For a brief moment, Victor Kent felt a prickle crawl across the back of his neck, the kind of sensation that made the instincts of a hunter sharpen without warning. His eyes shifted subtly as he turned his head, scanning the area, and he noticed that several other students nearby had also turned in the same direction, as if they too had sensed something strange in the air.
Standing a short distance away was a tall boy wearing a black jacket. His blond hair was slicked back neatly, and his face carried a cold, detached expression. The look in his eyes reminded Victor of a predator resting at the very top of the food chain, the kind that didn't even bother acknowledging the presence of weaker creatures nearby. His gaze swept past Victor, Clark, Pete, and Chloe without the slightest flicker of interest, as if the four of them simply did not exist.
Without saying a word, the boy turned and walked off in the same direction Lana had gone.
After a few seconds passed in silence, Pete finally blinked and shook his head as if trying to wake himself up.
"Wait… that cool guy just now was Greg?"
Pete's face twisted with disbelief as he looked toward the direction the boy had disappeared. "It seriously took me a few seconds to recognize him."
Chloe stared as well, clearly stunned. Her mouth hung slightly open before she finally spoke.
"I didn't recognize him right away either," she admitted. "I actually scheduled an interview with him before, remember? I wanted him to write a few articles about insect science for the Torch."
She rubbed her arms unconsciously as if trying to brush away goosebumps.
"But the guy I met before could barely even look a girl in the eyes. He was shy, awkward… completely different from that."
Pete nodded slowly.
"Yeah, it's not just the glasses being gone or the new clothes," he said. "It feels like the whole guy changed."
Chloe frowned, still rubbing her arms.
"I don't know how to explain it," she murmured. "But being near him just now made my skin crawl."
Her discomfort wasn't embarrassment or social awkwardness. It was something deeper and more primal, like the instinctive alarm a deer feels when a hyena enters the clearing. Her body was quietly telling her to keep her distance from that boy.
Interestingly, Victor and Clark didn't feel that same instinctive fear at all.
The four of them continued talking as they walked toward their classroom building. Chloe flipped through the stack of newspapers she carried and suddenly pointed at an article.
"Oh! I almost forgot," she said, holding the paper up. "Look at this weird story."
Pete leaned over her shoulder.
The headline read:
Jerome Kerry, who attended our high school more than ten years ago, was discovered unconscious after the meteor shower disaster. After a medical equipment leak at the state hospital, he mysteriously disappeared from the facility. Yesterday he was discovered again outside our town's hospital.
Pete scratched his head as he read.
"So… someone stole a guy in a vegetative state from the hospital and then dumped him outside our hospital?" he asked in confusion. "What's the point of that?"
Victor and Clark exchanged a brief glance. Clark's shoulders stiffened slightly, and his expression became noticeably tense.
Chloe didn't notice. Her eyes gleamed with excitement.
"I'm definitely putting this one on my Wall of Weirdness," she declared.
Inside the small activity newsroom assigned to the Torch editorial club, Chloe maintained a large wall dedicated entirely to strange and unexplained events around town. Meteor-related incidents, mysterious sightings, bizarre accidents—anything unusual found its way onto that board.
Clark rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Well… it might not be that weird," he muttered.
Chloe ignored him.
"The interesting part," she continued, tapping the article with her finger, "is that this guy was in a vegetative state for over ten years. Nobody really paid attention to him before. But after this incident, some doctors noticed something strange."
She lowered her voice dramatically.
"He hasn't aged at all."
Pete blinked.
"Wait… seriously?"
Chloe nodded.
"More than ten years have passed, but he looks exactly the same. No one knows why."
They reached the newsroom as she spoke. Chloe pushed open the small storage room door and stepped inside.
The moment Victor walked in, he saw the wall.
It was completely covered with newspaper clippings, photographs, scribbled notes, and random bits of information. Most of the articles were connected in one way or another to the meteor shower that had struck the town years ago.
Near the center of the wall hung the cover of an old magazine.
Clark's eyes froze the moment he saw it.
"It's Lana," he said quietly.
The magazine cover showed Lana as a small child. She wore a pink princess dress and held a toy wand like a fairy-tale character waiting excitedly to visit an amusement park.
But the image carried a painful contrast.
Her clothes were dirty, her face streaked with tears, and her expression was filled with shock and grief.
Above the photo, the title read:
After the Meteor Shower – The Heartbroken Angel
More than ten years earlier, that meteor shower had brought disaster to the town. Several people died that night, including Lana's parents.
Clark had first noticed Lana because of that tragedy. Over the years he had secretly watched her many times from a distance, and those quiet observations had slowly grown into feelings he couldn't quite explain.
…
"Insects," the biology teacher announced while writing on the board, "are invertebrate arthropods and the most numerous group of animals on Earth."
He gestured toward a slide showing various bugs.
"Cockroaches, ants, bees… these tiny creatures dominate our planet in ways most people underestimate."
The class sat quietly, though several students were already fighting off boredom.
"You shouldn't underestimate insects," the teacher continued. "Despite their size, they possess incredible abilities. Many species can accomplish things humans would find nearly impossible."
He adjusted his glasses.
"However, most insects live extremely short lives. Many of them do not survive beyond a single summer."
The teacher's voice droned on as he lectured.
"So once an insect reaches adulthood, powerful genetic instincts drive it to find a mate immediately. They compete fiercely with rivals, court partners, and reproduce before their short lifespan ends."
Victor leaned back in his chair, listening without much interest.
Before long, the final bell rang.
The long and uneventful school day finally ended.
By the time students poured out of the building, the horizon already carried a faint golden glow as the sun slowly dipped toward evening.
Victor and Clark walked out through the front gate together.
Standing near the entrance was Greg.
Earlier that day he had looked cold and distant, but now a polite smile rested on his face as he spoke with Lana. Lana herself looked exhausted, her expression weighed down by the emotional turmoil she had gone through.
"Lana," Greg said gently, "you seem like you're having a rough day."
He lifted a notebook in his hand.
"I heard there's a nice café in town. Would you like to sit down together for a while? You could help me with my literature report."
Lana sighed softly.
"Greg," she said, trying to remain polite, "I really did like the butterfly you gave me earlier."
She hugged her books closer to her chest.
"But I'm not really in the mood to go anywhere right now. Could you please just give me a little time alone?"
Earlier that day, Whitney had desperately tried to win her back after their argument on campus. Instead, Lana had suggested they take some time apart.
After the collapse of that relationship, she felt emotionally drained.
Greg's smile stiffened slightly.
"Okay… okay," he replied.
Lana gave Victor and Clark a small nod of greeting before walking away slowly, clutching her books.
Chloe shook her head thoughtfully.
"Looks like Greg might have upgraded his wardrobe," she said, "but he still has no idea how to talk to girls."
Pete grinned and nudged Clark.
"Man, standing here isn't what you should be doing right now."
He winked exaggeratedly.
"What a perfect opportunity."
Clark blinked in surprise, then suddenly understood. His eyes lit up as he turned toward Victor with an awkward grin.
"Victor… could you tell Mom and Dad I'll be home a little later?"
Victor crossed his arms and gave him a completely unsurprised look.
"Sure," he said calmly as he walked past him.
"But if some street punks show up while you're walking a girl home, you'd better focus on protecting yourself first."
Lana had put the kryptonite necklace back on.
If something actually happened and someone tried to harass her, Clark would probably collapse before he even got the chance to play hero.
It would be incredibly ironic if the future leader of the Justice League tried to rescue a girl in high school and ended up getting beaten unconscious in an alley.
Clark scratched his head helplessly.
"I know," he muttered.
Used to his brother's sarcastic reminders by now, he hurried after Lana.
Victor and Pete climbed onto the school bus as it prepared to leave.
Meanwhile, near the gate, Greg watched Clark chasing after Lana with a cold, unreadable gaze.
"If you don't want to end up stuffed inside a trash can, insect freak…"
A heavy hand suddenly slammed down on Greg's shoulder.
"Stay away from my girlfriend," Whitney whispered angrily.
He released the threat and started to walk past Greg, intending to catch up with Clark and warn him again.
But suddenly his body froze.
Greg's hand had clamped down on Whitney's shoulder like a steel vise.
"Failed competitors," Greg said coldly, "should understand what failure means."
His grip tightened like a hydraulic press. Whitney felt his bones creak under the pressure as pain exploded through his shoulder.
Fury flashed across Whitney's face as he twisted his body, trying to drive an elbow into Greg's face.
"Let me go!"
"You're out, Whitney."
Greg's emotionless voice came before Whitney's strike could land.
In the next instant, Whitney's body lifted off the ground.
Greg flung him backward effortlessly.
Whitney flew through the air like a weightless rag doll before crashing into a row of trash cans near the school gate. The metal containers clattered loudly as they toppled over, and Whitney collapsed among them unconscious.
Ignoring the shocked screams around him, Greg slowly turned his head.
His gaze settled briefly on Clark, who had just caught up to Lana and was trying to start a conversation.
Then his eyes shifted toward the departing school bus.
"The one who wins my spouse… will be me in the end."
After speaking those words quietly, Greg turned and walked away.
....
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