Test week arrived like a siege five brutal days of back-to-back exams, impromptu assessments, and the hushed whispers of students reciting formulas like prayers in the hallways. The kind of relentless grind only a school obsessed with excellence could engineer. 

Aurelina didn't buckle. She adapted. 

Her routine was precision itself: predawn runs, study sprints squeezed between training sessions, meals reduced to protein bars gulped between classes. No wasted movement. No distractions. 

She entered the mathematics classroom five minutes early, as always. Uniform pristine. Hair pulled back. Silver pen clipped to her notepad like a weapon. Students glanced up but said nothing. No one disrupted Aurelina  in focus mode. 

Zhiyong strode in exactly one minute before the bell, his blazer flaring behind him. He didn't speak just nodded at Coach Henry and took his seat two rows behind her. 

The test began. 

Matrices. Integrations. Abstract logic designed to trip the unprepared. By question seven, Aurelina hit her stride 

Then...

A whisper. Barely a breath. 

Zara.

Aurelina didn't turn. She knew that voice. Knew the way Zara leaned just a fraction too close to Cammie. Knew the faint rustle of paper sliding between desks. 

Subtle. But not invisible. 

After the test, Aurelina didn't confront her. Not yet. 

She watched. 

Watched Zara exit laughing too loudly with Cammie. Watched her gaze skitter away. Watched her steps quicken slightly—like someone who knew they were being hunted. 

"Hey," Aurelina said, voice smooth as steel. "Cram well last night?" 

Zara blinked. "Yeah. You?" 

"Didn't need to." A tilt of the head. "Some of us come prepared." 

Not a dig. A warning. 

Zara's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Right.” 

They parted. Aurelina filed the moment away. Something was off. Zara's posture. The way her fingers had twitched toward her phone after the test. 

A shift. 

And Aurelina didn't like shifts. 
 

The day blurred past literature essays, biology diagrams, a strategy debrief where Zhiyong dismantled half her suggestions with a single raised eyebrow. 

"Why do you always look like you're waiting for me to slip up?" Aurelina muttered afterward. 

Zhiyong didn't glance at her. "Because I don't wait." His voice was low. "I watch." 

She stiffened. "You think I'm hiding something?" 

A pause. Then, quieter: "Aren't we all?" 

The way he said it—it wasn't about her. It was about him. 

Cracks were forming underneath. 

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