At that moment, Soma sat still, her chest rising and falling as her mind fought with itself. The air around her felt heavier than usual, as if every breath she took was trying to pull her in two different directions. She leaned back into the couch, her hands buried in her hair, gripping it slightly as guilt started to slowly replace the fire she felt earlier.Then she shook her head.“No,” she whispered under her breath. “That’s wrong. That’s very, very wrong.”She repeated it again, louder this time, as if she needed to hear her own voice to cancel out the bitter thoughts circling in her head. “If I do something like that... then it means Camilla was right all along.” Her voice dropped. “It would mean everything she said about me, every accusation... would be true.”She looked down at her hands, trembling slightly, and clenched them into fists. “And I know that’s not who I am.”She sighed deeply, dragging her hands down her face as her thoughts unraveled one by one. Camilla might hav

At that moment, Sophia would then fall completely silent. Her lips were slightly parted, but no words came out. Her eyes looked distant, as if she was staring at something far beyond the room. Her sister's words had landed hard deeper than she expected. They echoed in her chest, each sentence peeling back the layer of fear she had been hiding beneath for so long. And now, here she was, standing in the very moment she had been trying to avoid facing the truth.Yeah… maybe it was time.Maybe it had gotten to the point where she just couldn’t keep it buried inside her anymore. No matter how much she tried to play it cool, no matter how much she tried to pretend that nothing was happening between her and Jason, her heart had already made a decision long ago. And her sister’s persistence just proved it proved that what she was feeling wasn’t invisible to the world. It was real. Too real to hide.She glanced toward her sister, then quickly looked away.It felt embarrassing.Admitting her fe

At that moment, Jason slowly turned his head toward Derek. His eyes weren’t filled with joy or relief like the others around them. Instead, they were sharp cold even. A deep silence hung between the two as the noise of the arena faded into a blur behind them.Jason took a step forward, and with a quiet but firm voice, he said, “I don’t owe you anything, Derek.”Derek blinked, confused. “W–What?”“You heard me.” Jason’s tone was flat, controlled, but every word hit like a hammer. “After what I saw today, it’s clear to me you’re not who I thought you were. You’re weak. Weak in your mind, weak in your spirit, weak in the heart. A true fighter never gives up until he’s dead. But you? You were already defeated before the first punch was thrown.”Jason’s voice grew colder, but he didn’t shout. He didn’t need to.“If it wasn’t for the fact that I had already stepped into the arena... if it wasn’t for the fact that I couldn’t back out, I swear on everything I wouldn’t have fought alongside yo

At that moment, Camilla gripped the phone tighter in one hand, her other hand balled into a fist by her side. Her voice, though calm at first, carried a sting of pain and bitterness. “No problem,” she said quietly, but it wasn’t the kind of ‘no problem’ that meant she was at peace. It was the kind that carried a storm underneath. “No problem at all, Jason. You've made your decision, haven’t you? Loud and clear.”She paused, letting the silence between them burn. “I’m not going to push. I’m not going to beg. I’m not going to apologize for standing up for what I thought we had. If you think that I’m the villain in this story because I tried to protect what’s mine, then so be it.”Her voice cracked slightly but she quickly masked it with a bitter chuckle. “Look at the way you’re talking to me, Jason. Just look at yourself. You’re siding with another girl, someone who boldly told me to my face that she likes you, and instead of shutting it down or defending me, you’re standing here defend

At that moment, upon seeing what just happened that Jason actually ended the call Camilla froze, staring at the screen in stunned silence. Her brows furrowed slowly, and her chest began to rise and fall with quick, sharp breaths. It took her a few seconds to even process it. She blinked, as if her phone had betrayed her eyes.Then it hit her.“Unbelievable,” she muttered under her breath.A second later, her expression twisted in rage. Her hand clenched around the phone so tightly it looked like she might crush it. She paced in a small circle in her room, her heels clicking fast against the tiles as her fury boiled over. Then, out of nowhere, she just exploded.“This boy has the audacity THE AUDACITY to do this to me?!”Her voice echoed loudly, her chest burning. “Look at him! Just look at Jason! He thinks he can hang up on me? On ME?! Who does he think he is? Who gave him that confidence? That boldness? That nerve?”She turned toward her mirror and pointed at her own reflection like