my birthday was at least something to look forward to. But this year, there was Lucien.

That evening, our family went to a restaurant for dinner.

The cheerful atmosphere at the table couldn't make me forget the presence of the person sitting next to me. His leg under the table was restless.

When it was finally time to blow out the birthday cake candles, he mischievously tapped my waist.

…

My father gave me an e-reader.

My stepmother gave me a necklace.

And Lucien gave me a bottle of perfume.

The perfume box seemed a bit heavy, but I didn't think much of it at first. I never wanted to look twice at anything he gave me, so I tossed it into a corner as soon as I got home.

Until midnight, when he pushed open my door.

This guy was practically an expert at sneaking into my room.

I frowned at his smiling face.

"Aren't you going to look at my gift?"

The man leaned against the door, asking casually.

I'd already opened it at the restaurant.

As if reading my question, he smiled and added, "There's another layer."

…

Lucien always knew how to humiliate me.

My dear brother's birthday gift.

The first layer: a bottle of perfume.

The second layer: a collar.

The kind for dogs.

…

I glared at him, and he smiled back, amiable.

"Custom-made three months in advance. Don't you like it?"

The man walked over to me, took the collar out of the box, and held it up to my neck.

The leather touched my skin.

He tilted his head, looking satisfied.

"It really suits you."

I shoved him away.

I knew. Lucien loved seeing that look in my eyes.

Humiliated, angry, powerless.

The more miserable I was, the more excited he got.

7

When the new exam results were posted, I stared at the abysmal score.

I guess I was just naturally not very good with numbers.

Subjects like math and physics were always a struggle for me.

The paper had already been passed around the class, and by the time it reached me, it was crumpled.

After class, the teacher called me to her office.

Someone else was there too.

If I was consistently second-to-last, this guy was consistently dead last. I'd only seen his face a few times all semester because he always hid in a corner.

"You two have the worst math scores in our class."

The teacher's sharp eyes stared at us through her glasses.

"I've arranged a tutor for you. Study hard."

"The three of you will form a study group. If you have questions, ask Lucien Warrington, got it?"

…

Lucien Warrington.

The ringleader of the school bullying had become our tutor.

I stared at the person who walked in from outside the office, the one the teacher was patting on the shoulder with such high hopes.

He smiled, looking at me.

I could already imagine it. This so-called study group.

It was going to be the start of a new nightmare.

…

The setting sun streamed through the window into the classroom. Lucien sat on the desk in front of me.

"What the hell, you're actually tutoring these two morons?"

His friend joked behind him.

The boy who was also forced into tutoring, curled up into a ball, was named Zane.

Right now, he was huddled in a corner, trembling.

He seemed to be a long-term victim of the gang in our class. And he seemed… genuinely slow.

"Come on, look at the first problem."

Lucien picked up my paper with a show of seriousness, but my attention was on the boy beside me.

He kept shaking, making the desk shake too.

"Hey."

When I snapped back to reality, Lucien's foot had already kicked my desk.

He was tall, hands in his pockets, looking down at me.

"Are you looking at me or him?"

"…"

We stared at each other for a long moment before he smiled first.

"You two, one with a 21, one with a 12."

"Perfect for each other."

…

I guess my dad was really triggered by Lucien's excellent grades.

When he saw my test paper after I got home, he gave me a thorough scolding.

"You used to win gold medals in math Olympiads in elementary and middle school, don't you remember? How did you end up like this?!"

…The certificates were still hanging on my wall.

But now, just seeing numbers gave me a headache.

I stared at today's math paper. I could feel it—I had to work harder at math than other students. I couldn't even apply the formulas correctly.

Because my dad had asked Lucien to tutor me, he was now entering my room with impunity.

He leaned against my desk. Just as I expected him to start mocking me, he said softly instead,

"Ask me if you don't understand anything."

…

I thought the sun had risen in the west.

But then his mother came in behind him, carrying a plate of fruit.

"I'm so relieved to see you two getting along so well."

Lucien's mother was the epitome of a refined, virtuous woman, and she had always been kind to me.

She'd mentioned before that Lucien used to have a younger sister.

But… something happened, and she passed away.

So she was always worried that Lucien and I wouldn't get along.

"Alright, you two study hard. Lucien, take good care of your sister."

The moment his mother left, his face changed.

He leaned in slightly, standing behind me, and slowly pinched my earlobe.

"Zane."

He said the name of the boy who had been trembling all afternoon.

"Go seduce him. How about that?"

…

I could never understand his train of thought. What the hell was he doing all day?

"I…"

The word "no" hadn't even left my mouth before he grabbed my chin.

He squinted, his knuckles idly scratching under my chin.

"If you refuse, I'll post the picture I took of you that day on the school forum."

He was talking about the picture he took after cutting my strap in the bathroom.

I shoved him.

"Do whatever you want."

8

I didn't care what others thought of me, and Lucien never actually posted the picture on the forum.

But he was clearly not the type to let things go.

Rumors started spreading in class that Zane and I were together.

Then one morning, a huge drawing appeared on the blackboard: both our names, with a heart in the middle.

It drew a lot of laughter from the students.

"Those two, together?"

"What, is this a joke?"

"Ooh, young love!"

My name was deliberately linked with Zane's.

When the teacher called on me in class, someone would yell out Zane's name from the back.

During exercises, they'd push me so I ended up squeezed next to Zane.

"You know what? I think he likes you."

That night, Lucien came into my room and crouched by my bed.

"I saw him look at you today. The tips of his ears turned red."

"But he probably doesn't know…"

The guy in front of me put his hand on my neck, slowly tightening his grip.

"…that the girl he likes is like this in front of me, right?"

I stared at him.

After a long moment, his fingers stroked my neck.

Lucien always smiled at me so gently.

But the words that came out never were.

"Stella Lin, do you know?"

"You really, really suit a collar."

…

He was using a boy I had nothing to do with to trample my dignity into the dirt, grinding it to dust.

I had thought that if I was already deep in hell, at least I shouldn't drag an innocent person in with me.

But it was too late.

…

The next day, when I was pushed against a wall and my books were dumped all over me from my bag,

Zane suddenly rushed in and pulled me away.

This was their usual way of bullying me. They'd say I stole their money, then dump everything out of my bag.

No one expected Zane, such a timid, fearful person, to come to my rescue.

Then, whistles came from behind us.

The boy pulled me along as he ran, as if he didn't know where he was taking me.

I stared at the back of his head. His hair was getting a bit long. I stumbled, and he almost pulled me down.

His glasses fell off. I went to pick them up for him, and suddenly found myself looking directly into his eyes.

…

He always hid behind his thick bangs, so this was the first time I'd seen his full face.

How should I put it?

I had never seen such beautiful eyes.

A light, smoky gray, faintly pierced by the light, but with nothing inside them.

Utterly stunning. For a moment, I forgot to breathe.

"You…"

I paused, then said softly,

"You shouldn't have pulled me away."

I didn't know if he understood what I meant. He just pressed his lips together and said nothing.

When we got back to class, the whole room erupted in loud jeers at us.

But Zane started being even nicer to me.

It was as if he didn't hear the malicious mockery from the others. He brought me breakfast, secretly slipped candy into my desk drawer.

Every time he did that, every time he looked at me with those eyes that didn't understand anything, my guilt grew a little heavier.

Lucien had achieved his goal again.

No matter how I struggled, he always found a way.

Now, he was happy to create a beautiful illusion, only to destroy it with his own hands.

9

Our parents had to go on a business trip together for a week.

So I had to stay home alone with Lucien. Seven days.

When I heard the news, I instinctively flinched.

Lucien was sitting next to me, his eyes lowered, smiling.

The first night our parents were gone, he blatantly blocked my way at my bedroom door.

The huge house was too quiet. For a moment, I felt a flicker of fear.

He leaned against the doorframe, tilting his head to look at me.

"Do you know why those guys haven't been messing with you lately? Because Zane has been taking it all for you."

If the demon in my world had a face, it would be Lucien's.

"Too bad you didn't see it. How they kicked him to the side of the door."

"Just come at me if you have a problem!"

I grabbed him by the collar, but he just reached out and slowly covered my fingers.

He must have felt my hand trembling in his, because he laughed.

"You're not falling for him too, are you?"

I stared at him, clenching my teeth so hard I thought they might break.

"Lucien, why do you have to do this to me?"

Every step he took towards me, I took one back, until my back hit the wall.

"Then why don't you fight back?"

He held my wrist, asking the question like a complete demon probing the depths of my soul.

Why didn't I fight back? I'd always known. It was because I…

I felt like I was about to remember something, but at that moment, Lucien raised his hand and ruffled my hair.

He bent down slightly, looking at me seriously, smiling innocently.

"Sleep with me, and I'll stop messing with him. Hmm?"

Lucien was testing my limits, step by step. And in the end, he was surprised to find…

I didn't have any limits.

…

Lucien's bed was a bit bigger than mine.

So when he held me in bed, it didn't feel cramped.

He said "sleep," and he really meant sleep.

"You promised. Don't bother Zane anymore."

I stared at the empty floor, speaking. Moonlight seeped through the gap in the window, fragmented and tormenting.

He was behind me. This was definitely the closest I'd ever been to him.

I felt his knuckles press against my shoulder blade, and then he chuckled softly.

He pulled me closer.

"Why are you so good to him?"

He waited a long time, but I didn't answer.

As if he knew I wouldn't, he brushed my hair aside, sighed into the crook of my neck, and murmured.

The words were so soft, barely a whisper, just a light breath.

"To be honest… I'm a little jealous of him."

…

10

At least Lucien kept his word.

No matter how twisted it was to make his own sister sleep with him, he at least stopped targeting Zane.

The school bullying against me also eased up.

In the dead of night, listening to the soft sound of his breathing beside me, I slowly moved his arm away.

I crept out of bed and quietly opened a few drawers by the desk.

I needed to confirm something. So for the past few nights, while he was asleep, I'd been looking for something.

I was sure he would keep it somewhere in his room.

Finally, I found a small, locked box on the third shelf of his bookcase, tucked away in the back.

It was a wooden box, looking a bit old.

I tried several number combinations, but none worked.

Frowning, I was thinking about sneaking it out and just prying it open.

A clear voice sounded from behind me.

"The code is 0604. Her birthday."

…Lucien stood behind me, watching me calmly.

When he wasn't smiling, he was actually very cold and serious.

The boundless moonlight fell into his eyes, exquisite and utterly devoid of emotion.

I lowered my head and opened the box. It was full of little trinkets. I didn't bother to figure out what they meant.

Until I found a photograph.

There it was.

Lucien's sister…

I was the one who killed her.

11

I always forgot when I had become so weak and submissive.

In the photos from back then, I was always smiling so brightly, so confidently.

Before high school, an entire wall at home was covered with my awards.

When I was very young, I didn't understand what failure meant.

Because I seemed to have some talent for numbers and math.

While other kids my age were showing off that they could recite the multiplication table, I was already reading adult books, exploring more profound knowledge.

Every exam, no matter how difficult, was a breeze for me.

No matter how hard the test maker tried, I could solve everything. With this talent, I kept winning awards, big and small, since elementary school.

I was quickly labeled a "genius." The endless praise made me incredibly confident.

I had never failed. I couldn't understand why other kids couldn't solve such simple problems.

During a training camp in another province, I met Luna Warrington.

She was a little girl in my dorm. We quickly became friends.

I noticed her because she cried on the first day of the camp.

I gave her a tissue, and we became friends after that.

Her grades were in the lower-middle range of the class, but she was very competitive. More than once, I saw her burning the midnight oil to study.

The pressure of the competition training camp was immense, surrounded by the best kids our age.

But for me, staying in first place was just too easy.

Even the principal at the time said he'd never seen a student with such high aptitude.

Then something happened. Luna and I had a falling out.

Looking back now, it was just a tiny little friendship squabble.

But we genuinely didn't want to have anything to do with each other anymore.

And back then, young as I was, I didn't understand my own influence.

I was the top student, the first-place winner. The teachers favored me, and the other students followed me.

When they saw I wasn't hanging out with Luna anymore, a group of them started to ostracize her.

I never paid attention to the impact I was having on her.

I was too caught up in the thrill of leveling up, like in a game. I didn't even notice when she became gloomy and withdrawn.

Thinking back, it might have been that day.

Every exam at the camp was ranked. I got first place again, and Luna, who used to have decent grades, had fallen to second-to-last.

When she got her paper, she bumped into me hard.

I was annoyed. We used to be such good friends.

"You're failing and you're blaming me? Getting such simple problems wrong means there's something wrong with your head. Why are you bumping into me?"

I didn't back down. I yelled back at her.

She didn't answer. But some of my friends started defending me.

After that, Luna talked even less. And she kept staring at me with a strange look.

Until one day, she called me and asked me to meet her at the bottom of a building.

I thought she wanted to make up, so I went without a second thought.

…

I remember the frost clinging to the branches that November day. It was the day before the national competition.

When I got there, I didn't see anyone.

Two minutes later, she sent me another text message.

"In my next life, can I be as smart as you?"

Thinking back, no disaster starts from a single spark.

The seeds of sin are also sown, one word at a time.

Luna Warrington jumped off the building in front of me.

Do you know what it looks like when someone falls from the eleventh floor? Their face is smashed to a pulp, their body twisted beyond recognition.

When you look at the blurry shape of them, and you see their bulging eyes staring back at you, do you know how much that shocks your soul?

I couldn't eat solid food for a month.

I couldn't look at anything related to numbers anymore. For a long time, every time I closed my eyes, I saw that bloody, mangled face.

My brain couldn't function. Just seeing numbers made my hands shake. Eventually, it formed a protective mechanism and erased that cruel memory.

But deep down, I always knew I had to atone.

If only I had noticed something was wrong with Luna sooner.

If only I hadn't yelled at her that day.

If we hadn't fought, if I had stepped in and stopped the other kids from ostracizing her, would she have ever stood on that ledge?

It was all my fault.

No matter what happened to me, it was no more than I deserved.

If someone wanted to bring disaster upon me, I would just endure it.

Bearing the weight of a life, I didn't have the right to struggle.

My hand, holding the photo, was trembling. After a long moment, I reached out my other hand and pressed down on it, hard.

The resurrected memories attacked me. It was like being back there again, staring at that terrifying face.

My first reaction after Luna died in front of me was to run.

I buried that memory deep in my heart, thinking no one would ever find out.

But Lucien had found out anyway.

12

Do whatever you want to me.

Because no matter what the outcome, I could accept it.

"Someone like you deserves to go to hell, right?"

The person in front of me bent down, still smiling warmly.

He raised his hand and gently ruffled my hair twice. The touch jolted me awake.

I forgot he was a bad person. A very, very bad person.

He tilted his head, smiling maliciously.

"I didn't bully you because of my sister. I did it because you were fun to mess with. But…"

He dropped the smile, a flicker of seriousness in his eyes.

"What am I supposed to do with you?"

…

Lucien seemed to have changed.

That afternoon, those guys threw crumpled paper balls at me, using me as a target. I didn't even move.

But Lucien flew into a rage.

He started forbidding others from gossiping about me. He couldn't stand seeing me interact with anyone of the opposite sex.

Everyone noticed the change in him, even if he didn't seem to.

A few of the mean girls in class had a crush on Lucien.

During morning exercises, while Lucien, the "model student," was giving a speech on stage, they pulled me to the back of the line.

There was a small, overgrown corner behind the school's sports field.

The loudspeaker was booming. They dragged me into that corner.

The girl in charge slapped me hard across the face.

"You little fox! How did you seduce Lucien?"

"Can't you just be a good little dog?"

While they cursed at me, my mind kept flashing back to the past.

How I, as a young girl, had "gathered" my "friends" to ostracize Luna.

Was this how she had felt?

I would never get her forgiveness.

Someone picked up a discarded drink bottle from the ground and smashed it hard against my head.

It was such a small bottle, but it must have hit a sharp edge. The pain was excruciating.

"Tch, what's that look? You looking down on us?"

The sharp pain made me instinctively cover my forehead. But my lack of reaction must have pissed one of them off.

"Hey, Sister Liu, should we use this?"

A girl picked up a discarded steel pipe from the ground, weighed it in her hand, and glared at me viciously.

"Time to teach her a lesson!"

Even then, I was still thinking: did they even realize they were holding a life in their hands?

A heavy, dull pain hit me. A numbing, throbbing ache in my head.

Once. Twice…

"Hey, she's… she's bleeding…"

One of their voices was clearly panicked.

I couldn't see clearly anymore. I was swaying on my feet. A shadow fell over me.

The expected pain didn't come.

Instead, I heard a muffled grunt beside me.

…

Zane was holding his right arm, having taken the blow meant for me. His eyes were downcast, his thick bangs covering his face again.

Behind him, the grade director's voice rang out.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!!!"

My homeroom teacher came running too. A crowd of students gathered to watch. The girls finally snapped out of it and dropped their weapons.

I swayed violently. My vision was blurry with dark red.

…That was a lot of blood.

"Why don't you fight back?!"

I felt someone catch me. The blood sliding down my cheek stained his uniform. It was Lucien.

His movements weren't gentle. He was almost frantic with anger.

"Fight back! Are you just going to stand there and let them hit you?!"

My vision swam as I looked at him. I suddenly laughed.

"What are you talking about…"

"You were the one who taught me not to fight back, Lucien."

"You were the one who kept bullying me. That's why they followed suit."

It was you.

Who started it all.

…

First, the school infirmary. Then, I was transferred to a hospital room.

My parents rushed into the room to check on my injuries, then turned to berate the school for not enforcing better discipline.

There was a huge commotion. The parents of the mean girls were called in. Eventually, the medical staff kicked everyone out, saying the patient needed quiet.

The room was left with just me and Lucien.

The sunlight outside fell softly into the room, partially blocked by a blue curtain.

His voice was very soft. Maybe he wasn't even talking to me.

"What am I supposed to do with you."

…

Lucien's strange change in attitude towards me over the past few days gave me a bad feeling.

Thinking about it, I didn't know when it started, but the way he looked at me had changed.

I hated that look. Like I belonged to him.

So for the few days I was recovering, I avoided him.

On the other hand, Zane had taken that pipe hit for me. He was out of school for a few days.

When he came back, he was still huddled in his corner.

Actually, I wanted to thank him. He got hurt because of me…

But I knew that if I got close to him again, I'd just drag him into it.

So I waited for a PE class when everyone was on the field, slipped into the classroom, and put a box of cookies in his desk drawer.

I didn't expect him to be there, lying at the back of the classroom.

He hadn't gone to class.

He seemed to be asleep.

From behind, his figure wasn't weak at all.

It was just his cowering demeanor that made everyone keep their distance.

His hair looked soft. It seemed like he'd gotten it cut while he was on leave. On a whim, after putting the cookies on his desk, I reached out to touch his hair.

But before my fingers could touch him, my wrist was grabbed.

He wasn't wearing his glasses. The dangerous, aggressive look in his eyes in that instant made me freeze on the spot.

…

When he saw it was me, he let go of my wrist.

He lowered his eyes, fumbled in his desk drawer, and put his glasses on.

"What's up?"

His voice was surprisingly clear. I'd never noticed before.

I pointed at the cookies on his desk.

"Um… thanks for taking that hit for me the other day."

He stared at the cookies and didn't answer.

Honestly, the look he'd just given me had scared me a little.

It was time to leave. I waved goodbye and was about to make my escape.

But I heard him sigh behind me.

Even with his glasses on, he had lost that stupid, dazed look. He stood with his hands in his pockets, looking at me directly.

"Watch out for Lucien."

After that warning, he put his head back down on the desk and went back to sleep.

…Watch out for Lucien.

Of course, I knew that.

But he was my brother.

I couldn't avoid him.

13

Even our parents had noticed that I was avoiding Lucien.

"Stella, are you having a fight with your brother?"

After dinner, his mother pulled me aside to whisper.

"If your brother is bullying you, you have to tell me."

"…"

I nodded and said okay.

This was exactly why I didn't want to expose my relationship with Lucien in front of our family.

His mother was so good to me. And on the surface, our family seemed harmonious.

Once I got into college, I could go to a different city from Lucien.

Then I could finally get rid of him for good.

My science and math grades had always been bad. Maybe it was because I'd recovered my memories, but they were starting to improve.

Because of Lucien, the bullying from my classmates had stopped.

On the other hand, I was really curious about Zane.

He still drifted around the classroom like a ghost, failing every subject. But the look he gave me when he warned me about Lucien… that wasn't the look of a simpleton.

Had he been pretending to be stupid all along?

I wasn't a nosy person. My curiosity ended there. I didn't get involved in his life.

But that day, I was walking down a hallway after school and happened to see him being shoved around by some older students.

He was the one who'd taken that hit for me.

So I couldn't just stand by.

My first thought was to go get a teacher. But as I turned, I ran straight into another student who was keeping watch.

"Little junior, where do you think you're going?"

Damn it.

I was backed into a corner. Several of them surrounded me.

"Ooh, not bad looking."

They started pulling at the collar of my uniform shirt.

"Want to have some fun with us?"

…These guys had no hope of getting into college and didn't care about getting expelled.

My eyes darted around helplessly, then landed on Zane, who was standing behind them.

He had gotten to his feet.

He looked like he was trying to sneak away to report us, but one of them spotted him.

Before that guy could even say anything, Zane threw a punch at the back of the head of the guy who was holding my collar.

That pissed them all off.

I thought I was about to witness another brutal beating.

But Zane kicked the guy who grabbed his arm and sent him flying.

Cries of pain echoed in the corner they had chosen for themselves, a place no one ever came.

The crack of bones. The thud of fists hitting flesh. I watched, dumbfounded, as the timid, bullied boy from my class…

…sent the older students flying, unable to even get up.

Amidst the groaning, Zane delivered another vicious kick.

He frowned, adjusted his glasses, and looked at me with a slightly helpless expression.

"I guess I should have just gone to the teacher's office."

"…"

I felt like I had just discovered a huge secret.

Zane packed his bag and walked home with me.

The thirteenth time I looked at him, he finally met my gaze.

"You can ask me anything you want, but I won't tell you."

"…"

I shrugged and looked at the towering buildings in the sunset.

Fine. Everyone has secrets.

But he wasn't willing to tell me his, yet he started probing mine.

"Why don't you just stay away from Lucien? Your parents love you. Even reporting him to the teacher would be a good option."

"…"

Zane was a clear-headed, quiet stranger.

Or maybe it was because we had similar experiences, but I always found myself telling him things.

For the next few days after school, I walked home with him.

Most of the time, I did the talking. Maybe because I was so open, I managed to get a few things out of him too.

His family was very, very rich.

The reason he pretended to be stupid seemed to be related to his family.

That day, he walked me to my building as usual.

I stopped