25 Where Sadness Stands: Interest and Interference

25 Where Sadness Stands: Interest and Interference

As soon as I stepped beyond the boundary of the library, some students had already noticed me—but none of them wanted to approach or even look me in the eye. I didn’t hear a single word from them, but their eyes said everything they wanted to say.

I shook my head. I remembered when I was Heart Azilan—back then, I never received these kinds of stares. Instead, people felt both joy and envy at the same time.

Joy, because I wasn’t treated differently. They accepted me as one of their own. But being surrounded by a powerful circle made me seem undeserving—worthless in someone else’s eyes.

I thought that was the balance of the world: happiness and sadness always come together. But acceptance… it’s never absolute.

Denial—that’s the right word for it. True happiness can't be fully embraced if sadness hasn’t been part of it.

Happiness and sadness—two different words, yet they’re the most painful.

If someone wants only one of the two, surely, it will break their heart. And that pain can’t be avoided.

Heart Azilan, a free soul who refused to see the sadness that stood right in front of her. When she was finally ready to accept it, it was already too late.

Everyone around her became victims of her denial of acceptance.

And those victims were not saved. Instead, the person who caused that to happen, is currently living in someone else's body, And seems death doesn’t favor her.

“Heart Azilan, it seems your second life is the punishment.” I mumbled to myself. I was about to turn left when I noticed someone was giving me a small pack of wet wipes. I stopped and raised my head to see him.

“I’m sorry.” He said with a concerned tone in his voice. I looked back at the building of the library.

Did he just follow me to give me this?

“I didn’t mean to pull your hair.”

Jay-Ar Torpin, the only person who became crazy in my eyes when I caught him acting weird at the rooftop before the time reversal.

When he sees that I don’t want to accept it, he pulls a sheet of wet wipes and gently wipes tears that I didn’t notice.

“Looks like the cold and numb Queen Bee actually knows pain,” he says with a smile as if he was relieved.

I was too surprised to react—but it seems like my host’s instincts kicked in before I could stop it.

*pak*

I slapped him.

And in that same instant, I was even more shocked… at myself.

He touched his cheek that I slapped.

“How dare you do that!”

That was all I managed to say before leaving him frozen in shock.

I heard a few gasps from those who witnessed it, but their attention seemed more focused on the guy I had slapped.

“Great... I’ve definitely started some new rumors about myself. Tsk... I really know how to invite trouble into my life.”

But I was even more embarrassed when I realized I hadn’t noticed he was behind me earlier—and now, the way my heart is beating so fast is making me feel completely uneasy.

Fastforward.....

As soon as I reached the dorm entrance, I spotted a familiar face.

He was waiting in the lobby.

I was just about to walk inside when he stepped forward and stopped me.

“Let’s talk.”

I could hear the uneasiness in his voice.

I expected him to come to me—just not this soon.

Talk?

For what?

I know this isn’t the first time he’s stopped me just to get on my nerves. Somehow, he always manages to give me a bad feeling every single day. That annoying face of his—always grinning, always mocking me whenever he sees an opportunity.

Among the students who fear me yet secretly hate me, he’s like the male version of Zebelle—someone who exists to irritate me. But unlike the Timothy Family , whose power comes from the large family's connections, this guy has even more to gain from the other influential families in our batch.

The Brown family—one of the third largest and most powerful families in the country. With their backing, he stands to gain far more than just wasting his time picking on me.

“Let’s talk.” I stared at him for a moment. The way he talked to me is different from the usual way I knew.

I nodded and pointed to the lobby seat, but he shook his head and grabbed my arm. I then raised my eyebrow at him but he didn’t budge, instead he just looked at me with a serious face.

“Not here.” I grabbed his hand and took it off from grabbing my arm.

“Different reason, different location.” I mumbled in a sarcastic tone.

“Please.” I stared at him for a moment again. He’s not here to prank me again. I want to laugh in my mind.

I didn’t expect him to come so soon.

The roughness of his palm is only a sign of doing a hard physical activity. His skin is hardened and seems to have come from holding a weapon or doing physical labor for years. As if it wasn’t a hand from a rich kid like him.

“Fine… let’s talk on the rooftop.” I firmly said and he didn’t object.

I guided him to the rooftop of the dorm. But the stairs of the rooftop are on the outside of the dorm building.

Along as we walked the stairs, he never spoke. Not a word.

When we reached the rooftop, I opened the gate door and first went to the deck.

“Show it.”

He did what I said. He summoned his bow and I then casted the temporary concealment around the rooftop.

“I was completely right, you are the one who stopped me at that time.”

Harley Arguelles. An Augustia in disguise. Or might be, the rightful name for him, the incomplete Augustia.

“I was just stopping you from capturing him.” The man at that time, the one who knows the person who sacrificed his life to reverse the time for these fifteen days.

The one who I wanted for now to stop.

“Then why are you exposing yourself to me? Do you think I will change my mind from capturing him?” I said in a suspicious tone.

“Why are you capturing him? You are not a mortal guardian.” I gave him a sour face. I am not entirely sure if he is an enemy or not.

I am sure the direction of shooting bows is precise but then the arrow he gave me as a warning before seems like an unexpected shooting.

As if he wants to shoot me but not to hit me or give me just a warning.

“How does it concern you?” I crossed my arms.

“Was my arrow not enough to warn you?” I covered my mouth, preventing myself from laughing.

“It might be a good warning, but then, do I care?”

Warning? That wasn't entirely a warning, as if he shot me in familiarity.

“You really don’t know how to stop, do you? You really are such a stubborn person.” But I don’t recall that I once had an encounter with him in the past.

“Do you really think your opinion on me changed?...If that's the only thing you wanted to talk about, you're just wasting my time.”

He sighed. “Alright, I was just seeing how high your stubbornness is, now that i confirmed it. Prepare yourself. Because that person has taken interest in you. Not the same interest he once had for you when you are just a dumb spoiled descendant of the mortal guardian.”

Him? the way his tone towards that person has deep respect.

“I’m rooting for him to give his best… Once he shows himself, capturing him will be my own win.”

“You really are different.”

“I have no time to talk to you anymore. Even if I have plenty of questions, you will never give me a rightful answer for it…So, if you're done, I take my leave.”

I walked past him but he said more that intrigued me a little. “Aren’t you going to disappear in a thin air like vanish before in my eyes after you said that word?”

I put my hand on the steel gate of this roof top before I gave him a hopeless look. “Be aware. Not all dramas have the same way in our reality.”