Sebastian's POV
I wasn't eavesdropping.
I just happened to be in the hallway behind the Performing Arts wing, alone, scrolling through my messages while sipping black coffee that tasted like bitterness and war—when I heard them.
Three girls. Low-voiced but not exactly whispering. And laughing.
Not the nice kind.
"You know what I don't get?" one of them said. Her voice had that lazy, glossy tone of someone who thought everything she said was gospel. "How Ray Lin is, like, everywhere."
There was a pause.
Then another voice, sharper. "She's so loud. Does she ever stop talking?"
"Right?" The third one chimed in. "She acts like everyone's her best friend. Like, girl, the janitor does not need to know what your cat had for breakfast."
They all laughed.
I didn't move. I didn't need to. They hadn't noticed me.
Not yet.
The second voice continued, dripping with mockery, "'Hi Mr. Chen! How's your back today? Want a pastry?'" She imitated Ray's cheerful tone. "Like calm down, Saint Ray."
"Who talks to the guards and the cleaning staff like that anyway?" the first scoffed. "She's such a pick-me. All smiles and sparkles and 'I love everyone!'"
"She literally tripped on air last week," the third said with a snort. "I swear, it's all a show. She probably fakes half that clumsy-cute act for attention."
I could feel something crawling up my spine.
Still, I didn't move.
They didn't stop.
"You know what I heard?" the second one said, in that dangerous whisper girls use right before saying something vile. "That Professor Jin? The one that looks like a K-drama lead? I heard Ray got an A+ in his class last semester."
"No way."
"I mean—would you be surprised? She's pretty. And we all know she likes attention. Wouldn't be the first time a girl got a grade upgrade for being... friendly."
I turned the corner slowly.
Not a word.
Just the soft tap of my boots echoing against marble tile.
They saw me instantly.
And froze.
Three of them. All standing near the vending machines. Caught like deer in headlights.
I didn't say anything.
Didn't have to.
I just looked.
One long, searing glare. Direct. Unapologetic. I made sure each one of them felt it. From their cheeks to their spines.
They went dead quiet.
One tried to mumble something, like "We weren't talking about—" but her voice collapsed halfway through.
I stepped closer.
Only a foot between us now.
I tilted my head slightly and raised a brow—subtle, surgical, terrifying.
Silence.
The first girl looked down at her phone. The second pretended to sip her drink. The third shifted on her feet like her heels had grown too high all of a sudden.
I let them stew in it for three long seconds more. Then I turned and walked past without a word.
Because I knew Ray.
I knew how she danced into rooms with her hair swinging like silk and her hands full of napkins and croissants. How she remembered birthdays, complimented strangers, and made everyone from the Dean to the damn janitor feel like they mattered.
She wasn't a pick-me.
She was a sunshine storm in a world full of gray, and that scared the hell out of people who only knew how to survive in shadows.
And if they said one more word like that again
They'd wish I had said something.
Because my silence wouldn't last forever.