Chapter 4: New Players, New Rules

4

When Derek showed up to school with injuries again, the long-silent group chat exploded with excitement.

Someone pointed out his split lip before he even made it to the lockers. [Damn, this is a war zone!]

[The main guy must have lost it seeing the main girl and Derek laughing together.]

[After Derek left, the main girl got severely punished by her brother.]

[It’s a shame the screen went black right when the punishment started. As a premium member, is there anything I can’t see?]

[……]

If you ask me, Derek is a mess too.

If you want to be a simp, fine, but did you have to go pick a fight at someone else’s door?

Lucky he didn’t get his leg broken.

When Lily came into class, her eyes were red and her lips looked a little too bright and swollen.

Thinking of the group chat comments about the [punishment], my eyebrow twitched.

So, healthy love is important, but twisted love is even more thrilling?

A group of girls near the door whispered, glancing at Lily and then at Derek’s bruises. [I can’t wait to see how explosive it’ll be when the main guy transfers into the main girl’s class.]

[What a fierce love triangle!]

The main guy transferred in on a sunny afternoon.

The sun made everything look sharper—desks gleamed, dust danced in the air. Phones slid out under desks, fingers flying—this was going viral before lunch.

“Hey everyone, my name is Noah Carter.”

“I came to Maple Heights High for someone. And I don’t plan on leaving without her.”

That mysterious, hooky line made the group chat howl.

[We get it, we get it, it’s for the main girl!]

[Main wife status, side chick mentality, drama queen conduct—no wonder you have a wife.]

Noah’s gaze swept the room and landed on me. Behind his gold-rimmed glasses, his eyes were unreadable.

“Rachel Foster, I came for you.”

Group chat: [……]

Me: “……”

As the class burst into a chorus of “ooh~”s, I looked up, stunned, and accidentally caught Lily’s wounded stare.

Her face froze, smile brittle. Derek looked devastated, his face stormy as he shot at me: “Rachel, when did you meet him?”

Me: “I don’t know him.”

Derek didn’t buy it, and neither did the group chat.

[What a fake act—obviously met at the competition.]

[Trying to get the main guy’s attention with this move? Ha, Rachel, you (facepalm, bitter smile).]

Speaking of the competition, I vaguely remembered: wasn’t the runner-up called Noah Carter?

Maybe. But I honestly had no memory of him. Was I missing a whole season of my own life? Because I definitely didn’t remember auditioning for this role.

After Noah transferred, he kept orbiting me. And whenever he got close, I’d feel a pair of resentful eyes burning a hole in my back.

Creepy.

During gym class, as usual, I found a quiet corner to memorize vocab words.

The basketballs thudded on the wood, sneakers squeaked, and somewhere Coach Reynolds was yelling about defense. Nearby, I heard the sound of an argument and, faintly, someone crying.

“Bro.”

“I’ll listen to whatever you say.”

“Please, just don’t like Rachel Foster, okay?”

The group chat recognized who it was before I did. I froze, the gym echoing with secrets that weren’t supposed to be mine.