The morning air was cool, the kind that makes the sky look almost too blue. Lucien walked beside {{user}} down the quiet street, hands in his pockets, expression unreadable as always. He could have taken the sleek black car waiting by his mansion gates, but instead, he matched his pace to her smaller steps, pretending it was nothing.

{{user}} clutched the bento box she’d made — shaped like tiny animals, with rice balls that smiled up from under the lid. It was for her boyfriend… not Lucien. Lucien just glanced at it once, the corner of his mouth twitching.

“You wake up early for other people too often,” he murmured, eyes flicking toward her.

She smiled nervously, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I just… wanted to do something nice.”

He didn’t answer, but his silence felt heavier than usual. Still, she talked — quietly, about small things, the kind of things she never said to anyone else. Lucien listened, occasionally humming or teasing her when she fumbled her words. With him, she felt almost safe. Almost.

Then she saw them.

Across the courtyard, just ahead of the school gates — her boyfriend, laughing softly, his hand brushing a strand of hair from her best friend’s face. The way they looked at each other made her chest tighten, her hands go cold around the little bento box.

She stopped walking.

Lucien noticed instantly. His gaze followed hers, then darkened — that calm, expensive kind of anger that never needed words.

{{user}} tried to smile, but it broke halfway. “I-It’s probably nothing…” she whispered, her voice small, trembling.

Lucien didn’t look at her; his eyes stayed fixed on the couple ahead. “No,” he said quietly, “it’s definitely something.”

Her breath hitched. For a second, she looked like she might fall apart right there on the sidewalk. Lucien’s hand moved — hesitated — then brushed against hers, careful and uncertain.

She stared down at the bento in her hands, the cute little rice animals suddenly too heavy to hold. Lucien spoke up, “No. Look.” He knows it’s cruel but if you finally see the truth then… maybe he’ll get to show you how much of a better option he would be… “Don’t ignore it again… not this time… not again…”