Aldrich was at his desk, a pile of new student records sprawled before him. His eyes scanned the documents with the detached efficiency of someone sifting through mundane details, but his mind was elsewhere, thinking through each potential opportunity these new arrivals could bring. The familiar routine was interrupted by a firm knock at the door.
"May I enter?" came a voice from outside.
"You may," Aldrich responded, not bothering to look up.
The door creaked open, and Lucas—the infamous academy playboy—stepped in. There was a subtle change in his demeanor, an absence of his usual carefree smirk. He seemed... different, almost subdued, as he studied Aldrich with a quiet intensity that made Aldrich raise an eyebrow.
"There was something I wanted to ask you," Lucas began, voice uncharacteristically somber.
Aldrich didn't respond immediately, his gaze fixed on the documents, pretending indifference. Lucas took the silence as permission to continue.
"I'll take that as a yes," Lucas said, the slightest hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth before vanishing.
Aldrich watched Lucas out of the corner of his eye, noting the unspoken seriousness in his expression. When Lucas finally asked, "Are you really Aldrich Vale?" Aldrich couldn't help the smirk that curled his lips. He had heard this question before, countless times, and yet...something in Lucas's tone, in the way he held himself, felt different.
"I am him, and much more," Aldrich finally replied, his voice laced with a mixture of amusement and mockery.
"Him and much more, huh?" Lucas echoed, crossing his arms as he leaned against the doorframe, studying Aldrich with a level of intensity that was surprising even for him. "I guess that sounds about right."
Aldrich felt Lucas's gaze pressing, searching for something beneath the mask. The moment dragged on, silent but thick with unspoken history, until Lucas's expression softened, a distant nostalgia glinting in his eyes.
"I still remember the old days," Lucas said quietly, his voice tinged with wistfulness. "Back when we all played together, without all these politics, all this deception. And I remember…when you used to care."
"Care? Me?" Aldrich's smirk grew, more amused than before. "Come now, Lucas. Don't lie. I might have fooled everyone else with my charade as the model noble, but you've never been fooled, have you? You've always had a way of seeing through people. Not just the act, but the heart beneath. You could see people's intentions, their core. My past self could never have deceived you."
Lucas's face remained impassive, though there was a slight tension in his jaw, something unspoken simmering beneath his calm exterior.
"I didn't think you were fooling anyone back then," Lucas said softly, almost as if speaking to himself. "You were... different, yes. A bit colder, perhaps. But still... human."
Aldrich regarded him, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Human? I was a hollow shell, Lucas," he said, his voice carrying a hint of mockery. "I had no real emotions, no true feelings, and worst of all, no ambitions. I simply existed."
Lucas's gaze held steady, a slight sadness flickering across his face. "Then why did you stay with us?" he pressed. "Why go through the motions if you felt nothing?"
Aldrich's smirk deepened. "That's the thing, Lucas. I didn't stay with you because of any bond. I stayed because it was convenient, because it maintained a certain image," he replied, his voice laced with cold pragmatism. "A face people trusted is one less hassle to deal with."
Finally, Lucas spoke, his tone low but edged with a vulnerability he couldn't quite conceal. "Were we ever your friends? Was I ever your friend?"
The question hung in the room, heavy and unrelenting. Aldrich's eyes narrowed slightly as he considered his answer, weighing each word as if it held the weight of a thousand hidden truths.
"No…" Aldrich's voice was a murmur, barely audible. "My past self never understood the concept of friendship. I couldn't empathize, couldn't reason. I could never understand what real friendship meant."
Lucas's gaze never wavered, though Aldrich sensed a flicker of something—a slight tightening of his jaw, maybe even disappointment. But he pressed on.
"My current self," Aldrich continued, a cold, detached calm in his tone, "does understand friendship. I know what it is, and I know there is such a thing as true friendship. But I have no need for something as trivial as friends." He paused, a hint of disdain creeping into his voice. "Friends are unnecessary. I have never considered someone my equal… Well, perhaps that has changed."
He thought briefly of his father—a man as calculating and ruthless as he was cunning. A man who would stop at nothing to shape the world in his own image. If I have an equal, Aldrich mused internally, it would be him. But he is my family, my adversary—not a friend.
Lucas studied him, brow slightly raised, as if curious who Aldrich was silently referencing. For a moment, Aldrich wondered if Lucas would press him, but the man remained silent.
"So the truth is," Aldrich concluded, "I have never considered anyone a friend."
"But feelings change, don't they?" Lucas countered, a determined edge to his voice. "Just as you've changed, just as I have. People grow, they evolve. There's nothing in this world that remains stagnant."
He took a step forward, eyes hardening. "I will keep trying. I will make you see me as a friend and as an equal."
Aldrich arched a brow, bemusement flickering across his face. "Is that so? Quite the ambition you've set for yourself, Lucas," he replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.
But Lucas merely straightened, the hint of a smirk finally returning to his face. "Ambition is something I learned from you, Aldrich," he said, his tone defiant. "Maybe it was always there, but you showed me what it looks like to pursue something with everything you have, even if it leaves you alone."
Aldrich didn't respond, though his gaze lingered on Lucas with a slight, almost imperceptible shift—one that could have been respect or amusement. Lucas seemed to interpret his silence as a dismissal and turned toward the door.
"I'm sorry for wasting your time," he murmured. But just as he was about to leave, Aldrich's voice cut through the silence.
"You know, Lucas," Aldrich drawled, an amused edge returning to his tone, "you're far more tolerable when you drop that ridiculous playboy act."
Lucas froze, a look of mild surprise flashing across his face before he broke into a genuine smile. "I'll keep that in mind," he replied softly before leaving the room, the door closing with a quiet click behind him.
Left alone once more, Aldrich turned his gaze toward the window, watching as the sun dipped toward the horizon, casting warm, amber hues across the academy grounds.
"Lucas, huh?" he murmured to himself, his voice barely audible as a small smirk tugged at his lips. "You've finally started to become interesting."
The words lingered in the stillness of the room, a silent acknowledgment of a past he couldn't quite leave behind and a future yet to be shaped.