4 days ago.....
The night of the high-stakes acquaintance party, a separate tension was already fracturing the edges of the university campus.
Revin leaned his back heavily against the cold concrete walls just beyond the perimeter of the school grounds. Even from this distance, the muffled, thumping bass of the loud music vibrating from the main gymnasium hummed through the air, a constant reminder of the massive event currently undergoing inside. He let out a quiet, weary sigh, reaching into his pocket to pull out a single cigarette. There wasn't a single soul around the dark alleyway, and since he was technically outside the official campus boundary metrics, it was completely fine to smoke.
The night sky was glowing brilliantly with a sea of distant stars, the midnight breeze carrying a sharp, freezing chill through his uniform jacket. The quiet flick of his lighter cutting through the dark was the only operational sound he could hear—but he violently halted his movements mid-flash when a highly familiar silhouette suddenly walked straight into his line of sight.
His reflexes kicked in, and he immediately prepared to conceal the cigarette, assuming an administrative guard had caught his position. But as the shadows shifted under the streetlights, he properly familiarized the person's features. It was Felean, the identical twin brother of Kean. Realizing he was startled for absolutely nothing, Revin let out a breath and went to put the cigarette back between his lips. But his movements froze completely for a second consecutive time as his eyes locked onto the intensely anxious, trembling stance of the Ferech heir.
"Leave me the absolute fuck alone!" Felean shouted into his phone, his voice trembling violently with a volatile mixture of explosive panic and raw terror. "Were you... were you explicitly the one who has been secretly tailing my life this entire week??! Where on earth did you manage to get those pictures—wait, don't tell me you are one of those monsters who—"
Felean suddenly grew stone-quiet, his fingers shaking so violently the phone nearly slipped past his palm. His face turned a dead, hollow shade of pale. "W—what?..."
Revin's focus was now entirely, unmovingly taken by Felean's crisis. The boy's fractured voice, his shivering frame, and his frantic pacing made it look exactly like he was being brutally threatened through the network line by an invisible predator.
"N—no... please, listen to me—hello?? Hello?!" Felean cried out frantically, pulling the phone away from his ear to glare at the dark interface, before aggressively shoving it back against his ear. "Hello??! Fuck!"
He began mindlessly, fiercely murmuring curses under his breath, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his phone. Revin looked at his broken profile with a deep, pitiful sympathy. But a heavy clarity settled over his thoughts; he knew for a fact that he was actively eavesdropping on a dangerous personal secret, and with his own father's bankruptcy parameters tearing his life apart, he possessed zero personal bandwidth to interfere in someone else's war.
' Should I cross the line and talk to Kean about his brother's condition? ' Revin questioned silently behind his teeth. ' Does Kean even possess a single clue about what is hunting his twin in the dark? '
His train of thought was sharply cut short as a sudden vibration rippled against the fabric of his inner jacket pocket. He reached inside and pulled his device out, finding an incoming message notification from two separate people. One line of text was an from Xeilin regarding the his where abouts, while the other notification file was a barrage of messages sent explicitly by the jackass. (It was Beidhen, if anyone was wondering.)
Revin merely shoved the phone deep back into his pocket without replying, his mind still heavily hesitating over whether his presence was even willing to step foot inside the grand gala hall tonight. He turned his eyes back toward the concrete corner to check on Felean, but the space was completely vacant. The twin had vanished into the shadows of the avenue. Revin walked toward the empty pavement, his pupils scanning the rows, but there was absolutely no figure left to be seen under the stars.
"He looks so deeply, profoundly troubled out here," Revin murmured quietly into the freezing night wind, a dark foreboding tightening his chest cavity. "The exact second I see Kean tomorrow morning... I should really talk to him about this."
After that night, and the exact scene that had unfolded at the campus parking lot, a second layer of the puzzle began to surface. Revin had heard the three boys talking behind the gymnasium while he was carrying out a stack of black bags during the final cleanup block. He was about to step past the industrial double doors when the rowdy voices echoing from the alleyway caught his absolute attention. He checked his boots, staying hidden in the shadows as their conversation peaked his interest.
"Bro, my date today is completely gorgeous," the first guy—the exact same prankster who had aggressively covered Felean's eyes—boasted loudly, leaning back against the storage crates while scrolling through his phone screen. "I'm going to try to fuck her tonight."
"Yeah, bro. Make sure you send us the pictures after it's done, huh?" the second guy laughed, not looking up from his mobile interface.
"The usual. Let's upload the file straight to the site," the third guy added, cutting a sharp smirk. They both burst into a loud laugh, but their dynamic shifted to a quieter frequency when the first boy adjusted his stance. "But seriously, bro... Felean completely crept me out earlier at the parking lot."
"Me too!" the second guy agreed, his brow furrowing. "We've been executing pranks on him before, but his reaction has never been anything close to that level of unhinged panic."
"He must be heavily under the influence of drugs or some sort of crazy high," the first guy reasoned, shaking his head. "His behavior has been way off the tracks these past few weeks."
Revin walked a pace closer to the wall, making absolutely zero noise to ensure his presence wasn't seen. His eyes narrowed; these were the exact same three high-society assholes from the parking lot altercation.
The third guy fixed his position, leaning his upper body forward to drop his voice into a low whisper. "You know what I recently heard from outside the school?" The other two boys looked at his face, intensely interested and eager to decipher the outsidegossip. "That a group of dangerous underground thugs are actively looking for his location, and he owes some kind of massive financial debt to those thugs."
"No way," the second guy countered, vigorously shaking his head in absolute disbelief. "That arrogant crap is explicitly from the wealthiest Ferech family line. It's structurally impossible for a crap like him to have a debt to pay to street runners."
"That's exactly what my mind thought as well!" the third guy pressed on, his eyes widening. "But you know what my actual theory is? He's either been secretly supplying drugs from their syndicate... or..."
"Or what?..." the first guy asked, his breath hitching.
"Or he executed a completely terrible thing in the past that makes the thugs chase his life."
Revin gripped the plastic tie of the garbage bag tighter, his knuckles turning white as a sudden layer of dark realization hit his thoughts. He carefully placed the black bag near the heavy trashcan, before stepping back across the threshold into the bright lights of the main gymnasium floor.
Inside the court, the entire student council team was completely busy fixing the equipment, arranging the tables, and executing the final cleanup blocks. He adjusted his stance, his pupils searching across the court until they locked onto Leansei. Lean looked completely out of his own mind, his face pale and thoroughly troubled as he mindlessly organized folders.
' How on earth am I supposed to talk to him about his twin's dangerous affairs? ' Revin questioned silently behind his teeth, a heavy weight anchoring his chest cavity.
Revin took a slow breath, finally preparing to approach Leansei's station to disclose the gossip—but before he could take a single step across the floor boards, Corshe suddenly lunged from the sidelines, aggressively pulling his arm toward a massive stack of packed piled boxes.
"Help me carry these real quick, Revin!" Corshe pouted, his hyper energy returning.
Revin glanced back over his shoulder one final time to check on Leansei's rigid frame, before turning to help Corshe lift the heavy cardboard containers. But his fingers had barely clasped around the edges of the box when a large, shadowed hand suddenly came under the cardboard from the opposite side, effortlessly taking the entire weight straight out of his grasp.
It was Beidhen. He stood there in his charcoal blazer, his light brown eyes carrying a highly teasing, playful smirk under the gym lights.
"Your arms look completely fragile, you know," Beidhen said smoothly, his deep baritone laced with a rare, quiet tenderness despite the mock. "Attempting to carry these heavy boxes might violently break your bones." Revin narrowed his eyes sharply at his handsome face, a burning flush of dark red spreading rapidly across his cheeks to hide his blush.
"Jackass," Revin muttered dryly under his breath.
Meanwhile, Corshe saw Beidhen smoothly assist Revin. He tried to lift a heavy box of his own and glanced toward Beidhen, giving him a prominent signal to help him too. But Beidhen merely cast a flat, completely detached emotion across the space, throwing him a cruel, ice-cold look that clearly communicated, What on earth are you looking at? He possessed absolutely zero intention of extending an extra hand to the boy.
Corshe stared back at his face in pure fury and utter disbelief. He aggressively opened his mouth, fully preparing to loudly nag the delinquent for his terrible manners, but a warm presence suddenly moved into his perimeter, making him completely halt his voice and check his steps.
Tael had silently strided over, effortlessly scooping up the two massive cardboard containers into his own broad arms. "Hey, I can manage to carry—" Corshe started to protest.
Tael smoothly cut him off mid-sentence. "Just focus your efforts on sweeping the gym floor boards, that will do perfectly. I know for a fact these boxes are far too heavy for your body to carry around the court."
"But—"
"It's perfectly fine. You've already poured a massive amount of help into this venue tonight. Every single soul in the council will deeply appreciate your hard work," Tael said softly, his calm baritone anchoring the space before he turned to carry the load away.
Corshe stood entirely dumbfounded near the benches, completely out of words as a rapid sequence of fast, heavy thumps erupted inside his chest cavity.
' How on earth did he manage to figure out exactly what my mind was thinking like that? ' Corshe thought, a private, hidden smile breaking beautifully across his face as he picked up the broom to sweep the floor panels instead.
On the opposite side of the court floor, Rell kept a highly analytical gaze locked onto Xeilin. The president was actively pace back and forth on the main stage, aggressively directing the tech crew on exactly which sound rigs and decoration panels to dismantle next. Xeilin systematically walked backward to get a wider visual layout of the lighting truss, entirely blind to his own path.
Rell's defensive instincts flared as his eyes caught the silhouette of a massive iron support beam resting directly behind the president's boots. If Xeilin kept shifting his steps without looking, his frame would violently stumble down the steep drop of the stage.
And his calculation was pitch-perfect.
Xeilin took two more blind steps backward, completely oblivious to the iron metal behind his heels, reaching the absolute edge of the elevated platform. One wrong move threw his balance completely out of line, his foot slipping into thin air as his body plummeted straight down off the stage. He tightly squeezed his eyes shut, bracing his muscles to prepare for the painful impact against the hard floor.
"President!" Felina shrieked from the bleachers."Xeilin, watch out!" Delia screamed.
"Eili!!" Rell exclaimed fiercely. Without wasting a single fraction of a second, Rell's reflexes kicked in. He lunged across the distance, perfectly positioning his broad frame beneath the edge to catch Xeilin's falling weight. His arms snapped secure, effortlessly scooping the president out of the air before his back could make contact with the concrete.
Xeilin slowly, delicately unfolded his eyes when he realized his system felt zero physical pain. He was completely startled to find himself suspended in the air, securely trapped inside Rell's close embrace. He cast a frantic glance around their perimeter; every single remaining officer and friends in the gymnasium was staring directly at their positions with a chaotic mixture of different emotions—some faces written with intense worry, some looking completely surprised, and others letting out deep sighs of profound relief.
"You have to be infinitely more careful with your steps, Eili," Rell murmured softly, his baritone voice thick with an intense, unshielded layer of protective concern.
Xeilin's face burned a bright, breathless shade of deep crimson. He frantically scrambled out of the its large arms, his boots hitting the floorboards as he awkwardly smoothed down the wrinkled lapels of his uniform jacket. Standing a few meters away near the master table, Delia and Felina traded a highly suspicious, knowing smile.
"Uh... thank you for the catch," Xeilin muttered awkwardly, clearing his throat with a sharp cough to reassemble his presidential mask. He quickly marched back up the side stairs to reclaim the stage, desperately trying to play it cool. "Alright, crew, where exactly were we? Right... dismantle that sound panel down immediately—"
Rell merely stood by the baseline, a genuine, beautiful smile breaking across his handsome face as his eyes tracked Xeilin's flustered profile with an absolute, unyielding focus.
.
After the grand acquaintance gala, the entire group had proceeded straight down to the local grill shop to celebrate the massive success of the event. They were currently right in the middle of drinking and grilling thick slices of pork belly over the hot coals, the warm smoke filling the air.
Luo Sen was already completely down and wasted, his head resting heavily against the table. The girls from the student council had temporarily excused themselves to go to the bathroom, leaving only the primary pairs and partners remaining at the long wooden table. Revin drained another glass of liquor, his eyes slightly glazed, while Beidhen stayed meticulously focused on cooking the meat for him, systematically sliding fresh, sizzling pieces straight onto Revin's plate.
"Are you actively trying to make me puke right now?" Revin asked, his drunken voice slurring slightly as he glared at him.
"You completely skipped out on eating a proper dinner tonight," Beidhen replied smoothly, his deep baritone carrying an uncharacteristic layer of gentle care. "You are going to upset your stomach if you don't consume anything substantial alongside the alcohol."
"I'll just puke it all up anyway."
"Then, I will be the one to clean it up for you." Revin went entirely silent at the answer, his eyes locking intensely onto Beidhen's profile. He honestly couldn't process the underlying logic of why this arrogant man had been continuously enduring his toxic attitude and bickering with him for almost a month, almost making him completely give up his defensive walls. Under the dim, warm amber lighting of the grill shop, Beidhen's sharp features were undeniably good-looking. "You better quit staring at my face like that, or I might completely melt under the pressure," Beidhen teased, a sharp smirk cutting across his jawline without looking up from the grill.
Revin sharply glanced away toward his glass, a sudden flush matching his intoxication. "I... I'll officially confessed my feelings to Kean later."
Beidhen's hand froze dead in its tracks, the metal cooking tongs hovering inches above the hot coals. He remained perfectly still for a heavy, silent beat. "What about it?"
Revin poured another measure of alcohol into his glass and drank it down cleanly to numb the space. "Nothing. Just that."
Beidhen slowly turned his head, his light brown eyes locking onto Revin's profile with a completely complex, indescribable look. His gaze idly drifted past his shoulder, tracking along the table to locate his younger brother. Xerchin was currently talking sweetly into Leansei's ear, while Lean let out a loud, genuine laugh directly beside his chest. Seeing the absolute devotion written across his brother's face, Beidhen's hidden worries faded away into thin air, and a prominent smirk returned to his lips.
"Well, you wouldn't have managed to get past my younger brother's territorial parameters anyway," Beidhen murmured in his usual arrogant tone, his eyes returning to Revin's face. "At the end of the day... I'm the only one you've got."
Revin drained another glass, aggressively chewing on a piece of the grilled meat to hide his racing pulse. "Conceited jackass."
Their private discussion was violently shattered in a single millisecond, catching the absolute attention of every single soul seated at the table. Even Luo sen momentarily came awake from his deep sleep, blinking his blurry eyes through his lenses as several heads turned sharply to track a sudden commotion near the end of the row.
Corshe had aggressively snatched Tael's hand, hoisting their intertwined fingers high up into the air as he shouted at the top of his lungs, "MINE!" Tael violently choked mid-sip, a massive cough erupting from his throat as the alcohol went down the wrong pipe. Every single partner locked around the table burst into a flurry of loud chuckles and roaring laughter at the sudden, drunk declaration, while Luo Sen merely blinked through his stupor and promptly collapsed back to sleep against the wood.
Tael put down his glass, he didnt mind the spilled from his shirt and trousers but the hand holding of corshe. He immediately pulled down their intertwined hands, and glance around the table shyly. He was about to scold corshe but it was closed eyes, with a silly smile in drunken state. He look at his face and down to their hands.
Tael frantically put down his glass, entirely ignoring the fact that the spilled liquor had just stained the fabric of his shirt and trousers. His flustered eyes darted straight down to inspect the tight, unyielding grip of Corshe's fingers. He immediately pulled their intertwined hands down beneath the edge of the table layout, his face flushing a bright, breathless shade of dark crimson as he glanced around the table row in pure shyness.
He moved his lips, fully preparing to fiercely scold the boy for his complete lack of restraint, but he checked his words when he noticed Corshe's face. The younger boy's eyes were tightly closed, a completely silly, blissful smile painted across his features in his heavily drunken state. Tael stared down at his sleeping face for a long, tender beat, before his gaze dropped back to their locked fingers under the table.
"You truly are a silly kid," Tael murmured softly into the noisy room, a genuine, beautiful curve forming onto his lips as he let his hand remain trapped inside the boy's grip.
Meanwhile, Xeilin and Rell went to the comfort room. Rell was gently rubbing his hand over Xeilin's back while the president was puking his guts out. Rell hadn't gotten too much to drink tonight since he was genuinely concerned about Xeilin's severe intoxication, especially after remembering how the president had acted the very first time he got wasted. ( >////>)
When Xei was finally done puking, Rell carefully rubbed a handkerchief against his mouth to clean him up, before assisting him to stand back up on his feet. Xei slowly turned his face toward him, his movements halting entirely as his soft, drunken eyes locked onto Rell's profile. But the sheer volume of alcohol threw Xei completely out of balance. He staggered backward, his fingers frantically pulling at Rell's collar for stability, while his other hand instinctively wrapped behind Rell's neck. Rell's palm slammed flat against the tiled wall behind them, supporting both of their weights so they wouldn't fall down to the floor. Rell swallowed hard, his chest heaving as he stared intensely down into Xei's hazy gaze.
"You are driving me insane," Rell whispered, shaking his head slightly. He extended his arm to steady Xeilin, holding him firmly by the shoulder to keep him upright. He leaned in slightly to catch what Xeilin was trying to say, but his momentum was cut short when Xeilin's head accidentally bumped against his forehead. "Fuck! Damn it," Rell muttered under his breath, rubbing the sharp sting on his skin.
Xei slowly opened his eyes, and a sweet smile broke across his features. He let out a soft laugh, playfully pointing his finger at the fresh red bump forming on Rell's forehead while giggling.
Rell closed his eyes in disbelief, but when he opened them again, the warm sight of Xeilin's laugh made him smile too. "You truly are..." He didn't finish the sentence, running a hand through his hair before guiding Xei's stumbling frame outside the comfort room doors, Stepping back into the private dining area, his eyes scanned the long wooden table. He noticed that Leansei and Revin were currently not occupying their designated seats, leaving only Xerchin, Beidhen, Tael, and a sleeping Corshe remaining at the table.
The moment they arrived back, Tael reached down to grab his jacket, his other hand wrapped around Corshe's shoulders to support the younger boy who was heavily leaning his weight against his side. "I should probably take him straight home right now," Tael announced to the group. "Are you guys going to be okay staying here?"
"Yeah, go ahead. He seems entirely too drunk," Rell nodded, carefully positioning Xeilin to lean comfortably against his own shoulder. "Take care on the road."
Tael bid his quiet goodbyes, assisting Corshe up from the seats. He gathered their personal things under his arm, guiding the sleeping boy toward the exit door. "Thank you all for this wonderful night. Take care on the road as well."
The second Tael left, Xeilin slurred out a sleepy query. "Where's Revin and Kean?"
"They've gone outside for a moment," Beidhen answered, draining the last drop from his glass. He looked at the president's wasted state. "Is he going to be okay, Rell?"
"He just emptied his stomach in the bathroom, so he'll stabilize soon. We'll be going as well as soon as Kean and Revin return," Rell explained.
"Let's just all head home together," Xerchin offered. "The drinks are almost finished anyway." Rell offered a firm nod of agreement.