Chapter 5
By the time morning came, I was too exhausted to move.
The apartment wasn’t large, but it was clean and quiet. Xander helped me wash up, tucked me in, then leaned down and kissed me again.
The Xander who used to indulge me in everything was gone tonight.
No matter how much I whined or pleaded or looked at him with watery eyes, he never softened.
By the end, all I wanted was sleep.
That was when the system suddenly squealed in my head.
“Host! His irritation dropped by one percent!”
I almost cried.
One percent?
That was it?
The system sounded delighted. “It went down! It finally went down!”
I felt every ache in my body and answered without mercy, “At this rate, before the irritation disappears, your host is going to disappear first.”
Even so, I ended up staying at Xander’s apartment after that.
If the irritation could drop even a little, then a little was still worth something.
So I became even more careful.
I stopped checking where he was.
I stopped making demands.
If he came home late, I greeted him sweetly and said, “It’s okay. Don’t worry. A little later is fine too.”
I thought that would make him happy.
Instead, his face would darken, and he would become even harder to deal with than before.
I wanted to cry, but I had no idea what I had done wrong this time.
Then one night, he didn’t come back at all.
He only sent one message.
Something came up. Don’t worry. I’ll be back tomorrow.
The system immediately lit up. “Good chance! Xander has just been reclaimed by his wealthy birth family. He’s the real heir who was lost outside. He’ll definitely be having a rough time in that new house right now. Comfort him properly and the affection meter might finally rise.”
I waited until morning.
He still didn’t return.
Guessing that he was probably still tangled up in family matters, I went to the city library first.
By the afternoon, my phone had died, so I left it charging and buried myself in studying for several hours.
By evening, when I finally switched it back on, I saw a flood of messages from Xander.
The last one said, Where are you? I’m coming to get you.
I texted him as I slung my backpack over my shoulder and headed out of the library.
I had just stepped outside when I heard someone call my name.
“Harper?”
I turned.
It was Lucas.
He was holding a few books too.
As we walked toward the exit together, he asked casually, “Want to grab dinner?”
I shook my head. “No, my boyfriend’s picking me up at the intersection.”
He looked in the direction I pointed and frowned. “It’s getting dark. I’ll at least walk you through the alley.”
Then he seemed to remember something. “Wait here for a second. I left something in the library. Don’t wander off.”
I nodded and stayed where I was.
I had only been standing there for a short while when I felt it.
A sticky, unpleasant gaze crawling over me.
I looked around and saw a man with a bad face openly sizing me up.
My heart jumped.
I turned to leave immediately.
Then another man stepped into my path.
The two of them boxed me in.
One of them smelled strongly of alcohol. He leaned closer and grinned. “Alone, sweetheart? Want to come have a drink with us?”
Every alarm bell in my body went off.
Without showing it on my face, I slipped my hand into my bag and gripped the self-defense spray I kept there.
“No,” I said.
They came closer.
The one in plaid actually reached a hand toward me.
I didn’t hesitate.
I yanked out the spray and hit him in the face.
He screamed and grabbed his eyes.
I turned and ran.
The other man cursed and lunged after me.
At that exact moment, Lucas came running back.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him, checking me over quickly. “Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
And then a cry rang out from behind us.
I turned.
Xander was there.
He had somehow arrived without me noticing, and now he was already in the middle of a fight with both men.
He had been fighting his whole life. He moved fast, clean, brutal.
A few moments later, both men were on the ground.
Xander stood over one of them, stepping on his hand, eyes still burning with fury.
Then he looked at me and asked, “Which hand touched—”
He broke off.
His gaze had fallen to where Lucas and I were still holding hands.
Lucas noticed the blood on the ground, frowned, and instinctively pulled me farther away from it.
Then, in that same gentle voice, he asked, “Did he scare you?”
I wanted to go to Xander.
I wanted to look at his injuries.
But Lucas was still asking if I wanted to call my parents, and for one strange, suspended moment, the streetlight between the three of us split everything into brightness and shadow.
I stood in the light.
Xander stood in the dark.
And he just looked at me.
Looked and looked.
Until the violence in his eyes disappeared completely.
Until all that was left was something silent and empty.
Then he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, laughed once at himself, and turned away.