The hallway felt stifling. Jaden stormed away from the scene of the collision, his jaw tight with irritation. He could still feel the phantom touch of the books slipping from his grip and the furious glare from the girl on the floor. He hated messes, hated distractions, and most of all, hated being caught off guard. She was all three.
He found Ken waiting by the main doors, already scrolling through his phone.
"Dude, where have you been?" Ken asked without looking up.
Jaden ignored the question. "Let's go."
Ken finally looked up, catching the tension in Jaden's shoulders. "What's up with you? You look like you just ran into a ghost."
Jaden scoffed, adjusting his mask. "Something like that."
He didn't elaborate, and Ken, knowing better than to push, just followed. As they walked out of the school and toward Ken's car, Jaden's mind replayed the incident. It wasn't just a simple bump; it was the look in her eyes. The way she had snapped at him, her voice thick with righteous anger. Most people either ignored him or treated him with reverence, but this girl had looked at him like he was nothing more than an inconsiderate obstacle.
Karen Adams, he recalled from her presentation notes. The name echoed in his mind. A girl who had the audacity to talk back to him. The audacity to look at him with such open fury.
"You still thinking about her?" Ken's voice broke through his thoughts.
Jaden stopped dead in his tracks. "How did you…?"
Ken smirked. "You never walk this fast. And you're clenching your fists. That's a new one. The girl really got to you, huh?"
Jaden pushed his hands into his pockets. "She's nothing. Just another person who got in my way." The words were automatic, the same cold dismissal he used for everything. But this time, they didn't feel right. The image of her face, with its high cheekbones and defiant eyes, was stubbornly refusing to fade. It stirred something in him, a flicker of a memory he had been trying to forget for years. A memory of a different crash. A different set of hands. A different kind of helplessness.
He flinched. The ground beneath his feet suddenly felt unstable. He could feel the cold dread creeping up on him, just like it did every time the nightmares returned. He hated this feeling—this loss of control. He had built his entire life around control. His company, his finances, his personal space, all designed to keep the world at a safe distance.
This girl, with her angry eyes and her flimsy heels, had managed to break through that barrier in a single, careless moment.
"I have to go," Jaden said, pulling out his phone. He had to get back to his world, to the place where he was in command. To his office, where he could bury himself in spreadsheets and contracts, where everything made sense.
"Dude, my car is right here!" Ken called out as Jaden hailed a taxi, ignoring his friend.
Jaden didn't look back. He just needed to be in a place he could control. He needed to be Jaden, the CEO, the elusive legend, not just a man whose carefully constructed world had been shaken by a girl he didn't even know. He would forget her. He had to.