Kai stepped forward until the distance between them disappeared.

“Let me help you, then.”

Before Lucien could move, Kai’s hand caught the front of his collar and pulled him down. The motion was quick and controlled, just enough to break the careful space Lucien had kept between them.

For a fraction of a second, their faces were close enough for Kai to see the faint glow in Lucien’s red eyes beneath the dim light of the lecture hall.

Then Kai kissed him.

It was brief and deliberate, nothing like affection—just the brush of lips delivered with cold precision, like a hand striking the mask Lucien wore so perfectly.

Kai released him almost immediately.

He stepped back with a soft exhale that turned into a short, amused laugh, clearly entertained by his own experiment.

“See? Simple.”

His gaze stayed fixed on Lucien, watching for the smallest fracture in that flawless composure.

“If you want him, kiss him. Confess.”

Kai tilted his head slightly, the mockery returning to his voice.

“Stop circling him like you’re guarding something you think you own.”

Silence settled between them.

Lucien’s smile disappeared.

For a moment, he didn’t move at all, yet something in the air shifted so abruptly that Kai felt it before he even saw it—like the instant before a storm breaks.

Lucien’s hand tightened.

Then the punch came.

His fist crashed into Kai’s left cheek with a sharp crack that shattered the quiet of the empty lecture hall.

The world lurched sideways. Kai staggered back and lost his balance, the polished floor hitting him hard as he went down. A metallic taste flooded his mouth almost immediately, warm blood slipping from the corner of his lip.

He sat there for a second, breathing out through his nose as the sting spread across his cheek.

Instead of anger, a crooked smile slowly appeared.

“…Worth it.”

Lucien didn’t move.

Kai’s mocking kiss still lingered like an insult hanging in the air between them.

For the first time since Kai had met him, Lucien’s mask cracked.

The smile was gone. Completely gone.

No polite composure. No careful elegance. The Prefect-General had vanished, leaving something far less controlled standing in his place.

His pupils had tightened sharply, the red of his eyes burning with a raw, animal anger that had nothing to do with courtesy.

Then his hand rose.

He scrubbed his mouth hard, the motion quick and rough, as if trying to erase the contact Kai had forced on him. His brows drew together sharply, the gesture almost frantic—like the kiss had left something contaminating behind.

Or worse—as if it had shaken the control he prided himself on.

Disgusting.

The thought flashed through his mind.

No one has ever—

The thought stopped.

Lucien went still again, but this time the stillness was different.

Something in his own reaction had startled him. His gaze flickered for a fraction of a second—not just anger now, but something closer to alarm at the realization that Kai had managed to provoke him… and that he had shown it.

Kai saw it.

A slow smirk sharpened across his lips.

“There it is, the real you.”

He tilted his head slightly, studying Lucien the way one might examine a specimen under glass.

“Not the Prefect-General.”

His smile widened just a little.

“Just Lucien Corvinus.”

Only then did Lucien glare at him, fury burning openly in his eyes.
Still seated on the floor, Kai met that glare without flinching.

A thin line of blood traced the corner of his lip as he lifted his chin slightly, the faint smirk still lingering on his face.

The fading evening light reflected off the tall windows behind Lucien, splitting the lecture hall in two—half in pale gold, half in shadow.

That smile he wears… a perfect mask.

Lucien stared down at him, irritation tightening his jaw.

The tension gathered there, subtle but unmistakable.

People like him never realize when the cracks start to show.

Kai’s gaze drifted upward until it met Lucien’s again, the faint smirk still resting on his lips

And I wonder… what would happen if it finally broke.

Lucien’s anger didn’t fade. If anything, it deepened, tightening the lines of his face.

The crack in his composure was still there.

Their gazes locked across the space between them.

Kai’s grin widened, openly provocative now, while Lucien’s expression darkened with restrained fury.

He didn’t look away.

Good. 

Hate me more.

Credits

Art & Story: Sero

Line Art: Pacchie

Shading: Nill