"Our lives are intertwined by fate," Lily mimicked Billy's proposal dramatically, placing a hand over her heart. The whole table erupted into uncontrollable laughter, including Evelyn, Annie, and Austin; Billy hid his face in his arms on the table, mortified.
They were all sitting in the university cafeteria, their food totally forgotten as they teased him relentlessly.
"Just kill me already and spare me this torture," Billy groaned from under his arms.
"What's the fun in that?" Austin joked, laughing. "The entertainment value here is priceless!"
"Did you actually say, 'Our lives have crossed paths again, and this time, I won't miss the chance'?" Evelyn panted through her laughter.
"With you around, life's never boring, Billy," Annie chimed in, laughing harder than anyone had ever seen her. "Seriously, you even managed to turn an apology into a marriage proposal. Iconic."
"Annie, not you too!" Billy complained, his face turning a deeper shade of red.
"Billy," Lily began, feigning seriousness, "if someone saves your life, you're supposed to thank them, not propose marriage on the spot."
"That too, to a professor seven years older than you," Evelyn added, grinning.
"Six years and six months, to be exact," Billy corrected, raising his head up. "And she saved my life. I like her. What's wrong with an age gap of six years?"
What's wrong?" Annie interrupted, still chuckling. "Maybe the fact that you skipped all the normal steps - like getting to know her first, going on dates, becoming close - and jumped straight to marriage? What did you think? She'd say yes right away, like in some over-the-top romance?"
Lily looked at him, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Wait, how do you even know her exact age?
Billy paused for one second before speaking up, "I have seen the outline of her ID on her desk once. It has her birthdate."
Lily groaned, exasperated. "Billy, that's not exactly normal behavior!"
Evelyn smirked. "Now we know who's been paying a little too much attention to Professor Anderson."
Billy flushed slightly but stood his ground. "What? I just happened to notice, that's all!
"In any case, Austin, how did you allow him to go ahead with this?" Evelyn asked, turning her attention to him.
"There's really no stopping him when he's in this state," Austin sighed. "And the professor falling for this guy? Come on."
"She will fall for me. Certainly," Billy whispered to himself, though nobody missed the murmur.
"Yes, sure, buddy," Austin giggled. "Dream big."
Well, Evelyn readied her another jab: "Billy, for real, your proposal was so dramatic that everybody in the university became your fan and started classifying you Romeo.'"
Finally, Billy lifted his head, curling his lips into a sly smile. "At least I confessed my feelings. Unlike someone here who is too scared to even talk to Marcus."
The table fell silent for a moment as Evelyn's grin faded, her expression change to one of pure indignation. "Excuse me?! What do you just say?" she exclaimed, her voice rising slightly, her cheeks flushed with both embarrassment and anger.
"You heard me," Billy said smugly, leaning back in his chair. "I might have messed up, but I had the guts to say something. Meanwhile, you're just sitting there, daydreaming about Marcus and doing nothing about it."
Evelyn's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You absolute—"
"Guys," Lily cut in, trying to calm the brewing storm. She glanced over toward the cafeteria entrance and smiled. "Speaking of Marcus, he's here."
Evelyn froze, her anger quickly replaced by panic. She darted a glance toward the entrance, where Marcus had just walked in, where everyone near him starring at him with fear while he looking for Lily.
Lily grinned mischievously. "Well, I'm going to join him. Evelyn, care to join me?" she asked sweetly, though her teasing tone was unmistakable.
Evelyn turned pale. "N-no, I'm good here," she stammered, fidgeting with her drink.
Lily smiled softly. "Come on, Evelyn. You can't keep away from him all your life."
"I'm not avoiding him!" Evelyn protested weakly.
"Right," Lily teased, patting Evelyn's head. "You just happen to freeze every time he walks into the room.
Before Evelyn could say a word, Lily shook off the rest of the gang. "See you in a bit!" She got up and made her way over to Marcus, saluting others on her way with her usual bright smile.
"She has this brightness that she sends on a place she goes to," Annie said, looking at Lily over the rim of her glass. "Well, without her around, Marcus probably would become more arrogant, anyway."
Hey, don't speak of Marcus that way," Evelyn protested, a little on her guard.
"But she's right, Evelyn," Billy chimed in. "If it weren't for Lily, Marcus might have been impossible to deal with. And let's not forget, he's the reason harassment cases in this university dropped to zero. Every time he beats up one of those gangs, he's putting himself at risk. Most of those guys come from powerful or influential families."
"But still, no matter how big the case is, he always seems to get bail easily," Evelyn countered, though her tone sounded like she'd just realized something.
"That won't always be the case, Evelyn," Annie said, her voice more serious now. "Every time he's saved by someone anonymously pulling strings. But how long will that last? They can't keep turning every situation into self-defense forever."
"We have to accept that Marcus is taking a huge risk for everyone," Austin added. "And Lily staying close to him only doubles that risk. No one else would take that chance, but she does it without hesitation."
The group grew quiet as their eyes drifted toward Marcus and Lily at a distant bench. Lily's laughter carried across the cafeteria as Marcus listened with a small, rare smile.
She's the most precious thing in our class," Austin said softly, and everyone nodded in agreement.
On the other side of the cafeteria, Celeb sat alone at a table eating quietly a burger. His usually calm air surrounded him while distinguishing him apart from the lively chatter of the rest of the students.
Suddenly, a notification came in on his phone. Celeb picked it up and unlocked the phone, his expression changing a bit as he read the message. The message was "Investigation File".