Yor Regret is Too Late!

12

"Whose locker is this?! Who dared to put this piece of junk in here?!"

Shinta’s screeching voice cut through the noisy twelfth-grade corridor like a razor through silk. Her shout caught the attention of dozens of students who had been chatting, and they quickly swarmed around, creating a suffocating crowd. I had just arrived, breathing heavily and sweating from running all the way from the school gate to avoid being late, when I suddenly froze. My feet stuck to the floor right in front of the tight circle surrounding locker number 142. My locker.

"Just rip it open! Let everyone see who the culprit is! Let’s show the whole school who the fake innocent brat really is!" another voice shouted from the back.

Crash!

The sound of the metal door being violently forced open echoed down the hallway, leaving a sharp, painful screech. The contents spilled out like worthless garbage. My dull notebooks, their corners curled and filled with hidden dress sketches, scattered across the cold marble floor. But it wasn't the notebooks that caught everyone's attention. Nor was it my faded pencil case.

Lying on top of my pile of fabric scraps—scraps I had painfully collected just to learn how to sew—was a pair of metallic silver high heels. Their luxurious shine stood in sharp contrast to the dust inside my locker. But the shoes were no longer beautiful. The heels were brutally snapped, the premium leather deeply gouged as if forced against rough asphalt, and the crystal embellishments on the toes were shattered into tiny pieces.

"Aria... how could you be so cruel to me?"

The voice was faint, trembling violently, and dripping with fabricated pain. Aileen stood at the very front of the crowd. She covered her mouth with a shaking hand, her large eyes already filling with tears that were ready to spill at any second. The corridor lights reflected off her pale face, making her look incredibly fragile, pure, and utterly broken all at the same time.

"Aileen, I just got here. I haven't even touched that locker since yesterday afternoon. I don't know why those shoes are in there—"

"You don't know? Do you think we're stupid?" Shinta lunged forward. Without warning, she shoved my shoulder so hard that my back slammed against the metal locker door with a loud thud. A sharp sting shot through my shoulder blades, but it was nothing compared to the sudden tightness suffocating my lungs. "You were the only one who entered the school building earliest this morning, Aria! The school security guard saw you! Stop acting innocent behind those thick glasses. You’re just jealous, aren't you? You’re jealous because Asher gave these limited-edition shoes to Aileen for her birthday, while you only have worn-out shoes that smell bad enough to make people sick?"

"I'm not jealous! It’s my locker, but I swear on my life, I never put those things in there!" I shouted. My voice cracked, clashing with the malicious whispers of the students around me. I looked straight into Aileen’s eyes, searching for even a tiny speck of honesty. But behind her flood of tears, I caught a very faint glint of satisfaction. A victorious smirk that only I could see because I had known her my entire life.

"What is going on here?"

The chaotic noise instantly died down, as if all the oxygen in the corridor had been sucked out. The crowd automatically parted, clearing a path for the one person everyone feared yet worshipped in this school. Asher walked in with a dominant, cold, and piercing aura. His flawless uniform and sharp, eagle-like gaze made everyone lower their heads.

His usually expressionless face hardened when he saw Aileen nearly collapsing in Shinta’s arms. His gaze shifted to the ruined silver shoes on the floor—shoes he had personally and carefully chosen—and then slowly, his eyes locked onto me.

That look... I would rather be slapped a thousand times or showered with insults than be stared at with such pure disgust by him. In his eyes, I was no longer his childhood friend. I was just dirt ruining his view.

"Asher... the shoes are ruined," Aileen sobbed, burying her face into Asher’s broad chest. Her crying sounded heartbreaking to anyone who heard it—except for me, who knew exactly how sharp the fangs were behind those tears. "I don't have any shoes to wear for the school gala tonight. I... I don't know what I did wrong to make Aria hate me so much. Don't I deserve to be happy just a little bit?"

Asher didn't say a word. Instead, he wrapped his strong arm around Aileen’s shoulders, holding her with incredible gentleness, as if protecting a priceless jewel from the world's worst monster. But when he looked back at me, that gentleness vanished, replaced by a cold, burning hatred. He bent down, picking up one of the broken shoes with his fingertips as if it were a disgusting piece of contaminated waste.

"I didn't think you could be this petty, Aria," Asher’s voice was low, but its volume completely silenced the entire hallway. "You wanted Aileen to be humiliated by not having shoes for the school event? How pathetic."

"It wasn't me, Asher! Please, just this once, listen to me! I was framed! Aileen put them there!" I tried to reach for his arm, begging for a shred of justice from the boy who had once promised to always protect me.

But Asher swatted my hand away brutally, causing me to stumble and almost fall. "What else is there to listen to? The proof is right here in your locker! Your name is clearly written on it! You wanted Aileen to be humiliated? You wanted to ruin her special moment just because you feel unseen?" Asher took a deep breath, his jaw tightening until the veins in his neck stood out. "Starting this very second, consider this girl invisible. Anyone who dares to talk to her, greet her, or help her in any way will have to answer to me directly. Understood?!"

The entire corridor went dead silent. No one dared to make a sound. No one dared to defend "trash" like me in front of the prince of the Pratama family. I could see my own classmates, whom I used to help with their assignments, turning their faces away with looks of disgust.

"And as compensation," Asher looked down, pointing his eyes at my feet, which were covered in worn-out school shoes. Their color had faded into a dull gray, and the soles were starting to split open at the front from being worn for years. "Take off your shoes. Now."

I froze. My head began to ring loudly, as if thousands of angry bees were swarming inside my brain. "What? Asher, please don't..."

"Take them off. Give them to Aileen as a temporary replacement in front of everyone," Asher ordered, completely devoid of emotion. His eyes were as cold as arctic ice. "Since you intentionally ruined her shoes, now you have to feel what it's like to walk barefoot in this school until tonight's event is over. Maybe it will make your sick brain realize that every action has a price."

"Asher, you're being unfair! This floor is dirty and..." I tried to protest, but my voice was completely swallowed by my tears.

"TAKE THEM OFF!" Asher roared. His voice boomed, bouncing off the corridor walls and making me flinch so hard my heart felt like it stopped beating.

With hands shaking violently—so violently that I struggled to even untie the laces—I bent down. I could feel the gazes of hundreds of eyes watching this performance with absolute satisfaction. I took off my shoes one by one. The moment the thin fabric of my socks—which already had a hole at the big toe—touched the freezing marble floor, it felt like thousands of needles piercing the soles of my feet.

Silence. There was only the sound of my heavy breathing and Aileen’s fading sobs. I stood there with my head bowed deeply, trying to hide my face behind my messy hair. The coldness of the marble floor began to creep up my calves, matching the complete destruction of my basic human dignity. I felt entirely naked in front of everyone.

I handed over the pair of worn-out shoes with hands that wouldn't stop trembling. "Here..." I whispered, barely audible.

Asher took the shoes with a look of pure revulsion, as if he were holding contaminated medical waste. He then turned around and handed them to Aileen.

"Wear these, Ai," Asher said softly, his voice changing 180 degrees the moment he spoke to my twin. "At least this is enough to make her realize where she truly belongs. She doesn't deserve to wear shoes in a place where she has dirtied someone else's kindness."

Aileen accepted my shoes. For a split second, our eyes met. Behind Asher’s shoulder, she gave me a piercing look, a cold and deadly smirk of victory. She then put on my oversized shoes with an attitude that made her look like a sacrificing martyr.

"Thank you, Asher..." Aileen whispered softly.

Asher wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her away through the crowd. As they walked further away, Asher glanced back slightly, staring at me as I stood frozen and barefoot in the middle of the hallway.

"Don't you dare put on any shoes until the sun goes down today, Aria. If I see you wearing any footwear at all, I will make sure you are expelled from this school with a stained record."

They left. The crowd began to disperse, but the insults and quiet giggles still lingered in the air. I stood entirely alone, staring at my reflection on the polished marble floor. My feet felt frozen; my heart felt dead. I looked at my trampled notebooks, but I no longer had the strength to pick them up. Here I was, in a place that was supposed to be a second home, but had now turned into the coldest hell. And the most painful part was the reality that the boy I loved was the one who had lit the fire.