After agreeing to Silver Charm's terrifying "Annual Promise," Myriad Dreams practically fled back to her temporary dormitory in the United States.
However, the moment she stepped through the door, the phone in her pocket began to vibrate frantically and incessantly, like a beehive set to high-intensity mode.
She pulled out her phone with trembling fingers.
The screen was completely buried under a dense thicket of notifications, all from Yaeno Muteki.
Unread Messages: 99+
Missed Calls: 50+
The latest message glared back at her, the words dripping with a cold, frantic energy that almost bled through the screen:
"My·riad·Dreams... you had better give me an explanation. (Smiling Face)"
"Pick up the phone."
"Now. Immediately. Right this second."
"You think you can hide?"
Myriad Dreams sucked in a sharp breath, a chill racing from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head.
'I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead! Muteki found out! That kiss... it was definitely caught on camera!'
Her hands shook so hard she could barely hold the device. I
nstinctively, she chose the way of the ostrich, selective ignorance.
She switched the phone to silent and slammed it face-down on the table, as if that could shut out the death sentence coming from far-away Japan.
Her heart hammered against her ribs, and cold sweat soaked through her freshly changed pajamas.
'What do I do? What do I do?'
A thought suddenly surfaced.
'Maybe... I should stay in America for a few more days? Wait for Muteki to cool off before heading back?'
But she rejected the plan almost the instant it was born.
'No! Knowing Muteki, if I dare stay an extra day, she'll buy a plane ticket and hunt me down tomorrow! The scene would be even more out of control then!'
The mental image of Yaeno Muteki appearing at the American Tracen Academy, right in front of Silver Charm and everyone else...
Myriad Dreams shuddered and instantly dismissed the idea.
Finally, driven by immense psychological pressure and the raw instinct for survival, she made a decision—
'Run! Run now!'
In a frantic rush, she packed her bags and booked the earliest flight back to Japan.
Like a rabbit caught in a hunter's crosshairs, she slunk away from the land where she had just won supreme glory and where she had sowed the seeds of a looming disaster.
As the plane cruised through the night, Myriad Dreams was a bundle of nerves.
She felt none of the joy of a Triple Crown winner, her mind was entirely occupied by how to face Yaeno Muteki's"judgment upon her return.
By the time she arrived in Japan, it was already the small hours of the morning.
She didn't dare go straight to the school. Instead, she checked into a nearby airport hotel for a few hours, nervously biding her time.
She calculated that around 3:00 or 4:00 AM, when people are in their deepest sleep, she could sneak back to the dorm.
Perhaps then she could avoid everyone's eyes, especially... Muteki's.
Time ticked by, each second feeling like a century, until finally, the clock struck 3:30 AM.
Myriad Dreams took a deep breath, dragged her suitcase along, and slipped out of the hotel.
She hailed a taxi back to Tracen Academy.
The campus was deathly silent in the early morning, with only the streetlamps casting dim, yellow halos on the ground.
She walked on her tiptoes, every step agonizingly cautious, her heart practically leaping out of her throat.
Finally reaching the dormitory door, she held her breath and turned the key with agonizing slowness, making almost no sound.
Click.
The lock gave a faint, nearly inaudible sound.
She felt a surge of secret joy.
'Success!'
Like a blue phantom, she slipped into the room and gently pulled the door shut behind her, making almost zero noise.
In the darkness, she let out a long, heavy sigh of relief. Her frayed nerves finally began to relax.
'I... I actually made it.'
However, the very instant that sigh left her lungs—
A pair of arms lunged out from the shadows behind her.
With an irresistible force, they wrapped tightly— viciously tight— around her waist, pulling her backward into a warm embrace filled with a familiar scent!
"!!!"
Myriad Dreams' breath hitched instantly, her very blood seemed to freeze.
A voice laced with a ghostly chill, yet carrying an undertone of extreme danger, spoke softly against her ear, shattering the dead silence:
"You finally... decided to come back?"
"My dear... My·riad·Dreams..."
"Did you really think... I would be asleep?"
Yaeno Muteki... she hadn't slept at all.
She had been waiting in the darkness the entire time, waiting for the prey to walk into the trap.
Myriad Dreams' body went completely rigid, her mind a total blank, leaving only one final thought:
'It's... all... over...'