Atlas Castor had been the centre of attention since the day he was born. Born to a family of geniuses spearheading advancements in medicine and biotechnology, he was groomed to become a flawless heir from the minute he could walk and talk.

Brains? He’s got it.

Face? Flawless.

Body? Immaculate.

The only flaw one could point out was his cold and broody personality, which in his family was a signature trait of the Castors. That mental fortitude and aloofness to the world surrounding them made them a force equal to an iron citadel that no one could fool or take advantage of, but it didn’t stop people from trying.

And Atlas Castor loathed these types of people.

The ones who stared at him, admired him, ogled him, simply because of his standing, or his appearance. It irritated him how much they were willing to let their pride get trampled on. With the simple reason of him being the son of the Castor family, they would go leaps and bounds for him in order to obtain his affection and trust.

It disgusted him.

They were like leeches that stuck on to him despite how much he treated them like utter trash. He couldn’t help but look at them with disdain when they swallowed their pride just to get noticed. Staring at the girl two rows in front of him, he thought she was exactly the same as these people who fawned and loved him for no apparent reason except for the fact that he was good looking.

So, why did she suddenly morph into a creature that cussed him out so easily as soon as he was out of sight?

His stare instantly became frosty at the thought of this girl acting this way to get his attention. It wasn’t impossible given the many situations he had faced with girls doing anything and everything to get close to him. From being sweet, y, crazy or just outright begging. There was nothing that could possibly be new to him.

After ineffectively glaring at the back of Jennie Ceion’s head, he let out a sigh, baffled at himself for thinking too much into this. After all, girls in this school were all the same. Only vying for him absentmindedly for no good reason whatsoever.

“Yo broody mcbroodykins, that’s one long sigh!”

Inwardly groaning, Atlas turned to give the turquoise mop beside him a subtle glare that usually made people freeze over. Unluckily, the turquoise mop that was Phoenix Celaeno just didn’t fall in this category.

“So scary~ don’t be mean to young ones,” Phoenix cooed, making Atlas turn back to facing the front to ignore the man child next to him, where he caught the side profile of the girl who had been the object of his analytical mind for the past few days, his mood instantly turning sour.

Donning a playful smirk, Phoenix knew when Atlas sported that look, he was definitely having a problem he couldn’t decipher at all, and it made him want to a little more. “Hmm? Atlas Castor actually having problems? THE Atlas Castor having an issue he can’t fix? Ehh—Ow! Ow! Sorry! Sorry!”

Not wanting to dirty his hands and get infected with his man child virus, Atlas let go of Phoenix’s ear, leaving the latter to soothe his assaulted flesh. Feeling aggrieved, he turned to face where Atlas was looking at that made his mood go down instantly, and saw a blonde girl robotically bobbing her head up and down while listening to the teacher and also taking notes. Phoenix’s lips curved into a dangerous smile.

“Ah~~ Rosie~ I don’t want to be alone to do class clean up. Stay with me and let’s go home together, hmm?” Jennie cutely begged as she used both arms to strangle Rose’s upper left arm to prevent her from leaving.

Rose scrunched her eyebrows in annoyance, “Stop being a child. Just because you look 17, doesn’t mean you are. If we were back in our world, you’d be a 30 year old woman. 30! Imagine! A 30 year old woman acting like this? Society would blacklist you.”

Jennie scowled and finally let go. “Tch, it’s called getting with the program! Here, I’m 17 so I will act like one.”

Rose smirked, half annoyed and half amused. “You sure you aren’t just naturally like that?”

Jennie could only purse her lips in annoyance at the harsh reality Rose smacked her with. Ugh, she really was an old lady not willing to let go of her youth.

“I told you already,” Rose said as she grabbed her backpack before getting up, “I have dinner with my family. Some bigshot investor is attending so I can’t be late. Be a good girl, do your chores and let driver Gunay know you’ll be out a bit late from class.”

Not giving Jennie any more face, Rose walked away proudly in happiness as she made her way to the school entrance where her driver was waiting. While walking the familiar halls leading to the entrance, a large flash of white suddenly whipped by her, making her legs stop moving. Tilting her head up to see who was rude enough to nearly cause her to hurt her face, she instantly froze as she came face to face with topaz eyes glimmering dangerously underneath some stray strands of cerulean-esque hair.

“Sooo, you’re the girly that’s been making Atlas do such funny expressions. I really have to thank you.”

Rose stared, what seemed absentmindedly, at the boy in front of her, giving her a look of aloofness yet calmness which was different to Atlas who bore the same expression but only emitted broodiness. Phoenix felt his breath get caught at how pretty this girl was and wondered how she was able to escape his playboy radar.

Damn, I can’t believe I actually lost to Atlas at finding this girl! Phoenix complained silently in his head.

On the other hand, the ‘aloof yet calm’ Rose was internally in a frenzied state as she had never encountered a main character of ‘Celestial Romance’ at such close proximity before.

Crap! Crap! Crap! Is this retribution for abandoning Jennie? The favouritism! Rose internally complained to the novel gods or whatever forces were orchestrating this farce of a story.

Being the smart girl she was, her mind quickly assembled all the needed information and remembered the key point was to be like every other girl here.

Phoenix Celaeno was a playboy who couldn’t seriously love anyone until he met Celestia. He started understanding the value of himself and was deeply grateful for Celestia’s presence. Gratefulness bred affection that led to his overwhelming love for Celestia, causing his absolute ruin as he started going against his friends and their family, causing harm everywhere he went in order to obtain Celestia’s love and devotion.

Rose pitied this character quite a lot as he was obviously a child that was starved of affection, but she was in no place to meddle with the setting of this novel and could only hope that somehow Phoenix wouldn’t turn into the same person as the one she read. Although she knew the course of novels were hard to change, deep down she hoped that at the very least everyone wouldn’t end up as pitiful as Phoenix did. They were only school kids after all.

Rose sighed and moved to side to walk off from this strange situation with the black hole that was a main character of this world. She really didn’t want to experience any of the horrible things from the novel as selfish as it sounded.

“Oho? Ignoring me?” Rose heard Phoenix say behind her. She ignored it and began walking slowly but stopped after a few steps when Jennie’s rule about being a squid girl popped up in her mind.

We have to act stupid and ogle at them… Act like they’re the only males in our eyes…

Rose felt the palpitations in her heart gradually hasten as she really wondered if there was merit in acting like such an idiot.

Clenching her hands into fists, she took in a deep breath and turned around before standing a ruler’s width apart from Phoenix Celaeno. The handsome, playful looking boy widened his eyes in surprise, looking at Rose with curiosity etched in his sun-like eyes.

Ogle at them… Rose reminded herself.

“You… are super handsome…” Rose said with a blank face. “Atlas or you… both are handsome…”

Phoenix felt the silence around them hanging heavy in the air as he tried to decipher the meaning of this girl’s strange way of complimenting people.

The aloof and calm look was on her face like this was another normal conversation for her. As normal as saying she thought a cat was cute.

Blinking in confusion, Phoenix finally managed to ask something. “So… you like us both?”

The blonde girl with the ethereal black-grey eyes looked to the ground, as if having to contemplate what to answer.

Phoenix was a bit amused, wondering how she would answer when those mysterious eyes suddenly looked up as if to hypnotise him into submission. An almost robotic, statement-like phrase came out of , but it still made Phoenix’s eyes tremble a little.

“Just you is good.”

Jennie begrudgingly got out of her seat as every one of her classmates left for the day, leaving her to clean by herself. An even bigger stab to her already wounded heart was that the person she had to clean with today got permission to leave because of a family emergency. She let this go as she was a person with a big heart, even when wounded.

Even rich kid schools let their students clean huh. What an unnecessary feature to have in this fake school. Jennie complained inwardly.

Letting out a very loud, audible sigh to the empty space, she began putting up the chairs before sweeping the floors. As she was halfway through, some footsteps into the classroom caught her attention and she almost cursed when she saw who was at the door, staring at her who was unfashionably holding a broom in her hands.

Knowing her place well as a squid girl in this novel, her actress mode instantly and excitement masked onto her face.

“A-Atlas,” Jennie called out shyly, “you’re still here…”

Jennie purposely said each word sweetly to sicken this brood master to death.

As expected, Atlas’ face became rigid, an obvious twitch on his left eye coming and going before he ignored Jennie and went to his desk to grab whatever he left behind.

“Wait!” Jennie called out as she saw Atlas was leaving. Fiddling with the hem of her blazer, she shyly began asking “Could you possibly… help—“

“I’m busy,” Atlas said, cutting her off before zooming away out the door.

The minute he was out of sight, Jennie’s usual foxy demeanour as if she didn’t have a care in the world came back. She turned her attention back to cleaning, not letting the annoyance in her mind show outwardly.

Let’s not bother getting angry. I am a squid girl… I am a squid girl… Jennie began thinking, the squid mantra in her mind calming her anger and before she knew it, the class was spotless.

Tying her hair into a ponytail, she began humming in happiness as she grabbed her bag and made her way out of the class, missing the befuddled expression of a teenage boy who was hiding nearby.

What was that? Is she… crazy? What… is going on here? Atlas thought to himself, the same question repeating over an over as he watched the dark brown hair of Jennie Ceion swish behind her before she disappeared down the stairs.

Making his way back to the classroom, he grabbed his seat that was placed on top of the desk and put it back down, allowing him to have a space to think things through.

No. She’s ranked above me and our grades are similar so she is definitely not crazy… or is she? Even smart people are crazy at times…

Bipolar disorder? Multiple personalities?

If she really liked me, she wouldn’t change that drastically in a few seconds…

Atlas nearly bore a hole into his desk as he stared into the wood, his mind racing to find a plausible explanation for this weird experience he went through for a second time. If she was someone who genuinely liked him, her reaction would either be to cry, be disappointed or get angry and yet all she did was go back to being normal as if a bug passed her by and was of no significance.

Seriously… Atlas thought, an unnoticeable tremor slowly making its way into his heart. What is this?

A/N: Sorry! Was preparing for the MEXT Scholarship test and interview. Hope I pass ;-; Hope you enjoyed this chapter!