Chapter 126: Learn to Say No

Wherever Giselle Frost appeared, attention gathered.

It was not something she did on purpose. It worked more like a rule written into the world. A room could be full of people talking, studying, pretending not to gossip, and then Giselle would step into it and change the pressure without raising her voice.

The girl beside Elias had been smiling a second ago.

She was enjoying herself. A pretty boy with bright eyes and a gentle voice had explained a problem to her, and she was still riding the small thrill of being the person he had turned toward. Then a chill slid over the back of her neck.

It was not the air-conditioning. The library temperature had not changed. The feeling was stranger than that, like the body recognizing danger before the mind could name it. As if a knife had stopped just short of her forehead, close enough that even with her eyes closed, she would have felt the edge waiting there.

The girl turned her head slowly.

Giselle stood beside the table, her face cold.

She was not looking directly at the girl. Somehow that made it worse. Giselle’s gaze rested on Elias, yet the girl could still feel the faint, precise pressure aimed at her, a warning so quiet it was nearly deniable.

Then memory arrived.

The rumor.

The one that had run through Westbridge not long ago, the one about Giselle Frost leaving campus with this exact boy and checking into a hotel with him.

The girl’s breath caught.

If that rumor was true, then the person she had just been flirting with was Giselle Frost’s boyfriend.

The chill became much more convincing.

She lifted one hand and brushed at her forehead, though there was no sweat there. Her smile stiffened as she stood, gathering her things with more speed than dignity.

"Thanks for showing me the method," she said, forcing a laugh into her voice. "Since I get it now, I won’t bother you anymore."

She left before anyone could answer.

Everyone at Westbridge knew who Giselle Frost was. She was not the kind of person campus administration crossed carelessly, much less a random student trying her luck beside a library table. The thought put real speed into the girl’s steps, and by the time she reached the exit, she had given up on preserving library manners altogether.

She practically ran out.

She probably would not be back for a while.

Elias laughed silently to himself.

Look at that, Miss Frost’s presence was so powerful she did not even need to speak. One appearance, and the competition fled like the building was on fire.

Only then did Giselle speak.

"Why didn’t you refuse her?"

Her voice was lowered for the library, but the force behind it did not soften. She was questioning him, and the students nearby felt it even if they could not hear every word.

Elias tilted his head back to look at her. His lips parted slightly, his expression innocent enough to insult both of them.

"Hm?"

Giselle’s tone stayed certain. "You didn’t want her sitting beside you."

She had seen it.

His smile had been strained when the girl asked. Polite, yes, and gentle enough to let the other person believe she was welcome. But underneath that, there had been resistance, discomfort, the kind of social recoil people missed when they wanted their own interpretation too badly.

Elias looked as if she had caught him doing something embarrassing. He bit his lip lightly, then lowered his eyes.

"It was only a question."

Giselle did not accept that.

She understood Elias better than that. He had not wanted the girl there and had still failed to push her away. If the girl had truly only wanted help with a problem, that would have been one thing. But her face, her body language, the way she had kept leaning closer after the explanation made her intention obvious.

The question had been fake.

The approach had not.

Giselle looked down at Elias’s hair. He had dyed it back to a soft black, and with his slightly embarrassed expression, he looked so clean and harmless that the effect was almost absurd.

She realized then that she had overlooked his face for too long.

Of course women noticed him.

"Next time, refuse directly," Giselle said. Her voice was serious. "There’s nothing to be embarrassed about."

Elias nodded lightly. "I know."

He sounded so obedient that anyone else might have believed him.

He seemed ready to say more, but Giselle had already turned away. Her back was straight, her steps controlled, and her exit carried the same cold pride with which she had arrived.

She left the library nearly as quickly as the girl had.

Elias stared after her.

These awful women switch faces faster than a deck of cards.

The real problem, of course, was stubbornness. They could not even face their own feelings directly, so how could they treat anyone else honestly?

Still.

She really wasn’t doing that on purpose.

Giselle was not built like Serena or Liora. Once Giselle saw her own feelings clearly, she would accept them faster than anyone. If she truly had not wanted to see him, she would not have come over to rescue him from that conversation.

The fact that she helped him and left right after meant something else.

Elias thought for a moment. She probably didn’t want to make things hard for me.

[That is likely.]

Their rumor had already spread across campus. If Giselle sat with him in the library, the rumor would settle into fact by dinner. Besides, the library was one of those places students used for dates under the flimsy excuse of studying. Two people at a table with open books and low voices could become a campus story by the time the elevators opened.

But there’s another way to read it, Elias thought. In Giselle’s eyes, we still aren’t close enough to ignore the rumor.

If they were actually together, why would other people’s opinions matter?

So Elias slowly took off his glasses again.

[Host, are you fishing again?]

Elias crossed one leg over the other and smiled faintly.

Whoever wants the hook can bite.

It did not take long.

Another girl gathered her courage and approached his table.

That was the advantage of having low presence, apparently. When Giselle stood beside him, everyone remembered the rumor and remembered that this was the boy connected to her. The second Giselle left, that memory loosened. Elias stopped being Giselle Frost’s rumored man and became a beautiful student sitting alone with soft eyes and an open seat beside him.

The new girl asked if the seat was taken.

Elias looked up at his next assistant and gave her a brilliant smile.

Her heart nearly tripped over itself.

God, he smiled at me. He likes me.

She sat down as if fate had personally pulled out the chair.

Within minutes, they were talking happily. Her cheeks were pink, her voice had gone a little too sweet, and in the private theater of her imagination, she had already named their children and chosen which parent would cry at the wedding.

Then the cold came back.

The girl slowly lifted her head.

Giselle had returned.

This time, there was a real edge in her expression. Nothing dramatic, nothing loud enough for the rest of the library to claim with certainty, but the cold in her face had sharpened into something unmistakable.

The girl understood.

Her smile wavered. "Giselle, is he your... boyfriend?"

Giselle said nothing.

The pressure did not ease.

The girl stood up at once, her chair making a faint sound against the floor. "I didn’t know. I’ll just... go."

She fled almost exactly like the first one.

Elias raised his eyes to Giselle and spoke softly. "Thank you."

Giselle looked down at him. "You don’t know how to refuse?"

"I did refuse." Elias sounded wronged. "They said there were no other seats, so..."

Giselle lifted her head and scanned the room.

There were open seats everywhere.

She looked back at him. "Now pretend I’m one of them."

Elias blinked. "What?"

Inside, he was laughing hard enough to be pleased with the whole day.

Roleplay? Miss Frost had range.

Giselle’s face remained cool. "You need to practice refusing people."

She could not appear every time someone tried to approach him.

"Oh. Okay." Elias agreed with infuriating sweetness.

Giselle pulled out the chair beside him and let the motion play out just far enough to make the lesson clear. "Excuse me. Can I sit here?"

Elias looked up at her with damp, dazed eyes.

"Sure," he said. "You can sit."

Giselle reached over and lightly tapped him on the head.

The sound was not loud, but Elias immediately lifted both hands to cover his forehead. His expression looked even more wounded than before.

"That was your refusal?"

"You were already about to sit down."

"That is exactly why you should refuse this kind of person." Giselle’s expression stayed cold, and for some reason her posture made her look like a professor conducting a practical exam. "Again."

Elias lowered his hands, still looking wronged.

Giselle repeated, "Can I sit here?"

This time, Elias finally managed to answer. "Um, no..."

He glanced up at her face, saw her cool expression, and folded immediately.

"Could you maybe not sit here?"

Cowardly and obedient at the same time.

Giselle looked at him without blinking. "Why?"

Elias got stuck.

"Because..." He searched for an answer, then chose the one closest to hand. "Because Giselle wouldn’t allow it?"

Giselle shook her head slightly. "What use is bringing me into it? I’m not the mob."

Elias almost laughed out loud.

Well, look at that. Giselle could make jokes now.

The humor touched his mouth before he could hide it. He shook his head, smiling softly. "It is useful. When you’re here, they don’t dare come over."

Then he lowered his voice.

The request in it was small, and so was the expectation, but he let both be heard.

"Giselle, can you sit here and keep me company for a while?"