Words spoken without intention often hurt the most. Every day, Solene treated Aveline as her lifelong rival, constantly wracking her brain for ways to surpass her.
Even though she wasn’t as exceptional or as beautiful as Aveline, at least her name always appeared right behind hers in the monthly exam rankings. Surely, Aveline must have noticed her by now, right?
Solene poured all her energy into her grades. She had no way of knowing that Aveline didn’t care about grades at all.
For most people, studying hard meant a chance at getting into a good university, earning a decent degree, and securing a respectable job in the future. But for someone like Aveline, born into wealth and privilege, grades were irrelevant.
For her, attending school was merely something to do at her age. It wasn’t about achieving anything. The very thing Solene valued most was nothing more than a mundane routine to Aveline, who didn’t even bother to keep track of her own rankings-let alone care who came in second or third.
“I’m Solene. Do you not know me?” Solene would have preferred it if Aveline had yelled at her. Anything would have been better than the blank, unfamiliar look Aveline wore.
“Solene? You’re not in our class, are you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before. Why did you put thumbtacks in my shoes?” Aveline looked at the plainly-dressed girl in front of her with genuine confusion. Her first thought was that Solene must have been set up by someone else to take the blame.
One look at Solene’s outfit, so different from the designer ensembles worn by girls like Liora, was enough to tell Aveline that this girl came from a simpler background. She wore a modest shirt, oversized glasses, and had the unmistakable look of a model student who cared only about her books.
It was almost impossible to associate her with someone capable of something malicious. Solene gave off the impression of a girl who lived in her own world, buried in textbooks, oblivious to everything else.
“It’s because I’m jealous of you!” Solene gritted her teeth, her voice trembling. She had spent so long viewing Aveline as her opponent, but to realize that she didn’t even register in Aveline’s world was devastating.
She had thought that even if she couldn’t overtake Aveline for now, at least her constant presence right behind her would make Aveline feel some pressure. But now, she realized Aveline couldn’t care less about her. All her efforts felt like a pointless fight against thin air.
“Why?” Aveline asked, bewildered. If this had been Celestia or Liora, at least there would have been some reasoning-like their crush on Orion. But Solene? She didn’t seem like the kind of person who would be distracted by anything outside of her studies.
Aveline searched her memory, trying to recall if they’d ever crossed paths before. Had she done something to offend Solene? But no matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t figure out where the animosity had come from.
“Enough, Solene! Don’t say any more!” Lee, Solene’s father, suddenly interjected. He thought of the lengths Julian and Aurora would go to protect their daughter and knew they wouldn’t let this slide if they learned the truth.
“Dad, what happened to your face?” Solene noticed for the first time that Lee’s face was swollen.
“It’s nothing. Go back and focus on your competition. Leave the rest to me.” Lee was determined to shoulder all the blame himself.
Julian and Aurora were seasoned individuals. While Solene didn’t look like a troublemaker, they also knew that if she was truly behind this, she couldn’t be let off easily.
“You think you can leave? Not so fast. If she’s your daughter, then you must know exactly what happened. Tell me everything,” Julian demanded, his piercing gaze fixed on Lee.
Facing Julian’s scrutiny, Solene’s courage faltered. The rumors about Aveline’s father being a janitor couldn’t have been further from the truth.
“Aveline, I’m jealous of you. You don’t even have to try, and you can still easily top the entire grade.
The moment I saw your name during the entrance exam, I made up my mind to surpass you in the next monthly test. I studied so hard, but you still beat me by dozens of points. I thought I just needed to work harder.
So for an entire month, I stayed up every night until two or three in the morning, determined to overtake you in the midterms. But once again, you scored so much higher than me!
I was devastated. I’ve worked so hard, every moment of every day, but no matter what I do, I still lose to you. If you were putting in the same effort as me, I wouldn’t feel this way. But you don’t even try! You’re distracted by things like dating, and yet you still do better than everyone else.
Why is life so unfair? Why does someone like you, who already has such a beautiful face, also get to have such a brilliant mind?
I’ve lived in your shadow all this time. Whenever I wanted to take a break, I would think about whether you were studying harder than me, and I’d push myself even more.
I was going crazy. Liora is my cousin, and when I saw what you did to her hair, I wanted to stand up for her-and for myself. I heard you signed up for the marathon, so I prepared those thumbtacks to teach you a lesson.
I didn’t know you and Orion were actually dating. When he started questioning all the girls in the video, I was terrified he’d find out it was me. That’s why I begged my dad to send you home. I just wanted to stop Orion from investigating further. I never thought it would escalate this much and even involve your parents.”
Aveline stared at the petite girl in front of her, whose seemingly innocent face masked such a venomous soul.
All of this, just because she was jealous of Aveline’s abilities? Aveline felt her faith in humanity sink to a new low.
“It was Solene? Oh my god, I thought she was so quiet and well-behaved!”
“You really can’t judge someone by their appearance. She seemed like such a good girl, but she’s actually so malicious. And using her dad’s position as the dean to cover for her? Unbelievable.”
“Wow, and to think I used to criticize Aveline. Turns out she was the victim all along. Poor girl.”
Word of Solene’s confession spread through the campus like wildfire, thanks to the broadcast system. Everyone who had known them now knew the truth.
And for the first time, people began to see Aveline in a new light-not as the untouchable top student, but as someone who had quietly endured so much.