Content Warning

This chapter contains workplace harassment, psychological harassment, bullying, humiliation, emotional confrontation, and abusive power dynamics. Reader discretion is advised.

The days passed slowly for Noah. He spent hours reading and organizing reports, reviewing figures over and over again, not allowing himself to overlook even the smallest detail.

However, among so many documents, he began to notice inconsistencies: misrecorded data, figures that didn’t match, incomplete references. He couldn’t ignore it. To fully understand it, he needed to compare the information with his colleagues’.

With those same colleagues who despised him.

Even so, Noah asked for help. He approached cautiously, formulating precise, technical questions. The response was almost always the same: cold looks, uncomfortable silences, curt words. Some openly ignored him; others spoke to him harshly, as if his mere presence were an inconvenience, as if they felt repulsed by him.

Noah endured it. It wasn’t the first time. When he finally approached one colleague in particular, she looked him up and down with open disdain.

“I don’t get involved with problematic people,” she said, dismissing him with a gesture. “Stay away.”

Noah frowned. He didn’t understand what she meant, but something in that tone stirred an uncomfortable memory.

An old one.

For an instant, he saw himself in a school hallway, younger, harsher. He heard his own voice saying that he felt disgust toward someone. The image was fleeting, but enough to make him shudder. His pulse quickened. He stepped back, unsure how to insist without making things worse.

From his office, Sebastian watched the scene. He saw Noah make futile efforts to communicate, endure rejection, swallow humiliation. He noticed the almost obsessive dedication with which Noah tried to do his job well. Something about the woman’s reaction irritated him, but he did not intervene. Not yet —he wanted to see how far Noah would go to comply.

Suddenly, the sound of the elevator interrupted his thoughts.

Nicholas Lawson appeared on the floor, relaxed, with the carefree stride that always seemed out of place in the company’s rigid atmosphere. One of the employees greeted him with an exaggerated laugh, inviting him out for beers after work. Nicholas replied with an obscene gesture and a crooked smile.

“I don’t drink anymore,” he said. “I quit that habit.”

The employee, resigned, asked him to check a malfunction on his computer. As they walked, Nicholas noticed the tense interaction between Noah and the woman. He didn’t comment, but his gaze lingered on Noah longer than necessary. There was frustration there. One he recognized all too well.

Noah returned to his cubicle. He continued reviewing what he could on his own, telling himself that he had already made enough progress and could continue over the weekend.

That was when he heard a voice beside him.

“Don’t overdo it.”

Noah looked up. Nicholas was watching him with a calm, almost kind expression.

“If you need help,” he continued. “I can assist with whatever you need.”

Noah looked at him in surprise. It was the first time someone had spoken to him with genuine warmth in that office, and he didn’t hesitate for a second to be respectful and cordial in return.

“T-thank you very much. I’m Noah Harper, by the way. Nice to meet you,” he said at last.

“Nicholas Lawson. IT. I’ve been here a little over a year.”

Noah thanked him for the offer, even though he knew he wouldn’t ask for help. He didn’t want to cause trouble. Not for him.

From his office, Sebastian saw the conversation. And something in his chest tightened.

“NOAH!”

The shout echoed across the floor. Several heads turned.

Noah said goodbye to Nicholas with a brief apology and walked toward his boss’s office, feeling frustration burn beneath his skin.

Sebastian waited for him to enter and closed the door.

Noah remained standing, looking him in the eyes. Sebastian seemed furious. There was something else there, something darker.

“D-do you need something, Mr. Cross?” Noah asked, forcing himself to remain calm. “I’ll finish the reports before the weekend.”

“Shut up!” Sebastian snapped, abruptly changing tone. “I’m sick... sick of your attitude. Of pretending to be an innocent idiot.”

Noah frowned, clenching his fists tightly as he watched him.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you do,” Sebastian replied. “After everything that happened, it’s time you stop acting.”

Confusion showed on Noah’s face.

“Why…?! Why are you talking to me like this? Do we… know each other from somewhere?” he finally asked. “Have we met before? Because… I don’t remember.”

Sebastian glared at him. For a second, his eyes seemed filled with something cruel. Then he smiled, enjoying the confusion.

“Of course we know each other,” he said mockingly. “It’s not easy to forget someone like you.”

Noah swallowed hard. He searched his memory: college, old jobs, blurred faces. Nothing. Until a memory emerged violently.

A shove. A pair of unfamiliar eyes.

Blue…

“Remind me,” Noah asked, straightening slowly. “W-where did we… meet?”

Sebastian let out a bitter laugh and began to step closer.

“In high school,” he said. “You were the only one who thought he understood me. The only one I could be myself with. I thought you were an angel. Someone who wasn’t afraid to love another man.”

His voice hardened.

“Then you became my worst nightmare.”

Noah stepped back, and then the memory returned in full.

A hallway. Laughter. His own voice, cruel, saying he never liked those eyes. Then shoves, insults, and humiliation.

Until that thirteen-year-old boy cried, confused and humiliated.

Noah’s eyes widened.

“Sebastian!… You are… Basti… I used to call you that, didn’t I? W-wait… you were my… high school classmate?” he whispered, his voice breaking.

Sebastian knew, in that instant, that he remembered.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “It’s me. The same one you abandoned. The one whose heart you broke. The one you started to harass.”

And silence fell between them, heavy and irrevocable.