Chapter Uno
1043 Words
I moved through the penthouse with a frantic sort of energy, my heart hammering a rhythm I hadn't felt in ten years.
Every movement was calculated yet shaky; I was eager to get to campus, to finally breathe the same air as her, but the nervousness was a cold weight in my stomach.
What if she didn't remember the sickly boy who folded paper cranes? What if she saw the monster my father, Stepan, had successfully carved out of my soul? I checked my pocket one last time, feeling the soft silk of the scrunchie against my palm - my silent anchor.
The drive to the university was a blur of gray Russian streets until I pulled into the parking lot. Almost instantly, the roar of three other engines echoed behind me. Three BMWs, identical in their sleek, intimidating black finish, pulled into the slots directly behind mine.
My squad, my ulupong stepped out in perfect synchronization. Ace, Vel, and Killian - the only three idiots I trusted with my life - fell into step behind me as we entered the building. We were an unstoppable force in those hallways; the crowd parted like the Red Sea, students whispering in terrified awe of the Kuznetsov heir and his "monsters".
I ignored them all, my face a mask of nonchalant ice, though inside, I was screaming.
When I reached the room, I bypassed my usual seat and sat by the window, staring out at the bleak sky. My mind was a mess of Himari - her laugh, her warmth, the way she used to call me "Cassi" instead of "Five".
I was so deep in thought that I barely registered the professor entering the room.
"Quiet down, everyone," the professor droned. "We have a new student joining our block today."
I didn't even bother to look up. Another i***t, I thought, leaning my head against the cool glass of the window. Just another distraction from the only thing that matters.
But then, a voice cut through the silence. It wasn't the harsh Russian accent I was used to; it was soft, melodic, and carried the ghost of cherry blossoms.
"Konnichiwa everyone," she began, her voice steady despite the eyes on her. "I'm Himari Aoi I. Sorana. I was typically born here but moved to Japan. I was a top student there. Hope that I'll get along with y'all."
My throat hitched. My lungs suddenly felt too small for my chest. Sorana. I slowly turned my head, my nonchalant mask shattering into a million jagged pieces. There she was. My Sunlight. We weren't just in the same school; we were blockmates.
As if feeling the gravity of my stare, her gaze shifted. She looked past the whispering students, past the professor, and unexpectedly locked eyes with me. For a moment, the world stopped. Her eyes widened slightly, a flicker of something - recognition, confusion, familiarity - crossing her beautiful face.
The silence in the room was deafening, a thick, suffocating pressure that felt like the air before a lightning strike. My nonchalant mask, the one I had spent ten long years forging out of ice and iron, wasn't just cracking - it was shattering into jagged, useless pieces.
As our eyes locked, the university around me ceased to exist. The low hum of the heater, the scratching of pens, and the muffled whispers of the other students faded into a dull, distant roar. There she was. Not the ghost from my nightmares or the blurry memory I chased through silk scrunchies, but the real, breathing Sunlight.
Her eyes widened, a flicker of raw recognition crossing her face that made my heart hammer against my ribs like a caged animal. It was a look of pure, unadulterated familiarity.
She didn't see "Five," the lethal, cold-blooded heir to the Kuznetsov Bratva. In that split second, she saw Cassi - the sickly boy who used to hide with her in the library alcoves, folding paper cranes to beg the gods for a future that didn't involve blood.
I felt my throat hitch, a sharp, physical ache blooming in my chest. Putangina, I thought, my knuckles turning white as I gripped the edge of my desk. I wanted to look away, to reclaim the nonchalant, "don't-touch-me" persona that kept the world at bay, but I was paralyzed.
My Haphephobia usually made my skin crawl when someone even looked at me too closely, but with her, the "wild" edge of my trauma was being drowned out by a terrifying, desperate warmth.
Behind me, I felt the energy in the room shift.
Ace stopped his rhythmic tapping on his tablet, his sharp eyes darting between us, calculating the seismic impact of this reunion.
Vel leaned back, the coin he'd been tossing falling silent in his palm as a slow, knowing smirk spread across his face; he knew my "blushing flower" side was about to lose the battle against my "monster" exterior.
Killian remained as still as a statue, but I knew his gaze was already fixed on the doorway where Setagaya Ken stood, watching us like a hawk guarding its prize.
The professor cleared his throat, the sound like a gunshot in the quiet room.
"Miss Sorana, please take the seat next to Mr. Kuznetsov. It is the only one available."
The heat that rushed to my face was so intense it felt like a brand.
I stared out the window, my breathing shallow, as I heard the light click of her heels approaching.
Every step she took toward me felt like the world was narrowing down to a single point.
When she finally sat down, our sleeves brushed - a contact so light it shouldn't have mattered. To anyone else, I was the "scary" guy by the window, but inside, I was a wreck.
The trauma of being dragged away from her decades ago usually made any touch feel like an assault, but as she settled into the chair next to mine, the burning itch of my phobia vanished.
She was finally here.
My Sunlight was sitting in my shadow, and for the first time in ten years, the "Five" in me felt like he could finally stop fighting.
The "blushing flower" in my chest didn't just bloom. It exploded.
- Writer
