Lucian pressed the marker harder than necessary against the whiteboard.
The final equation stretched across the surface in clean, precise handwriting. He solved it smoothly, wrote the answer beneath it, and stepped back.
Correct.
Again.
"I managed to solve every question in two textbooks…" he muttered under his breath.
His room was quiet except for the faint scratching sound of Coco shifting on the floor and the soft hum of the ceiling fan.
He should've felt accomplished.
But his eyes drifted.
Back to the bed.
Back to the box.
Back to that parcel.
"…and my mind is still stuck on that stupid thing."
He exhaled slowly, running a hand through his hair.
He had thought distracting himself would help. Numbers always helped. Equations were predictable. Logical. They didn't ambush you four months later with lace and poor life decisions.
But no matter how many formulas he solved, his thoughts kept circling back.
What was I even thinking back then? He thought
