So boring.
With her back against the cold wall, Seraphina listened to Lina's screaming like she didn't care.
That angry, twisted face probably didn't even notice her carefully drawn eyeliner had smudged a little, and it looked ugly as hell.
Lina kept repeating the same few words: "homewrecker," "shameless," "seducing."
Her voice kept cracking, and her vocabulary was pathetic.
As for how it got to this point…
Right, she remembered.
In the evening, the art room at the end of the fifth-floor hallway, the one the senior boys used, was a place she visited sometimes to kill time.
It was quiet, and it had that sharp smell of turpentine and paint, and it also got her away from the same predictable male creatures orbiting around her.
Today, Jasper was already waiting inside, and he said he "had a few math questions" he wanted to ask.
It was a decent excuse, and it was smarter than the idiots who only knew how to bring flowers.
He stopped hiding what he wanted after last week's basketball game.
Men really were simple.
If you gave them a little fake hope, they'd do anything for you like a dog that just got a command.
For example, they'd volunteer to handle cleaning duty for the whole class.
She just didn't expect Jasper's girlfriend's nose to be that sharp.
"You bitch! Do you have any shame? You know he's my boyfriend, but you still cling to him every day!"
Listen to that recycled line. Seriously.
Seraphina didn't bother turning around, and she slowed her steps while her fingertips lightly traced the hallway tiles.
"Lina, watch your mouth."
"When did I ever cling to Jasper?"
"We're just in the same study group, and we talk about problems sometimes."
After a few boring back-and-forth lines, Seraphina turned around and gave that rabid girl an innocent smile she had practiced ten thousand times.
"Maybe you should ask yourself if you're not charming enough to keep him, and getting this angry isn't great for your skin either."
Look at how hard she was shaking.
As for Jasper behind her, the face that looked half-decent on the court was now pure panic, and he kept looking between them like a fish that got forced onto land.
So boring.
He couldn't even put on a decent jealousy scene.
A stupid woman who let emotions drive her, and a weak man who couldn't balance his desire with his guilt.
This couple was a dull show with a script that had already been written.
"Stop acting innocent! If you weren't batting your eyes at him every day and bringing him water, would he end up like this?!"
With the patience of someone talking to a kid throwing a tantrum for a toy, Seraphina explained it slowly.
"I smiled because he helped me with cleaning duty, and I gave him water because he was thirsty after basketball."
"Isn't that normal in our class?"
While she spoke, she guided the fight toward territory she understood better without making it obvious.
"Are you the type who wants to control your boyfriend just because he talks to another girl?"
The moment she finished, Lina's last bit of control snapped.
She let out a scream that was almost a shriek and charged at her.
"You… you're twisting everything!"
A hard shove hit.
Yeah, she had some strength.
Seraphina staggered back with the force, and she crashed through a classroom door that had been left half open.
If she followed the usual script, she should've fallen on the floor in a mess, and she should've squeezed out a few tears so Jasper's guilt hit peak level and his anger at Lina exploded.
But Seraphina didn't feel like acting that part.
It was too dirty.
And Lina wasn't worth it.
With her left hand braced on the desk by the door, she bled off the force cleanly.
Then she spun lightly and steadied herself with ease.
And then Seraphina saw him.
The boy who always kept his head down and wore those washed-out sneakers.
Luke.
With that ugly, stuffed backpack on his shoulders, he had one hand on the back door handle, and it looked like he was trying to slip away.
Oh?
The lonely cleaning-duty guy was still here?
With her body relaxing, Seraphina casually sat on the desk and leaned back against the wall.
This is … pretty interesting.
She looked at Jasper's stupid face, which clearly said "I'm screwed," and then she looked at Lina, who froze because she noticed there was an audience.
Finally, she let her eyes settle on Luke, who looked ready to run at any second.
This boring toy she had written off not long ago kept giving her little surprises when she wasn't even trying.
The next second, the boy moved.
With his hand gripping the back door handle, he started walking right away because he wanted to escape this farce.
That "please let me disappear" look on his face almost made Seraphina laugh out loud.
Hehe Like he could run.
"Stop!"
Lina didn't disappoint.
With a quick lunge, she grabbed his sleeve and yanked him back.
"I know you. Luke, right? You're in the same class as Jasper. Don't you dare leave. You heard everything, didn't you? Tell me who's shameless here, and tell her!"
She wanted Luke to be the judge?
My my.
Stupid women always surprised people.
She probably thought any normal guy would stand with the victim and join in blaming Seraphina as the homewrecker.
Seraphina calmly looked at Luke.
What was he thinking right now?
Was he like other guys, slapping labels on her in his head like easy and cheap?
While she was still thinking, Luke hunched his shoulders and lowered his head, and his voice got so quiet it was barely louder than a mosquito.
"I… I didn't hear anything."
"I just finished cleaning, and I'm going home…"(Like hell I want to get into your cirngy drama)
He pulled his sleeve free as he spoke, and that timid look matched exactly how he acted on the field last time.
"Don't try to run!"
Lina grabbed his backpack strap and dragged him back again.
By now she was fully out of control, and she started saying anything.
"Are you fucking her too?! Were you two already sneaking around, so now you want to help her talk?!"
There it is.
With her smile deepening, Seraphina leaned in even more.
This is the best part of the evening.
When a woman couldn't win with words, she'd throw the fire at anything that might burn.
So now it was time for Jasper to perform.
Lina's accusation was stupid and made zero sense, but it worked.
Just like Seraphina expected, Jasper's eyes changed the instant he heard it.
The face that was already filled with awkwardness now picked up a dark anger that looked like betrayal.
Yeah, he had seen it with his own eyes last week.
He had watched Luke get famous off one shot and one insane block.
In his simple, straight-line brain, a hero who could pull the whole class's attention also had the right to steal the attention of his goddess.
When a man's possessiveness kicked in, that shallow thing called friendship collapsed fast.
"Lilu."
Jasper finally spoke, and his voice sounded rough and low.
With his body moving forward, he shut the door and blocked the boy's way out.
"You… you and Seraphina… are you really?"
Luke froze, and his face filled with blank confusion like he couldn't believe this was happening.
But Seraphina still caught something tiny flash through him.
It wasn't panic.
It looked more like, Annoyed?
Hmm?
Maybe this boring toy wasn't as simple as I thought.
"W… we're just classmates…" Luke said, and he tried to explain with that insecure-virgin logic again.
"Jasper, why are you even asking? Last week we were…"
"Don't mention last week!"
Jasper cut him off hard, and jealousy made his words nastier.
"I'm asking you, does Seraphina talk to you a lot? Has she ever given you anything?"
"No, she didn't…"
"Shut up! Don't act like I don't know. After PE that day, the Selol heiress from Class 1 came to talk to you too!"
"I… that was…"
"What are you acting guilty for? Answer me! You were the guy who couldn't even lift your head most days, so how the fuck did you suddenly get popular with the campus belles?!"
…
Even Seraphina was a little surprised.
Maybe men's jealousy could be scarier than women's sometimes.
With a satisfied interest, she kept watching.
Luke got pushed into the corner and kept taking these unreasonable questions and accusations from a teammate who used to stand beside him.
In that moment, Seraphina could feel a crack form in his act.
He really did look… a little pissed.
Not because he was being accused of sleeping with her.
He was pissed because this trash was messing up his rhythm and wasting his time.
Bit by bit, Luke stopped shaking.
That outer panic drained out of his body language.
With his fingers pushing up his glasses, he made the same move he always used to hide nerves, but this time it looked weirdly calm.
"Jasper."
Luke spoke slowly.
The annoying stutter was gone.
"First, whatever is going on between you and Lina is your private business, and since I'm just the cleaning-duty guy who happened to pass by, I don't have any duty or any right to judge it."
Then he looked at Lina, who had gone stiff.
His voice wasn't loud, and it carried that same dead-tired tone he always had.
"Second, Lina, you're accusing me of sneaking around with Seraphina, so what's your proof?"
"Just because I'm in the same class as her, and I happened to be in the same place? That logic doesn't hold."
"Because using that logic, I can also accuse you and Jasper of running some shady criminal deal behind my back."
It was terrifyingly clear, and every line stabbed straight into what was most absurd about this whole scene.
After that, he looked back at Jasper.
"And last, and most important."
"People don't build relationships based only on something measurable like popularity."
"Miss Selol said hi to me because we were middle school classmates, and Seraphina keeps a friendly distance with everyone in the class."
"You're questioning me with 'why am I popular,' but the question itself is full of baseless suspicion."
"And you're my classmate, and you were my teammate, but you chose to corner me because your girlfriend threw out one irrational guess."
Luke let out a soft sigh.
He didn't sound angry.
He sounded tired, like an adult watching kids act up.
"Honestly, I'm disappointed."
After he said that, he stopped paying attention to the fake couple.
He just stood there and waited for the end.
The whole classroom went dead quiet.
Lina's face went red and then white.
She opened her mouth, but she couldn't push out a single word.
Jasper looked like his soul got sucked out.
That "I'm disappointed" line was a loud slap without any sound.
All his jealousy and anger turned into pure shame on the spot.
In the end, Lina couldn't take that silent judgment anymore, so she shot Seraphina one hard look.
Then she didn't even look at the boyfriend who let her down, and she covered her face and ran off crying.
Jasper stayed silent for a few seconds, and then he gritted his teeth, looking humiliated, and chased after her.
In the empty classroom, only Seraphina and Luke were left.
That ridiculous drama got shut down with just a few lines from him.
With her back still against the wall, Seraphina looked over at him.
Luke seemed to snap out of that cold, rational state.
When he realized it was just the two of them now, the straight posture he had forced up earlier collapsed again.
That pale, cool-toned face turned bright red in a second.
"Se-Seraphina… s-sorry… I-I wasn't trying to… listen to you guys…"
He turned back into the virgin who couldn't even speak clearly.
With a fast, panicked bow, he didn't dare look at her again, and he ran out the back with that heavy backpack.
Seraphina watched Luke's clumsy back as he fled.
The smile on her mouth stopped being that practiced one.
Instead…
A real curve rose up from the empty place deep inside her, and it was full of genuine enjoyment.
So impressive, Lilu.