That afternoon, the school corridor hummed with students packing up for dismissal.

Flora was slipping her sketchbook into her bag when a quiet voice spoke behind her.

"Excuse me, is this the administration office?"

She turned. A tall boy stood there, wearing casual clothes instead of a uniform. His posture was calm, polite, almost too composed for the noise around him.

" It's down the next hall," she said. "End of the corridor, left door."

"Thank you."

Liam smiled lightly, then paused as his gaze caught the silver bracelet on her wrist. "That's a nice charm," he said. "You don't see ones shaped like stars now."

Flora glanced at it, a faint happiness rippling through her. "Yeah, I like things related to stars," she admitted softly. "You know… like destinies written in them."

"Ah." He nodded once, expression unreadable. "Then it must have been important."

He gave a brief nod of thanks and walked away, the envelope in his hand marked Enrollment Documents.

《Elite School of District A》

Flora watched him disappear around the corner. She didn't know why, but his calmness, the way he noticed such a small detail, stayed with her long after the halls emptied.

---

By the time Flora got home, dusk had already crept across the sky. The day had been long, and her thoughts still drifted to the boy with the glasses: his calm voice, the unreadable expression that lingered longer than it should have.

She changed into her pajamas, brushing her hair back when something caught her eye. Her wrist was bare.

Her bracelet, the one with the tiny silver star, was gone.

She searched the table, the couch, her bag, under the bed, even behind the mirror. Nothing.

It must have slipped off somewhere, she thought, maybe at school. For a second, she felt oddly hollow but brushed it off. It was just a bracelet.

That night, she sat scrolling through her phone when the screen suddenly lit up.

Unknown Number: Incoming Call.

Her breath hitched. The same number that had sent those strange, silent messages days ago.

For a moment, she hesitated. Then she answered.

"Hello?"

No reply.

Only a faint sound, the kind of quiet that felt alive, like someone was there but refused to speak.

"Who is this?" she whispered.

Still nothing. Only a slow, deliberate silence before the line went dead.

Her chest tightened. She stared at the screen, the glow fading, a chill crawling up her spine.

She turned off the light, but unease followed her into her dreams.

---

The next morning, Sofi was already at the table, holding something small and shiny between her fingers.

"Looking for this?"

Flora froze. "My bracelet… where did you get it?"

Sofi shrugged. "We got a parcel this morning. No name, no return address. I opened it and found this inside. Figured it had to be yours."

Flora stared at it, the silver charm glinting softly in the light.

"An anonymous parcel?" she murmured. "That's… strange."

Sofi laughed. "At least it found its way home."

Flora couldn't laugh. The bracelet clicked shut around her wrist and felt unbearably cold.

Last night's call, the same number, the long silence, they all snapped together like glass under pressure.

It wasn't a lucky return. It was proof. Proof someone had reached into her life and put something back where she could touch it.

Her hands trembled; the charm scraped at her skin.

The thought that someone had been that close made her want to run and hide.

And in that quiet, horrible clarity, she realized:

she was being watched.

--

Somewhere else in the city, a phone screen glowed faintly in the dark.

A calm voice murmured through the silence, almost amused, almost bitter.

"So now another pest appears in your life," the voice said quietly.

The glow dimmed, and the number across the screen blinked once before vanishing.

"Let's see how long this one lasts."