Emily was momentarily confused by what she had just heard.

"...What?" It was not his usual warm and gentle voice but one mixed with infinite coldness and disgust.

He was the same person, yet he felt like someone entirely different.

"...What did you say?" Thus, Emily thought she had misheard.

But she hadn't.

"Didn't you hear me?

Why would I invite you?

I'd rather go alone." Ken Feinstein spat out the words coldly, looking at her without mercy.

Ken brushed off Emily's hand that was touching his cheek.

"Don't you remember?

You stepped on my head and insulted me."

"...That, that was..."

"And now you dare insult Mary?"

The hatred in his eyes pierced Emily's heart viciously.

"Get lost.

I don't even want to see you for another second."

With those words, Ken turned his back on her.

Ken's back, facing Emily, felt like an enormous fortress wall.

She couldn't say anything more.

All that remained was bewilderment and pain.

Pain welling up from the depths of her heart.

'To think Ken...'

Hearing those words didn't bother me at all….

Emily kept lying to herself, but deep down she realized she was going off track.

She had been rejected, just as she had lied to herself and tried to reject Ken.

I'm not bothered at all….

She kept comforting herself with lies, but Emily's footsteps were already leading her out of the classroom.

After Emily had left the classroom.

With students murmuring behind me, I lay my head down, cradled in my arms.

Ken, you idiot!!

What did you just do!?

It seemed that the negative remarks about Mary had provoked Ken's mind, causing him to blurt out his true feelings, which he had been holding back all this time, with immense intensity.

Watching all of this unfold, I thought, ah, now Ken is going to get it… But Emily's reaction was completely unexpected.

‘...Uh, ugh.’

She bit her lip, clenched her hands, and her shoulders trembled.

It was a pained expression, different from mere fear.

Then her eyes reddened, and tears welled up.

After that, she hurriedly left the classroom.

Should I go after her right now?

Lying on the desk and tearing at my hair, I debated whether I should run after Emily and tell her it was a misunderstanding.

But no, she might think I've lost my mind if the guy who just said all that nonsense suddenly came running with a smile.

"I guess there's no helping it… I'll try talking to her tomorrow."

I really don't want my relationship with Emily to get any worse.

To have any influence over the ending as time goes on, I need to maintain a close enough relationship with her.

Even if Emily herself can't stand me.

At the very least, we should still be able to exchange a few words like we have been.

"…How do I even explain this?" Should I approach her carefully when she arrives in a bit?

And so, I spent the day worrying about how to mend things with Emily.

But Emily did not return to the classroom after she left.

Nor did she show up at the academy the next day.

Emily lay face down on her bed in her room.

Since she unconsciously left the classroom and returned to the dormitory, she hadn't done anything.

Just lying on the bed.

But unlike the stillness of the room, Emily's mind was anything but calm.

“What was that look?” Ken's gaze kept resurfacing in Emily's mind.

The expression of anger, disgust, and hostility was clear.

Ken's words echoed relentlessly in her head.

“Get lost.

I don't want to see someone like you for even a second.”

His voice continued to pierce Emily's heart.

“Why...why do I have to feel like this because of someone like Ken?”

She didn't want to cry.

Crying would mean she was acknowledging that his words had hurt her, admitting that she had been wounded.

It would mean her feelings, which she had denied up until now, were real.

Emily didn't want that.

Yet, tears began to trickle down her face.

“No...

I'm...

I don't care about someone like Ken...”

She kept trying to lie to herself, but little by little, her true feelings started leaking through the cracks in her wounded heart.

“I don’t want to be hated.”

“What does it matter to me...?

Whether Ken hates me or not, nothing changes.”

“I don’t want to be hated.”

“We weren’t that close anyway, were we?

I can live my life my way, and he can...

he can live his...”

“I don’t want to be hated.”

“Just...

sniffle, just like that...” The words Emily spoke to avoid being hurt were useless.

Her emotions exploded beyond what she could hide, and tears continued to flow.

“Sniffle...

What...

Don’t look at me like that...”

The truth is, Emily knew.

She knew she was at fault.

At first, it was just a means to deny her feelings for Ken.

That’s how she ended up hurting him.

But at some point, she started to feel a thrill in making him uncomfortable.

The sight of him flustered and not knowing what to do made her heart race.

She wanted to trouble him more and be close to him more.

At first, she denied her feelings, saying she disliked him, but eventually, she got addicted to that excitement and couldn't stop seeking him out.

She kept bothering him, even though she knew it was wrong.

That's why she felt somewhat relieved when Mary stepped in.

She didn't know where to stop either.

And when it almost led to a fight with Mary, Ken stepped in to stop it and called them close.

She felt happy.

‘No, that’s not it...’

"Mary!

Bullying?

Emily and I are just close friends!"

"…C-close friends?" Of course, Emily knew that this was just Ken's way of trying to smooth things over.

But those words kept echoing in her mind.

And she realized.

"I want to get closer to Ken." After that, she wanted to build a more normal relationship with him.

She even tried to create opportunities for them to spend time together.

"Ken, have lunch with me today.

Just for one day, it's okay, right?" But chances were hard to come by.

She thought that if they got close, she would carefully apologize afterward.

She knew it was brazen, but for Emily, it was the best she could do.

Dealing with confusing emotions and a first love she'd never experienced before.

Her actions, misguided from the start, made everything awkward.

Emily thought.

She should have apologized from the beginning.

She shouldn't have let her pride get in the way.

If she had done that, things wouldn't have turned out like this.

“What should I do?”

It was only after everything went wrong that Emily admitted it to herself.

The feelings she had for Ken were those of excitement towards the opposite sex.

And she realized that her actions towards Ken were an irreversible mistake.

'I don’t want to go to the Academy...' The morning came.

The previous day, she had shut herself in her room, doing nothing, even skipping the Academy without any excuse.

But now she had to go.

She had to do something.

"……Let's go.” Determined, Emily got ready and left the dormitory.

Unlike the tormented Emily from the previous night, the Academy remained peaceful and unchanged.

Students noisily making their way to school.

The sound of chirping birds and the blowing wind.

"Oh no, oh, what should I do...!

The assignment due this afternoon…!" Some student, having dropped and broken something, could be heard crying out in distress.

Amidst all the peacefulness, there was only one thing Emily worried about.

‘I don’t know what face I should make when I see him...’ How would Ken react when she saw her in the classroom?

Would he ignore her?

Or would he frown and click his tongue?

Either way, it would surely break her heart.

All those possibilities frightened her.

‘He’s...not here yet.’ Upon arriving at the classroom, Emily instinctively searched for Ken, but it appeared he had not yet arrived.

Emily went to her seat and organized her bag.

"Emily...

are you okay?

You suddenly took a day off yesterday."

The girl sitting next to her, Marine, spoke to her.

Marine was the closest friend Emily had in the classroom.

Despite being shy, she was considerate and always took good care of others, making it easy for Emily to open up to her.

“Yeah, I’m fine.

I just wasn’t feeling well.”

“Oh, really?

If anything's wrong, make sure you tell me, okay?”

“Sure.”

Marine probably witnessed what happened between Emily and Ken, but she didn’t bring it up.

Emily felt somewhat relieved by her kindness.

“Good morning, Emily.”

“Oh, hi, Adrian.”

More students started to gather in the classroom.

Despite sitting in her seat and waiting for Ken to arrive, for some reason, he didn’t show up even as class began.

‘...Is he taking the day off again?’ A few days ago, he had definitely missed a day at the Academy.

Maybe today was another one of those days.

While Emily had been thinking about how to apologize when they met, she felt somewhat relieved that he wasn’t coming today.

If he was absent today, they could talk tomorrow.

It would give her emotions another day to settle, and perhaps Ken would be a bit gentler with her.

Time passed, and the sky turned a sunset hue as the day came to a close.

‘So, he really did take today off.’ Ken didn’t show up in the classroom for the rest of the day.

All the tension Emily had felt before coming to school seemed foolish now since nothing happened at all today.

It was a perfectly peaceful day, just like the calm morning walk to school.

Feeling a bit better, Emily thought about what she would say to apologize when she met Ken tomorrow as she returned to the dormitory.

On her way back to the dormitory, though...

‘Who is that?’ As the sunset painted the way back with its glow, she noticed a woman approaching from the opposite direction.

‘She doesn’t look like an Academy student.’ The woman’s long black hair reached all the way to her ankles, obscuring her face.

Her clothes looked tattered, making it clear to anyone that she was far from normal.

This unsettling woman was staggering toward Emily.

‘Should I just move aside?’ She gave off a creepy vibe.

Perhaps a vagrant had wandered onto campus.

Emily really didn’t want to get involved.

There were no buildings or people nearby, just a lone path paved with tiles.

On that twilight-lit path, it was just Emily and this strange woman.

Feeling a chill, Emily tried to pass by without making eye contact.

But then...

“So hopeless…” The woman mumbled as she passed by Emily, and the words inadvertently caught Emily's ear.

“Pardon?” Instinctively, Emily replied without thinking.

Although she clearly didn’t want to get involved, Emily responded instinctively to the sudden voice.

The woman, hearing Emily’s voice, turned her head to the side.

“You’re...

really...

so hopeless, aren’t you?”

“…”

Their eyes met through the strands of the woman's dishevelled hair.

Bloodshot and lifeless, her gaze sent chills down Emily's spine.

‘Don’t engage.’ Emily decided to ignore her and tried to continue walking.

“You know what?

I choose you.”

But the woman was already standing in front of her, preventing Emily from moving forward.

Emily could do nothing but stare at her with a tense expression, startled by how the woman had appeared so suddenly.

“Oh… what a laugh.” The woman’s eyes crinkled into crescent moons through her tangled hair as she let out a chilling laugh.

“Bring me the child of prophecy.”

“...What?” At that moment, Emily's vision suddenly filled with red.

“Kuh, kuhk...” She wanted to scream or say something, but she couldn’t.

The reason for the crimson scene was none other than her neck.

Plop.

Emily collapsed to the ground, clutching at her neck.

‘...It’s all my blood?’

Blood gushing like a fountain.

Soon, her vision blurred, and her body lost balance.

Emily, having lost the strength to hold on, lay on the cold ground.

‘...Mom...’

“Kyaahaha!

Kyaahahaha!”

In her fading vision, she could see the disturbing woman holding a large pair of scissors, dancing joyfully.

Emily’s body grew colder as she looked at the woman.

When she opened her eyes, she saw a familiar ceiling.

“...Huh!” With a sense of lingering dread, Emily quickly sat up and checked her neck.

“I’m...okay.”

Her neck was intact.

Looking around, she saw her familiar room.

Warm sunlight streaming through the window.

It was a familiar morning scene.

"…Was it a nightmare?" It was such a horrible dream.

Maybe it was because she had gone to sleep the previous night burdened by worries and exhaustion.

Nightmares do happen sometimes, after all.

‘But… it was such a terrible dream.’ The vivid sensation of her neck being cut.

The chilling laughter of that woman.

Recalling it again sent shivers down her spine.

‘I should just go to school.’ Finally, Emily shook her head to dispel the lingering fright from the dream and decided to get ready for her day.

As usual, she prepared herself and headed to the Academy.

Despite Emily's restless night filled with torment and nightmares, the Academy remained unchanged and peaceful.

Students were noisily heading to their classes.

‘What is this?’ The chirping of birds and the gentle breeze blowing.

"Oh no, oh, what should I do…!

The assignment due this afternoon…!" One student could be heard crying sadly, likely having broken something important.

During this peaceful routine, only one thought occupied Emily's mind.

‘Why does this scene feel familiar?’ In this déjà vu-inducing landscape, Emily stared blankly at her surroundings.

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