I didn’t dare look back, lest the bullies were chasing after me and saw my face.

I was running as fast as I could, taking turns at random intervals, to throw off anyone who may have been chasing me. It wasn’t until I had been running for a couple of minutes before I gained the courage to look behind me.

Thank god there is no one chasing me!

Why the hell did I throw rocks at their heads? Actually, why did I even help Ben out? I just wasted more time running around.

Well, I guess what’s done is done…

I just hope I don’t get expelled after all this.

Getting an expulsion for injuring another student after doing my best not to get dismissed for not having a presentation would just be some terrible joke.

Thinking back, there was probably a better choice that I could have picked. But there was a plus side: it blew away all that stress I built up from looking for the entire day.

Once I had confirmed that I was in the clear, I pulled out my phone and texted everyone in a group chat we had set up at the beginning of the year that I had received the results and was heading back to the club room.

Just a couple moments later, I received confirmation that all of the other members had seen the message and were heading back as well. This included both Ben and Stella.

I guess the bullies didn’t ignore the rocks thrown at their heads. Ben and Stella probably got away while they were distracted looking for me.

There was still around 30 minutes to the presentation when I arrived at the club facility, which housed a multitude of clubs including the Human Nature Research Club.

As I was entering the front doors of the building and walking on autopilot to the club room, I was deep in thought in what could have made Ben be bullied.

Maybe I was right, and he did find the survey results in the first 10 minutes with the bullied and tried to negotiate for them. Only they wouldn’t give it up and proceeded to beat him up.

That would mean that Ben was being ganged up on for at least 20 minutes, but someone would have come over and seen what was happening as I did. So that didn’t make sense.

Plus that didn’t explain why Stella was there in the first place. Or why Ben had to ‘protect’ her.

So maybe Stella found the survey results and they harassed her or something? It made sense; she was gorgeous. Then Ben came in to fight them. Only he lost terribly and was beaten to a pulp.

It just didn’t match up with what I knew about her when we were little; she was always someone who would fight other kids for no reason. It didn’t seem like that changed at all, I see her get into some intense fights over Ben with the other girls at the club almost daily.

I guess it never occurred to me that she could ever be that weak.

My train of thought stopped as I reached the entrance of the club room. A nice sign with the words: “Human Nature Research Club” printed across appeared in front of me, hanging horizontally across the door.

“Hey, Vincent!”

A shout that came right next to me from the open doorway of the Technology Club. It came out of nowhere, making me flinch as I was about to enter the room.

It was apparently directed at me, but my name wasn’t Vincent. So I just ignored it and continued to enter the club room.

It probably made me seem rude or antisocial, but I didn't care. If you want to get someone's attention, call them by the right name... However, the owner of the voice didn't have the same principals and decided to grab my attention.

While I was closing the door to make sure the person wouldn’t follow by, they quickly grabbed my hand that was holding the doorknob, stopping me firmly in place.

I really don’t want to deal with this.

I turned around facing the person grabbing me. I looked at him for a split second, searching my memory for his name.

He was a slightly chubby person, with a broad face, and a ruddy complexion. His short-cropped hair was gelled back in preparation for his presentation, and the smell of an expensive cologne floated about him. He had round brown eyes that were shifted somewhat down to look at my eyes, as he was a couple of inches taller than me. His mouth was open about to say something else to me, but it made him look he was yawning.

It took me a second to remember his name: Holtan.

He was a member of Class B. We were classmates.

The thing was, outside of the Human Nature Research Club I didn’t really talk to others. I had a weak presence and common features so most people wouldn’t approach me for a conversation. On top of that, I was an external student, so I wouldn’t bring much to the table if we really did have a conversation either.

Simply put, I was a loner.

I didn’t hate being a loner, and it was quite a peaceful way of living. Everything about school here is excellent; the dorms are beautiful, the people are interesting. It was just that I wasn’t interesting to them.

That being said, the only reason why I didn’t like being at club meetings was that everyone there looked like they were having the time of their life.

In this part of youth, that is called high school; they were living every second of it to the fullest.

As they stood in front of me, it was as if I was watching a different world.

It was almost as if I was using my ability, only my side was the stark and empty world filled with bland colors, and theirs was a paradise in which they would be happy forever, filled to the brim with bright and shining colors.

It made me uncomfortable, watching and acknowledging this contradiction of life, knowing the feelings they had within while living this perfect life, it made me hate it.

I was indifferent to the passing of time and have always felt that there was something empty inside of me. As if I was a clock missing a vital piece, standing still for the rest of time.

“Vincent, you aren’t ignoring me, are you?” Holtan inquired when I didn’t answer back.

I realized I was just staring at Holtan’s face without replying, like an idiot.

“Sorry, I was thinking about something. Do you need something?” I replied while trying to seem as calm as possible, outside of the fact that I might be expelled in the next hour.

“No, I was just a little nervous about presenting. I was curious if you were feeling nervous as well!” He said in a cheerful voice, looking completely relaxed, contrary to what he just stated.

Then why the hell did you stop me? Just ask other people in your club if they were nervous and stop bothering me…

In the first place, why aren’t you in the auditorium? Are you just that confident?

“Ha-ha, I guess I am a little nervous. In fact, I was just about to add a couple more things to my presentation as you can see here.” I replied, nodding to the stack of survey results in my other hand before adding with a smile filled with fake cheer, “So I can’t really talk right now, but I’ll be looking forward to your presentation!”

“O-Oh is that so? Then I’m sorry for bothering you. I’ll be looking forward to your presentation as well!” Holtan stuttered, before letting go of my hand which was on still the doorknob.

He nodded to me as a farewell with a trace of reluctance, before looking for a new target to bother somewhere else in the hallway.

Glad he could take a hint.

Now I really need to start working on the presentation.

I turned back around to close the door once again before I felt something stopping me once from doing so once again.

He didn’t even try to find someone else for more than 3 seconds. Does he have some crush on me?

Thinking that it was Holtan failing to find another target and thus coming back to annoy me, I flatly stated while turning around, “Look it's normal to be nervous. It’s a bad time to talk so st— WHOA!”

When I completely turned around and took a good look at the person blocking the door from closing, I saw a girl standing there, not 2 inches away.

And I flinched back in surprise.

The girl’s sparkling amber eyes held a trace of confusion due to me flinching, but her mouth was faintly perked up in a perpetual smile as if she found my blunder amusing. Her velvety eyebrows were raised as if she was surprised as well.

She had a snub nose that was exhaling air at a perceptible volume, and her long, jet-black hair was slightly messy, both probably due to her rushing over.

Before I could recover and greet her, the beautiful girl beat me to it.

“Vincent, I’ve heard you’ve obtained the survey results? Have you input any of the results yet?”

…my name isn’t Vincent

It was Aria, another member of the Human Nature Research Club.

To be even more specific, she was the freshman representative in Setro, meaning she held the highest grades in this year’s placement test and was the Class A’s President. She was to become the Student President of Setro Academy’s Student Council in the coming year, and that was a huge responsibility.

To get where she is now, one needed overflowing amounts of intelligence, charisma, perseverance, and diligence, not to mention a background high enough to keep the other students in their place.

If anyone in our club was panicking over not having the survey results on time, the person who would be panicking the most was her.

“I haven’t yet, I had just arrived here in the room before you arrived and was just about to begin inputting everything,” I replied quickly.

“Is that so? Didn’t really look like it… Well, I’ll let you off this time,” Aria said doubtfully, then reached out her hand and said politely, “You can hand them to me, I’ll finish it quickly.”

I placed the survey results in her hand and stepped off to the side to let her pass by while keeping my head down in compliance.

Once Aria sat down and started working, I decided to sit on on the other side of the room and start working on the speech required for the presentation. Although I was doing that, my legs couldn’t stop shaking.

Out of all the people that could arrive first, why did it have to be Aria?

Aria was a scary girl. Aria was a scary girl. Aria was a scary girl.

Important things need to be stated three times.

When I first met her, I was surprised that my ability couldn’t see any emotions from her at all. I thought that she was unfeeling, but the kind demeanor she held didn’t look fake, so it didn’t make sense.

It peaked my interest, the contradiction that this girl was, full of emotions on the outside yet nothing on the inside.

Throughout the first week of school during club meetings, I tried and tried to see any emotion in her. And in the end, I succeeded.

I needed to really concentrate on her just like what I had done on top of the building. It was if something inside of her rejected my peering into her feelings which caused me to not see her emotions at first.

I had found a small ball of emotion, I had never seen anything like it before, and it fascinated me.

At the time, I was a little disappointed that she wasn’t entirely emotionless, but I was also curious what the ball was.

So I tried to look into the ball.

It was like an ant against an elephant, and I was crushed instantly.

Deep down in her, she has massive amounts of killing intent and malice. It was my first time going up against something like that; even serial killers didn’t have a smidgen of the amount of killing intent she had.

When she talks to people, it seems as if she hopes something terrible will happen to the other person. Almost no compassion or sympathy exists inside her.

My father has once told me that those who fabricate a lie perfect enough to entrap everyone always have a reason for doing so, whether it was a secret, a pleasure, or a goal.

I knew then that this girl, this beautiful, perfect girl, must have a secret, a terrible secret to continue lying to the entire world.

It scared the absolute hell out of me.

Do you want to know what's scarier than having to meet with a person like this?

It’s meeting someone who that person loves with all her heart.

Ben is going to die a terrible death.

Ben is going to die a miserable death.

Ben is going to die a wretched death.

If there is one thing I know for sure, is that Ben is a dead man walking.