Seraphina’s Pov

I woke up feeling absolutely miserable.

My head throbbed, my stomach churned, and my limbs felt as heavy as lead. I didn’t know exactly what was wrong with me, but all I wanted was to crawl back under the covers and sleep for as long as my body demanded.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option today. It was general assembly day at Elysium, and according to Yuna, missing it was completely forbidden unless I fancied a severe punishment.

The thought of gathering in the auditorium with nearly a thousand other girls made my skin crawl, and the idea of being trapped in the same space with a bunch of chattering students, all while feeling this sick, was almost unbearable.

I sighed heavily, pushing myself out of bed. Maybe if I got ready slowly enough, time would miraculously skip ahead and I’d find a valid excuse to miss it, but I knew better. Yuna had emphasized the importance of attendance, and the last thing I needed was to draw negative attention to myself.

I dressed in my uniform mechanically, buttoning up the white blouse and smoothing out the pleats in my skirt. I glanced at my reflection in the mirror. Pale complexion, dark circles under my eyes, and hair that refused to cooperate—I looked as dreadful as I felt.

With a resigned shrug, I grabbed my bag and headed out, deciding to stop by Yuna’s room so we could walk to the assembly together.

As I made my way down the hallway, I tried to mentally prepare myself for the onslaught of noise and energy that awaited me. I planned to find a quiet corner in the auditorium where I could tune out the principal’s speech and perhaps, if I was lucky, catch a moment of peace.

I knew it was a long shot expecting a moment of peace while being in the same room with almost a thousand students, but oh well, you can’t blame a girl for wishing.

Turning a corner, I abruptly stopped when I saw a group of unexpected faces walking in my direction, and the sight of them caused my heart to lurch into my throat.

There they were—the same three girls who had dragged me from class and locked me in that suffocating storage room. My pulse quickened, and a cold sweat broke out across my forehead, but that wasn’t the worst of it.

Walking alongside them was Uria, Electra’s friend. They moved as a group, with Uria clearly leading the group; her confident stride and the way the others seemed to orbit around her made it obvious she was the ringleader. Instantly, I was filled with both shock and confusion.

So it had been Uria who was really behind me getting locked up? But why? I had never even spoken to her before.

She was two years ahead of me, in her final year, and we shared no classes or mutual acquaintances—except for Electra, and I wouldn’t even call Electra an acquaintance.

I was trying to figure out why in the world she would do something like that to me until a thought struck me like a bolt of lightning. Could Electra have been involved? Had she pretended to rescue me when, in reality, she was the one pulling the strings?

I felt a knot forming in my stomach. The idea that Electra might have manipulated that situation made me feel sick to my core. Well, I had been the foolish one to trust her and to feel something for her, and perhaps Yuna had been right to warn me.

Lost in my spiraling thoughts, I didn’t realize I was staring at them until the tall girl—the same one who had confronted me in class—snapped her gaze to me. “What are you looking at?” she barked, her eyes narrowing.

I jolted, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “Nothing,” I mumbled, averting my eyes.

My immediate instinct was to walk away and to get as far from them as possible, so I turned on my heel, intent on reaching Yuna’s room quickly.

“Hold on a second,” Uria’s voice rang out in command.

I froze mid-step, my body refusing to cooperate with my desperate desire to run, and I felt rooted to the spot like a deer caught in headlights.

Slowly, I turned to face her. She was approaching me with a slow stride, her expression unreadable.

“Seraphina, isn’t it?” she asked, even though we both knew she already knew the answer.

“Yes,” I replied, my voice barely audible.

She looked me up and down, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “You know, when you run into your seniors, it’s customary to greet them respectfully. A bow would suffice.”

Her tone was condescending, dripping with false sweetness.

I blinked, confusion mingling with my anxiety. “I… I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Didn’t you?” she replied, arching an eyebrow. “You were glaring at us quite intensely.”

“I wasn’t glaring,” I protested weakly. “I was just… lost in thought.”

Her eyes hardened. “Is that so? Well, in the future, make sure your thoughts don’t involve disrespecting those above you. Is that understood?”

I nodded quickly. “Yes, I understand.”

“Good,” she said curtly.

She stepped closer, and for a moment, I thought she might say something else, but instead, she brushed past me, deliberately bumping her shoulder into mine with enough force to make me stumble.

I lost my balance slightly, catching myself before I could fall, while they continued down the hallway, laughing hysterically as they went.

I stood there for a moment, trying to collect myself. My hands were shaking, and I clenched them into fists to hide the tremor.

I felt both angry and humiliated because, at the end of the day, I was the one who should have been upset at the fact that they had unjustly locked me in the storage room when I never did anything to them, but unfortunately, my anger was as useless as the word itself. And besides anger, I also started to feel a strong sense of deep-seated fear.

What was happening? What had I done to deserve their attention? I racked my brain, trying to figure out what I could have done to get their attention and make them want to taunt me, but no answers came.

The possibility that Electra was involved crossed my mind again, and it made me feel even more nervous. Had she really planned what happened? Was I just a pawn in some crazy game she was playing with Uria? Was I a part of their ‘fun’ game?

I shook my head, trying to dispel the doubts. No, Electra had helped me—or at least, it seemed that way, but then again, how well did I really know her?

Yuna’s warnings started to echo in my mind again, and with the look I just saw in Uria’s eyes, I had a feeling that my days in Elysium were about to get even more unnecessarily complicated.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep