The day dragged on through class after class, but Jean barely registered any of it. All he could think about was his unsettling situation with Shawn.
By the time it was finally 4 p.m., he felt like he hadn't learned a single thing.
If anyone asked him what he had studied that day, he wouldn't be able to say a word related to school.
His grades were already bad. Studying had never really been his thing. But now, if he kept going like this, he might actually drop to zeroes.
And for the first time, that thought bothered him.
What if Shawn saw his grades and gave him more reasons to look down on him?
Jean had never cared about things like that before. But now, the idea of Shawn judging him for it didn't sit well with him at all.
When he stepped out of the tuition building with Liam, he spotted his car parked outside, his bodyguard already waiting.
They both walked toward it. Jean found himself enjoying Liam's company more than he expected. Nothing much was happening between them, but it felt... easy.
Quiet.
Better than the usual.
Liam didn't talk too much. He didn't brag. He didn't gossip about other people all the time. He didn't talk about himself all the time the way Jean's other friends did.
Usually, Jean spent most of his time with two guys and two girls, June included.
The other girl was June's friends, more than his. June herself had been around for years, their families close enough that it had always felt more like an obligation than a choice.
As for the guys-
There was Asher, the basketball star every girl seemed to be obsessed with.
And Oliver, who spent most of his time flirting with every girl, showing off, and talking about his parents' money like it was a personality trait.
Jean had never really questioned it before, but today... Staying away from them felt strangely peaceful.
As they walked toward the car, for a second, Jean wished he could see Shawn, even just a glance, just enough to annoy him before going home. But instead, he decided to hurry home and figure out a plan for sneaking out.
For a moment, he considered slipping into the crowd of students leaving through the gate and disappearing like that, heading straight to Shawn's place.
But he dismissed the idea immediately.
He knew the kind of trouble it would cause.
His bodyguard and driver could lose their jobs over something like that. They would be searching everywhere for him, thinking maybe he had gone missing.
They might even track him. And if they found him at his teacher's place… That would only drag Shawn into trouble, and that was something Jean wasn't willing to risk.
When they reached the car, Jean looked down at Liam. "Which way is your place?" he asked.
But instead of answering, Liam just murmured two words and quickly walked away, as if spending the day with Jean had been overwhelming enough.
"No need."
It was almost like he already knew Jean was going to offer him a ride.
Jean didn't push, he simply got into the car and exchanged a few casual words with his bodyguard about the day as the car pulled away.
When they got home, the gates opened and the car drove in smoothly before closing again. The moment it did, Jean felt trapped again inside those familiar suffocating walls, the electric wires lining the top of the compound fence enclosing everything.
In the parking lot, his mother's and father's cars were there, which only meant they were home.
Jean's eyes instinctively went toward the swimming pool, where they usually spent time when they were home, but no one seemed to be there.
As he stepped into the house, he felt a strange mix of emotions at realizing his parents were home.
He had missed them-since they were barely ever around, he would have liked to spend time with them-but at the same time, their presence meant his plan to go out was now completely impossible.
To reach his room, there was an elevator and the stairs, and he couldn't remember the last time he had used the stairs. He always took the easy way.
When he reached upstairs, he heard voices in his room.
Were his parents in his room?
His heart stopped.
What the hell would they be doing in his room?
Everything in there screamed gay. Literally everything. He wasn't ready for this. His life already felt too messy for them to find out something like that now.
And if they touched his laptop, that would definitely be the end of him.
They wouldn't even need him to confess-they would already know.
His heart raced as he tried to steady himself and listen closely to what they were saying, trying to figure out if they were talking about him.
"Even now I just don't get why you went through all that trouble to create those beasts only for you to erase all of them," his mother's voice came through.
"Honey, they were losing control, don't you get it? You should have seen them. They looked like total monsters with no control at all. We didn't even have injections to regulate them. The doctors had no idea how to stabilize them," his father replied.
"What a joke," his mother scoffed. "They were able to create them but couldn't create a simple serum to control them? Even so, you should have left even one. Just one. You couldn't have been unable to control a single one. You know we're politicians. People are always after us for no reason. John Miller is threatening me just because of the votes. If you had left even one of those creatures, we could have found a way to manipulate it-use it to protect us. Turn it into a human robot or something. It could even kill useless beings like John Miller," she said, frustration bleeding into her voice.
Jean stood frozen, trying to make sense of it all.
He could hear the words, but they meant nothing to him.
"I know, and you don't have to worry about Miller, I'll deal with that.
About enhanced human... We've been trying to create another one, but it's not working. I don't know what's going on. If we could just find the DNA of the ones we created earlier, it would be easy to create another batch. And this time, only three-one for me, one for you, and one for Jean. So we don't have to worry about our safety anymore. We'd be protected by the most supernatural humans," his father continued.
"Don't worry, I'm still working on it. And this time they won't be for the military, I'm tired of doing a lot for that damn military anyway. So they'll be for our family. And they won't just be strong and dangerous-they'll obey our orders. Like you said, human robots."
"Aren't you promising too much when you know you can't even deliver?" his mother replied. "You just said the previous methods aren't working. That you need the DNA of the previous creatures you created, to create more. And we both know none of it exists because you erased all of them... What about..."
Jean couldn't take it anymore.
He pushed the door open abruptly.