Falling back into the soft pillows, Ashton stared up at her in confusion.
“Hey, Ashton…”
Her lazy smile carried the sharpness of a hunter zeroing in on prey, her eyes gleaming with an inexplicable and intoxicating light.
“Your acting is terrible.”
She figured it out…
Caging Ashton within her grasp, Avira leaned in even closer, their lips almost touching.
“So, before you kissed me, you must have been ready… to face my punishment, right?”
At the basketball court.
Under the night sky, the court felt vast and empty. George’s calm, cool voice sounded even clearer in the silence.
Catching the basketball Avira had tossed into the hoop, George spoke.
“Avira, do you hate me?”
Avira shook her head lightly. “I don’t hate you…”
“But I hate Avira.”
Walking toward her, George reached out and touched her cheek.
“I hate that there are always so many people around you.”
“Huh…?”
Avira looked at him, confused by his words.
“I hate the way you smile at others.”
“…”
“I hate how close you are with other people.”
Each word brought him a step closer.
Until Avira’s back pressed against the basketball hoop’s post, leaving her with no room to retreat.
“George…”
The basketball slipped from Avira’s hands, hitting the ground with a dull thud.
She reached out to push George away, but he caught her hand in his, holding it tightly.
“I also hate that Avira doesn’t like me.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly kissed her.
Avira stood there, utterly frozen, unable to process what had just happened.
George had intended for the kiss to be brief, but he quickly realized that once certain emotions were laid bare, they became impossible to contain.
The faint, subtle fragrance in her hair drew him in, intoxicating and irresistible. It made him want to hold her like this forever.
She was the one who made him decide to play basketball again. She was the one who brought him back to the court. And she was the one who made him feel, for the first time, the desire to approach someone, to like someone.
Avira…
You’ve already shattered my calm and uneventful world. So now…
You have to take responsibility.
“Avira.”
Finally, he released her, though his gaze was unexpectedly soft, something even he didn’t notice.
“From now on, like me.”
Elsewhere
Ashton, often referred to as a prodigy, was a boy who earned high praise in the music world—a pioneer described as the first to possess the key to the gates of heaven.
The way he looked at Avira…
His gaze always carried an unmistakable fondness.
It was a long-standing, unshakable kind of affection.
“Really… what a problem…”
Ashton ran a hand through his hair, sighing softly in exasperation.
If only I weren’t afraid of you hating me, I’d love to tell you outright, ‘Don’t smile at any man other than me.’
It’s so unfair that I’m the only one who likes you this much.
But… that didn’t matter anymore.
A faint smile tugged at his lips, as light as morning mist, but tinged with the alluring brilliance of a rainbow. His usual mysterious charm, like a whisper in the night, had never been so vivid.
Because no matter who they are, I have no intention of giving you to anyone else.
A week later
The results for the piano test retake were announced.
Thanks to Ashton’s guidance, Avira managed to scrape past the passing line.
The branches of the French sycamores swayed, their green leaves intertwined, rustling in the breeze that carried the warmth of the setting sun.
Avira slung her bag lazily over her shoulder as she strolled toward the gym at the end of the road.
Somehow, Eastwest always felt like the kind of place that could capture and hold onto sunlight.
Though every part of the campus was so opulent it left people in awe, the air carried the fresh scent of greenery. It didn’t feel weighed down by aristocratic grandeur; instead, it felt refreshingly light and relaxing.
It was said that Eastwest Academy had been established during the era of Don Kay, Asake’s father. However, it was a young Don Kay who had drawn up the design plans for the academy, declaring at the time, “I will create a world that I want to exist.”
