Ding—dong.
The break bell rang, and like insects fleeing light, students began slipping out of their seats.
But as they filed past, not one ignored the pair still seated in the middle of the class.
Raizen Kuronaga, formerly Hanazawa Takumi, sat confidently in the middle row. His arms folded. One leg crossed over the other. A small smirk rested at the corner of his lips. But inside?
He was calculating. Quiet.
Beside him, Xuē Liuyue sat poised, her hanfu barely shifting with each breath. She hadn't spoken since the earlier incident. Her expression was unreadable—an elegant mask carved from disdain.
And yet, the tension between them could be cut with a blade.
Students walked past carefully, eyes flicking back and forth. Some whispered. Others giggled nervously.
And then—
"Hanazawa-kun."
A voice like honey dipped in morning dew.
Soft, melodic, and slightly shy.
He turned just as a girl with perfect, almost ethereal features stepped forward.
Long ash blone hair clipped to the side with a pin. Pale, translucent skin. Big, bright eyes that could shame a puppy.
Seo Yuna.
She was the top student of the department—both in grades and charm. People called her the "Sweet Goddess."
"I'm glad you're alright," she said gently.
She placed a small box of chocolate on his desk with a neatly folded sticky note on top.
Then she smiled—soft, sincere—waiting for him to read the words in the sticky note.
Raizen stared at the chocolate, then at her.
So this is the girl Takumi…
Huh. No lust. No seduction. Just pure care. This idiot must've helped her in some way…
He picked up the note. It had a chibi doodle of a smiling cat and three words:
"Welcome back, dummy."
But before he could react—
"Yuna!" a stern, sharp voice called out.
A hand latched onto Seo Yuna's arm and pulled her. A slender, athletic girl in black dress with short slits at the side stepped in front of her protectively and pulled her away.
Short straight black hair tied in a ponytail. Oversized shirt and a tight skirt. Sharp eyes behind thin glasses. Her aura is mature and over protective with a gal face that makes her standout.
She Fujikawa Sayaka, the famous freshmen cheerleader that inspired the basketball team to win against their school rivals on their first game of the season.
While Sayaka was pulling yuna through the door, they naturally landed infront of Miss Xuē.
Yuna forced her way out of Sayaka's arms then she glared first at Raizen, then at Xuē Liuyue.
And then she stood square in front of her.
"I'm warning you," yuna said, arms folded, voice sweet but tinged with iron. "Don't you dare mess with Takumi again! He just got back. If anything happens to him…just don't do anything stupid—or else" said by a cute voice but with a fierce passion, it's hard to take her seriously with that cute charming voice.
The entire class froze. Even Raizen raised a brow.
Xuē Liuyue looked up from her, expression blank.
Then she leaned back slightly, one brow raised, and said in a slow, cocky drawl:
"Else what?" She flicked her hair over her shoulder. "What can you do to me?"
Sayaka flinched.
Seo Yuna, still stammered, "T-then… then I-I'll hate you!"
Her cheeks puffed, her face red, hands balled into tiny fists.
Xuē blinked, slightly taken aback.
Sayaka sighed and pulled her away by the arm again. "Come on, drama queen. I'm starving."
"I'm still talking!" Yuna squeaked as she was dragged off, throwing one last worried glance back at Raizen.
As they left the room, Raizen leaned back, quietly amused. Xuē, however, hadn't smiled.
Not once.
Finally, the teacher—who had been very obviously pretending to shuffle papers—cleared his throat and stood.
"Er… well, I guess I'll go… eat too."
He glanced at the tension still hanging in the air.
"Just, uh… don't kill each other while I'm gone."
He vanished through the door like a ghost.
The classroom was empty.
Raizen felt it first.
That eerie… presence.
Peeking. Whispering.
He glanced at the windows.
The classroom was silent. Too silent.
the swarm of eyes peeking through the windows, their breaths fogging up the glass like gossiping spirits craving a scandal.
Even the teacher, who should've left long ago, was crouching near the hallway wall, craning his neck with an unholy curiosity hidden inside the mobs of students.
Inside, it was just Xuē Liuyue and Raizen—formerly known as Takumi.
She sat poised with her arms crossed, the flowing sleeves of her fantasy hanfu trailing across the wooden desk like the robe of an empress presiding over her court. Beside her, Raizen slouched lazily in his seat—radiating a devil-may-care aura that had no business existing in an academy of elites.
She was glaring. He was smirking.
Dangerous tension filled the air—
Until she broke the silence.
"You really don't care about what you did, do you?"
Raizen leaned on one elbow, resting his cheek against his fist. His gaze slid toward her, lazy and amused.
"Hmm. You'll have to be more specific," he said, smirking. "I've done a lot of bad things in a very short time."
He tilted his head with a mock-thoughtful expression.
"Which one made you blush this time, Liuyue?"
Her fists tightened beneath the flowing silk of her sleeves.
That name.
Spoken so casually. So mockingly.
No one called her that—not like that. Not lived without consequences.
She hissed under her breath:
"You humiliated me. You embarrassed me in front of everyone. Again."
Raizen scoffed, casually glancing around the empty classroom. He lazily lifted a finger toward the ceiling.
"Pretty sure you did that to yourself. Sound barrier, right? No one can hear us."
Xuē Liuyue's eye twitched.
Her barrier wasn't supposed to be that obvious.
"…Of course I cast a barrier," she said coolly. "I don't like flies buzzing when I'm trying to swat a cockroach."
Raizen let out a low chuckle. "A cockroach, huh? Is that what I am now?"
She leaned in across the desk, her voice dropping—cold, precise, poisonous.
"You were a weak man," she said coldly, "who barked at my feet like a dog. And now you think a new haircut and a bit of fake swagger erases everything?"
Her voice cracked, just slightly.
"You begged me not to leave you. You said you'd kill yourself."
Raizen's smile didn't vanish—it froze.
His eyes lost their usual glint of playfulness. What replaced it wasn't rage. It was something far colder.
"You're right," he said evenly. "Takumi said that."
He leaned back in his chair, his voice chilled steel.
"But I'm not him anymore. So maybe you should stop treating me like your damn pet."
Xuē's spine straightened. Her face didn't twitch, but the air around her tightened.
"Is that so? Then tell me… who are you now?"
Raizen stood slowly, turning his back to her as he gazed out the window. Below, students glanced up—but none dared hold his gaze.
"I'm someone who finally understands how to deal with women like you."
Her eyes flickered.
"Oh? Enlighten me. What kind of woman am I, exactly?"
He tilted his head just enough to show her the crooked grin he wore.
"A manipulative witch who takes advantage of others"
Xuē sarcastically laughed from what he heard, "Then why are you even enrolled here? This place is fueled by power. Eat or be eaten, I'm here in this city to become someone, I'm not here to play the nice game, I will take everything i can"
Raizen agreed inside his heart, this girl is not wrong, the problem is she tried to eat the wrong prey.
She begun to look down on him using her eyes, trying to make him feel weak and little.
"So tell me again… what kind of woman am I?
Just a woman who knows how to hold power over weak little men like you?"
"Well you're the kind who wraps herself in power not because she enjoys it… but because she's terrified of being powerless."
Xuē's eyes narrowed.
"All the sorority stuff i've heard? Just a disguise. You don't lead because you're strong, Liuyue," he added. "You lead because you're scared of what happens if you stop."
That one cut.
For just a moment, the ice cracked. A flicker of something raw crossed her face—hurt? shock? memory?—but it was gone as quickly as it came.
She rose to her feet, silk hanfu fluttering like butterfly wings in a storm.
"You think you can analyze me like some cheap psychology book? You think because you sat next to me and called me by my first name you understand me?"
"No," he said, finally turning to face her fully. "I don't understand you."
Pause.
"But I can see right through you."
Her pupils dilated slightly.
"And people like you?" he continued. "You're not scared of being overthrown. You're scared of being seen. Really seen."
She stepped closer, closing the space between them until the air itself seemed charged. She released her aura on to him to make him kneel.
Raizen felt it—
That subtle pressure radiating from her gaze, from her very presence.
She wanted him to kneel. To crumble. To become that pathetic man she used to toy with.
But he didn't.
He clenched his fists, channeling every drop of the lust energy he had cultivated—not to seduce, not to charm—
but to resist.
To stay standing.
To prove he wasn't hers to break anymore.
Xuē Liuyue's eyes narrowed.
For the first time in years—maybe ever—she felt it.
Uncertainty.
This wasn't the same boy who used to follow behind her like a dog waiting for scraps.
Not the same weakling who begged her with teary eyes under the rain that night.
Something had changed.
No… evolved.
His gaze no longer trembled. His aura no longer bent under hers.
And that smirk—arrogant, unbothered, defiant—
It wasn't borrowed confidence.
It was earned.
"How…?" she thought, eyes locking with his.
"What the hell happened to you in just a few days?"
She leaned in—just slightly, unconsciously—like a noble inspecting a foreign beast paraded before her.
Her breath was faint but sharp, her lashes lowering as if searching for cracks in his mask.
As he saw her try to lean closer and inspect him, he commented jokingly.
"What's next? A kiss?"
Raizen smirked, eyes flicking shamelessly to her lips, then back to her gaze.
Her tone dropped to a growl.
"You really have a death wish, Hanazawa."
"Maybe," he murmured. "But I already died once, You just weren't there to see it."
He leaned in, nose nearly brushing hers.
"And this time, I'm not begging for death. I'm asking for something much harder."
She blinked.
"For you to admit you're just a manipulative coward."
Silence.
Outside, even the chatter of gossipers and flirtations had vanished. The classroom, the hallway, the world—it all held its breath. They can't believe their eyes, Takumi is actually standing toe to toe with Xuē as equals.
Xuē Liuyue didn't blink. Didn't flinch.
But she did turn.
With perfect grace, she spun on her heel. Her robe whipped through the air—so close it brushed against Raizen's cheek.
He didn't move.
Click.
The barrier vanished.
The sound returned. The whispers, the giggles, the gasps.
As she was leaving her lips trembling faintly. He didn't see it. No one ever could. The moment she cared… she always made sure to hide it.
Xuē stormed down the hallway as the crowd parted like the sea before a storm.
Everyone was disappointed they didn't hear anything from the argument.
Inside the classroom, Raizen sat back down, resting one foot over his knee.
"I don't lose to women like that," Raizen muttered with a crooked smirk.
But under the desk, his fingers trembled slightly.
Not from fear.
From excitement.
His cock throbbed painfully against his pants. That face—Xuē Liuyue's flawless, unreadable face—had been so close. Her lips, her breath, the silent command in her eyes…
It was terrifying.
And it turned him on more than anything ever had.
The moment she turned away, he collapsed back into his seat like he'd just finished a hundred-meter sprint. But instead of exhaustion… he felt it.
Lust energy. Thick. Tangible. Buzzing in his blood.
He could see it—faint threads of condensed arousal leaking from his skin, swirling in invisible coils before re-entering him like smoke through cracked lips.
Raizen sat quietly, eyes half-lidded, absorbing it.
Cultivating.
Charging.
"She might be more than just a challenge…" he thought, closing his eyes.
"She could be a damn jackpot."
Just arguing with her had made him release this much. And the quality—so dense, so potent—it left a pleasant ache behind his eyes.
"Is it because I'm still a virgin? Or… because of her?"
His smirk twitched.
"Or maybe this body just has a kink for terrifying women, that would explain Takumi's stupid infatuation towards her.
He gritted his teeth as the lingering tension pulsed through his groin.
"Just standing near her was like being lit on fire and sucked dry."
"Whether we fight, argue, or f*ck… I need more of that."
This wasn't just about power anymore.
It was strategy.
"There must be others like her… Women whose presence alone turns my body into a conduit for lust. Women whose strength makes my instincts explode."
He took a slow breath, his vision sharpening as the energy settled.
With this amount, he could finally unlock the first level of memory control—just enough to stabilize his recall, suppress Takumi's lingering trauma, and access some surface-level incubus techniques.
But it wasn't enough. Not for what he wanted.
No…
He needed more.
A lot more.
And the strongest women… were usually the most dangerous ones to chase.
He smiled to himself, staring at Xuē Liuyue's back as she gracefully walked out of the classroom, unaware of what she had just gifted him.