Kushida's Malice

The afternoon passed in boredom. By evening, he had gone downstairs early to wait for that graceful, icy figure to arrive.

Before long, he saw Horikita coming from the elevator. She spotted him, gave a slight nod, and walked out of the dormitory.

He followed just behind Horikita on her left. The two of them walked in silence.

Seeing that Horikita clearly wasn't going to start a conversation, he said helplessly:

"Horikita, why did you come to this school?"

At his words, Horikita stopped, then continued walking. "You go first."

"Me? I came here to improve my abilities."

That wasn't exactly a lie. It was indeed his goal, leaving aside how he planned to achieve it.

"Oh." Horikita's tone was indifferent. "Same here."

"Really? You didn't come here for someone?"

"For whom?"

Horikita suddenly glanced at him, a glint of icy sharpness piercing straight through him.

Unfazed, he pretended not to know what she meant. "Like... someone you like? Or someone you have a crush on?"

Horikita let out a breath, her voice turning flat again:

"You're overthinking it. I don't feel that way about anyone. I just..."

She bit her lip, a look of frustration appearing on her face.

Seeing this, Bai Ye understood what she was thinking, even without her saying it.

She probably wanted to prove herself to her older brother. Perhaps there was still some childhood admiration mixed in, but more than anything, she was tangled up in the hurt of being neglected all these years without knowing why—and a trace of anger.

"Horikita, I don't know who that person you're thinking about is, but I have a way to help you put this behind you."

"Tell me!"

"The root cause of suffering is attachment. The more you care about something, the harder it is to escape its influence. You can replace it with something else. Once you focus on something new, the old thing will have less of an effect on you."

"Like what?"

"Like... falling in love?"

"..."

Horikita gazed into his eyes, her snow-cold irises as frigid as her heart.

After a long while, unable to read anything in his expression, Horikita turned away. "You're not trying to use that as an excuse to pursue me, are you?"

"Huh? Did I say that? I wasn't talking about myself."

"Then I'll take your advice and find someone to date."

"..."

Feeling his silence, Horikita stared into his eyes again and gave a cold snort. "You said you weren't interested, but you obviously have some ulterior motive."

Convinced she'd seen through all his thoughts, Horikita gave him a teasing look, eager to see how he'd get out of it.

But to her disappointment, Bai Ye only looked a little dejected as he said:

"I can't say I'm not interested at all. You're the most beautiful girl in class, in my opinion, so I'd be pretty happy if you chose me."

"So you admit it. You're after my body?"

"Not exactly. I'm different from other people. I just think you're beautiful. People naturally want to pursue beautiful things, but that doesn't mean they have to do that kind of thing... If you don't believe me, I'll tell you a secret. I'm still... uh, a virgin."

"Cough, cough."

Horikita nearly choked, shooting him a strange look. "Are you joking?"

"Not at all." Bai Ye's eyes were as clear as jade, without the slightest hint of wavering.

Because it was true.

Horikita couldn't read anything from him, so she reluctantly believed him, though she was still a little puzzled.

After all, in her eyes, with Bai Ye's looks, attracting girls should have been easy. And yet he was still a virgin...

Was he not interested in girls?

No, if he weren't interested, he wouldn't have approached her.

Could it be that...

"Do you have some kind of physical defect?" Horikita asked bluntly.

"..."

Bai Ye stared back at her, speechless.

"Want to find out?"

There was a hint of anger in his voice.

He was genuinely angry. He doubted any man would like hearing that.

And it changed what he'd originally had in mind. He'd only planned to date her and then break up right away, but now he was determined to figure out a way to get her into bed.

If he didn't let her experience it for herself, Horikita would keep mocking him in her heart, even if she never said so aloud.

"Forget it. I'm not interested in dating either. Maybe some other time." Horikita shook her head and walked into the school cafeteria.

They each got a meal and sat across from each other, paying with Horikita's card.

Neither of them noticed the two pairs of bright eyes watching them from nearby.

They belonged to Kushida Kikyou and Wang Meiyu, who had just become good friends.

Wang Meiyu simply stared at them, looking distracted and uneasy.

Kushida, though, looked thoughtful. A hint of coldness lurked in her eyes, hidden in the shadows where no one could see.

She knew Horikita, though she didn't know if Horikita still remembered her.

But her dark history from middle school was practically common knowledge throughout the school. It was too hard to hide, so there was a very good chance Horikita knew about it.

As for Bai Ye, she couldn't understand why he and Horikita seemed so close.

If it had been any other girl, she might not have thought much of it. But this was Horikita.

On the first day of school, she'd ignored plenty of people who tried to greet her, boys and girls alike. Yet now she was eating with a boy from their class. It was hard not to wonder what was going on.

Did they know each other? Were they friends? Or even... dating?

The thought made her a little uneasy.

She couldn't say she liked Bai Ye, but she liked him more than the other boys.

It wasn't just that his looks were exactly to her taste. His eyes, pure as crystal, gave her heart a strange flutter whenever she saw them.

At the same time, she felt a wave of physical revulsion.

The disgust wasn't directed at him, but at herself. She knew she and Bai Ye could never be compatible. She and Bai Ye were completely different kinds of people.

People said that truly ugly people never thought of themselves as ugly. They did ugly things and thought it was only natural.

But she could clearly feel how disgusting the things she did were.

Still, she didn't care.

She knew there weren't many people around her who were any more virtuous than she was, so why should she care?

She was just going with the flow. Aside from being a better actor and knowing better than they did how to win people over, she was no different from them.

If people truly spoke their minds, hardly anyone would come out unscathed.

And so, when she looked at Bai Ye, she sensed that there was something different about him.

People could change their expressions through acting, but their eyes were much harder to alter.

The eyes were the windows to a person's soul. Her intuition told her that Bai Ye was by far the most unusual person she'd ever met.

She felt a little curious.

But...

That was all.

If he really knew about what she'd done in middle school, she'd use her own methods to drive him out of school all the same.