"W—where on earth are you right now?!" Felean's anxious voice vibrated with a sharp, terrifying panic. "O—okay, listen to me—I'm calmed down—I... I need your presence here right this second." Leansei stood perfectly hidden in the shadows, realizing Felean was locked in a high-stakes phone call with a stranger.
Several silent seconds ticked by before Felean cried out again, his posture turning rigid. "What?! When exactly are you coming back to the city?!—What? Tomor—No! I absolutely can't be left alone tonight! Please, I beg you, just come fetch me!—My prescription pills? I... I left them inside my school bag."
Leansei stared at Felean's trembling body, his hoarse voice cracking with an intense, raw vulnerability that sounded completely foreign to his ears. It was the absolute first time he had ever witnessed the toxic, arrogant boy drop his mask entirely.
"Look... I desperately need you here by my side," Felean murmured, his voice shaking with absolute fear. "Please just come pick me up... I am so incredibly scared." Leansei froze dead in his tracks, his breath locking in his throat.
'What on earth is he so intensely scared of? And who is this mysterious person he is pleading with over the phone? ' Leansei thought, his mind spinning into a confused loop as his gaze dropped to his shoes. ' How am I supposed to fulfill my promise to his mother and fix this broken sibling relationship when I don't even know a single fact regarding my Kean twin's life? '
The exact microsecond the line clicked shut, indicating the call had officially ended, Leansei executed a defensive maneuver. He quickly stepped out from behind the wall, drawing his own smartphone out and pressing it against his ear, loudly pretending to be engaged in a private conversation as he crossed paths with his brother.
Felean flinched, a look of pure, startled shock breaking across his features at the sudden appearance, before his face altered back into a harsh, frustrated scowl.
"I'll have to call your line back later," Leansei lied smoothly into the empty line, aggressively shoving his phone deep into his trousers pocket. He blocked the path, looking at Kean's twin. "What exactly are you doing out here—" Leansei was cut violently short. Felean didn't bother to drop an explanation, aggressively marching straight past his shoulder and intentionally slamming his body against Leansei's to assert his dominance.
"Wait, Felean," Leansei called out, turning his torso around, a genuine wave of worried care softening his voice. But he tightly sealed his mouth, checking his words to stop himself from launching a barrage of prying queries regarding the frantic phone call he had just witnessed.
Felean halted his feet against the concrete, refusing to risk a single backward glance over his shoulder. Leansei hesitated, his fingers twisting into his suit fabric. "Don't stall my time, Kean. What the hell do you want from me?" Felean hissed coldly.
"I... Mom is deeply worried about your condition, Felean—"
Before Leansei could even finish the sentence, Felean let out a sharp, highly sarcastic scoff. He violently whirled his body around, turning his face to glare directly into Leansei's lenses. "Are you seriously trying to drop that line on me right now?" Leansei checked his stance, entirely left speechless.
"Worried about my condition? Or are you just projecting how worried she is about your precious life?!" Felean roared, his voice trembling with a volatile mixture of explosive rage and deep-seated envy as he took several aggressive steps forward to corner him against the wall. "Stop using Mom's authority as a cheap card to extract details from my life! You have no right!"
"I don't—"
"You don't know what I'm talking about again? God, you are pathetic!" Felean laughed hollowly, his eyes burning with absolute resentment. "Are you genuinely that incredibly naive, Kean? Or are you deliberately shoving it in my face that our parents care about your existence infinitely more than they will ever care about mine? Are you trying to brag about how beautifully they took care of your recovery? Or what a perfect, flawless son you are, constantly comparing your actions to show the family how superior you are?!"
Lean is shocked with Felean's deep insecurity, but before he could process the connection, Felean took one final step, stopping a mere inch away from his chest with a look of absolute defiance. "But guess what, little prince? You completely messed up your perfect record the exact second you tried to maliciously seduce Xerchin!"
Felean froze mid-breath. For a brief second, his aggressive posture locked, looking as though Leansei had just violently scratched open a deeply buried, agonizingly painful childhood secret that he had been keeping locked away in the dark for years.
"You... you genuinely have the audacity to ask me that query?" Felean whispered, his voice cracking with pure venom. "God, I wish with all my heart that you didn't suffer from that tragic amnesia, so you could remember every single thing you did to my life! You would die from the sheer weight of your own guilt, Kean! You would suffer every single day until you went completely, utterly insane!"
Leansei furrowed his eyebrows into a hard scowl, his mind short-circuiting as he found himself entirely unable to process the logic behind the accusations.
' What on earth did Kean do to him? '
Felean reached out, his index finger driving aggressively into Leansei's chest, forcefully pushing his frame back against the brickwork. "It was entirely your selfishness! It was your fault! Every single ounce of ruin in this family was on you!"
He sharply stopped the physical pressure, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for air, his face pale. Leansei could only stare at him, his mind desperately trying to puzzle the fragments together, yet finding absolutely zero data regarding the origin of this profound hatred.
"I told you before, didn't I?" Felean hissed, his voice dropping into a chilling register. "The exact second your body plummeted off that cliff, you became entirely dead to my world. Just count yourself incredibly lucky that I... that I haven't chosen to expose the truth and completely ruin your high-society life yet. So fucking leave me alone! I don't ever want to see a single inch of your face again... but unlucky me, because every time I look into a mirror, I'm forced to see you, since we look exactly the same." Without letting out a single backward glance, Felean turned on his heel and marched out through the corridor doors, leaving Leansei standing solitary in the shadows, entirely out of words.
Leansei slowly rested his head back against the cold brick wall, closing his eyes tightly as he tilted his face up toward the dark night sky where the stars were glazing brilliantly. A profound, heavy ache settled over his soul.
' Kean... what on earth did you actually do in the past? ' Leansei thought, a violent wave of dread tightening behind his ribs. ' What did you do to make your own twin brother hate your very existence this much? '
"He won't be able to forgive you." Leansei froze, the words halting his steps completely. When he glanced back over his shoulder, his blood ran instantly cold. Tyvan was standing in the shadows of the exit hallway. His formal blazer was left casually unbuttoned, exposing a crisp gray shirt underneath that emphasized his broad shoulders. His high-society handsomeness was entirely undeniable, but his eyes were sharp and unyielding.
"Great. You're actively eavesdropping on private family matters now," Leansei said, keeping his voice deadpan and flat as he forced his boots to resume walking away. He needed to get back to the tech console immediately; the itinerary dictated that the next block was explicitly Xerchin and Beidhen's live performance.
"Kean..."
Leansei exhaled a long, deeply exhausted breath through his teeth, his nerves wearing thin.
When he reluctantly glanced back a second time, Tyvan had already crossed the distance, standing mere inches behind his frame. Leansei prepared to bark a definitive rejection, but his gray pupils froze, his breath locking in his throat. His gaze darted straight to Tyvan's exposed neck.
Resting against his collarbone was a heavy silver chain holding two interlocking rings. They weren't perfectly aligned, nor were they separated either—one band was cast in pure silver, while the other was washed in a deep, midnight black.
Leansei felt his entire heart sink straight into his stomach, a violent wave of panic paralyzing his chest.
' Those exact rings... that necklace... ' Leansei's mind reeled in pure horror, the vivid image of the hidden wardrobe box flashing behind his eyelids.
Tyvan effortlessly spotted exactly where Leansei's eyes were pinned. He slowly reached up, wrapping his fingers around the interlocking metal bands. "Oh, this? Have you seriously forgotten about it already? You were the one who explicitly gave this to me."
"W—when?" Leansei managed to whisper out, his voice uniquely low and shaking.
"Almost two years ago? Or perhaps it's officially been two full years? I honestly don't know, I completely lost count of the metrics," Tyvan murmured, stepping closer. Leansei stood entirely paralyzed as a chaotic wave of memory fragments crashed through his thoughts.
' During my previous life, I met Tyvan for the first time just a few minutes before his birthday came. That specific, painful memory was permanently shoved into my mind after almost long years. I had almost completely forgotten the origin... not until he mentioned the exact timeline just now. So... if he received that interlocking necklace two years ago, does that mean he was interacting with the real Kean all along?! Or are there still missing pieces to this puzzle that I can't decipher? '
Unable to take the suffocating psychological pressure for a single second longer, Leansei whirled his body around to flee, but Tyvan's fingers snapped out like a vice, firmly locking around his wrist to violently halt his pace.
"Please, listen to me, Kean. I have been exceptionally patient with your behavior," Tyvan pleaded fiercely, his voice dropping into a desperate register. "I have been incredibly considerate ever since you woke up from that tragic accident. I willingly let you get close with those other fckers on campus. But enough is enough. Stop playing these ridiculous mind games with me. I know for a factual certainty you are only executing this cold behavior because you're mad at me—"
With an aggressive surge of physical strength, Leansei violently shoved Tyvan's hand away from his skin, breaking the contact for good.
' It is a remarkably good thing that Xerchin is currently busy backstage preparing for his live performance, ' Leansei thought frantically, sweat pooling at his temples. ' If he were to step into this hallway and witness the two of us standing close like this, he would easily take the scenery in the completely wrong way. '
"Don't you ever dare come near my presence again, Tyvan," Leansei commanded, pitching his voice into a freezing, ice-cold frequency that left zero room for argument. "I don't ever want to see a single inch of your face again. This is not a game, and this is purely what I have chosen to decide. So if you still possess a single shred of consideration for my well-being, leave me the hell alone."
Without casting a single backward glance, Leansei turned on his heel and walked away as fast as his legs could carry him, the exact microsecond a massive wave of female screams and rowdy cheers erupted from the main auditorium. He glanced toward the elevated stage. Xerchin was already standing under the dim lights, his light blue eyes restlessly looking around the crowded room as if he were frantically searching for one specific person in the sea of guests.
When Leansei finally reached the central technical console, he was heavily gasping for air, his chest heaving as he collapsed into his chair. Xeilin's face was a total portrait of pure, anxious worry, his fingers tapping aggressively against his clipboard.
"Where on earth have you been?!" the president hissed frantically, his breathing tight. "They are literally about to initiate the track right now!"
Leansei placed one hand flat over his knee, trying his best to stabilize his skyrocketing pulse. "S—sorry, Xei. Something completely unexpected came up in the back corridor."
"Alright, crew, lights off!" Xeilin commanded into his headset, taking over the console inputs. "Central spotlight activation in one, two, three, GO!"
The stage illuminated brilliantly, and Leansei froze dead in his seat as his eyes locked onto the stage. Xerchin was standing center-stage holding his guitar, but his handsome features were written with a pure, undeniable layer of uneasy tension. Even with the anxiety clouding his face, his masculine presence was undeniably dashing and overly attractive under the spotlights. Beside him, Beidhen looked handsomely overridden by a worried scowl as his eyes scanned across the crowded tables, before shooting an anxious glance toward his older brother as he began rhythmically strumming his acoustic guitar.
' He looks so incredibly uneasy up there, ' Leansei thought, his fingers tightening around the desk panel.
Xerchin adjusted his stance near the microphone stand and started singing. The exact second his vocal cords vibrated through the audio mixing board, Leansei felt as if his entire heart had been physically taken from his chest. Xerchin's deep, baritone voice sounded utterly angelic, smooth, and breathtakingly good to hear. As he executed the emotional lyrics, Beidhen maintained a flawless rhythm, strumming the guitar strings with expert precision. The massive crowd of students immediately surged toward the front baseline, cheering and screaming their names in pure adoration.
The tracking shifted to the next verse, and Beidhen took over the main vocals instead, his voice sounding remarkably rich and clear, proving they were biological brothers. Xerchin transitioned seamlessly, his long fingers flying across the frets of his electric guitar as he executed a powerful riff. But even as Beidhen sang, his eyes remained visibly uneasy, his gaze restlessly searching every single corner of the wide gymnasium rows.
Xeilin quietly slipped away from the technical desk to manage a backstage matter, but the movement was completely unnoticed by Leansei. His gray eyes were entirely focused on Xerchin's face, watching the effortless way he commanded the electric guitar.
Suddenly, Xerchin's light blue eyes cut across the crowd, locking directly onto the technical console center. He spotted Leansei's navy blue suit.
In a single fraction of a second, the uneasy tension vanished from the athlete's handsome features, a confident, devastatingly beautiful smirk forming across his reddish lips. He adjusted his stance, strumming his guitar with an explosive, renewed energy. Beidhen caught the sudden shift, glancing at his older brother mid-verse, a wide smile breaking across his face as his eyes returned to scanning the gymnasium lines.
Leansei's focused attention was abruptly pulled away as Xeilin stepped back to his side. He blinked in surprise, completely shocked when he realized he hadn't even registered that the president had left the desk at all. But stepping right behind Xeilin's shoulder was a figure that made Leansei's eyes widen with joy. Revin was standing there, a relaxed formal jacket draped over his frame and a dark cape covering his head to hide his face from the high-society crowd. Leansei offered him a bright, genuine smile, and Revin smiled back warmly, dropping his shoulders.
"So... you ultimately decided to come to the gala after all," Leansei noted softly.
Revin offered a small, compliant nod, his eyes locking intensely onto the center stage. "I wasn't planning to step foot inside this building tonight, Kean, but..."
He cut his own explanation short midway. Up on the stage, Beidhen's eyes had just swept across their row, catching the silhouette of the caped boy. A brilliant, radiant smile broke across the delinquent's face the exact microsecond he recognized Revin. Revin sharply averted his gaze toward the floorboards, a furious, burning flush of dark red spreading rapidly across his cheeks as he blushed.
With his yearning eyes finally answered, Beidhen's full, arrogant confidence came roaring back. Xerchin noticed his younger brother's sudden energy shift, letting out a sharp smirk as the two of them synchronized their movements, executing their final musical set flawlessly. The entire gymnasium erupted into an absolute frenzy of screaming and cheering fans.
The track hit its final note, and the performance officially finished.
"KYAHHHHHH!!!!! PLEASE PLAY MORE!!!!" A several dedicated female fans shouted in unison, their applause shaking the rafters.
"Alright, crew, lights on across the house," Leansei directed into his headset, checking the schedule sheets. "Activate the central spotlight on the middle line."
But Leansei's fingers froze over the console controls. Up on the stage, neither Xerchin nor Beidhen moved to walk out toward the backstage wings. They stood their ground directly in front of the microphones. Leansei, Xeilin, and Revin turned their heads to look at each other in absolute, pure confusion.
Leansei frantically flipped through the printed proposal sheets to verify the scheduled cues, but there was absolutely zero data indicating that the Vcheroi brothers were permitted to remain on stage.
Xeilin grabbed his walkie-talkie, clicking the transmission button. "Host, what on earth is happening on the floor right now? Over?"
Bzzzt.
"I—I'm incredibly sorry, President," the host's frantic voice crackled back through the static. "The Vcheroi brothers explicitly demanded personal permission from the administrative board just a few minutes before the curtain lifted... I completely failed to inform your line ahead of time due to the rush. Over."
Xeilin squeezed his eyes shut in absolute disbelief, letting out an exasperated sigh, but Leansei's gray pupils remained pinned entirely to Xerchin's profile. The athlete was looking straight at the technical booth, his eyes locked explicitly on Leansei's face as he stepped closer to the microphone stand.
"Hello—" Xerchin's deep, baritone voice echoed beautifully through the sound system. He had to pause for a brief second as another wave of female screams cut through the air.
He raised his hand to calm the crowd, his blue eyes never wavering from Leansei's lenses. "I personally composed the lyrics and metrics of this next song... explicitly for one specific person. This number is not a part of the student council's official itinerary... but my brother and I will happily offer our formal administrative apologies to the board later tonight. This song was made... for someone who has become entirely special to my existence. That person is currently standing among you inside this room right now, listening to my voice. I am profoundly glad I am permitted to sing it here tonight. This track is titled... My Unnamed Song."
Xerchin adjusted his fingers, slowly, delicately strumming a smooth acoustic melody across the strings of his guitar, looking at Leansei as if absolutely nothing else existed in the entire universe.
"I see you walking through the crowded room,
A quiet gravity that pulls me in,
I breathe you like a sudden, sweet perfume,
And memorize the places you have been..."
Leansei's cheeks instantly flushed a bright, breathless shade of deep crimson, his heart pumping so violently hard against his ribs he feared he might collapse. Xerchin was looking explicitly at his face with every single verse, weaving a powerful wave of raw, unshielded emotion through the music—as if he were deliberately making every single high-society guest in the room understand the exact depth of his feelings. It was a beautiful, captivating declaration that filled Leansei's heart with an absolute, pure contentment, and a radiant smile broke beautifully across his lips as he stared back.
Beside him, Xeilin and Revin immediately nudged his shoulders, aggressively teasing him with wicked, knowing smirks. Leansei buried his face in his folders, his cheeks burning hotter than they ever had before. But the small celebration came to a grinding, absolute halt. Directly in front of the technical booth, a group of prominent high-society gossipers whirled their heads around, their eyes tracking a sudden movement near the side of the court.
"Wait... is that actually Seleigh standing over there?!" one girl whispered loudly.
"Yeah, look at her dress! That is exactly who Xerchin was talking about when he mentioned a special person."
"I genuinely thought she couldn't make it to the gala tonight due to her hectic modeling and taping schedules?" another added.
Leansei's radiant smile withered away in a single fraction of a second, the blood running instantly ice-cold in his veins.
He slowly raised his chin, his gray pupils scanning past the crowd until his eyes locked onto Seleigh standing a few meters away near the private VIP tables. She was dressed in an exceptionally elegant, high-class gown, her head lowered slightly as she listened to the lyrics. A sudden, suffocating wave of pure, unyielding dread tightened over Leansei's chest as reality crashed back over his soul.
' Why on earth is she standing inside this room right now? ' Leansei thought, his chest heaving as the agonizing doubt tore his heart apart into a million pieces. ' Was... was that beautiful song genuinely composed for my sake? Or was it explicitly meant for her all along? '