Sebastian Ashford's POV
Rain Wang hasn't been to class in a week.
Seven whole days.
I counted.Not in theory. Not abstractly.I counted.
Monday, her seat was empty. I assumed she was late.Tuesday, still no show.Wednesday, I started checking the campus cafe near the east wing. Nothing.Thursday, I found myself walking past the first-year dorms without any logical reason.And Friday—Friday I sat in the lecture hall for an hour after everyone left, just staring at the second row, far-left seat. Like if I looked long enough, she'd flicker into existence again.
But she didn't.
She's really gone.
Because of me.
Because I had to open my mouth and let my rot spill out.
"Wow. Rain Wang trying to look pretty today. What's the occasion, charity drive?"Everyone laughed."Maybe she's finally trying to catch a rich boyfriend to pay off that scholarship."Louder laughs.I heard someone mutter behind me: "Isn't she the one with hair down to her knees? What is she, Rapunzel's sad cousin?"
I saw her flinch.But I looked away.Too proud.Too pathetic.Too jealous that some other guy helped her with her notes that morning and got a smile I've been craving for months.
And now?
Now even the whispers are fading.The jokes have stopped.Because Rain Wang is a ghost.And the worst part is—
I made her that way.
"She hasn't been to anatomy all week," someone said today near the lockers."I heard she hasn't left her room," another girl whispered. "Like, at all. Total breakdown.""Didn't you hear what Sebastian said to her? I mean, damn. He practically shredded her alive in front of everyone.""Not surprising. He's always been cruel. Especially to her.""I think he's obsessed with her. That's what it is. Can't stand not being noticed."
They don't even try to whisper quietly anymore.And I don't even try to deny it.
Because they're right.
I am obsessed.
That hair. Those eyes. The way she folds into herself like she's scared of the world—but still shows up anyway. Still tries. Still dares to be seen.
God, I remember the way her dress clung to her. The soft, draping white like a cloud wrapping around a storm. Her long black hair spilled like ink down her back, almost touching her knees.
It moved when she walked. Flowed. Heavy, straight, and beautiful.And I hated how much I wanted to touch it.I hated that I imagined wrapping it around my fingers while she looked up at me with those wide, startled eyes.
So I turned that hunger into cruelty.Into words sharp enough to slice her open.
Now?
I haven't eaten properly in three days.My notes are useless. My focus is gone.Every hallway looks too wide without her in it.The campus feels hollow.
Even Ardenleigh—the best university in the country, the place I once worshipped—feels like a godless shell now.
Because Rain Wang doesn't walk its halls anymore.
Because Rain Wang, the girl with eyes like storms and hair like night, is somewhere crying behind a locked dorm room door.And all I gave her was silence.
I thought being her senior gave me some kind of shield.That my rank, my name, my flawless academic record could protect me from consequence.
But nothing's protecting me from this.
Not the guilt.Not the whispers.Not the fact that I check the front gate every damn morning now just in case—Just in case today's the day she comes back.
Rain Wang is not here.And somehow, I feel like she took the sun with her.