Dmitri's POV
It's been a few days since the recital and the school is acting like it's got a fever. The whole "charity case" thing? Dead. Now, everyone is obsessed. I see it every time I walk down the hall. Boys who used to trip her are now leaving pathetic little notes in her locker. One idiot even had the balls to give her a professional violin. She left it in the lost and found like it was a piece of trash and that left me pleased.
I saw that. I see everything. And it's making me lose my mind.
The whole academy feels different now. Conversations stop when she walks past. People who never cared about the music building suddenly hang around the hallways outside the practice rooms like flies circling sugar.
And every single time, my eyes find her before I even realize I'm looking.
I'm losing sleep again. I hadn't slept properly since the recital. I just lie there in the dark, thinking about the way she looked on that stage, shaking, bleeding and still playing like she wanted to set the world on fire. I hate it. I hate how she's in my head. I hate that I'm counting the minutes until I see her again just so I can be an asshole to her.
The worst part is that it doesn't even feel like a choice anymore. My brain just drifts back to that night over and over again, the spotlight, the silence in the auditorium, the way the entire room forgot how to breathe while she played.
Adrien keeps dragging me to the Music Club. He thinks we're "checking schedules," but he knows. He sees me lingering near the glass, watching her bow move. Every time she looks up and catches me, I feel this jolt in my chest that I didn't ask for. It's like a wire being pulled tight.
And I hate that he notices.
Monday morning, Calculus was a total drag. Julien was gone, off to Geneva to play piano for some big shots. Good. The "Golden Boy" vacuum was exactly what I needed.
Without him around, the place felt quieter. Less polished. Like someone had taken away the school's favorite trophy.
I walked into class and saw her immediately. She was surrounded. A bunch of guys were hovering over her desk, probably trying to be "supportive" or whatever. My jaw tightened so hard I thought a tooth might crack.
They were leaning over her notebook, pointing at something she'd written, laughing like they were suddenly her best friends.
A week ago they would've ignored her. Now they looked at her like she was some rare artifact.
I didn't say a word. I just walked over. My shadow hit her notebook and the guys scrambled. The kid in the seat next to her didn't even wait for me to speak, he just bolted to the back of the room.
Fear is a useful language in this place. Everyone understands it.
I sat down. I sat way too close, our shoulders practically touching. She looked at me, her eyes wide and pissed off.
"Why are you sitting here?" she whispered.
"Because I felt like it," I said.
Adrien sat a few rows back, looking at me like I was a ticking bomb. The class started. I waited for the teacher to turn to the board, then I ripped a piece of paper out and scribbled something. I folded it and slid it onto her desk.
She opened it, frowning.
"Having fun with the other guys while your bodyguard's gone? That's going to hurt little Julien's feelings when he finds out."
She glared at me, crumpled the paper and shoved it into her bag. I felt this rush of adrenaline. I liked it when she was mad. I wrote another one.
"Why are you acting like you are hurt by what I said? It's the truth. Should I tell him when he gets back so you can see for yourself? You've been staring at the same page for 10 minutes. Turn to the next page. It's embarrassing to watch."
Her head snapped toward me. She looked shocked, then frustrated, then… something else. Her cheeks went pink. She had this look as if she wanted to hit me. I gave her something smaller. A small smile. Something almost… real. Just to mess with her head.
We just stared at each other. The air felt thick, like a storm was about to break.
For a second, the classroom noise faded into the background. It was just the two of us sitting there like idiots, locked in some silent argument neither of us wanted to end.
"Isabelle Duval. Dmitri Volkov." The teacher's voice broke the silence. "Outside. Now."
The whole class gasped. I got up slowly, enjoying the fact that everyone was staring. We stepped out into the hall and the door clicked shut.
"What is wrong with you?" she snapped the second we were alone. "I was actually trying to learn this and now I'm kicked out! This is your fault!"
I leaned against the stone wall, watching her. "And?"
"And?!" she repeated, throwing her hands up. "You distracted me! I'm gonna fail this unit because you can't sit in your own seat. Even if you took someone else's seat, the least you could do is sit quietly and not scribble stupid things into torn papers and pass them around!"
Her voice echoed slightly in the empty hallway. A couple of students passing by slowed down just enough to stare before moving on again.
I let a slow smile crawl across my face. "I'll make it up to you."
She blinked. "How? By being even more of a jerk?"
"I'm going to take you on extra calculus lessons," I murmured. I stepped into her space until she had to tilt her head back to see me. "You're holding your breath again, Isabelle. It's exhausting, isn't it? Trying to act like you don't care? I think you look better when you're falling apart."
Her face went deep crimson. Isabelle shook her head, her hair catching the light. "You're impossible!"
She turned and marched away just as the bell rang. I watched her go. I liked the way her anger made her look alive. Most people in this school are just cardboard cutouts, but she's real.
I saw Emmeline watching us from the door, her face a total mask of "I'm gonna kill someone." Arabella was right behind her, whispering. The whole hierarchy was melting and I was the one holding the torch.
Adrien came out a second later when the bell went off, looking at me like I'd just grown a second head.
"What the hell was that, Dmitri?"
"Nothing," I said. I felt my face go flat again, the mask sliding back into place. "Just messing with her."
But that night, sitting alone in my room, the "messing with her" excuse felt like total crap. I just kept replaying it, the way her face got red, the way she narrowed those silver eyes at me. I caught myself smiling into the dark and it freaked me out. She could pull more out of me with one look than my old man could with a lifetime of screaming and demands.
I tried telling myself it was just boredom. Stress. Whatever. But the next day, the lie died.
I saw her in the courtyard. She was laughing. A real, loud, genuine laugh. And she was with Julien. He was back. He was leaning in close, way too close, his hand near her arm. They looked… comfortable. Like they had a whole world I wasn't allowed into.
Something snapped.
It wasn't a "shrug it off" feeling. It was this white-hot, ugly surge of possessiveness. My pulse spiked. I squeezed my fists until my knuckles were white and shaking.
The world narrowed down to just them. Just her.
And I realized, right there, that I wasn't playing a game anymore. I wasn't gonna let anyone else touch her. I wasn't gonna let anyone take her out of my sight.
The teasing was over. This thing had roots now and it would burn us both down before it was finished.