Chapter 73- Red Flags and Cold Shoulders
The classroom buzzed with noise again—usual morning chaos—but this time it felt...different. The stares were sharper. The laughs were more forced. Everyone in Section E was glancing at Yuri like he had grown horns overnight.
Whispers floated through the air:
"Did you hear? Yuri and Freya?" "How could he cheat on Y/N like that?" "She literally trusted him."
Y/N sat quietly in her seat, her eyes fixed on the textbook in front of her. She wasn’t reading. She couldn’t. Her chest was tight, like someone had tied ropes around her heart and kept tugging every time someone brought up his name.
CI-N placed a bottle of water on her desk, giving her a small smile. "Drink. You look like you haven’t blinked in ten minutes."
Y/N looked up, managing a soft thank you.
Jay sat beside her, arms crossed, glaring daggers at Yuri across the room. "One wrong move and I swear—"
"Don’t," Keifer interrupted him, eyes also locked on Yuri but quieter, more thoughtful. "We don’t know the full story."
Jay scoffed. "What full story? We all saw the photo. His lips on hers. Case closed."
Meanwhile, Yuri hadn’t said a word. He walked in silently that morning, eyes sunken, hair messier than usual, and he didn’t even try to meet Y/N's gaze. He sat in his seat, letting the rumors swirl like a hurricane around him.
Mica was the first to break the ice. "So, you're not going to explain anything? Not even to her?"
Yuri finally looked up, his voice barely above a whisper. "It’s not what it looked like."
Jay barked a laugh. "Oh, good one! Classic cheater line!"
"Jay," Keifer warned again.
But Y/N raised her hand. "It’s fine. Let him talk."
Everyone turned to her. She stood, calm but cold. "Go ahead, Yuri. Say it’s not what it looked like. Explain why you had your lips on Freya."
Yuri stood, looking right at her now. "She kissed me. I didn’t— I didn’t kiss her. I pushed her away right after."
Y/N tilted her head. "But you didn’t tell me right away."
"Because I panicked. I didn’t want you to think—"
"Think what? That it happened? Surprise, I did. And so did everyone else."
The silence was suffocating. Even CI-N wasn’t his usual bubbly self. He just watched them like a kid who accidentally walked into a fight between his parents.
"I’m not saying I handled it right. I didn’t," Yuri admitted, stepping forward. "But I didn’t cheat. I swear it on everything we’ve been through."
Y/N turned away.
"You should’ve come clean the moment it happened, Yuri. Not after the photos surfaced. Not when the damage was already done."
She walked out of the room, and nobody followed her. Not even Jay or Keifer. Because they were mad, too. Mad at her for hurting, mad at Yuri for letting it happen, and mad at themselves for not seeing it coming.
Felix sighed, throwing his head back in his chair. "This is gonna be messy."
CI-N nodded. "Yup. And prom just ended too. Damn, what timing."
---
Meanwhile, in the girls' bathroom, Rakki sat on the counter, texting Mica who was still fuming in the hallway.
"Girl, it’s about to get dramatic again," she whispered to herself.
Back in the hallway, Freya smirked as she passed Y/N, pretending to bump her shoulder.
"Oops," Freya said sweetly. "You should watch where you’re going."
Y/N didn’t say a word. But her eyes were burning. Not with sadness—no, not anymore—but with something colder. Determination.
---
Later that day, Yuri sat alone under the same tree they once shared snacks under. He pulled out a small bracelet from his pocket. The one Y/N gave him when they made it official. He hadn’t taken it off since—until now.
He stared at it for a while, then clenched it in his hand.
"I’ll fix this. Somehow."
But as he looked up, he saw Keifer staring at him from across the field. The look on Keifer’s face was no longer that of a rival. It was something else now.
Disappointment.
And that stung more than any punch he could’ve taken.
---
To be continued...
