Ren's Point of View
Rain Chen didn't let people in.
He let them think they knew him—let them see the top student, the calculated mind, the calm that came just before a storm. Even our professors were too scared to ask him twice. He ran this university like it was a side hobby, like the captain of the football team was just a distraction from more dangerous games.
But tonight?
He looked… softened.
I'd watched from the shadows—old habit. He didn't know I was up there too, one floor down, sitting on the fire escape outside the old music room. Saw her show up with her little basket and her chaos energy. Saw her shove a bottle of strawberry milk into his hand like it was a weapon against darkness.
And somehow… it worked.
She sat there beside him like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like she didn't know what he'd done hours earlier in Milan.
Didn't know that Rain Chen had disappeared into the underworld, crushed a rival pipeline without lifting a single blade, and made an empire crumble quietly.
And now?
Now he was sipping strawberry milk with the girl who nearly face-planted into his soul.
I waited until she left. She bounced down the stairs humming a Taylor Swift song, her cardigan sleeves flapping like wings, her hair a black waterfall of chaos. She didn't see me. Of course she didn't. She was probably off to name a squirrel.
Then I climbed to the roof.
Rain was still sitting there, quiet, distant. But different. Just enough that I caught it.
"Didn't know you liked fruit-flavored dairy," I said casually, dropping beside him.
He didn't flinch. That's how I knew he wasn't on guard anymore. She'd disarmed him.
"I don't," he said, but his thumb was still brushing the edge of the glass bottle.
"Cute girl brings snacks and healing energy, and suddenly you're sentimental?"
He gave me a side-eye glare, the classic Rain Chen patented "shut up or I'll exile you" look.
I smirked.
"So," I continued, "is she just your clumsy classmate, or should I start prepping a tux for the wedding?"
He didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
I leaned back, folding my arms behind my head. "You know this is dangerous."
"I know."
"Your name's whispered like a ghost in five countries. You think she can survive what you are?"
Rain didn't speak for a long time.
Then he said, quietly, "I don't want her to survive it. I want her never to see it."
Ah.
There it was.
The curse of the criminal heart: falling for something pure, only to want to hide every scar behind silence and steel.
"She's gonna see it one day," I said. "She's smart. Empathetic. Ridiculously nosey."
His lips twitched. Almost a smile.
"She deserves light, Ren."
"And you think you're only shadows?"
He didn't answer.
I sighed and looked up at the stars. "For what it's worth… she's the only one who makes you look alive."
He didn't deny it.
Didn't threaten me.
Just sat there, holding a half-empty bottle of strawberry milk like it was the only thing keeping him from crumbling.
I guess even ghosts can have soft spots.
And hers had a name.
Sky.