Rose reached the top of the stairs and pressed her hand against the door. It opened slowly, and she stepped through, not looking back. Lim and the two girls behind her tried to catch up but couldn't. Rose's strides were too powerful, too steady. She did not look at them, nor stopped to make sure they were close. She kept moving forward, her steps as constant as her gaze.
She moved like someone in a trance, eyes fixed on the path ahead. With each step, her eyes darkened, her focus sharp and unbreakable. The goblins on the second floor felt her presence, all of them. She was the first to arrive, and the others, sensing her aura, didn't react as they normally would. The goblins laid down their weapons. Some knelt. Not a single one tried to attack her as she passed.
Lim was close behind but didn't know what to make of it. Giselle and Joyce didn't either, their faces showing their confusion. Rose's usual self wasn't here right now. This was different.
They came out of the thick forest and stepped into a clearing. And there, right in the centre, was Felix. At his feet was the body of a dead goblin, bleeding out on the ground.
"Felix?" Lim called. He wasn't surprised to see him here. He had expected it. But something about Felix's look concerned him.
Felix looked drained, and pale, and there was a coldness about him. His whole body seemed to shiver, though the day was mild.
Rose was there before Lim could move. She cupped Felix's face with her hands, her expression intense, her eyes searching his.
"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice low and urgent. "Why are you so cold? Do you need something warm? I could make you tea. Isn't peach tea your favourite?"
Felix blinked, taken aback, staring at her. He glanced over at Lim as if hoping for an answer. Lim looked as shocked as he felt. Giselle's mouth hung open, and Joyce rubbed her eyes, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. She usually kept her composure, but Rose's reaction left her off balance.
Rose was the steady one, the wall that didn't bend or break. She'd tease Felix, sure, but never with any show of real care. Not like this. This was something different. This was a real concern. Her hands trembled as she touched Felix, checking his face, her gaze filled with worry. Nothing was teasing about this.
Felix gently took her hands, lowering them from his face. "I'm fine. You're the one who looks worse than me."
"Don't lie to me. You're freezing."
Rose's voice held a tone Felix had never heard before. There was a slight shake to it, a bit of panic. Part of her felt lost, wondering why she was so worried. The other part didn't care. All she wanted was for Felix to be safe.
Felix squeezed her hands gently, grounding her, and gave a faint, forced smile. Smiling wasn't something that came naturally to him. He'd never quite mastered it, but he tried.
"I'm okay, really," he said. "So… don't worry. Don't panic, all right?"
Rose nodded, but her hands still shook. She glanced back at her teammates, who hadn't moved. They stared at her, wide-eyed, frozen, not sure what to make of this scene. Shock ran through all of them.
"Let's go back," she said quietly.
The three of them fell into step behind her. Giselle and Joyce cast glances at Felix, who looked calm, as though nothing had happened. But that calm only made things stranger. Lim didn't say anything, but he knew he'd have questions for Felix later.
---
As water trickled down her face, Rose tried to shake off the thoughts swirling in her mind. Her actions today bothered her. She'd been standing in the cold shower for nearly half an hour.
Her skin was red from the chill, and her teeth chattered. But she didn't move. She hated what was happening. Why had she cared so much for Felix?
She cared about him, sure. But not like that, not enough to feel weak at the thought of him hurt. Today, she felt something sharp rise in her and it spoke to her that Felix was hurt. She felt angry, but more than that, she was terrified.
And somehow, she had known exactly where he was. She even prayed for him, though she'd never been one to believe in anything beyond herself.
When she saw him, anger left her. She'd held his face, felt his cold skin. And she'd been afraid. Rose, who feared nothing, had felt real fear.
The water ran cold, but she stayed under it until her thoughts dulled. Finally, she wrapped a towel around herself and walked into the kitchen. She put a kettle on the stove and waited, looking through the cupboards for tea bags.
Where did I put the tea?
She didn't even like tea. Coffee, strong and black, was what she drank. But today, she wanted tea. Peach tea, specifically. Her mind circled back to Felix again.
She tapped her head against the cupboard. How had she known his favourite tea flavour? She'd never asked him about it, and he'd never told her.
Leave me alone, Felix, she thought as she headed back to the shower.
---
In Felix's dorm room, Lim frowned at the stack of dirty dishes piled high in the sink.
"You're not going to make me wash those, are you?" he asked, looking at the mess with distaste.
Felix didn't answer. Instead, he placed two glasses of iced tea on the table and then sat across from Lim.
"How do you even use this many dishes when you live alone?" Lim muttered, shaking his head. "And what about the maids assigned to the Stars? Why haven't they done it?"
Felix only smiled and took a sip of his tea. Lim sighed, resigned to his fate. Every time he visited Felix, he ended up doing dishes.
"So," Lim said finally, "what was with Rose? What did you do to her?"
Felix looked down, frowning. "All I did was stand there. She just… showed up out of nowhere. But I think I have a theory."
"Go on," Lim said, listening closely.
"Well, the ghost problem isn't over."
Lim nearly spit out his drink. "What do you mean, 'not over'? Do you think the Morrowraith is still around? Can it come back from ashes?"
"No, the Morrowraith is dead," Felix replied. "But when you were attacked in the hallway, it wasn't the Morrowraith—it was something else. And it attacked me today on the second floor."
Lim nodded slowly, his face serious. "Did it stop time for you too?"
"Yes. And it felt cold." Felix remembered the chill, how his skin had turned pale.
"That's what's strange," he continued. "I was in real danger. But somehow… Rose knew. And she looked worried."
"Worried is an understatement," Lim added. "She practically flew up to the second floor, killed the first-floor boss in seconds, and knew exactly where you were—like she had some kind of compass pointing to you."
Felix raised an eyebrow. Lim hesitated, taking a deep breath. He didn't know if he should say it, but he couldn't leave Felix without answers.
"Felix, Rose isn't supposed to be like this," he began.
"She's… well, she's how I imagined her. Strong, dazzling, a leader. A symbol of perfection. And she is that way. But when she's around you… she changes. She becomes… human."
This troubled Lim. Rose wasn't supposed to act like this, not toward Felix, not like today. The story he'd written had focused on action, on a perfect hero. He hadn't imagined anything different. All he wanted was to make something perfect, something he never had in real life.
Felix tilted his head, studying Lim.
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"No, not in her case,"
Lim replied.
"If I'd known my story would become real, I might've been better off never writing a word."
Lim's face was unreadable, but Felix saw something there. Regret.
"When I created Rose, I was proud of her. She was strong, brave, unbreakable. But the more I wrote, the less I liked her. She was too perfect. And a perfect character doesn't grow. So I gave her a flaw, something she had to overcome to be complete."
Felix stayed quiet, letting him continue.
"The flaw I gave her was her heart. Her heart… it's an object from the abyss."
Felix nodded slowly, understanding the title of the story for the first time: *The Heart from the Abyss.*
"Does that heart make her less human?" he asked.
"Not less human," Lim replied. "But it makes her feel alone. She can still feel other emotions, but loneliness is her deepest feeling." He paused. "I made her that way because it was how I felt back then. Lonely."
Writing the story had been his way of dealing with that feeling.
"I figured out my loneliness by opening up to people," Lim continued.
"But Rose's story is different. I made it hard for her. Too hard."
Felix nodded. Emotions were never his strength, but he listened. Rose had always looked at him with a sense of amusement, nothing more. Or so he had thought.
Today, though, he saw something different. She was scared for him. She touched his face, something that would normally disgust her. Her steady hands had shaken. She, who was unbreakable, had panicked.
"So what's the cure to her loneliness?" Felix asked.
"Oscar," Lim said. "His heart is the cure. It's pure, so pure that even the abyss can't taint it."
"So she has to fall in love with him to be whole," Felix replied.
"Yes." Lim glanced at Felix. "But now…"
Felix understood. Rose had reacted to him with something more than concern, something that went deeper. It was clear now. He was the problem. It was always him, always his presence, that disrupted everything.
They didn't need to say more. They both knew what had to be done. Rose had to end up with Oscar, not Felix. Breaking someone's heart was necessary, and it wouldn't be the first time he had done it.
"Is this the right thing to do?" Felix asked.
"We have to," Lim replied quietly. "For her sake."
Felix questioned it. For her sake.
He repeated the words, letting them sink in. For her sake, he was supposed to hurt her. It didn't sit right, not with him. It was absurd.
He had no answers for her feelings, but dismissing them, hurting her—that didn't feel right. He'd been here before, once, unintentionally shattering a connection that was too far gone to repair.
Rose wasn't his love, nor his friend, but she was someone he respected.
"Sorry, Lim," he said finally. "I don't think I can do it. Not for her, but for myself."