Runa first met Luke early in the second semester of ninth grade.
He came in as a transfer student, and the homeroom teacher brought him into the classroom.
In a new place, most people get tense, and they either shrink or try hard to stand out.
He didn't do either. He just stood at the front, gave a polite bow, and said his name in a steady voice.
Then he followed the teacher's directions and quietly walked to the last row.
He sat down in the empty seat in a corner that sunlight always missed.
Most teenage boys had too much energy, so they usually grouped up during breaks.
They'd get loud about the newest games, or they'd tell grown-up jokes to show off, and a lot of it came with dumb fantasies about girls that made her frown.
But Luke was different.
He never joined those talks.
He was either doing problems or reading, and sometimes he just slept on his desk.
If a boy talked to him first, he'd reply a couple lines, and if someone tried to drag him into crude topics about girls, he'd just laugh it off and move on.
His presence was so low that if you didn't look on purpose, you could forget there was a living person in that corner.
He looked clean, and his uniform collar was neat and proper, and if you passed by him, you could catch a light shower-gel smell.
Runa noticed that he was different, but that was it.
To her, Luke was just a slightly odd classmate who seemed to have a clear wall between him and everyone else.
He felt like a plant growing in a noisy corner, doing its own thing while everything around it acted stupid.
The moment he stopped being background blur and started to feel real, with shape and heat…
It was in fifth grade, during a summer that pressed on her hard.
Her life back then was chopped into a strict list of tasks.
Her grades had to stay near the top.
The Selol family's demands for an heir didn't allow mistakes.
And she had to do three hours of piano practice every day, without exception, because an international competition at the end of the year mattered for her family's pride.
Pressure kept piling up like something heavy being poured into a container.
It was steady and cold, and it squeezed from every side until breathing felt tight.
That afternoon, she hit a wrong note again while she was practicing a brutal Chopin etude.
It was the kind of mistake she could fix instantly, and it wasn't even a big deal.
But it became the last straw.
Her teacher's words, her parents' expectations, and that test ranking that dropped because of one careless mistake…
It all rushed in at once, and it finally smashed the dam she had built with grace and proper behavior for years.
She stood up, grabbed the thick sheet music, and ripped it clean in half.
Rip.
The sound was sharp.
Then she ripped it again, and again.
White paper pieces scattered in front of her like fluttering butterflies, and her emotions fell apart with them.
She panted, her chest rising hard, and tears wouldn't stop.
It was the first time in her life she had lost control like that, and it was the first time she let herself fall apart.
The next day.
She thought that storm had passed, but a text from an unknown number dragged her straight into hell.
Miss Selol, you didn't look like yourself in the practice room yesterday.
Below it was a short video.
It showed the whole thing: red face, teary eyes, and hands tearing the sheet music apart.
The angle was from the small window on the practice room door, and someone had filmed it in secret.
Not long after, a second text came in.
Tomorrow afternoon. The abandoned school warehouse. Come alone, or these videos will show up everywhere on the school forum.
Abandoned warehouse. Alone.
The words on the screen felt like sticky bugs crawling over her skin, and it made her stomach turn.
Runa knew exactly what the guy meant, and she knew what kind of dirty thoughts he had.
But she couldn't tell anyone.
If she told her family, they would crush the anonymous person fast, but the mess would get bigger, and it would mean her flaw got seen by even more people.
If she called the police, that would also make it public.
The person hiding in the dark seemed to know that, so he grabbed her weakness and squeezed.
For a full day, Runa lived inside fear.
After school, she didn't go home. She stayed alone in an empty classroom.
She held her phone while the video looped in front of her, and every replay felt like it was mocking her for being weak and stupid.
The pride and control she had kept for years cracked to pieces.
She couldn't hold on anymore.
She buried her face in her arms, and her shoulders started shaking.
She didn't sob loudly.
She just fell into a quiet kind of despair, like the world had thrown her away.
Right when the dark swallowed her completely and she started drifting toward thoughts that scared even her…
Creak.
The back door opened a crack.
A thin figure appeared in the doorway, backlit by the dim hallway light.
Runa snapped her head up like a hurt animal that got startled.
Her red, tear-filled eyes met his.
It was Luke.
He had his stuffed backpack on, and he clearly didn't expect anyone to still be here, so he paused.
They looked at each other.
The air went still.
He saw it.
He saw her at her worst, and he saw the side she never wanted anyone to see.
In that instant, fear and shame blew her mind, and Runa did the boldest and dumbest thing she had ever done.
She locked her eyes on him and shouted in a voice she didn't even recognize, rough and sharp.
"What did you see?!"
Before he could answer, she pushed the threat further.
"If you dare tell anyone what you saw today… I promise you, the Selol family has a hundred ways to make sure you can't stay in Mistvale City!"
Her voice shook from panic, and it sounded less like a threat and more like messy bluffing.
The second the words came out, she regretted them.
Her loss of control, her fake toughness, all of it was out in the open now.
She stared at his face, but she couldn't even see it clearly in the sunset, and the last bit of control in her snapped.
She grabbed her phone and threw it hard onto the floor, and it hit with a dull thud.
Then she lowered her head again, covered her face with both hands, and gave up resisting.
She heard Luke's footsteps as he walked in.
They were slow, and they had that lazy drag he always had.
She heard him rustling at his desk, like he was searching for something he forgot.
Go away…
Just go…
Don't look at me… please…
She begged silently.
But the footsteps didn't leave.
Instead, they came closer, one step at a time, until they stopped right in front of her.
Runa could feel his eyes shift from her shaking shoulders to something else.
She sensed him squat down.
Then she heard his fingers pick up the phone.
That threatening text and that humiliating video…
Her darkest secret was now wide open in front of a classmate she barely knew.
Runa bit down hard on her lower lip until she tasted blood.
Shame and despair twisted together, and she wanted to disappear.
But what she expected never happened.
There was no awkward comfort, and there was no curious grilling.
He only said one line.
"Video quality's pretty good."
Runa froze.
Her mind was a mess, but even so, she couldn't follow his logic.
Before she could even react, she heard his fingers tap quickly on the phone screen.
The sounds were light and fast.
Half a minute later, the phone got placed back onto the desk with a soft tap.
Luke stood up, didn't say anything else, and walked out with that tired lazy pace.
Click.
The door closed gently.
From start to finish, he never asked, "Are you okay?"
He didn't hand her tissues.
He didn't say a single empty comfort line that would only make her feel worse.
He just left.
It was like he only crouched down to check if the phone broke.
The next morning, Runa came to school like she was walking into her own funeral.
After a sleepless night, she made up her mind.
Even if she had to burn it all down, she would never bow her head, even if everyone ended up knowing her flaw.
But the whole day stayed calm.
The person threatening her never sent another message.
Then, after school, the person who filmed her came to her on his own, pale as a sheet, and apologized.
He deleted the video off his phone right away, and he deleted every backup in front of her too.
After that, he ran off like his life depended on it.
During the mess, she heard the name "Luke."
Did he help me…?
Runa stood alone by the lockers, and she felt lost because the whole thing flipped so suddenly.
The crisis was gone.
And it ended in a way she couldn't understand at all.
Tap tap.
Someone knocked on the locker door, and it pulled her back.
Luke's lazy figure slid into view.
He leaned against the locker beside her, and he still looked half-asleep.
He didn't bring up how she cried yesterday.
He didn't ask what the blackmail was about.
He didn't stand there acting like a hero.
He only glanced over and made a joke in a calm voice, and it wasn't even funny.
"That sheet music looked expensive, so next time you can make a few copies and leave them in the practice room. I know your family isn't short on money."
He paused for a few seconds and looked like he was honestly thinking.
"Hmm… don't get addicted to ripping it. If you have nothing to practice, your hands will get rusty."
The line was weird and badly timed, and it was dark in a way that didn't fit.
She froze.
Then she couldn't hold it back, and a laugh pushed up from her mouth.
She let out a short laugh, and it turned into real laughter, and she even laughed until tears came out.
It was the first time since she started school that she laughed from the heart.
Luke seemed to decide his job was done once he saw that.
He stood up, waved casually, and then walked off with that heavy backpack, slow and easy.
The whole time, he never looked at her breakdown like it was something disgusting.
No comfort. No lecture.
He just used his way, and he smoothed everything out without making it a big deal.
Other people cared about whether Runa was perfect.
Only Luke used a stupid joke to quietly treat her like she had the right to be imperfect.