Setting: Evening. The koi pond behind Elemental International College. The campus has gone quiet — dusk has softened every edge. Lamp posts flicker to life, casting reflections in the rippling water. A few fireflies dance lazily in the shadows.
Red stood near the edge of the pond.
His blazer hung loose over his shoulder. The same red rose — slightly wilted now — twirled slowly between his fingers. But this time, it wasn't a performance.
It wasn't flirtation.
He wasn't thinking about being seen.
He was just… still.
His reflection moved with the pond's gentle waves, blurry and broken.
> Why did her eyes haunt me like this?
He exhaled slowly. The moment he slapped that gift into her hand — pretending it meant nothing — he hadn't thought twice. It was just a prank. Aarif's face was the target.
But when he turned around...
And saw her face...
Those eyes — wide, stunned, glimmering with disbelief.
> I broke something.
And it wasn't just her trust… I broke something inside myself too.
> "Red?"
He flinched at the voice.
Sam, arms folded, walked toward him with that same smug grin.
> "What's this now? You turned philosopher all of a sudden?"
Red didn't respond. His gaze was locked on the koi. Their scales shimmered in the moonlight — peaceful… untouched.
Sam stood beside him, nudging his shoulder playfully.
> "You've been standing here like a lovesick poet for ten minutes."
Red finally looked at him. His voice was quieter than usual.
> "I was just thinking."
> "About what?"
> "Nothing."
Sam laughed.
> "Liar. You're thinking about her."
Red rolled his eyes, looked away.
> "You're falling for Aahi," Sam said, this time not teasing — just stating it, plain and simple.
Red inhaled sharply. His grip on the rose tightened.
> "I'm not."
> "Oh come on, Red. You never cared this much about anyone. Not even yourself."
Red's jaw tensed.
The koi rippled through the water again, as if listening.
Sam leaned closer.
> "You should've seen your face when she cried. You froze."
Red turned toward the water again, lips pressed tight.
His voice came low. Almost broken.
> "She wasn't supposed to cry."
Sam blinked — surprised by the honesty.
> "She wasn't supposed to matter," Red added, eyes fixed on the pond.
"But she did."
For a long moment, silence hung between them.
Even Sam couldn't find something clever to say.
> "That look in her eyes," Red whispered. "It wasn't anger. It was… like she trusted me. Even for a second. And I ruined it."
His fingers finally let the rose drop into the pond. It floated, spinning.
Red watched it sink slowly beneath the ripples — as if something inside him was sinking with it.
Sam sighed, stepping back.
> "Careful, Red. That kind of guilt? That kind of girl? They'll burn through you."
Red didn't reply.
He didn't need to.
Because inside him… the fire had already started.
A storm of emotion. Of guilt. Of something he had never dared to name before:
Love.
But love — when it starts in guilt — doesn't bloom like roses.
It burns.
> "I'm not falling for her," he told himself once more.
But the pond didn't believe him.
And neither did his heart.
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