Chapter 2.5

Just as she was thinking that, she almost bumped her nose into Peter’s back as he suddenly stopped walking.  

“What’s up? Why’d you stop all of a sudden?”  

Peter abruptly halted in the hallway. She asked curiously, and he placed a finger over his lips and shook his head.  

“Shh, not now.”  

“What…?”  

She raised her eyebrows. Peeking her head around Peter’s body, she saw Leonard and a female student standing in front of the library door.  

Judging by the girl’s hesitant movements and her flushed ears, she could roughly guess the situation.  

“…Whoa.”

As soon as she reached a conclusion, she leaned back.  

Perhaps because the academy slightly blurred the lines of status, it seemed that Leonard, a high-ranking noble, received several confessions that crossed social boundaries.  

She already knew that, with his looks, it wouldn’t be strange for him to receive ten confessions while walking down the street. But witnessing someone confessing directly felt unfamiliar.  

The female student’s face was not visible, only Leonard’s face was turned toward her.  

He soon smiled at the female student with an apologetic, troubled expression, his eyes slightly squinting.  

So he can make that kind of expression too. The impression disappeared as soon as the female student turned away.  

“…Sniff.”  

The female student, rubbing her eyes and sniffling pitifully, glared at her with a tear-streaked face. Of course, she frowned back, but she was bewildered by the situation.  

“What’s this? Why is she like that?”  

Turning to the side, Peter was suppressing laughter, his face scrunched up.  

Leonard, looking at the retreating figure of the female student with a troubled expression, noticed her standing behind Peter.  

For a brief moment, his face showed surprise, then quickly changed to a bright expression.  

“Hi, Raven! Did you have a good class? Want me to carry those books for you?”  

Then, as always, he started fussing about carrying her books. Leonard’s pale face was now flushed red. Just a moment ago, he had a calm expression when the female student confessed.  

“No thanks.”  

Though she was inwardly flustered, she hugged the books to her chest. When she shook her head, Leonard lowered his hands with a disappointed expression.  

“Wow, I’m completely invisible, huh?”  

When Peter waved his hand in discontent, Leonard’s response was quite something.  

“Oh, you were here too.”  

Leonard briefly glanced at Peter and then smiled at her again.  

“The next class is history, right? I’m heading in the same direction, want to go together?”  

“No, seriously, I’m speechless.”  

Peter muttered under his breath and sighed.  

“Well, I happen to have another class, so I’ll leave you lovebirds to your time together.”  

Though the last remark was absurd, she turned towards the next classroom, acting as if she didn’t care. Leonard waved at Peter and then moved closer to her.  

He cleared his throat a couple of times and spoke with a somewhat anxious voice.  

“Well, just so you don’t misunderstand, I turned down Julie. I appreciate that she likes me, but….”  

“I know. She glared at me fiercely as she passed by.”  

Her gaze was so intense it was hard to ignore.  

She replied bluntly, still looking ahead.  

“Oh, really? I see….”  

She glanced at Leonard, who nodded in surprise, and then spoke.  

“By the way, do you not plan to date anyone?”  

She didn’t know much, but it seemed like he’d received such confessions more than once or twice.  

After hesitating for a moment, she added.  

“I think there are many people misunderstanding because of me.”  

It seemed like the rumors started because Leonard was always hanging around her, and surprisingly, many people believed such absurd rumors. That Julie or whoever she was seemed to be one of them.  

“…….”  

Instead of answering, Leonard stared at her face with his round eyes slightly lowered. It was for such a long time that she felt embarrassed.  

“Wha-what? Why are you doing that?”  

Finally feeling awkward, she stammered and turned her head. Leonard replied in his usual gentle, amused voice.  

“No, it’s just that you seem surprisingly unaware, Raven.”  

His expression and tone were so bright that she realized a few seconds later that it wasn’t necessarily a compliment.  

Being told she was oblivious by someone who appeared so cheerful and innocent hurt her pride.  

After being dazed for a moment, she regained her senses and retorted sharply.  

“And you’re awfully polite for picking a fight.”  

“Hmm? I didn’t mean to pick a fight.”  

Before she could say anything else, Leonard smiled warmly again and gestured to her.  

“We’ll be late for class. Let’s go!”  

Following him obediently, she raised her eyebrows silently.  

…Why am I feeling a bit annoyed now? What’s wrong with my awareness?  

* * *  

The history class was quite difficult. She felt she needed to review the material once she returned to her dorm room, and she unconsciously quickened her pace.  

Just recalling what she learned made her head throb, so she massaged her temples.  

As she hurried into the next classroom, it felt unusually noisy compared to usual.  

It was always noisy, but not to this extent. What’s going on? 

Moreover, amidst the murmuring, she thought she heard Leonard’s name occasionally.  

Following the sound, she turned her head and saw golden hair shining alone among the crowd.  

Come to think of it, this class overlaps with Leonard’s…. Should I say hi first?  

After hesitating for a moment, she decided not to acknowledge him and lowered her hand. It seemed he wouldn’t be visible anyway, obscured by the crowd.  

In one corner of the classroom, students, both male and female, were densely gathered, and Leonard stood in the center, smiling gracefully and leisurely.  

For some reason, she remembered how he looked on the entrance exam day.  

She thought she had gotten quite comfortable, but seeing him in this unfamiliar light made her feel strangely intimidated, and she fiddled with her hair with a sense of unfamiliarity.  

Though he always smiled like that, Leonard was not someone who would easily make eye contact or exchange words with her. Even aside from his inherent status, he naturally ranked first in the boys’ ridiculous hierarchy without doing anything. It was understandable. He lacked nothing in personality or appearance.  

The soft smile she knew came from such ease.  

“…….”  

It was purely a feeling, but it seemed like now wasn’t the time to speak to him. She didn’t have the confidence to speak, nor did she originally intend to.  

Sitting quietly at her desk, she glanced over at him when a student moved aside, and her eyes met Leonard’s.  

“Oh, Raven! We have the same class, huh?”  

When he rose from his seat with a bright expression, the other students immediately closed their mouths, stopping their chatter.  

Leonard approached, placing both hands on the desk, and made eye contact with her. Then he smiled kindly.  

“For some reason, I feel like I’m running into you a lot today, and I like it.”  

“…….”  

Unknowingly, she relaxed her frown and stared blankly into his eyes.  

As always, his warm violet eyes seemed to ripple… but something felt off. It was the same look she always saw, just a smile, but the emotion in those gently curving eyes was somewhat… well… it felt strange.  

She felt oddly ticklish, as if her body was tingling.  

…What is this? Did it look different because of the sunlight?  

Even after Leonard returned to his seat, having lingered around her and chatted for a while, she was plagued by the question throughout the class.  

* * *  

That evening, while doing her homework as usual, a thought suddenly struck her.  

A thought about Leonard, which she had dismissed until now because it seemed so unlikely.  

The reason Leonard kept approaching her, acting friendly….  

She chewed on the end of her pen and tousled her hair with a serious expression.

Could it be that Leonard Klein likes me?  

Just recalling what happened during the day made it a fairly convincing hypothesis, but soon she shook her head vigorously as if she had solved a problem incorrectly, her hair flying.  

No way, no way, there’s no way.  

Even the brief thought of such a thing was embarrassingly absurd.  

“…Ugh.”  

Yeah, there’s no way. Absolutely no way. It can’t be that simple and straightforward. How could it be? Why would Leonard Klein like someone like me? Maybe he’s playing with me out of pity.  

She scribbled over the problem she was working on with her pen and continued to ponder, shaking her head again. It was like solving a difficult problem and unexpectedly arriving at a simple and straightforward answer, doubting and re-solving it several times.  

But her situation was more difficult than ever. A problem that yields the same answer no matter how many times it’s solved can be graded by understanding or checking the solution, but you can’t confirm human feelings like grading a problem.  

She stared at the problem she was working on and then irritably moved her pen again. The pen scratched the thin paper and eventually tore it a little.  

“…….”  

The pen paused for a moment before moving again, leaving black marks.  

Yeah. Whatever Leonard thinks of me, it’s completely irrelevant to me. Whether he likes or dislikes me, it doesn’t change anything.  

They say caterpillars must eat pine needles to live, and one shouldn’t even look at trees they can’t climb. Leonard Klein was the deadliest leaf, a tree too tall to climb.  

Even if, by some impossible chance, Leonard Klein liked her, ignoring it was the best policy.  

She didn’t come here to play silly dating games; she studied hard to get into this academy.