The morning sunlight slipped through the blinds, drawing lines across the floor like prison bars. It was a new day, but the same game — just with new opponents.
At school, the atmosphere buzzed with the usual weekday monotony: laughter echoing down the hallway, sneakers squeaking, and someone yelling about a test they forgot to study for. I walked through it all in silence, my expression unreadable, the faintest smirk ghosting across my face.
Ryan waved from his locker. "Hey, man! You look like you didn't sleep again."
I shrugged. "I don't sleep. I wait."
He snorted. "That's so dramatic, Ethan. You should join the theater club."
Claire leaned on the locker beside him, twirling a pen between her fingers. "He'd steal the spotlight. Mysterious loner energy and all that."
I gave her a dry look. "You'd trip over the curtain trying to flirt with the cast."
"Only if the cast is cute," she shot back.
Typical morning banter. Harmless noise. But beneath it, my mind was already somewhere else — specifically, watching her.
Aria sat near the windows, reading, as always. A novel this time. Her hair caught the sunlight like silver threads, and there was an ease to her posture that didn't fit with the way she watched people when she thought no one noticed.
She wasn't from here — that much I was sure of. Her movements were too precise, her tone too balanced. Every smile felt… practiced.
Interesting.
Claire noticed my glance and smirked. "You keep looking at her like you're trying to solve a puzzle, not like you like her."
"Maybe I am," I said.
After School
Aria was walking toward the train station when I decided to follow — casually, from a distance.
She was careful. Checked reflections in windows. Shifted her pace just enough to throw off timing. Not bad for someone who looked so innocent.
She entered a café — one of those cozy, quiet ones tucked between office buildings. I followed, ordered black coffee, and sat two tables behind her.
She was meeting someone. Middle-aged man, glasses, dressed too neatly for this neighborhood. Their conversation was low, but I caught fragments.
"...target... location compromised... need alternate extraction..."
The man slid her a small flash drive under a napkin. She nodded once, then smiled — that same too-perfect smile — and stood.
As she passed me, her gaze flicked to my cup for half a second too long. Then, her voice, calm and polite:
"Still black coffee, huh?"
I raised an eyebrow. "You've been watching me that closely?"
She tilted her head. "You're hard not to notice."
And just like that, she walked out.
I waited two minutes before leaving. She was gone. The man too. But the napkin with the flash drive? Left behind. Intentionally.
I smiled faintly. A test.
Later That Night
In my apartment, I plugged the drive into an isolated device. A single encrypted file blinked on the screen. I cracked it within five minutes.
Coordinates. A name."Project Helix: Phase 2."
No direct connection to my current mission, but close enough to matter.
I leaned back in my chair, tracing the threads in my head.Aria was working a side operation. Someone high-level had trusted her enough to carry sensitive data.
She wasn't just some curious classmate — she was trained.
I almost laughed. "Well, that makes things more interesting."
The Next Day
She acted normal. Too normal. The kind of normal that takes rehearsal.
"Morning," she greeted with a smile that could've sold sincerity to a skeptic.
"Morning," I replied evenly.
Ryan blinked between us. "Wait—are you two... talking now? Since when?"
"Since now," Aria said smoothly.
Claire raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I see how it is. Mystery brooding boy finally meets his match."
I ignored them both. But Aria caught my faint grin, and her lips curved — amused, not flustered.
She was testing me again. And I was letting her.
At lunch, she sat across from me. "You don't talk much," she said, opening her bottle of water.
"Most people talk too much," I said.
She chuckled. "You sound like someone who listens for a living."
That was close. Too close.
"And you sound like someone who hides it well," I said.
For a brief second, her smile faltered — then returned, softer this time. "Maybe we're not so different."
I wanted to tell her she was wrong. But something about the way she said it — quiet, almost wistful — made me pause.
Maybe she didn't know. Or maybe she did.Maybe both.
Either way, the game had changed.
That Night
My new handler's voice crackled through the encrypted earpiece. "Your next objective is tied to a rival faction. Codename Nyx. Eliminate her contact and trace the link."
"Name?" I asked.
"Still confirming," came the reply. "But we have an embedded operative at the school. Use caution."
A rival operative at the school.A girl with perfect composure.A flash drive left just long enough for me to find.
I stared at the dark window, my reflection blending with the city lights.
So that's how it is.
I smirked faintly. "Understood."
The next morning, Aria greeted me again, smiling like the day before — bright, disarming, and just slightly too knowing.
I smiled back. "You're early today."
"Couldn't sleep," she said. "You?"
"Same."
Two liars, pretending to be normal students.Two predators, circling the same truth.
And neither had the faintest idea just how close the other's blade already was.