By lunch, the entire campus was whispering about one thing:
> "Kairo dragged the girl from Section E out of class."
> "Did they fight?"
> "Or flirt?"
> "Who even *is* she?"
Sera walked through it all like mist. Untouchable. Unbothered.
But inside?
Her thoughts were storming.
Kairo had said her last name out loud.
Velasquez.
No one should've known. Not yet. Not this fast.
She sat under the old mango tree behind the library — the only place students didn't pollute with their noise.
And then…
Someone sat across from her.
Again.
This time, it wasn't Jax.
It was **a girl with crimson lips and stormed colour eyes*.
Her uniform was altered. Skirt shorter. Tie undone. Aura dangerous.
"Red Widow," Sera said softly.
The girl smiled. "In the flesh."
Red Widow wasn't just a hacker. She was a whisper — Aurora's most dangerous ghost, said to know everything about everyone. Nobody knew her real name.
"You weren't supposed to meet me yet," Sera murmured.
"Well," Red said, plucking a cherry from her lunch box, "Kairo forced my hand."
Sera narrowed her eyes. "You watching him too?"
"No." She bit into the cherry slowly. "I'm watching *you*. He just makes the view more interesting."
Sera said nothing.
Red leaned in. "You're cracking, V. That fire in you? It's flickering."
Sera smiled thinly. "A flicker still burns. Want to see?"
Red Widow's grin widened. "That's the girl I'm betting on."
---
### **ELSEWHERE KAIRO'S POV**
In the upper lounge, Kairo watched security footage again.
But this time, it wasn't her face he was watching.
It was the people watching *her.*
Jax.
A black-suited driver outside the gates.
And now… **Red widow**?
He rubbed his temple, heart pounding for a reason he refused to name.
Obsession? No.
This was strategy.
Control.
Contain the threat before it spreads.
And yet…
Her voice echoed in his head.
*"Maybe you'll finally feel what it's like to burn."*
He exhaled slowly and whispered to the screen:
" what are you,sera?"