DAWNS CONFESSION

Floor wax and the dry bite of old paper met him on the walk to the library—Monday at Highschool A, corridors packed with everyone shuffling toward first period. Val had fallen in with Ashley and Liz at her usual corner by the stacks, the three of them talking while the rest of the school streamed past.

Ashley refused to let the morning stay light. She needled Val about the Gu twins, who had been glued to his side since the weekend gate run, then slid the joke toward Dawn—the girl who had settled into the same rhythm as the rest of his school days. Ashley's grin turned wicked. "Dawn's super pretty," she said, "and you're always with her." She leaned in. "Are you together?"

Val shook his head. "No." Good friends—that was the whole of it, said straight, no wiggle room.

Liz cut in before he could shut the door on the topic. "Maybe from your point of view—what about theirs!" Val went still. The words hit sideways; he had nothing ready to say back.

Ashley and Liz exploded into laughter—the whole bit had been a setup. Liz's jab turned harmless; they watched his frozen expression and lost it together.

Laughing still, Ashley and Liz crushed him in a quick, familiar hug, then all three cut through the crowd toward homeroom.

---

Lunch would not leave him alone. The morning's teasing sat under his skin; every glance toward Dawn or toward the twins' empty seats felt louder than it should. He talked more with Alex and the other guys at his table, piling noise on noise as if volume could bury the questions still ringing.

Dawn closed the distance anyway. She hooked her arms around his from the side. "What's up? Why are you so far away when I'm right here?"

Alex's head snapped up. He milked the silence, then let loose a long, delighted wail. "Ooooooooooooooooooooo are you guys dating!" The shout carried across most of the table.

Dawn jerked her arms free, face hot—exposed in front of everyone because of Alex.

Val groaned. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?" His friends cracked up around him—teasing, not mean—like they had all been in on a joke he never saw coming.

Dawn made a frustrated sound, elbowed him out of earshot, and pulled him aside. Color still rode high on her cheeks from Alex's blast; she wanted answers before the table could move on.

A few steps from the table, voice down: "Do you like me?"

She hesitated only a breath. "Yes," she whispered.

The yes landed soft and bright—and collided with what he already knew. Lateresa held the center of his heart on terms no one else shared; one-sided, barely spoken even inside his own head. The table had no line of sight to any of it.

Dawn's mouth tightened. "We'll see about that." Her voice stayed low—meant for him alone. They rejoined the table wearing ordinary faces; the shift between them did not.

He could not settle through the remaining lunch. Dawn laughed and teased on cue, bright as always, yet her eyes kept finding his—patient, unready to accept quiet as refusal.

Neither twin appeared. Hall gossip matched every other whisper: trouble at the main Gu estate, family matters. After the weekend gate, their missing seats felt like a hole punched in his routine.

Wei passed in another corridor. His look swept Val's group, caught the gap where Xian should have been, and a smirk tugged at his lips. "That's what I thought," he muttered, like an absence had proved his guess.

Classes finished with no loose end to tie the day shut. He left campus still hearing Dawn's yes, still feeling Ashley and Liz's morning ambush, the twins' silence, and the satisfaction in Wei's half-heard line.