Two days after the unfortunate incident at the lecture hall, Luna found himself nervously sitting at the study area benches, waiting with Judy for Anna and Rachel to turn up. 

Judy kept on shooting him warning glances and Luna tried to make himself look as innocent as possible while they waited for the girls to arrive.

Five minutes to the meeting time, the two girls appeared around the corner, with Anna practically dragging a clearly unwilling Rachel down the corridor behind her.

“You will not fail another grade! You promised to graduate with me Rach! Just get this over with!” Anna’s voice could be heard ringing through the corridor.

Judy stood up with a worried expression on her face and Luna shrunk against the wall that the table was pushed up against, wishing he could hide. This was not how he wished to spend his afternoon.

Finally after what felt like an eternity, the girls made their way up to the desk and Anna gave both of them a weak smile and said hi.

Judy slapped Luna on the back which made him spring to his feet immediately.

“I I’m sorry Rachel, if I err, if I was creepy in any way, please forgive me, I really didn’t mean to. I did not mean anything sexual by it at all” Luna immediately said and bowed low over the table in remorse.

A small squeak was heard from Rachel and a quick mumble elicited a response from Anna “ Yes, I did mention he was gay. Now you apologise too for assuming things and making a big deal out of nothing” Anna chided Rachel.

Rachel stepped forward and sheepishly reached out a hand to Luna who was still bowing down low.

When Luna saw the white-gloved hand reach out to him, he straightened up and grasped it with both of his hands. Looking up at the owner, Luna suddenly felt his heart grow tight like something was weighing down on him, and he felt so sure that those eyes were familiar to him.

As they looked at each other, Rachel’s eyes welled up with tears.

“Oh my god am I hurting you?” Luna asked, suddenly feeling actual regret and remorse for the first time in this whole exchange. “I’m really sorry” Luna said and released his grip of Rachel’s hand.

“No no I um..” Rachel finally spoke and turned away, rubbing her eyes “ Thank you for apologising, sorry for this misunderstanding” Rachel said, shooting a glance back at Luna, then looking away “ So you really weren’t checking me out? You really don’t…recognise me… I mean something that I am wearing?”

“No... sorry I guess I just got carried away by all the pink and lace” Luna laughed nervously “ Your outfit today is nice, I like the black lace goth look you chose today”

“I dress her” Anna cut in rather proudly “ Rachel is always dressing up so boringly, so the looks are my choice. If you have a problem with them, take it up with me! Rachel is practically my living doll” Anna said proudly, standing akimbo as she declared this statement “I design EVERYTHING she wears cause she is my model~!!!”

“Ohhhh” both Judy and Luna said in unison, a light finally clicking. There was no way a shy timid girl like Rachel would wear stuff this flashy and out of the ordinary.

Rachel at that moment tried to hide behind her shorter friend in embarrassment “Ok yeah I like it but are you sure it’s ok? Clearly Luna doesn’t like it, maybe others don’t too?” Rachel asked nervously.

“Are you seriously going to take the fashion advice from millennial grey sweatpants-wearing business nerds?” Anna snapped, frowning "Or me, you fashion diploma best friend. Think about it, who knows how to dress here?" 

Luna looked aghast while Judy burst out laughing.

“Hey! These sweatpants are comfy!” Luna whined.

“Yeah I’m sure they are after wearing them for two days straight! Ew” Anna replied glaring at Luna in disgust.

“ALRIGHT! Alright, let’s not start more problems” Judy cut in, clapping her hands together “So let’s just say we’ve settled the matter. Everyone happy?” Judy asked, looking around at the three of them, who all nodded in reply “ Great let’s get to work guys, term break is in two weeks and if we don’t want to have to meet up during the holidays we should get as much done as we can now” Judy added and ushered everyone to sit down across their respective partners.

 After three hours of talking to Rachel, Luna found himself leaning back and stretching, feeling rather good about the progress they had made with the business idea.

Judy and Anna had taken a short break to go get some snacks, so it was just him and Rachel at that point working on their project.

“Ok so let me just go over what we have agreed just to make sure we are both on the same page” Luna said as Rachel looked up from the storyboards she had been working on for the project.

Rachel nodded eagerly and put her pencil down, waiting expectantly like a little puppy.

Luna seriously didn’t know why every time Rachel did something that made them look eye to eye, Luna found his heart skip a beat. It was happening so often Luna was even starting to wonder….was he….not gay? Maybe bi….No maybe it was just that those green eyes, reminding him of that guy…

“Yes so, I guess it’s umm an art gallery? Sorry did you want me to summarize it?” Squeaked Rachel as she averted her eyes, brushing a stray hair away from her face nervously.

“Right sorry I… Sorry I was trying to formulate my thoughts. I wasn’t staring at you or anything!” Luna replied flustered, realising he had been caught staring for an uncomfortably long time again “ I promise you I’m gay I swear”

“What was that? You’re hitting on Rachel now?” Anna’s voice suddenly rang out from around the corner, making Luna jump a little.

“I swear I wasn’t!” Luna replied, his face flushing read completely.

“Hahaha don’t worry Anna is just teasing you Luna” Judy said as she appeared behind Anna, carrying a bag of various snacks. It looked like they had taken a long walk to the convenience store on the other side of campus, which explained why they took so long.

Anna leaned over Rachel’s shoulder and shoved a dark chocolate double fudge ice cream in Rachel’s face.

“I got it! I told you they only sold them on Thursdays at that convenience store” Anna explained.

Rachel’s eyes lit up and immediately grabbed the ice cream with both hands.

“Anna you genius!” Rachel said, however this time in a louder and more pronounced and lower tenor voice. In fact Rachel’s voice was so low a tenor, it really came as a shock that a girl would have such a lower voice.

“Umm…sorry I, I have to go and eat this” Rachel suddenly said in her usual quiet voice. She slipped off the bench and disappeared down the corridor, where the sound of a mask being snapped off and the unwrapping of an ice cream could be heard in the distance.

“Umm…does Rachel sing tenor in a choir because her voice…” Judy started.

Anna’s eyes grew wide and she made a *shhh* motion with her finger over her lips.

“That is exactly why she is so self-conscious about her face! She told me that her childhood asthma mixed with chronic bronchitis has her on medications that make her voice really low and raspy. Please just ignore it as it makes her really self-conscious when people bring it up” Anna explained in a hushed whisper.

“Oh I see, so that’s why she prefers to wear the mask because she has a chronic illness” Luna piped in, very curious about Rachel’s odd behaviour but trying his best to come across as low key as possible about it.

“Sort of, I mean it’s not contagious, so she doesn’t have to, but it makes her feel more secure. Also just get used to the fact that she prefers to dine alone in a corner, facing the wall. She does this with everyone, including me, so just don’t worry about it” Anna added as she rummaged through the bag of snacks and grabbed a strawberry and cream ice cream to eat.

Just as Anna took a bite of her ice-cream, footsteps could be heard getting louder and louder from down the hallway, and within seconds Rachel reappeared and sat down at the table.

“Was it good?” Anna asked Rachel.

“So good” Rachel replied quietly, self-consciously adjusting her mask straps.

“Ok so, let’s go back to the summary of the project” Luna said, pulling up the notes that he had written that outlined the project scope.

“Sure” Rachel replied, and sat there waiting expectantly. 

“So the objective of this partnership is to create an art business of some kind. With my business acumen and your talents, the project brief is not only about creating a great business plan, but also securing funding, and launching it. The project will be graded on the success rate of the final business plan and the longevity of the project, are we both on the same page there?” Luna double-checked.

Rachel nodded, her fingers playing with her pen but her eyes looked sharp and focused.

“Alright so let’s move on to what we have agreed on. We will be launching an art exhibition featuring all your work, plus running some pop-up stores that also sell your products. We will be pushing for brand awareness and looking for companies to partner with you to spread your art and designs are far reaching as possible. The end goal is making the name Rachel Lovewin a household name in the art world” Luna explained, feeling good about his direction with the project.

Anna scoffed “ The name Rachel Lovewin already IS a household name in the art world, well, at least Lovewin is” Anna snickered.

Luna turned to Anna surprised “ Really? How so, do you come from a line of famous painters Rachel?”

Rachel’s eyes suddenly grew wide and she started shaking her head and reaching over to Anna to cover her mouth.

“Whaaat~!!!You don’t want to tell everyone that you are THE Rachel Lovewin from the Lovewin Bank and Co. Enterprise that also owns and runs the Lovewin Auction house in the city? Anna laughed as Rachel weakly flailed about, trying to stop Anna from talking.

Judy’s jaw literally dropped, and her pen rolled out of her hand from hearing that.

“You have got to be kidding. I thought… I thought maybe Lovewin was just a more common name than I thought!” Judy gasped “Rachel’s you’re loaded!” Judy said and stood up, and reached over the table to grab both of Rachel’s hands “ Can you be my project partner instead?”

“Hey!! No fair, I was here first!” Anna pouted and stood up too, prying Judy’s fingers off Rachel’s hands.

Rachel sat there looking shell-shocked, her face completely flushed red.

Luna reached over to Rachel and tapped her notebook to get her attention, not wanting to startle her any further with any more physical interaction.

Rachel runed her gaze to Luna, with tears welling up in her eyes.

“Hey it’s ok, I’m from a rich family too so I literally don’t care. As long as we can work on the project and see it to the end, it’ll be ok. I have a plan for the budget and part of the credit score is creating a detailed plan of how to raise the money for the exhibition, and then executing that plan, so I am not going to ask you to put down any money to make this project a success. Trust me ok?” Luna explained reassuringly.

Rachel’s eyes got bigger, and then they turned into those half moons when a person smiles. A few tears rolled down which she wiped away as she nodded in agreement.

“Thank you, I don’t have the best relationship with my Dad so, it will be hard to get money for anything out of the ordinary. Dad wanted me to actually take your course, but when I failed the SATs so badly, he begrudgingly let me do art, because he said as long as I get a degree in something, I will be good enough to marry off when the time comes” Rachel replied, looking down at her hands as she said that.

“What! What kind of an asshole-“ Judy started but held her tongue when Anna shot her a warning look. Judy pursed her lips and crossed her arms. Sure, it wasn’t her place to say anything about what the rich did, but that sounded like some weird form of slavery to her.

“From the way you are dressed, I had no idea you were rich. Which family do you come from?” Anna asked curtly.

Luna looked over at Anna and squinted his eyes. He didn’t particularly like to talk about his family, but since so much had been revealed about Rachel against her will, he supposed revealing his family couldn’t hurt and may even make Rachel feel a little less nervous. Anything to keep the peace so that the project was a success.  

“Well my full name is Luna Lukhorn so…” Luna shrugged, expecting that to go over Anna’s head. The Lukhorns were exporters of fine China and steel and had been landlords of many properties over decades, so they had old money from centuries ago.

Anna raised an eyebrow and reached out and hand across the table to him “ Silverlings” Anna replied.

Now it was Luna’s turn for his jaw to drop. The Silverlings were a well-known silks and tapestry merchant family that expanded to cheese and wines. They had factories and vineyards all over the country and even the world. Many were politicians or highly distinguished doctors and lawyers if they were not still directly involved in the family business.

Luna accepted Anna’s hand with a firm handshake of his own. He never imagined that all those long dinners with the family would amount to anything. The top elite were constantly talked about during family dinners.

“So I guess that makes the only normie here is Judy” Rachel suddenly spoke up and giggled.

Judy’s face turned bright red “ Hey! If you are so rich, why did you make me pay for the snacks? I work at the pub down the road 8 hours a day four days a week, next time buy your own snacks” Judy exclaimed, her lips tugging into a pout.

“Awww, ok I’m sowie, I’ll pay for my snacks k?” Anna said and took out $1.50 from some change she had in her pocket, and passed it to Judy.

“What about the rest?” Judy asked “ I swear half the things in here you asked for”

“If I eat it, I’ll pay for it” Anna replied stingily, going back to her doodling.

Luna, feeling really bad, took out a tenner and tried to pass it to Judy but Judy gave him a look of  ‘Don’t even try’.

“You’re as poor as I am, in fact, I think with my part-time salary I am way richer than you, so keep your phone bill money” Judy grinned and patted Luna on the head “ It’s this cheap sake over here that should be putting down the tenner” Judy added.

“Ahhh alright, alright, but I only have $100 bills” Anna replied and whipped out her wallet to slap a crisp $100 bill on the table. Judy pocketed the bill so fast Luna even wondered if there had ever been a $100 bill on the table for a second.

“That’s more like it” Judy grinned and reached for a packet of crisps “Keep the bills coming and you won’t have to write a single word for this project”

“You know Judy, I think we’ll make great business partners” Anna grinned and grabbed a bag of chips from the snack bag for herself. 

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