Hannah stops in the middle of the classroom and carefully looks around the room, wondering where she should sit.
The students who returned from the cafeteria earlier have taken the best seats, so Hannah doesn't have much choice, and eventually, her decision falls on the last bench under the window.
She intends to prepare for her first lesson, but stops in mid-step and from the corner of her eye glances toward the entrance, feeling the devil's gaze on her.
He is not mistaken.
Joseph is standing in the aisle. He leans against the door frame with his hand. He mirrors Hannah with his eyes, unconcerned that he is cluttering the entrance to the classroom with younger students.
Recognizing the man in him from the story, they politely withdraw, not even demanding to be let through the door.
— Choosing a bench is the most difficult decision because you will spend a lot of time on it until you graduate.
With a lazy step, he walks over to her and grabs her wrist.
— Let me go — the girl stammers through her teeth, as he causes her pain with his grip.
Forcibly, he pulls her toward the first bench, which is in the middle row, and, ignoring her protests, pushes her into a chair.
Hannah massages her sore wrist, throwing him an irritated look.
The brunet stands in front of her and leans against the tabletop with his hands. He leans over the bench, and his face is too close to the younger student's face.
She bravely looks into his eyes, although her heart rises to her throat. She swallows her saliva harder as Joseph sweeps her face with his dark gaze, stopping his gaze on her pink lips a moment longer.
— Nice lipstick — he says in an amused voice. — But you were more to your face in the previous one — he asserts teasingly.
He knows. He understands this is the lipstick that someone used to write a threat on the mirror.
How did he find out about it?
The answer is simple: he did it. And now he is perfidiously laughing in her face, thinking that arranging a mockery of her can provide him with unforgettable entertainment.
— It was you... — she whispers, clenching her teeth.
Joseph raises an eyebrow, not understanding her accusation.
— Me? — he puts his hand to his chest, pretending to be surprised. A mocking smile appears on his face. — I have committed many crimes, but if you mean our first meeting in the room, then yes. You are right, girl. It was me.
He strokes her head. The 16-year-old girl moves away from him, measuring him with angry eyes.
— Do you think this is funny?
Joseph straightens his back and carefully looks around at her classmates, who overhear their conversation. Caught by him, they lower their heads, feigning interest in their new notebooks.
Unexpectedly, the boy puts his hand on the back of her neck and forcibly pushes her close to whisper in her ear:
— Change rooms as long as nothing happens. Don't be stubborn like that girl because you will end up the same way — he announces, then pushes her away from him. He does it too abruptly, as the teenager wobbles in her chair.
She lifts her face and looks at the boy carefully, noticing his bitter smile.
— You will still thank me because I have chosen the best place for you — he adds, heading for the door.
Hannah follows him with her eyes until he leaves the room. Her attention is caught by the boarding school supervisor. She has been standing at her desk for a long time, not taking her eyes off her.
The girl guesses that he wants to tell her something.
She rises from her chair and approaches the woman, smiling at her in a friendly manner.
— Is something wrong?
— I'm sorry to bother you before class. — Although her voice is gentle, the woman looks nervous. — It's your first night, so I wanted to know if you're okay. Usually female students wouldn't last a few hours, coming to me crying and asking me to change rooms, and you didn't do that.
— Of course. — Her confidence about the room is astounding. — Nothing happens there. Someone just let out a rumor, and I'm not complaining because I have the whole room to myself.
The woman is relieved.
— It's fortunate that you are brave and don't believe this foolishness. The director would be unimpressed if another person asked me to change. — Hannah nods and bites her cheeks on the inside as the counselor asks her a question. — Is the older student who just left the classroom giving you trouble? Does he tease you?
The girl lifts her face and shakes her head, letting her know that it's nothing serious.
Why should she report him if Joseph is untouchable? He's feared by all the kids at school, and no one has done anything so far because his father meets with the principal over coffee.
— We just tease each other. Nothing happens.
The caretaker puts a hand on her shoulder, then heads for the exit. In the doorway, she passes a student of the last class, who measures her with a cool gaze.
— Mariah?
The girl doesn't answer. She simply glances at her younger colleague and walks away.
*
The girl watches the students who walk along the main corridor...
She notices that groups have managed to form in her class and are just keeping her to herself, as the whole school is rumbling about the fact that Hannah accepted Joseph's challenge, thus becoming his enemy.
The younger classes are not going to befriend her and simply ignore the girl, fearing that even a simple conversation with Hannah will bring them trouble.
She is sorry, but it all happened because of her. She unnecessarily agreed to this war.
Hannah knows very well that Joseph in school is the most valued student and every peer bows down to him, and yet she stubbornly believes that she can be better.
Confused, she blinks her eyelids when someone stands in front of her, hands leaning against the windowsill.
The teenager looks at the laughing face of the charming Tom.
She lifts the corners of her mouth upward as he playfully starts batting his eyelids, making quizzical faces in the process.
— You've already improved her mood enough.
She follows the voice that echoes in her head. It's a strange feeling, and she gets the impression that she's been in a similar situation before. For a moment, she hears his laughter, which is disconcerting, considering that nothing like this has happened in the past or at the moment.
This image... For a brief moment, she feels as if it is an illusion.
— Is everything okay? — She pokes a stunned look at him, noticing the clear concern on his face.
Jin is worried, seeing that the girl has gone pale.
He jumps down from the windowsill, accidentally hitting Tom with his shoulder. She does not apologize to him and wordlessly runs away from the guys, overwhelmed by the whole strange situation.
What was that, she thinks, heading to her room. She had never encountered such a disturbing feeling before.
— Hannah? — She would give her hand that she feels someone's presence and is sure that someone has spoken her name, but when she looks over her shoulder, she sees no one.
The corridor where the girls' rooms are located is empty.
— I guess I didn't get enough sleep — she mutters under her breath as she grabs the doorknob, however, before going inside she carefully strains her hearing because something is wrong.
Her attention is drawn to the bathroom. The door is ajar, and she could swear she heard sounds coming from there. There would be nothing strange about it if it were an ordinary noise, but Hannah hears a familiar tune from her childhood.
With her heart beating loudly, she enters the room and carefully looks around the interior. The bathroom is empty. There is no one in it, and this is starting to become disturbing, as the melody does not quiet down.
She circles, listening to where it is coming from, but is unable to find the main point.
— Is someone making fun of me again? — she says into space, looking around the interior with panicked eyes.
— Hannah. — She turns around and pushes her frightened gaze to the door, as she is sure that the voice calling her is coming from there.
She runs out into the corridor and the only person she finds there is a short, not pretty schoolgirl, who comes out of her room holding a book in one hand and an apple in the other.
— Was someone hanging around the bathroom?
The teenager shakes her head in response.
Hannah returns to her room and her heart stands still when something tumbles in the closet. She opens it and puffs out her lips as everything lies in its place.
She must have thought.
— I think I'm starting to go crazy — she says in a whisper, sighing loudly.
She doesn't want to believe it, but she has to admit that this room actually hides a secret.
*
She leaves the building and inhales the fresh air.
After finishing her classes, she decided to go for a walk. The girl doesn't like to sit in an enclosed room for too long, so she needs to relax after a long day at school.
As she walks past the soccer field, she turns her attention to the boys who are playing soccer. The freshman is standing on the goal — forced to do so — which is not difficult to guess by looking at his frightened face when they aim the ball at him. He's terrified because they don't hit the goal, but specifically hit it having fun when the scrawny boy croaks under the pain. Only Tom sits on the sidelines, not intending to participate in this sick game. He watches them, sipping water from a bottle occasionally.
Hannah stops in place and crosses her arms on her chest, having the urge to aim that ball at her hated colleague's face. It boils inside her when she thinks about it. However, fate wants otherwise, as the ball bounces against the railing and hits the 16-year-old girl in the nose.
The girl falls to the grass.
Joseph, who is the perpetrator of the blow, bursts into wild laughter. He directs his steps towards her, with amused eyes looking at her bloody nose.
He says something to Jimmy, but Hannah completely cuts herself off when she notices the red liquid on her hand. She gets weak, although she doesn't understand why, since she has no trouble seeing blood. No wounds or other horrors have ever made her feel this way before.
— Are you alive? — Joseph crouches down beside her, but doesn't even think about giving her help. Instead, he points his finger at her and looks at Jimmy. — See, the ball has imprinted itself on her face.
His friend snorts a loud laugh, so Hannah has no doubt that the whole school can hear him.
Joseph grabs the teenager's forearm and pulls her up to stand on her feet. He sees that the girl has gone pale. She looks as if she is about to faint.
— I led her to the nurse. — Tom embraces his younger colleague around the waist.
The brunet scowls at them with his eyes until they disappear behind the school door.
— Your aim was perfect — proclaims Jimmy, patting his friend on the shoulder. — You couldn't have hit it better.
Joseph stops smiling when he recalls an identical situation. Only that then he was in Hannah's place, and the perpetrator was Halsey. Those were his first days at the school, and things have changed since then. She openly declared to him that it was intentional. He quickly became infatuated with her, even though she was older than he. She was his first love and left behind painful memories — reminiscences that created a monster out of him.