Victor's Visit

A month later, things returned back to normal.

Victor's and Rina's reputation was restored and everyone knew by now that they had Lucas backing them up.

Erica's friends made up with her, which was not a very hard thing to do since they had stopped throwing when Erica ran into the hall calling out to Luna as her sister.

Desmond's life did not change much since the military academy, although essentially is another faculty of the school, has its own war zone which functioned almost separately from the other faculties. He has already successfully made his own connections there, who then helped to cover for him when he came to his sisters' aid.

Luna experienced a little dissing and occasional harassment but it never got too bad because she seemed to kill their vibe each time. Not only did she have a very slack expression on all the time, she also knew the right things to say to satisfy their ego.

Luna was now in the library as usual, completely immersed in her studying. Since nothing out of the ordinary was happening, she paid Lucas no attention. This made it possible for Lucas to study her at length without her knowing.

Lucas was still struggling to understand the enigma that Luna was.

He took note of what she was studying each time, thus noticed how she struggled with understanding concepts that he had long ago mastered and how she tried to make up for her slow understanding with pure and intense hard work.

He even did a little digging into her records and background to find out about the kind of person she was. Nothing stood out about her. In fact, he found out a lot more about her siblings and their achievements in the process of doing so than whatever he managed to learn about her.

Everything only served to puzzle him further. She seemed so unremarkable and common. So why could he not understand the things she said which sounded weirdly accurate? How does she stay so calm about everything that was being done to her? Why could he not stop his eyes from drifting to her from time to time? Why does she make him feel so puzzled and irritated at the same time?

Today was no different.

Lucas looked up from the screen of his laptop, closed his eyes, and titled his head from side to side. Despite his full intention to return to work after stretching his neck muscles for a bit, his eyes went towards Luna instead.

The sunlight from the large window by her side was at an angle that lit up her face. The plum blossom was in full bloom in the background. It was a very pretty scene to behold but Luna looked as ordinary as ever. If it had been Rina in her place, this same view may have been able to stir the hearts of people.

Nonetheless, Lucas found himself unable to tear his eyes away from her.

/Does she not find the sun glaring?/

At the same time that he had that thought, Luna happened to turn her head slightly. His eyes widened a little bit in surprise. There were some golden specks in her eyes that he never noticed before. As quickly and suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared with the slightest tilt of her head.

/Was it just the sunlight?/ 

He got intrigued and waited to see if it would appear again. Without his realisation, he was effectively distracted from his work.

Unfortunately for him, he did not get to observe for long before he heard Victor's voice boom throughout the silent library. "Luna Lee!"

Everyone in the library jumped in shock and turned towards the source of the disturbance.

/Goddamn idiot./ Lucas's mood instantly turned sour. He then turned his head back to look at Luna, feeling curious about her reaction.

Luna's gaze shifted from the direction of the library's entrance to Lucas when he turned his head to look at her. After holding his gaze for a short while, she calmly but swiftly packed her things then left the library by walking behind the bookshelves.

She was convinced that meeting Victor spelled trouble. The only reason for people like them to pay attention to someone like her was that she would be the trigger for another conflict between them and Erica.

/How dumb. Normally no one would notice or know where I am besides Erica and Ge Ge. All of a sudden Victor knows where exactly he can find me just because he wants to./

Not long after she left her seat, Victor came from a different direction.

"Lucas, do you know where Luna is? I was told that I could find her in the library." Victor asked without bothering with even a simple greeting.

"Why are you finding her?"

"I overheard people spreading some malicious rumours about us again!" Victor said through gritted teeth.

Lucas sighed. "How do you even know that it's her?"

"Who else could it be?!"

"She's not the one. Go get your facts right before you let the real culprit escape." Lucas said dismissively.

Just as he intended to return to his work, Rina appeared behind Victor huffing and puffing. She had obviously been running after him. "Victor... I told you not to be rash... You would scare the culprit off this way. Be patient, learn from Lucas, and we'll eventually catch whoever is responsible, alright?"

Victor hugged Rina. "I'm sorry. I got so impatient because I know you're really hurting. Did you really think I wouldn't notice?"

Rina's eyes teared up and she cried in his chest.

Lucas glared at his laptop. A dull ache gradually spread in his heart the longer he listened to Rina's soft sobbing. After grinding his teeth together for a long time, he still could not hold himself back from promising to help the both of them once again. Right after he did so, Luna's words from before echoed in his mind, putting him in a very bad mood.

The following days only made his mood worsen. It got so bad that he had migraines and had to rely on painkillers for the pain to be tolerable.

The culprit and rumours got bolder ever since news about Victor finding Luna spread.

Victor, however, continued to ignore his warnings and advice to lie low and not do anything that would anger anyone. He also continued his search for Luna in an effort to confront her, refusing to believe that it was not her. He was sure that he would be able to get her to confess her sins.

As a result, rumours increased and worsened each time. It was like a vicious cycle. This made the search for the one who started it all even harder.

Lucas began suspecting that there were more than just one person involved this time. Seeing how this matter may have snowballed into something beyond what he could handle alone, he decided to discuss it with Victor.

"Where in the blazing hell are you?!" Lucas shouted into the phone, his migraine making him especially testy.

"I'm at her house."

"What?!"

"I can't hold back any longer! Rina's breaking down and she stopped coming to school! She can't take it anymore!" Victor hung up the phone then exited his car to ring the doorbell to the Lee family's house.

The family of five was still gathered at the dining table about to finish their dinner when their domestic helper came to inform them of Victor's visit.

They all looked at Luna, asking without words if she wanted to greet their guest. Only Erica did so with a frown on her face.

/After all the trouble of avoiding him... Colour me surprised if Erica isn't triggered by this./

"Just tell him that I'm not the person he should be looking for. If he still insists to meet me, just tell him that we're not receiving any guests. Thank you, Sal." Luna then encouraged her family to ignore the disturbance and continue eating in peace.

By the time they finished their meal, Sally still had not returned.

Erica intended to step in but Luna stopped her. "Just ignore him. He's really just a dog barking up the wrong tree. Let's trust Sal to send him away."

Erica pursed her lips then held onto Luna's hand to return to Luna's room. Knowing that Luna would study the night away, she lazed on Luna's bed while browsing through the news feed of her social media accounts on her phone. She had no intention to let Luna out of her sight while Victor was around.

After a long while, Victor continued to stubbornly stay at their gate even after Sally left him alone. He refused to return until he saw Luna.

Her parents got fed up and went to meet him at their gate.

"Your name's Victor, right? Son of Principal Koo?" Mr Lee asked.

"Mr and Mrs Lee, I'm still waiting to see Luna. Please get your daughter to meet me. She keeps avoiding me."

"Victor. You do realise that you're outside of school, right?" Mr Lee crossed his arms and stood with his feet shoulder-width apart.

Feeling a little intimidated, Victor let his tongue slip, "So? If your daughter was not so good at being a coward-"

"Victor. Seeing that you're still a child, I'll let you off this time with a warning. Don't insult our children." Mrs Lee smiled sweetly while the look in her eyes revealed her evil intentions. "Now, run along home. I'm sure your father would not like to hear of this."

"... Can you please ask miss Luna to stop avoiding me at school? I'd very much like to speak to her." Victor very reluctantly changed his phrasing to sound more polite.

"I'm fine with passing that message on but are you sure you want me to do that? The school is now just a playground for us adults."

Understanding her unspoken threat, Victor apologised before running home with his tail between his legs. After he calmed down, he realised the gravity of his actions and regretted it greatly. He did not know what came over him that made him do something so brainless. Now he could only hope that Luna's parents would not tattle on him to his father.

"Sugarplum, why did you bother warning him? Let's just deal with the nuisance that's bugging our baby."

"Honey… Don't you think it'd be more humiliating for him if our Luna is the one who gets to toy with him?" She tapped his nose lovingly.

"Ahh… You're as cunning as ever." He grinned and hugged her around her waist.

"Let's first make sure that Luna's coping well."

Erica had shared with her parents about how Luna was speaking weirdly recently and it worried them as well. If it carried on, they would consider asking Luna if she did not mind going for a psychological assessment.

"Luna baby?"

Luna looked up and turned around to face her parents.

Erica also looked past her phone to eavesdrop.

"Sorry for disturbing you but how are you doing in school?"

"Is that Victor boy being too much of a disturbance to you? It sounds like he's been trying to get hold of you for a long time." Her father went straight to the point instead. He was too eager to help her if she needed it.

Luna shook her head and smiled reassuringly. "I'm doing perfectly fine."

Her parents looked at each other then looked at her again.

"Alright. Keep up the good work, okay?" Her mother stroked her head.

Luna nodded then the two of them left the room. She glanced over to Erica who still has her eyes glued to her phone. 

/She's definitely unhappy./ Luna sighed inwardly. /So much for preventing my meeting with Victor./

"You know… I'm really okay."

Since there was no one else in the room, Erica knew that Luna was speaking to her. She put down her phone in defeat and pouted at Luna. "That's what you always say."

"Please don't do anything? I'm happy with the way things are."

/How can she really be happy with someone like him being such a huge nuisance? She's been chased around school and her routine's all ruined because of him. Now he even has the cheek to come running here./

"It's actually getting really creepy that you're always guessing when I'm planning something evil in my head."

Catching how Erica did not promise her to not do anything, Luna turned off the table lamp and shut her laptop, then joined Erica on her bed. "Let's sleep together tonight, okay? Cheer up."

"... I'm no longer a little girl… You don't have to be so worried about me..."

"Sorry, just as we'll always be babies in mother's eyes, you'll always be my little sister in my eyes." Luna smiled a little helplessly.

Having already brushed their teeth earlier, they tucked themselves into bed and held hands to sleep.

/I'll make him feel what I'm feeling right now… No. A thousand times worse./ Vengeful thoughts filled Erica's mind before she drifted off to sleep.

On the other hand, Luna fell asleep questioning her ability to change the way things were progressing.