Once she received the destination, Peneri began leading the two of them with large strides as if she were the one who needed to report to the classroom.
Halfway down the first hallway, she spun on her heel and began walking backwards. Her index finger hooked over her sunglasses, lowering them down the bridge of her nose, just enough for her eyes to peek over the rims.
"First question," she announced. "Is it true you have a harem waiting for you at home?"
That was most definitely not the question he expected to hear. It wasn't in the first thousand or even the first million.
"...No."
"Really? I was convinced that one was true."
"Where did you even hear that?"
"I don't know. The grapevine." She shrugged. "Since you don't entertain any of the students who have crushes on you, rumours started forming. Some people think either your thing down there doesn't work…" she paused dramatically, "…or you already have a harem."
"That's a reach."
"I agree. I didn't believe it. If anything, I would've assumed you have a secret girlfriend you're hiding from the rest of the school body."
"But you just said that—"
"Second question," she cut in before he could call out her hypocrisy. "Are you and Diana acquainted by any chance?"
What answer should he give?
He thought about how Diana was approaching the situation and decided that it would be best if he followed through with her desire not to let anyone know about what had occurred between them.
"Which Diana?" he asked, feigning confusion.
"Diana Watson. You know, the honour student who can manipulate ice."
"That Diana? I know of her but acquainted, we are not," he lied smoothly.
"Really?" Peneri raised a brow, clearly unconvinced. She pivoted left without even glancing at where she was going, navigating the hall by instinct alone.
"Then, third question," she continued, her cheerful expression fading into something sharper. It felt like a different person entirely. "This is a follow-up to the second. If you two aren't acquainted…"
She stopped walking backwards, her voice dropping.
"…why does she keep saying your name when she sleeps?"
Bell blinked.
'She's doing that?' he thought as he shrugged his shoulders lightly.
"No idea. You'd have to ask her."
"Are you sure?" she pressed.
"Yeah. As I said, we're not acquainted."
"Are you really sure?"
"Yes."
"Are you super duper sure?"
"..."
"Are you quadruple sure with sprinkles on top?"
"...Is that all you wanted to ask me?"
"Almost. Do you have a girlfriend?" she asked as the seriousness in her face disappeared in an instant.
"No. Why? Are you interested even though you called me ugly earlier?"
"I didn't call you ugly. I said that you weren't all you were hyped up to be. And I said, that was a joke. But no. I'm not interested in you. A few of my friends are, and since you're single, it'll help fuel their delusions and dreams. Thank you for the answer, my good sir," she said with a dramatic, exaggerated bow.
"You're welcome. Is that all?"
"Yes. That's all from me. Have a nice day, Bell. And don't be a stranger next time we cross paths in the hallway. Say hi or something."
"But we are strangers."
"True. Peace," she said as she stopped walking backwards and took a step forward. The two of them passed each other and went their separate ways.
Well, they were going their separate ways until Peneri turned around and stared at his back with a serious expression that was stripped of all humour and lightness.
"I didn't expect you to tell me the truth," she uttered.
She didn't believe a word of his earlier denial. Not one.
Something had happened between him and Diana — something her best friend refused to talk about. Whenever Diana said Bell's name in her sleep, it was with the breathless terror of someone whispering their killer's name.
Peneri had confronted her about it multiple times. Diana always denied it, saying Peneri must have misunderstood her sleep-talking.
"How could I misunderstand," Peneri sighed, "when you're saying his full name so clearly?"
Then there was last night. Diana disappeared in the middle of the night and came back looking like a disaster. She did not explain, no matter how many times Peneri asked. She didn't even take a shower despite looking like she had worked up a sweat. She just collapsed into bed.
Hours later, Peneri woke up to Diana screaming Bell's name.
And when she looked up, ice blades were embedded in the ceiling.
Her hands clenched into fists.
"If I find out you've harmed her in any way," she said, voice low and solemn, "I swear on my god's honour, I will kill you. Your death won't be quick nor painless."
Then she turned and walked away.
Even from afar, Bell could feel the daggers shot out from her eyes, stabbing into his neck and back.
* * *
Diana's senses were so amplified that she was able to stare at a person from afar and still see every last detail down to their tiniest pores.
Even from her vantage point, she could look at a person and analyse them as if she were mere inches away from them.
Right now, her eyes were fixed on him.
That handsome young man with black hair and red eyes.
Bell.
His face was impossibly symmetrical, the kind of perfection that didn't feel natural on a human being. The toned muscle sitting under the fabric of his school uniform, hinted at by the lines of his neck and the way his shoulders filled the jacket. His features had matured recently, settling into a balance that made him look both youthful and intimidating.
Compared to him, Diana felt like she was a frozen marble statue that someone had thawed out and instructed to walk among the living.
Beautiful, yes — unnaturally so ever since her vampiric blood activated, but she felt inhuman, stiff, and cold.
School had already ended, but instead of heading off to where she needed to go, she'd accidentally spotted her worst enemy, Bell, meeting up with a small group.
She was out in the city to try and search for news about the man she had attacked, yet it was like fate had pulled her in the same direction that Bell was in.
Her focus had shifted immediately.
What did she do once she saw him?
She followed them.
In a single jump, she landed silently atop a four-story building. You'd think that the concrete would crack from how fast she landed, but it was like she weighed nothing.
From there, she bounced from rooftop to rooftop with effortless grace, her eyes locked onto the car Bell had stepped into.
Her leaps cleared signs, clotheslines, and the cramped mess of city architecture with precision.
It wasn't just him in the car whose identity she knew; she also recognised another student, Maya Malkovia.
But Diana wasn't the only one stalking from the shadows. Someone else was stalking, not Bell, but her.
They were disguised enough that they wouldn't get caught easily, even if Diana glanced in their direction, but not enough that they would raise suspicion amongst the crowd.
It was Peneri.
She wasn't fast enough to race alongside a moving car.
She also most certainly could not leap across rooftops like Diana — a feat that left her jaw nearly dropped to the floor when she first saw Diana's body arc like a rainbow across the skyline.
But she was efficient, and by pedalling her bike hard, weaving through alleyways, cutting corners, and using every shortcut she knew to keep Diana within sight, she kept up by the smallest of margins.
Speeding through tight spaces, she was doing whatever it took to avoid losing track of her target, even if she had no idea why Diana was following Bell in the first place.
She had actually been following Diana the entire time since she left the school campus. Diana had looked like she had a purpose out in the city, and Peneri had a feeling that if she followed him, she would discover the truth about why her best friend was so different this semester.
Two stalkers. Stalking different people.
But they weren't alone. It didn't just stop at two.
Another car was closely following Bell's luxurious car. Bell's model wasn't even released yet, as it was exclusive to the Agnus family for the time being, but the car behind was the most expensive one on the market.
The person inside was either a noble or a merchant.
Grace was the one who was sitting in the car.
Her expression could have soured milk.
First, Maya had cancelled their sparring session out of nowhere. That alone annoyed her. But when Grace went to confront her after school, she saw Maya climbing into the same car as Bell.
They looked like they were heading somewhere.
Grace knew it was immature. She knew following them was nosy. She knew she should just let it go.
But when she remembered Bell's words from earlier, his stance as if he was a parent teaching a child, giving her advice that she didn't ask for — all of that had grated on her nerves.
And then Maya changed her plans to go off with him?
How dare she?
So she decided to follow them.
It was just to make sure that they weren't secretly out on a date.
Just for that.
She didn't want her rival ruined by some random boy.
That was the only reason.
Right.
That was all.
She "definitely" did not have any other reason for following them.
She was definitely not jealous that her only friend was choosing to hang out with someone other than her. Absolutely not.
It was definitely not because they already had limited time to hang out together in the guise of sparring, and the fact that the limited time became even shorter, actually cancelled entirely, made her chest twist in ways that felt uncomfortable, unlike anything she had ever felt before.
She was most definitely not jealous.
No. No, no.
Definitely not those reasons.
She was stalking — following them for a perfectly reasonable reason.
It was simply to make sure her rival wasn't wasting her precious training hours going on dates when she should be focused on getting stronger and maintaining her place as number one, a position that Grace wanted to fight for.
That was all.
Totally.
Obviously.
…Probably.