After a long while, I finally opened my mouth and held out the present toward Calliope.
“I didn’t… I only…”
But she didn’t even glance at me. She simply passed the cup to Arden instead.
I became like a stranger standing in that room.
After some time, I walked out of her house. From that moment, we entered our first silent fight.
When classes resumed, I quietly switched my seat, no longer beside Arden.
The looks classmates gave me turned even more unusual.
Arden told others I picked on him because of Calliope, making himself seem like the wronged one.
Anywhere I appeared, the room swarmed with low voices about me.
“See? I told you he isn’t good enough for the class beauty. Yet he still kept hanging around.”
“Only the school hunk still bothers hanging around him. If that were me, I’d have gotten tired long ago. Yet he acts like he’s above everyone. What is he putting on a show for?”
In a blink, I turned into a pest everyone wanted to step on, even though I never did anything wrong.
Even Calliope stopped giving me the smallest look.
At that age, barely grown, how could I handle that shame?
In the end, I couldn’t hold myself anymore. After studying one evening, I went to speak with Calliope.