“Your scholarship has been pulled.”The words settled quietly in the room.Benjamin stood in front of the desk, the envelope still in his hand. The paper inside it rustled slightly as his fingers adjusted their grip. His eyes lifted slowly toward Vice President Harold Whitmore. For a moment, Benjamin said nothing. His face simply remained calm. There was no visible panic, no sudden outburst and no desperate reaction.Inside his mind, however, Benjamin found the situation oddly amusing. It was almost surreal.A few hours ago, he had simply woken up late and rushed to class. Now he was standing inside the vice president’s office, holding a letter that revoked his scholarship and suspended him for two weeks.The chain of events was almost impressive, but Benjamin suppressed the faint amusement rising in his mind. Instead, he allowed his expression to change slightly.His brows tightened, while his eyes widened just a little. The reaction looked subtle, but convincing enough.Shock.At l

“I just hope it doesn’t exceed a hundred…”Benjamin’s voice trailed off casually, as if he had just made a simple remark about a minor bill.For a brief moment, the office remained quiet.Then the dean standing beside him suddenly let out a sharp snort. He tried to suppress it, but the sound escaped anyway. His shoulders shook slightly as he turned his face away, clearly trying to contain his laughter.Benjamin glanced at him briefly.Across the desk, President Harold Whitmore also reacted as a light chuckle escaped him before he could stop it. And though the sound was not loud, it carried a certain level of amusement.Whitmore leaned back slightly in his chair, shaking his head once.Clearly , he had clearly overestimated this kid.A hundred thousand dollars?At Memoville Academy?That number was laughable.Even the smallest expenses at the institution could exceed that amount. Whitmore’s earlier curiosity faded slightly. It seemed Benjamin simply had no understanding of the numbers

The hallway outside the administrative building felt quieter than usual.Benjamin stepped out through the tall glass doors and into the open courtyard of Memoville Academy. The afternoon sun had already begun to settle into the sky, casting long shadows across the paved walkways that connected the different faculty blocks. Students moved in small clusters across the campus grounds, some heading toward their next classes while others lingered around the shaded benches.Benjamin walked at a steady pace, his hands resting casually inside the pockets of his jacket.The meeting with President Harold still lingered faintly in his mind. Not because it had shaken him. If anything, it had been almost amusing.The expressions on both Harold and the Dean’s faces when he had casually mentioned the donation... The shock. The disbelief. And the sudden silence that followed.It was nothing short of satisfying.He allowed himself a faint smile.But that moment had already passed. Right now, he had so

Benjamin stepped into the suite and closed the door behind him with a soft click.Silence followed.Not the uncomfortable kind, but the heavy, lingering quiet that came after a long day filled with too many thoughts. The kind that settled into the corners of a room and pressed gently against the walls.He didn’t move at first. His gaze just drifted toward the floor-to-ceiling windows.The city stretched out beyond them, alive in a way that felt distant from where he stood. Cars, people reduced to shadows weaving between buildings. Everything looked smaller from up here.Benjamin walked over slowly.His footsteps quiet against the polished floor. When he reached the window, he stopped and slipped his hands into his pockets.For a long moment, he just stood there watching.The reflection staring back at him in the glass looked calm. Almost indifferent. But beneath that surface, his mind was anything but still.Three weeks.The words didn’t carry much weight when he said them out loud ea

The moment Rose noticed them, her lips curled upward into a sharp, knowing smile. There was no hesitation in her steps as she turned away from the counter and walked straight toward their table, her heels clicking lightly against the tiled floor.Benjamin saw her coming.Of course she would.There was something about Rose that always thrived on attention, especially when she believed she held the upper hand. And right now, with Ryan by her side and whatever illusion of status she thought she had gained, she walked with even more confidence than usual.She stopped right beside their table, arms folded loosely as her gaze swept over the dishes in front of them.“Oh,” she said, dragging the word out as if savoring it. “So this is where he brings you now?”Her tone was light, almost playful. But the contempt beneath it was clear as day. She then let out a small laugh, shaking her head as though she had just witnessed something amusing.Elise didn’t even look up at first.She just picked u