The school gates were already crowded when they arrived. Students stood in groups, laughing, gossiping, their voices echoing across the courtyard.
But the moment Aria and Ethan walked in together, everything went silent.
Every head turned.
Every whisper stopped mid-sentence.
Ethan felt the weight of their eyes instantly. His shoulders tensed, his hands slipped into his pockets, and he looked straight ahead — pretending not to notice the stares.
But Aria noticed everything.
The way her friends exchanged glances.
The way one of them, Chloe, blinked in disbelief and whispered, "Is that Ethan? With her?"
Another girl snorted. "And she's wearing his shirt? What's going on?"
Aria lifted her chin high, refusing to look away. Her heart was pounding, but her steps didn't falter.
Let them talk, she thought. She'd made her choice.
"Aria!" Chloe called out as they approached the lockers. "What's this? Since when are you and him close?"
Aria turned to her slowly, her expression calm but firm.
"Since I realized he's a better person than most of the people I hang out with."
Chloe's jaw dropped. "What?"
"You heard me," Aria said, her voice steady. "So if anyone here has a problem with him, they have a problem with me too."
The hallway went quiet again. Some of the students exchanged shocked looks, others looked away.
Ethan stood beside her, his face unreadable, though a tiny smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
When the crowd finally began to move again, he leaned closer and said under his breath,
"You didn't have to do that."
"Yes, I did," she replied softly.
He looked at her for a moment — really looked at her — and saw something new in her eyes. Something fierce. Something real.
"You've changed," he said quietly.
Aria looked down, pretending to adjust her bag strap. "Maybe I just started noticing things I should've seen before."
They walked to class together in silence, but the tension in the air wasn't the same as before.
It wasn't heavy or bitter — it was charged, like something was shifting between them.
As they sat down, Aria noticed a small note folded on her desk. She opened it.
"You can fool your friends, but we know who you really are."
Her stomach dropped.
Ethan saw the change in her face. "What is it?"
She crumpled the paper in her hand and forced a smile. "Nothing. Just someone being stupid."
But deep down, she knew this was far from over.
Protecting Ethan was one thing — facing the people who used to be her friends would be another battle entirely.