In the morning.
With the same sunlight slipping through the gap in her custom curtains, it landed on Seraphina's face.
She opened her eyes and got up, and she stepped barefoot onto the floor.
Her expression was clear, and there was no sleepy haze left on her face.
With a thin-strap nightgown clinging to her, the curves underneath were impossible to hide.
She washed up and changed into her neatly pressed uniform, and then she sat at the long dining table while she poked at the fried egg with a silver fork.
The driver's greeting, the maid's service, and her parents' routine lines of concern played out like the same silent skit she'd seen a thousand times.
Every face and every movement hit the same dead, tasteless beat.
Normally, that kind of boredom would spark the urge to break something.
Seraphina would start picking her next hunt, and she would think about what method to use to split open a relationship that looked solid on the surface, and then she would enjoy the mess that followed.
But today felt different, and her urge to wreck things had been replaced by something sharper and more focused.
Now there was only one name left on her list.
Luke.
In the back seat of the Bentley on the way to school, Seraphina didn't even bother opening her phone to skim the morning messages from her needy fanboys.
From the moment she left the house, her mood had carried that quiet thrill that came right before she closed in on prey.
When she stepped into the classroom, the usual teenage noise dropped by a few levels on its own.
Boys looked at her with heat and hunger, and their eyes felt like invisible threads rushing in from every direction.
The girls' looks were more mixed, and there was envy, jealousy, and plain admiration all tangled together.
This was just another normal day as Seraphina, the school belle.
A few small gifts were stacked on her desk.
There was imported milk, homemade cookies meant to show sincerity, and a brand-new workbook tied up with ribbon.
Seraphina smiled, nodded politely to the classmates watching her, and sat down with calm grace.
Then she pushed all that uninvited kindness to the corner of her desk.
Those things used to be mirrors that confirmed her value, and they used to be little snacks that made this boring world easier to swallow.
Today, they had lost their shine, and they felt like a dried-out salad left overnight.
Her eyes drifted toward the back row, toward the figure buried under books.
That was where her new toy sat.
The boy still looked gloomy and out of place, and his long bangs hid his face while those old, ugly black-framed glasses sat on his nose.
He kept his head down, and that quiet way he carried himself built a wall around him that shut the world out.
Her stare must have tipped off that sharp little prey of hers, because his hand paused mid-motion while he was pulling books out, and then he lowered his head with an almost exaggerated dip just to dodge her eyes.
That stiff, uneasy posture made him look even more like a rabbit caught in headlights.
With her smile deepening in a way nobody noticed, Seraphina watched him.
All day, every class turned into her personal stage for observing him.
First period was math.
Up front, the teacher explained complex function graphs, and Seraphina rested her chin on her hand while she drew bored circles on scrap paper.
Even so, her peripheral vision stayed locked on that corner.
Luke looked at the blackboard and listened seriously.
Good, he looked like a standard top student.
During break, she went to get water.
The water dispenser happened to be behind Luke's row, and Seraphina carried her cup and walked that way with slow, deliberate steps.
She could clearly feel his posture locking up bit by bit as she got closer, and his back went straight while his whole body started broadcasting a stiff "don't come near me" signal.
After she got her water, she walked back the same way, but she slowed down on purpose.
When Luke lifted his head without thinking, their eyes met in the air, and then he snapped his face away while the red on his cheeks stood out hard.
It was like her look was some hot beam that could burn him.
Ha, he's acting again.
At lunch break, she went up to the rooftop to "get some air," but she was really just moving her observation post.
Sure enough, that familiar figure pushed open the rusted metal door not long after and stepped in.
He probably wanted a quiet corner to read, but the second he saw her leaning on the railing, his foot froze mid-step.
Luke sensed something was off.
Right on schedule, he started looking shy and clumsy like he didn't know what to do with his hands.
He gave her a stiff little nod, and then he turned around and fled back into the stairwell without staying for even a second.
Seraphina's smile grew stronger.
He's avoiding me.
It wasn't the kind of dodge that came from shyness or fear, but it was a clear-headed, purposeful move to keep distance.
Luke knew she was trouble, so he was doing everything he could to stay far away from that trouble.
That certainty, with no doubt attached, pushed Seraphina's mood up to the top.
Interesting.
She had decided.
Today, she was going to peel every layer of that little animal's disguise off and find out what was inside.
In the afternoon, the last period was self-study, and the homeroom teacher assigned homework before leaving early.
Seraphina didn't write a single word, and she openly stared at that corner seat with zero attempt to hide it.
That blatant, reckless attention made Luke keep his head even lower, and his fingers went white around the pen.
He was tense, he was irritated, and he was holding it in.
Perfect.
When the dismissal bell rang, Seraphina didn't leave early like she usually did.
She watched Luke sling arms around his two trash-tier buddies and start walking out.
Trying to run?
She stood up at an unhurried pace, and she spoke to the class monitor with a sweet, soft tone.
"Class monitor, didn't the teacher say a new batch of physics guidebooks arrived and got put in the storage room, and we need two people from our class to carry them over?"
"Luke is in the physics competition group, so why don't the two of us go together, and then we won't have to bother other classmates."
The class monitor was an honest type, so when he heard the excellent student school belle volunteering to do physical work, he didn't question it at all.
He called out to Luke.
"Luke, wait a second!"
"There are physics guidebooks in the storage room, and we might need them tomorrow, so since you're in the group, help out."
Luke let out a blank "Huh?" and his sleepy face showed obvious resistance.
His two buddies started heckling right away, and they acted like this was some blessing.
Seraphina walked over at just the right moment.
With her hands behind her back, she tilted her head slightly, and her eyes were filled with innocence and hope.
"Sorry, Luke, did I mess up your plans?"
"It's just that you're the most reliable one…"
After a few lines like that and a couple pleases from the class monitor, those two annoying buddies took the hint and left first.
As for Luke, he had no choice but to stay behind, half-forced into it.
He went back to his seat and buried his head as he packed his books.
Was he trying to stall like this?
Too naive.
"Luke."
Seraphina asked with a sweet, harmless tone, "We should go carry the books now, okay?"
He couldn't dodge anymore.
"Se-Seraphina… I-I can go by myself… so you don't have to… bother…"
He started stuttering again, and he tried to bring his act back.
"How could that work?"
With a pure smile that didn't allow refusal, Seraphina stepped closer.
"We already said we'd go together."
As she moved in, Luke took a half-step back on instinct, but his back hit the cold edge of the desk, and he had nowhere left to go.
"Let's go."
She held out her hand in a please gesture.
Luke's eyes kept dodging, and he stayed silent for a moment before he finally nodded like he was giving up.
He set his bag down and followed her toward the storage room.
Of course, there were no new guidebooks in the storage room at all.
Seraphina walked him in a circle and then brought him back to the classroom while she said, "Maybe the teacher remembered the wrong place."
By then, his expression wasn't just nervous anymore, because a thin edge of alertness finally showed.
She looked around.
Good, everyone was gone now.
"Then I'll… go home…"
Trying to run again?
Not that easy.
"Could you wait just a little longer?"
His movement turned stiff like rusty machinery as he looked over, and his voice stayed at that proper acting level of shy.
"W-what… else…?"
"Your homework solutions…"
Seraphina lifted Luke's chemistry workbook in her hand.
"The teacher said there are problems, so she asked me to stay and talk it through with you."
A flash of impatience flickered in his eyes, and she caught it.
It vanished fast, and he covered it with fake panic.
"Ah… r-really? S-sorry… I…"
"It's okay, I don't really get it either, so I wanted to look at it with you."
Seraphina cut off his stale stutter, and she stepped in again until they were close enough to smell each other's breath.
"But before we talk homework, can we talk about something else first?"
She dropped every trace of her smile, but her voice turned playful.
"For example… your acting, Mr. Liar?"
Luke's face went stiff.
"I… I don't understand what you're saying…"
His voice started shaking for real.
"You don't understand?"
Seraphina raised her right index finger, and with her pale pink nail polish on display, she tapped his uniform over his chest with a teasing push.
"Then let's rewind."
"Yesterday, who was it that handled that boring mess with those lawyer-level, airtight arguments?"
Her fingertip drew small circles lightly where she touched him, and she could clearly feel his body already locked tight like stone.
"And who was it that switched right back into this fake little act the second it ended, hmm?"
"That… that time was… an accident…"
He tried to hold on to the last bit of resistance.
Seraphina laughed softly.
"Do you really think I'd believe that? That's not fun at all."
"Be good, and stop acting."
Her pressure came in waves, and it kept smashing against his shaky disguise.
"Li~ar~"
Finally, under her stare that carried total control, his tight body started to loosen.
He let out a long sigh like he didn't care anymore.
That panicked expression faded, and what came back was flat exhaustion and boredom.
"Seraphina."
Luke straightened his back, and even though his body still looked dry and thin under the loose uniform jacket, he no longer gave off that weak vibe that people could grab and squeeze.
His voice sounded clean in that teenage way, but his tone was dead, like it had no energy left.
"What do you want?"
That name. That tone.
Yeah, this was the real him.
"Just let me go."
"I only want a quiet life, and I want to finish high school normally, get into a good college, and then go home."
He backed down, and his voice showed real helplessness, like he'd given up fighting.
"I don't want trouble, and I don't want attention, so I'm begging you, okay?"
So he wasn't some vicious beast, and he wasn't some deep schemer either.
He was just… a guy who wanted a steady life.
That really was the newest kind of toy she'd ever seen.
Seraphina smiled again, and it was sweet and pretty while it was also openly delighted.
She lifted her chin and rose onto her toes, and she leaned in until her nose was almost touching his jaw.
She lowered her voice on purpose and let her breath brush his skin.
"But… you're the one I'm most interested in."
She reached out as she spoke, and she tried to touch Luke's cheek now that he'd dropped the act.
But he dodged her attack with a quick, sharp move like a cat that got its tail stepped on.
"Please, have some respect."
Luke pressed back against the wall and warned her in a cold voice.
It looked like a perfect response, but Seraphina caught the tiny detail that mattered most.
His ear tips had already turned a thin pink at some point without him noticing.
That mark was way more real than the forced deep red he used to squeeze onto his face earlier.
A rush of pleasure spread through her chest like thick liquor.
It was a strange feeling.
He tried to stay calm with coldness and logic, but his body sold him out with the most honest, most innocent reaction.
That extreme contrast and contradiction was too fun.
"All right."
"With you being this cute, I'll let you off for today, Lilu."
After that, Seraphina picked up her backpack and walked out without looking back.
Right before she closed the door, she could still feel the stare behind her, and it was mixed with irritation and confusion.
Hehe.
The game was only just starting.