You're not alone today

Setting: Inside Elemental International College — second-floor classroom, an hour after the incident. The sun outside is duller now, like the air itself knows something went wrong.

The lecture had started. Pages turned. Students scribbled notes.

But one seat remained empty.

The new girl — the one everyone was talking about — hadn't come to class.

Tina sat by the window, her sharp, thoughtful eyes glancing at the empty desk near the front row. She chewed on the end of her pen, her mind not in the textbook but in the garden from earlier — in the expression of pain and confusion on that girl's face.

> "Hey," she leaned toward her classmate, voice low but clear,

"Wasn't a new girl supposed to join our batch today?"

The girl blinked, unsure.

Just then, a soft voice beside them answered instead.

> "Yeah. She didn't come though."

Tina turned.

The girl had silver hair, flowing down her back like moonlight woven with snow. Her skin was pale and clear, her eyes like frost — beautiful, cold yet gentle.

Her name was Snow — calm, quiet, and a bit mysterious.

She held up her phone and turned the screen to Tina.

> "Her name's Aahi. This is her photo from the campus page. No idea why she's absent though."

Tina's breath caught.

That face.

Those eyes.

That quiet sorrow beneath her smile — she remembered it from earlier, like a still painting in her mind.

> The girl in the garden.

The slap. The betrayal. The worms.

It was her.

> "I… saw her," Tina whispered, her voice tight.

"Before class. Something happened."

Snow looked at her curiously.

> "You okay?"

Tina nodded, but her heart felt heavy. She couldn't shake the image of Aahi standing alone, her hand trembling against her cheek.

She didn't say anything else for the rest of the class.

But as soon as the bell rang — Tina was the first to leave.

> "I need to find her," she thought, rushing down the stairs.

"She doesn't deserve to sit alone in pain. Not after what I saw."

The college grounds were buzzing as usual — noise, movement, colors. But Tina's eyes searched with quiet focus.

> Locker room?

Garden bench?

Rooftop?

She didn't know where Aahi was.

But something in her heart — something warm and fierce — told her this wasn't about curiosity anymore.

It was about doing the right thing.

> "Hang on, Aahi," she whispered under her breath.

"You're not alone today."