Chapter 185: Chapter 185: Turning It Back on Her

Chapter 185: Turning It Back on Her

A gala?

Elias tilted his head and thought about it for a moment before the memory surfaced.

Right. Westbridge was holding some kind of anniversary event tonight. He had noticed people rehearsing in open courtyards and half-empty classrooms over the last few days, students running through music, speeches, and stage cues with the stiff seriousness of people who thought a university gala counted as a life event.

At the time, he had been too busy walking Giselle through her new emotional disaster phase to care.

"Where is it?" Elias asked.

Tim’s face lit up at once.

The question alone was enough to make him think Elias might actually show up. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"In the auditorium," Tim said quickly. "The main one."

Elias gave a slow nod.

He did not remember any major plot point from the original story that revolved around the auditorium, but the gala itself was worth attending. A public event, loud atmosphere, lots of people, Giselle beside him, and just enough emotional noise to blur the line between friendship and something that made people stare.

Useful.

"The auditorium, huh," Elias murmured. "That works."

"Great," Tim said, visibly relieved. "Then we can go together."

Before Elias could crush that assumption, Tim seemed to remember something even more exciting and leaned closer. "Oh, right. Have you heard about Serena Blackwood?"

Elias’s expression paused for the smallest instant.

Hearing that name from Tim’s mouth felt strange enough to be funny.

"What about her?" Elias asked.

"Westbridge invited her for the anniversary gala," Tim said, his voice lowering with the kind of excitement students used for celebrities and money. "She might even give a speech."

Elias understood Tim’s reaction perfectly.

Serena Blackwood’s resume was ridiculous for someone her age. She had taken Blackwood Group to its current height with a kind of talent that ordinary people could only admire from a safe distance. Add her face, her money, her public polish, and the fantasy practically wrote itself.

What guy at Westbridge had not, at least once, imagined being noticed by a woman like that?

A beautiful, wealthy CEO choosing him out of a crowd. A private car waiting outside the dorm. A sweet, impossible romance that sounded like something from a glossy novel feed.

Elias’s private verdict was simple: hopeless.

Romance-brained men deserved a charity fund and a warning label. Put a random guy in his place, and Serena would eat him alive before breakfast. Sweet romance? Please. He would be dating the queen of the underworld by the end of the week and thanking her for the privilege.

Tim was still watching him, waiting for a reaction.

Elias cut him off before he could keep going. "Giselle and I will go."

Tim froze.

"You and... Giselle?"

Elias gave him a shy little smile.

He said nothing else.

The smile did all the talking.

Tim’s eyes widened by degrees until disbelief swallowed his whole face. It took him a long time to find his voice again.

"I’ll, uh..." Tim swallowed. "I’ll keep it secret."

How thoughtful.

Elias had no interest in unpacking whatever storm had just blown through Tim’s head. If Tim wanted to imagine some tragic, delicate, campus-romance secret between him and Giselle, that was Tim’s problem.

Elias was not going to the gala to rebuild roommate bonds.

He was going with Giselle.

Besides, Serena’s attendance was a surprise bonus. If she was there, there were suddenly many more things he could do.

[System Theta: Is Serena Blackwood attending because of you?]

Elias almost laughed.

"What do you think?"

[System Theta: Definitely!]

"Good job, baby. You’re learning."

Serena was absolutely coming because of him.

For her, an official invitation from Westbridge was perfect. It gave her a reason to appear on campus, see him, and pretend she was only there because the university had asked. No lowering herself. No chasing him. No admitting she missed him after telling him to leave.

Serena Blackwood’s pride was not a personality trait. It was a load-bearing wall.

Among the five women, Liora was the only one whose skin might be thick enough to survive direct pursuit with a smile. Serena, on the other hand, valued face like it was oxygen. Her dignity mattered too much. Her pride mattered too much. Her ability to act as if she was always the one being desired mattered most of all.

So this gala was her step down from the throne, wrapped in enough ceremony that she could pretend she had not moved at all.

Elias’s answer to that was simple.

Sorry. Did not notice. Did not understand. Could not possibly guess.

The only person he planned to make understand anything tonight was Giselle.

After leaving Tim looking oddly dejected, Elias went straight to find her.

Giselle had just come out of class when she saw him waiting not far from the building, standing beneath the wash of afternoon light with his glasses on and his gaze moving through the passing students. When he spotted her, his face brightened at once, and he lifted a hand in a small wave.

Giselle walked toward him.

Even with his glasses on, people looked.

They always did when Giselle was near. She had that effect on a crowd. Her silver hair, her distance, her beauty, her silence, everything about her made people aware of themselves. Beside her, most people dimmed.

Elias did not mind being seen with her.

He had spent enough time at her side lately that the attention no longer made him flinch. At most, he lowered his eyes in a way that looked shy without becoming timid. A neat little balance. Public enough to be noticed, modest enough to be believed.

Giselle’s eyes moved over him once. Then she took off her coat and draped it over his shoulders.

Elias did not refuse.

He only gathered the front of the coat around himself and looked up at her with a faint blush. "Thank you."

"Let’s go," Giselle said.

They walked side by side beneath the trees, the campus path busy around them.

After a few steps, Elias turned his head slightly. "Giselle, did you know?"

"There’s a gala tonight," she said before he could finish.

Elias blinked at her, his dark eyes wide and clean behind his lenses. "How did you know?"

Giselle’s mouth curved faintly. Her voice stayed cool. "What else would you be bringing up right now?"

Elias’s lips pushed out a little. His cheeks warmed, and he looked away as if she had unfairly exposed him.

"You’re so smart," he muttered.

He looked exactly like a boyfriend throwing a tiny, harmless tantrum.

Giselle watched him, and a little warmth entered her eyes.

Lately, Elias had been like this with her more and more often. Awkward, clingy, careful, sweet in a way that felt young and dependent. At first, she had worried he was forcing himself to recover from Serena too quickly. Now she was beginning to accept that this might be how he expressed closeness between Besties.

Elias glanced up at her again. "Then... are you going?"

Giselle asked, "Do you want to go?"

"I asked first." Elias lowered his head again, peeking at her from the corner of his eye. "You have to answer first."

Giselle understood his meaning at once.

He wanted to go. More than that, he wanted to go with her. But he did not know whether she would agree, so he was testing her mood first.

Under normal circumstances, Giselle had no interest in events like this. School galas were crowds dressed up as tradition. Noise dressed up as honor. People pretending the speeches mattered while waiting for the reception tables to open.

Giselle had always been the opposite of noise.

She did not need a crowd to prove she existed.

But Elias wanted to go.

So Giselle said, "I was planning to."

His face lit up so quickly that even the glasses could not hide it.

"Really?" he asked. "Then let’s go together."

Giselle nodded.

Since they were going, she began thinking through the practical side. The auditorium could not possibly hold the whole campus. There might be tickets, reserved seating, department allocations, or some annoying student-life procedure. She would need to check.

They had not gone far when a group of male students passed on the path beside them, talking too loudly to keep anything private.

"Did you hear? The CEO of Blackwood Group might be coming tonight."

"You mean Serena Blackwood?"

"Yeah, her."

"No way. Seriously? I heard she’s insanely beautiful."

Their voices faded as they walked away.

Giselle stopped.

The air around her cooled.

Elias took another step before he noticed she was no longer beside him. He turned back, still holding her coat around his shoulders. "Giselle? What’s wrong?"

Giselle looked at him.

The trace of gentleness in her face had vanished, leaving only a clean, cutting chill.

"So that’s why you wanted to go to the gala?" she asked. "Because of Serena Blackwood?"

For a moment, her anger felt like betrayal.

Serena had done that to him. Serena had hurt him, used him, humiliated him, and pushed him out. After all of that, was he still refusing to wake up?

Elias stared at her blankly.

Then his eyes reddened.

"Giselle," he said, his voice small and shaken. "What are you talking about? What Serena?"

Giselle’s expression stiffened.