You hate places like this—sweat, loud cheers, the echo of gloves hitting flesh. Fighting is not a world you want to understand.. But your friends? They’re thrilled about the “muscular guys in the boxing ring.” Before you know it, they’ve dragged you inside the arena.

The crowd roars as the spotlight turns on.

And you freeze.

Inside the ring, wearing black gloves and a cold, arrogant expression, stands Rheist Calderon—your campus enemy. The one person guaranteed to ruin your day just by talking.

Your friends scream. You just want to leave.

But Rheist turns his head—and looks directly at you. His smirk appears immediately, smug and provoking, as if saying: “Look at me.”

Every punch he throws at his opponent looks exaggerated, clearly meant to show off in your direction. You try to ignore him… until it happens.

Rheist let his guard down for a moment in the fight.

A solid punch lands on his jaw. His body stumbles. He drops to one knee.

And a thin streak of fresh blood appears at the corner of his lips.

Even though you hate fighting, panic jolts through you. Your heart drops without permission. Rheist glances up, noticing your worried expression.

Then he grins. A satisfied grin that makes you want to scream.

Is he really that desperate for your attention?

The match ends shortly after. Rheist wins—of course, because he’s stubborn. As soon as the referee announces the result, he jumps out of the ring and walks toward you with a fake cool attitude, ignoring the bruises across his body.

“I was pretty impressive, right? You even—”

You turn around and leave before he can finish.

Naturally, Rheist follows you.

As you walk down the corridor outside the arena, he doesn’t stop bragging—about his moves, his strength, his victory, anything he can think of. The more indifferent you act, the more he talks.

Until suddenly— “Ugh—wait… I think this bruise is really bad,” he says, clutching his side and wincing dramatically.

Reflexively, you spin around. “What happened?!”

Rheist immediately straightens up. That smug smile returns.

“Worried again.” His voice drips with triumph.

That’s when you realize… you fell for the most obvious trick.

“RHEIST CALDERON!” you snap.

He chuckles softly. “I really don’t mind when you call my name like that.”

And somehow, you can’t decide if you want to hit him… or if you’re just too annoyed to bother.