Chapter 1: You Look Better Broken

"People don’t break all at once.

They crack — slowly, quietly.

Until someone hears it… and keeps pressing."

—

The morning bell screamed across the courtyard like a warning shot.

Uniforms brushed past uniforms, shoes squeaked on tile, and voices blurred together into a wall of background noise. But none of it touched him.

Lucien Vale stepped through the iron gates of Graymoor Academy, his silver eyes drifting across the crowd like a blade. Heads turned. Whispers surged like heat.

> “Who’s that?”

“New guy?”

“He looks... terrifying.”

“No way someone like him is a student…”

He didn’t care. He never did.

The only thing he noticed was her.

She stood near the vending machine, arms folded, dressed in the same black-trimmed uniform as everyone else — but she made it look like a warning.

Aria Kurobane.

Long black hair flowed down her back like shadows following her, and those eyes — pitch dark, but never empty. No. They were filled with something far more dangerous.

Lucien’s lips curled into a quiet smirk.

> Found you.

He’d seen her picture before. Stolen it, actually. She didn’t know. But she would.

Because this time, he wasn’t just watching.

He was stepping into her world.

Aria felt it before she saw him.

That strange, heavy feeling like someone had reached inside her chest and squeezed. Her gaze shifted — and there he was.

White hair. Eyes like frozen mercury. Expression carved in ice. And yet somehow… smiling at her.

What the hell?

He didn’t blink. Didn’t break eye contact. Just kept walking closer, as if the entire school didn’t exist.

> “What do you want?” she asked flatly.

His smile grew wider. Like he’d waited for her voice his whole life.

“Just seeing you. You’re real,” he murmured.

The hairs on her neck rose.

“Are you mentally ill?”

His laugh was soft, but something in it made her fists tighten.

“Possibly,” he said. “But only when I think about you.”

By lunch, the rumors had already begun.

> “That new guy? He smiled at Aria — like, smiled. And she didn’t punch him.”

“I think they knew each other before.”

“No way. She hates everyone. Maybe he’s just the first idiot who doesn’t care.”

Aria didn’t talk to people. She didn’t need to. Her silence was enough to make most guys back off.

But Lucien wasn’t most guys.

She sat alone on the rooftop — her usual spot — trying to enjoy the sound of wind and silence, when the door creaked open.

Lucien appeared, holding two drinks.

He walked over like he’d done it a hundred times.

Set one can next to her. Sat down beside her.

Too close.

> “You followed me,” she said.

> “Yes.”

> “I could report you.”

> “You won’t.”

She turned her face toward him — and their eyes locked.

He wasn’t smiling now. He looked serious. Dangerous.

“I know what you’ve done,” he said, voice low.

Her fingers froze around the can.

“You’re not as clean as you pretend to be. You hurt someone before. Broke them.”

Aria’s throat tightened.

> How does he know?

> Who told him?

But she refused to show fear.

“So what? You gonna blackmail me?” she hissed.

Lucien tilted his head. “No. I just wanted to say…” he leaned in, voice brushing her ear—

“It was beautiful.”

She shoved him back instantly, hand shaking with rage — or was it fear?

Lucien hit the ground laughing, soft and insane.

> “You’re sick.”

“So are you.” His voice turned gentler. “That’s why we’ll fit.”

As she left him there on the rooftop, her heart raced for the first time in months.

She didn’t trust him.

She despised him.

But deep down, a quiet, twisted voice whispered:

> He sees me.

And even worse—

> I didn’t hate it.

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