Golden Melody (Editing)

Chapter 136

Chapter 136

Zatariel point of view

After dismissing the council, I returned to my classroom.

Jayson was seated near the window, exactly where he always sits, same quiet stillness that makes everything around him look calmer than it actually is.

He was staring outside—but not really seeing anything.

That kind of distance…

It usually means he’s thinking too much.

Jayson is the person people rely on when they’re lost.

Seeing him like this felt—
Wrong.

I placed my bag on my desk, the sound softer than usual.

…Perhaps this is my fault.

No.

Correction.

This is definitely my fault.

History, it seems, enjoys repeating itself.

Especially when it involves the two of us.

We were fourteen the first time it happened.

Her name was Ofreigha Sebastian.

Pretty. Intelligent. Quietly elegant.

The kind of girl people admire without fully understanding why.

Jayson noticed her first.
Of course he did.

He always notices the right things.

And she—

She was one of the few people in our year who could challenge me academically without looking like she was preparing for war.

Naturally…

I found her interesting.

We became what they called campus sweethearts.

And naturally we found ourselves in love and inseparable.

Then she confessed to me in public.

Jayson’s expression that day looked as though someone had quietly removed the floor beneath him.

I chose friendship over love.

I rejected her publicly.

Told her she was… complicated.

A lie.

A convenient, unforgivable lie.

Ofreigha was never complicated.
She was sincere.

And I—

I liked her.

More than I allowed myself to admit.

We never spoke again.

She rejected Jayson.

Transferred overseas a few weeks later.

And that was that.

Or at least—

That’s what I told myself.

That night, Jayson drank whiskey for the first time.

He wasn’t built for it.

Still isn’t by the way.

He looked at me and said—

“If it happens again, I’ll step aside. Just like you did.”

At the time, I believed him.