Leansei stood frozen, completely preoccupied and entirely at a loss for words while staring down at Xerchin's firm, warm hand wrapped securely around his own. He quickly lowered his head as that familiar, overwhelming heat rushed straight back to his cheeks, accompanied by a sharp spark of electricity that seemed to ripple through his veins whenever their skin made contact.
Walking beside him, Leansei couldn't help but realize that Xerchin had become like a whole different person compared to the terrifying, heartless heir he had encountered during their very first meeting. The realization made Leansei abruptly grind to a halt on the pavement.
Sensing the sudden resistance, Xerchin stopped as well, turning his head to glance down at him.
"Hey," Leansei began, his voice dropping into an unidentifiable, quiet tone. "Would your... girlfriend be furious with you for spending your lunch hour with me?" The question caught Xerchin completely off guard. He slowly let go of Leansei's hand, stepping back to stare down at him with an intense, unblinking focus.
"I—" Xerchin started, but the response was instantly cut short when a heavy, familiar voice called out Kean's name from directly behind them.
"Kean." Leansei felt his stomach instantly drop. It was the exact voice he had been actively, desperately avoiding for days.
' What an absolutely unfortunate situation, ' Leansei lamented bitterly in his mind.
Xerchin's expression shifted in a split second, his handsome features freezing into a cold, entirely expressionless mask as he eyed the newcomer. Tyvan stood a few paces away, his forehead tightly knotted in sheer confusion as his gaze flicked between their close posture.
"Is he bothering you?" Tyvan demanded, his eyes locking onto Leansei. Lean merely rubbed the back of his neck, completely stressed.
' Actually, the only person bothering me right now is you. I had absolutely no intentions of crossing paths with you any time soon, but I guess escaping you is impossible. '
"N-no. We were actually just about to—" Leansei stammered, but the words withered on his tongue when he glanced at Xerchin. A sharp chill ran down his spine. An incredibly dark, intimidating aura was physically radiating from the heir as he leveled Tyvan with a lethal, unmoving stare.
"Excuse us. We are currently in a hurry to leave," Xerchin stated, his baritone voice dangerously smooth. He reached out to guide Leansei away, but Tyvan lunged forward, his fingers clamping tightly around Leansei's wrist to anchor him in place.
"And since when did you become so exceptionally close with Kean?" Tyvan questioned, his tone dropping into a solemn, heavy register. Leansei winced, his mind racing. The bitter, toxic rivalry between these two was vastly more terrible than the petty academic squabbles between Rell and Xerchin.
"Let go of Kean right now," Tyvan ordered, his grip tightening.
"Stop it! Both of you!" Leansei snapped in pure irritation. He felt entirely sick of being torn in two by these overbearing elites. He strongly suspected that both of these guys were simply clinging to their ridiculous, inflated pride, completely ignoring the fact that the original Kean had possessed a deep, painful attachment to both of them.
' I am not a prize, and I am certainly not going to just sit here and choose between them, ' he reasoned angrily.
With a sharp, decisive jerk, Leansei violently ripped his hand out of Tyvan's grasp. "If you two cannot settle whatever miserable problem it is that you have between yourselves, I refuse to play a part in it," Leansei declared coldly.
Turning his back on both of them, he marched away down the corridor, his chest tight with irritation. He absolutely despised being treated like a defenseless plaything that could be pulled apart at their whim.
.
A few minutes later, Leansei entered the bustling cafeteria and ordered a light meal. Since his favorite chicken curry was unavailable yet again, he reluctantly settled for a simple plate of fried rice topped with a golden omelette. He carried the plastic tray over to an isolated corner and sat down.
But just as he raised his utensils to take his first bite, the opposite chair was aggressively pulled back.
The heavy, intoxicating scent of that familiar mint perfume and a dark, suffocating aura immediately filled the air, forcing Leansei to look up. Xerchin was sitting directly across from him, his arms crossed over his chest, looking thoroughly grumpy.
"Were you genuinely planning to eat your lunch without me?" Xerchin questioned, his eyes locked intently onto Leansei's. He paused, his voice dropping slightly. "Are you mad at me?" Leansei's breath hitched under the intense weight of those blue, mesmerizing eyes. He quickly diverted his gaze down to his plate to maintain his sanity.
"I'm not mad," Leansei murmured softly. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his leather wallet and extracted a few bills, sliding the cash across the table. "Go ahead and buy whatever it is you want to eat. My treat."
Xerchin stared down at the paper money for a flat second. Then, without a single word, he abruptly stood up from the table and walked away into the crowd.
Leansei watched his retreating back, completely dumbfounded.
' Why did he just walk off like that? Does he seriously think my money isn't good enough for his high-class standards?! Well, I guess that's exactly what I should expect from a multi-millionaire heir. '
Letting out a heavy sigh, Leansei gathered the rejected bills and stuffed them back into his wallet, entirely unaware of what the stubborn boy was actually planning to do.
Leansei flinched when Xerchin suddenly returned, carefully balancing a massive tray packed to the brim with fresh food—including a matching plate of fried rice and a golden omelette. He stared in absolute shock as the heir unfolded an assortment of luxury desserts, side dishes, and colorful drinks across the table. Xerchin calmly sat back down, setting the feast up as if they were gearing up for a school field trip.
"You bought all of this? Are you trying to feed your entire classroom?" Leansei asked, his eyes wide as he scanned the vibrant desserts. Despite his confusion, he couldn't help but look at the spread.
' That looks so incredibly yummy. I wonder why on earth he bought all of this. '
"It's for you," Xerchin stated flatly.
The blunt declaration made Leansei instantly choke on his food, coughing violently as he tried to swallow a mouthful of rice. Without a word, Xerchin swiftly twisted open a fresh bottle of water and held it out. Leansei snatched it, gulping down half the bottle before staring at the heir, completely dumbfounded.
"Y-you bought all of this for me?" Leansei squeaked, pointing a trembling finger at his own chest. Xerchin simply nodded, using his long fingers to slide the mountain of desserts directly into Leansei's space. "Are you actively trying to make me die from diabetes?"
' It's a massive meal... and I physically cannot say no to food, ' Leansei lamented as a heavy wave of guilt washed over his spirit. ' But lately, he keeps buying things for me, and I still haven't properly thanked him or treated him out. I owe him way too much. '
"Th-thank you," Leansei murmured, picking up his fork again. "Please, don't buy anything else for me. I'll accept this only because I absolutely despise letting food go to waste. But I mean it—I'll treat you to lunch for three consecutive days if I have to." Xerchin quietly tracked Leansei's movements before lowering his eyes to calmly finish his own plate. Leansei chewed thoughtfully, still mentally debating how he was going to conquer this mountain of sweets. He definitely possessed a sweet tooth, but eating all of this felt like a surefire way to die a second time.
' Why did he really buy me all of this? Could it be a silent apology for the tense argument with Tyvan in the hallway earlier? ' Leansei wondered, sneaking a quiet glance across the table at the surprisingly peaceful, eating heir.
His internal monologue was disrupted when he felt the heavy weight of dozens of burning gazes locking onto their corner. The entire cafeteria was watching them, whispering furiously. Leansei felt entirely out of his element.
' Is he seriously not disgusted by this? How can he just sit there completely unbothered by the toxic gossip swirling right around his head? '
"Gawin!" Leansei flinched violently at the sound of the secret name. He snapped his head around, looking past Xerchin's broad shoulders to see the cute, glowing, and nerdy face of Corshe running wildly toward their table while waving his hand.
Leansei's eyes instantly twinkled with relief at the sight of his new confidant. Year arrived at the table with a loud, dramatic stomp of his hand, his face radiating charm and hyperactive happiness.
"I honestly thought I wouldn't get to see you today! The professor before the lunch break took forever and went way into overtime!" Corshe rambled cheerfully, being just as talkative as always. He aggressively pulled back the empty chair right next to Xerchin and sat down, his eyes locked entirely on Leansei. "Listen, I did a ton of research on that last topic you told me about? I actually found something—"
Leansei's genuine smile instantly stiffened into a strained, nervous grimace. His heart did a frantic flip, knowing that Corshe was about to openly blab about the transmigration mystery. He frantically shot a series of panicked eye signals toward the boy, silently pleading with him to shut his mouth. Sensing the sudden, freezing shift in the atmosphere, Corshe paused. He blinked at Leansei, entirely confused.
"What is with your face—?" Following the direction of Leansei's frantic gaze, Corshe slowly turned his head to the left. The exact second his eyes locked onto a pair of dangerously sharp, intimidating blue eyes, Corshe felt as though the devil itself had physically materialized to devour his soul.
"AHHHH!! What is he doing—?!" Corshe shrieked at the top of his lungs, causing half the students in the cafeteria to snap their heads in their direction. Year's eyes darted frantically between Leansei and Xerchin, his brain violently remembering the terrifying history that had transpired between Kean and the Vcheroi family.
"Hey! What on earth are you screaming for?!" Leansei hissed, completely startled by the dramatic reaction.
Scrambled by absolute panic, Year immediately bolted out of his chair and flew across the space to slide into the seat directly beside Leansei, using him as a human shield.
"W-why are you sitting with him?" Corshe whispered loudly, though the quiet table dynamic made it perfectly audible to the heir. "Aren't you two... supposed to be enemies?"
"It is an incredibly long story..." Leansei sighed heavily, sheepishly scratching his temple. Corshe puffed his lips out in pure, cranky irritation, looking exactly like a spoiled five-year-old boy. Xerchin merely observed the display with a completely blank poker face. Wanting to cut through the tension, Leansei gestured between them.
"Oh right, Xerchin, this is Year Corshe." Xerchin merely spared the nerd a single, icy glance before turning right back to calmly eating his omelette.
"Anyway, I am so incredibly excited for the acquaintance party by the end of the month!" Corshe chirped, his eyes instantly drifting toward the colorful array of expensive pastries flooding the table. "Come on, since you're the Vice President, can't you at least spoil a few details for us?"
"I absolutely cannot spoil the surprise," Leansei chuckled, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "If I tell you everything now, you won't be curious when the night actually arrives."
Corshe let out a visible drool, his eyes locked onto a particularly delicious-looking glazed tart. He slowly, carefully extended a hand to pick it up, but a sudden, terrifying chill instantly raced down his spine. He froze mid-air, lifting his eyes to find Xerchin leveling him with a dark, territorial stare that explicitly screamed
' touch that and you die.'
Corshe let out a high-pitched, fake laugh, instantly snatching his hand back into his lap. Xerchin calmly resumed his meal as if nothing had happened. Leansei blinked, noticing that Corshe's lips were tightly trembling and his eyes were welling with tears as he stared longingly at the food.
"Do you want some?" Leansei offered gently. Corshe's spirit lit up like a Christmas tree, but Xerchin's glare immediately snapped back onto the nerd's face. Realizing he needed to manage the possessive heir, Leansei turned a pointed, firm look toward Xerchin, his eyes silently projecting a message: ' Right, Xerchin? It's my food now, so I am perfectly allowed to share it, right? '
Faced with Leansei's unyielding gaze, Xerchin let out a quiet, defeated breath. He aggressively diverted his blue eyes away, focusing entirely on finishing the last bite of his plate.
Once the meal concluded, Xerchin's phone vibrated with an urgent alert. He stood up, informing Leansei that an unexpected corporate errand required his immediate presence on the upper campus, meaning he wouldn't be able to walk with them.
Leansei watched him stride away, a soft sigh escaping his lips.
' Xerchin really looks like he's been buried under an exhausting mountain of business since yesterday. '
Leansei and Corshe came to a halt near the edge of VU's vast grass field, settling down onto a weathered wooden bench. A refreshing breeze swept across the open campus, carrying the crisp, earthy scent of green grass that immediately helped soothe the underlying tension of the afternoon.
"Have you heard the news yet?" Corshe asked between bites of a cinnamon roll.
"About what exactly?" Leansei inquired, his fingers busy organizing the mountain of plastic bags filled with desserts and drinks that Xerchin had dumped on him.
"The head chef of the main campus cafeteria officially resigned this morning."
"Why so suddenly?"
"No one on campus knows the absolute reason, but the gossip in the hallways says it has something to do with his wife."
Leansei looked at Corshe and nodded slowly. He had actually intercepted a few conflicting rumors about the chef earlier in the week. Some students claimed it was a bitter dispute over a low salary, while others whispered that it was due to a sudden hit to his professional reputation. However, Leansei knew it wasn't either of those things. He had caught a glimpse of the chef leaving the building earlier; the man's expression was hollow, heavy with a profound sadness that looked exactly like someone who had just tragically lost the most important person in their life.
Turning back to the table, Leansei realized he finally had a moment of privacy. He leaned across the table, his voice dropping into a serious whisper. "Alright, Corshe. You said you found something about the past. What exactly did your research uncover?"
"Oh right! I almost completely forgot," Corshe gasped, snapping out of his thoughts and rummaging through his backpack to pull out a thick, leather-bound notebook.
Leansei was sharply pulled back to reality, staring at the journal with a confused expression. "What is that?"
"I recall what you told me the other day..." Corshe paused abruptly, his eyes scanning the immediate perimeter of the grass field to ensure no other students were within earshot. He leaned in close, lowering his voice to a faint whisper. "When you told me the truth—that you weren't actually the real Kean."
Leansei gave a firm nod, a sudden spike of curiosity tightening his chest as he waited for the explanation.
"I spent hours researching ancient texts and recorded anomalies," Corshe explained, his eyes locking onto his handwritten notes. "What happened to you... it's classified as a miracle. A literal second life. It's an exceptionally rare spiritual phenomenon that only triggers when a soul is hovering on the absolute razor-thin edge of death."
Leansei unconsciously looked down at his own hands, his mind instantly flashing back to the terrifying memory of cold, crushing water enveloping him, the agonizing sensation of drowning, and the suffocating panic of running completely out of oxygen.
"The texts state that when it is fundamentally not your cosmic fate to die just yet," Corshe continued, turning a crisp page in his journal, "your displaced soul can get lost in the spiritual slipstream. From there, it transmigrates directly into another nearby body that has just physically expired."
Leansei straightened his posture, a wave of profound realization hitting him. Amid the luxury of Kean's wealthy life and the chaotic drama with Xerchin, he had almost forgotten the core mystery of why he was even walking this earth.
"Then... is it possible that the two separate souls of both bodies are still technically alive somewhere?" Leansei asked, his voice tight.
Corshe flipped back through his pages, his brow furrowing. "The records don't give a straight answer on soul-swapping. It usually depends entirely on the tether. Tell me, what exactly were you doing or thinking about the absolute second before you died?" Leansei closed his eyes, and the memories of that faithful day flooded his mind with terrifying clarity, playing out as if it had happened just yesterday afternoon.
________
An old woman stood at the door, both arms full of grocery bags that pulled her shoulders down. Without thinking, Leansei was up. He took the bags, guided her to his seat, and stood instead grabbing the overhead hanging handle.
"You're so kind, young man," she said, her smile folding the lines of her face into something warm.
He only nodded. What else was there to say?
' Being kind is the only thing I have right now and she looks like grandma Delin. '
His eyes flicked to his watch. Five minutes. The thought of being late gnawed at him, until the old woman held out a small wrapped candy between two weathered fingers.
Leansei looked at it and hesitating if he should accept it or not, but in the end he did since he believes that you can't reject the elders' offers or requests.
"Thank you," he murmured. Old lady gave him a genuine smiled and minutes later, the bus stopped. She stood up her feet, tapped his shoulder once in farewell, and disappeared into the crowd. He stared at the her, something about her lingered, an odd weight he couldn't name.
When he reached the bus stop, Leansei immediately climbed down from the bus and looked at the candy in his hand. He unwrapped the candy, and it's a blue candy with white paper around it. Blue, like twilight. He took the paper as the candy melts into his mouth. it has a sentence in careful ink:
"WHEN THE LEAF FALL DOWN THE RIVER AT THE FULL MOON AND WHEN THE SUN COMES UP, HE WILL BE RENAISSANCE," he read it once, frowned, and tossed it into the nearest bin before sprinting to the coffee shop.
________
When the moon above cast a spotlight on Leansei, he was unable to move. It was like devouring his soul deep within himself. As he started drowning, he stared at the stunning full round moon until he could feel his chest tightening and was about to run out of air.
Above him, the single hanging bulb flickered. The light died down to a dull, orange wire, throwing long, heavy shadows across the walls. A deep, hollow cold settled into his chest, numbing his hands first, then his arms, pulling him down into a heavy sleep.
He was gradually drowning. That made him slowly lose consciousness. His lungs refused to expand. The air in the room felt like solid ice. Yet, through the fading gray of his mind, a final, sharp thought cut through the dark.
' I will survive this. No matter what they throw at me, I will live. '
All he could think of before his last breath was the determination and strong desire to live his life regardless of his situation. Then, the floor vanished beneath him, and the entire room tilted into the abyss.
"I need to live."
_____________
"And that... that was the absolute last thing I remember before waking up in Kean's hospital bed," Leansei concluded softly, opening his eyes back to the sunlit grass field.
Both Corshe and Leansei fell into a heavy, profound silence for a few seconds, their minds frantically piecing together the puzzle. Suddenly, a brilliant glint of absolute insight flashed in both of their eyes at the exact same time. They snapped their heads around to lock eyes.
"The Old Lady!" they both shouted in unison, the realization echoing across the quiet field.