But looking back now? She realized she’d only been fooling herself.
It was pathetic, really.
Zayden didn’t respond to her cold words right away. After a long pause, he said quietly,
“This isn’t something I can fix overnight. When the time’s right, I’ll talk to her again.”
Elena raised an eyebrow. “Sarah’s obsessed with you. If you told Madam Grace you wanted to marry her instead, she’d be thrilled.”
That’s how it went in her last life too. After breaking off their engagement, Zayden chose Sarah, and Grace fully approved.
In the end, it was always about what worked for them.
If Zayden found someone better to marry, Grace would agree to the breakup.
Zayden’s gaze was deep-unreadable.
His eyes settled on Elena, and after a long pause, he finally spoke. “Elena… You’ve changed.”
She used to follow him around, anxious and hopeful, just waiting for him to finally see her.
Whenever she looked at him, her eyes would light up.
Elena had always been shy, and she was never good at hiding how she felt-especially when she liked someone.
And Zayden had known. He’d known all along.
He’d gotten used to having her in his shadow, always there, always chasing after him.
But on his birthday, something shifted.
That look in her eyes was gone.
Now, all he saw was distance-cold, quiet distance.
And he didn’t know why.
How could someone change so completely, all at once?
“People change,” Elena said simply, taking a seat in the chair across from the bed. She still wouldn’t look at him.
It was the first time they’d ever had a calm, honest conversation.
The truth was, they’d grown up together.
They shared more than just a typical friendship.
But it was never really equal between them.
She had always been the one running after Zayden.
And Zayden had rarely paid attention to what she wanted.
“Elena, why… did you suddenly stop liking me?” Zayden hesitated for a long time before finally asking the question that had been weighing on him.
That sounded kind of pathetic.
Elena never thought Zayden would actually say something like that.
“Because…” Because I got tired of being let down. Elena lowered her gaze, then said, “Because I finally started putting myself first. Always trying to get your attention just to feel like I mattered… I’m over it. It wore me out.”
“…Oh.” Zayden leaned his arm against his forehead. After a moment, he sat up. As he was about to leave, he stopped at the door, glanced back at Elena, and said, “Pick someone else. Anyone. Just not Nolan.”
Before Elena could respond, Zayden had already left her dorm.
Elena sat in silence. Yeah. Anyone’s fine-as long as it’s not Nolan… or Zayden. Getting involved with someone like that could only end badly.
By Saturday, the weekend had finally arrived.
The prep class for the math competition had officially started.
Students in the competition could choose to attend the review sessions for a final round of practice.
The teacher would also hand out past competition papers for everyone to work through.
It helped students get familiar with the types of questions, and it gave them a better shot at scoring higher on the exam.
By the time Elena got to the classroom, it was almost packed.
Everyone wanted to attend the free prep class.
Even Zayden showed up.
But Sarah was nowhere in sight.
That didn’t surprise Elena.
Sarah always had other classes on weekends. Her parents believed art was more suitable for girls, so they signed her up for painting and piano instead.
Sarah had never been interested in math to begin with. And since her name was only on the list for show, there was no way she’d skip her other lessons for this.
Elena arrived late, so she ended up in the back row.
The questions the teacher covered were nothing like the SAT. A lot of them were unusual, tough, and required real problem-solving-not just plugging in formulas.
For Elena-who had only been reviewing math for less than a week after reliving a whole lifetime-it was tough.
She barely kept up during the first class.
When she finally looked up, Zayden was already standing in front of her, reaching out and grabbing her practice paper without asking.
“Zayden, can you not mess with other people’s stuff?” Elena frowned.
She hadn’t even gotten to the last questions yet, and he’d completely thrown off her focus.
He scanned her answers. While her accuracy was high, the speed was way too slow.
And honestly, these didn’t seem like the kind of answers Elena could come up with.
“You can copy someone else’s answers once, but do you really think you can cheat your way through the actual competition?”
“Copy?” Elena frowned, confused. When did I ever copy?
“With your skill level, you’re just wasting your time here,” Zayden said. “If you go through with this, you’re the one who’s going to be embarrassed when the results come out.”
Hearing that, Elena nearly laughed out of disbelief.
He glanced at her paper and just assumed she cheated? And now he was calling her unqualified?
“Zayden, I bet your score isn’t even better than mine. Why don’t you check your paper against the teacher’s key before running your mouth?” She grabbed her paper back.
“You seriously don’t remember your midterm scores? Elena, I’m being real with you.”
Elena didn’t even look up. She went right back to solving the problems.
She was slow today because she was still adjusting to the format-trying to figure out faster, smarter ways to work through it.
But Zayden took it the wrong way.
Then again, maybe it was understandable. Based on her last two midterm scores, Zayden’s suspicion made sense.
But jumping straight to accusing her of cheating? That was just ridiculous.
Knock knock- at the classroom door, Nolan walked in with a single-strap backpack slung over one shoulder.
The moment the other students saw who it was, their expressions changed.
Nolan had signed up for plenty of city and district competitions before, but he’d never once bothered to show up for a prep class.
Why was he here now? Wherever Nolan walked, the others moved aside to avoid him.
Eventually, he reached Elena’s side and casually tossed his backpack onto her desk.
He didn’t even pick up a test paper. He just laid his head down on the desk, looking half asleep, eyes still heavy.
The whole class glanced sideways at Elena and Nolan.
It was like their presence alone was throwing everyone off.
“Wait, since when do kids from Class Six get to compete? This has got to be a joke.”
“It’s already embarrassing enough that they’re even going to the citywide competition.”
“My parents told me not to go near anyone from Class Six. How are we supposed to concentrate with them around?”
A few students whispered quietly among themselves.
To them, Class Six kids were just the kind you stayed away from.
The second you were anywhere near one of them, people acted like you had some kind of disease.
Elena caught the judgmental stares. For a second, she felt like calling them out-seriously? Get over yourselves, you little punks.
But then she shook it off. Not worth the drama. There’s no point wasting energy on this.
Nolan, sitting nearby, frowned. The noise was clearly getting on his nerves.
He lifted his head and gave the room a cold once-over. The second his eyes landed on them, everyone went silent.
Not one of them dared to say another word.
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