The recent… development with Jun successfully distracted me enough to forget that my next class was also one I shared with Minghao. Which, okay, considering it was still the middle of lunch didn’t matter. I figured I could sneak in, wait out the rest of my lunch break, then leave before students started piling in.

Of course, those plans were quickly thwarted the moment I opened the door to find MInghao already there, sitting by the window and calmly eating his lunch. I had about a split second of absolute panic before rationale kicked in. I whirled around and had every intention of booking it when I heard him speak up.

“Wait,” he said in an oddly rushed and almost desperate manner. Almost like he wanted me to listen to him. Almost like he couldn’t force me to.

Now, my brain and heart were both dead-set on GTFO-ing as fast as possible. Because who cared why Minghao was being decent now when I had a broken arm that reminded me of how he was before? But my traitorous gut stopped me in my tracks. Something was different now. It didn’t mean anything would change and it certainly didn’t erase or excuse anything that happened before, but something was off.

“You stopped,” Minghao asked in bewilderment after a rather awkward pause. Yeah, I don’t know why I did it either, Minghao.

“See what happens when you ask nicely?” I retorted.

“No, I don’t mean now.” He waved his hand dismissively. “I meant yesterday, when you finally used the bond against me.” (I grumbled how it was not against him but rather for my own self defence, that I invoked the bond. Not that he listened to that either.) “You didn’t push further. After everything I’ve done to you, you didn’t take your chance to hurt me. Hell, you didn’t even tell me not to hurt you again. You just told me to stop.”

Slowly, very slowly, I turned away from the do