"Have you arrived already?"
A man's voice rang through the phone's speaker as he casually asked the question.
"Yeah," Valerian replied as he continued unpacking his luggage.
Well... according to their deal, he had to study abroad for two years, so everything had been arranged accordingly. He hadn't even had time to receive his entrance exam results before his father rushed him here.
And so, here he was...
"That's good. Elera will join you there later."
Valerian's eyes narrowed as soon as he heard that.
"Don't you remember our deal?"
The man chuckled. "Relax—she'll only be there for vacation. She'll come back later."
The line went silent for a few seconds.
"Oh... and you not being able to meet that guy isn't my doing."
"I know."
Valerian lowered his eyes. He didn't bother responding, his gaze instead drawn to a box—the one he had received from Eiran on his birthday.
Yes, he still hadn't opened it.
It wasn't that he didn't want to...
He just couldn't bring himself to do it.
A sense of guilt had begun to weigh on him whenever he looked at the box.
But he didn't dare leave it behind at home. He feared something might happen to it if his dad or grandpa saw it, or if the staff weren't careful enough with it.
"Elera is a nice girl... treat her well."
A bitter smile appeared on his lips.
"Am I not polite enough to her?"
"Valerian, ha... she's Eiran's sister. I'm sure you won't do anything that will make him hate you."
His dad's voice was full of reproach.
"Don't bother yourself with this."
With that, he hung up the call.
Eiran loves his sister...
He obviously knows that.
How could he not?
Her family most probably hadn't told her about this deal.
But he couldn't do anything...
This deal itself was bound to hurt her in the end—no matter how it turned out.
Why did she even have to like him?
Ha... what a joke.
He pushed back the hair clinging to his forehead.
A cigarette emerged from his trouser pocket and found its way between his lips. He reached for his lighter, but instead of striking it, he simply held it there, turning it slowly between his fingers.
His fingertips traced the worn metal absently, almost tenderly. His gaze remained somewhere far beyond the room, unfocused and strangely vacant.
After a moment, he seemed to remember something.
He let out a helpless sigh, lowered the lighter, slipped it back into his pocket, and left the cigarette unlit between his lips.
~
A few weeks after Valerian's engagement, the day finally came when their entrance exam results were supposed to be announced.
Eiran stared at his laptop screen as Kael filled in the relevant information on the results website.
"This site always works like a turtle whenever I'm in a hurry."
Eiran stared at him for a few seconds, completely speechless at his nonsense.
Obviously, the site would be slow. It was the day the entrance exam results were being released—thousands of students were probably trying to check their results at the same time.
Eiran simply shook his head in resignation.
They still had something important to deal with.
Well... Kael was helping him check his result first.
It wasn't that Eiran couldn't do it himself.
He just never had before.
When he was a child, he had been prone to stress and would always panic, so it had either been Valerian or his mother who checked his results for him.
It was laughable how everything in his life seemed to revolve around Valerian...
No.
He couldn't think about all that again.
He shouldn't.
"It's here! Eiran, look!"
Kael's voice pulled him back to reality.
He hurried over to Kael's side to look.
675 out of 700.
Passed.
He finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Wow, man!"
Kael shouted excitedly, jumping up from his seat and hugging him tightly.
Eiran smiled softly as he returned Kael's hug. His hands trembled with excitement.
He had already expected a good result, but knowing it and actually seeing it were two different things.
Even he couldn't help but feel happy and excited about it.
"You're surely going to be in our city's top three! Or maybe even first?"
His smile froze on his face.
But he still somehow managed to compose himself in time.
"Not necessarily. There are many others who could get the top spot."
Kael's expression changed as well. He seemed to realize that he had misspoken.
If they were talking about the top three, there was a high chance Valerian would be among them too.
If nothing had gone wrong, his marks should have been similar to Eiran's—perhaps even higher.
They could have easily ended up at the same university...
Kael's fingers curled slightly before he forced himself to relax his hand and control his expression.
He really needed to learn to control this nasty tongue of his.
"Ran, help me check my result, okay?" he said, deciding to change the subject before he could make Eiran feel any worse.
Eiran finally broke the hug and smiled at Kael.
"Sure, sure."
Eiran shook his head, pushed Kael aside, and took the seat in front of the laptop.
Though he had only been trying to change the topic, Kael was actually quite nervous and didn't dare to look. He closed his eyes and turned his head from side to side.
Eiran swiftly typed in all the information, and it took several seconds before the result finally showed up.
"Look, Kael, it's here!"
"Hey! Look at it once."
"Kael!"
Kael knew he couldn't run forever, so he finally opened his eyes to see the result.
"God!"
"My God... seriously!"
Kael's eyes widened, and he couldn't help but jump and exclaim loudly.
He grabbed Eiran's shoulders excitedly—he actually couldn't believe his own eyes.
And Kael really wasn't exaggerating it—he knew he would get good marks and most probably more than 620 or 630—but he wasn't sure about anything beyond that.
Actually—he never tried to match his answers after coming back home, as doing so only gave him more stress and headaches. So he was the type of person who wouldn't think about an exam once it was already over.
And now he had actually gotten 655.
He could most probably go to the same university as Eiran now.
It had to be noted that no one had ever gotten full marks in the entrance exams till now. Getting more than 650 already meant you were extraordinary and might even earn you the "genius" title. And scores higher than that mostly came from the top students in different provinces.
Eiran smiled, gave him a warm hug, and congratulated him. He was truly happy for his best friend.
"Hey, are you crying?"
Eiran patted his back as he felt Kael's shoulders tremble for a moment.
"Never! Why would I cry?!"
Kael's muffled shout, other than being lower, wasn't much different from his usual voice. Eiran still caught the slight change in it.
Nevertheless, he didn't expose his little lie and simply continued to pat his back.
Kael might appear confident and cheerful most of the time—but he was actually kind of insecure and underconfident... though he might not realize that himself.
He couldn't help but wonder how Valerian's result had turned out...
But he didn't dare check. If he could, he would prefer to avoid anything related to Valerian for the time being.
It wouldn't be too difficult... since his mother had told him that Valerian would continue his studies abroad. He had left right after his engagement, but Eiran hadn't known about it at all. It was only later that he heard about it from his mother.
And he had been quite surprised to hear all that.
After all, hadn't Valerian said he would continue his studies from here and later take over the business?
But then again... so many things had changed.
Now, he felt like he didn't understand Valerian at all.
Of course, his mother hadn't called him specifically to tell him that. She had simply called to tell him that Elera would be going there to meet Valerian later.
His mom had thought he already knew...
But he hadn't been in contact with Valerian since his birthday.
He had even left his phone at home and bought a new one here, along with a brand-new SIM card.
Valerian might be worried and confused about why Eiran had suddenly become like this...
But Eiran still needed to harden his heart.
He needed to distract himself from thinking about Valerian any further...
He couldn't keep letting himself get pulled back into those thoughts.
_______________________________________________