Winter passed without any dramatic incidents, and the village slowly drifted back to its quiet, mundane routine. The snow outside was melting, but inside Leo, something remained frozen solid.

​Spring arrived in the village, bringing a mountain of hard labor along with it. As the ice thawed and the earth opened up, everything began to demand immediate attention—hands, time, and raw physical strength.

​Leo tried to play his usual cards. He used the same words, the same pathetic glances, and his signature "I just don't know how to do this" routine. But this time, his act fell flat. The villagers would simply stop, listen, nod politely, and move right back to their chores—not out of malice or contempt, but simply because they had absolutely no time to spare.

​"Leo, dear," the villagers would say, "this is pretty much the same work we did back in autumn. You’ve seen how it’s done once, so you'll definitely figure it out. Go ahead and start on your own. If you run into any serious trouble, come find us, and of course we'll help."

​Frustrated and deeply annoyed, Leo would snap back at them, his tone dripping with resentment, sometimes even throwing out sharp, insulting remarks.

​Something toxic was building up inside Leo—a volatile mix of rage, humiliation, and deep-seated malice. He could no longer force himself to keep up his "good boy" facade for an entire day. It was as if the lingering sting of winter had never truly left him, and those dark, isolated days had awakened the absolute worst parts of his soul. Pacing back and forth inside his empty house, he couldn’t even comprehend what was happening to him. He didn’t know what he wanted or from whom; he had no idea how to get it or what his next move should be. He felt entirely undone, yet he desperately tried to pull his thoughts together, locking away his chaotic emotions so he could find a calculated solution to his predicament. There was too much work to do, he had no money left, and he absolutely refused to subject himself to that kind of grueling physical labor.

​Right at the absolute breaking point of this internal war, the front door swung open.

​Kai walked in without any warning. He stepped inside silently, his body radiating exhaustion, with deep, dark circles bruising the skin under his eyes.

​"Can I stay here for a bit?" Kai asked quietly.

​Ever since the night Kai had slept over at Leo's house, an unspoken, powerful bond had forged between them. Kai had finally found someone who would just listen to him—someone who stood firmly by his side, no matter if he was right or wrong. Leo had become his ultimate sanctuary whenever his emotions threatened to suffocate him. In those overwhelming moments, Kai would always run to Leo's place to vent or simply sit in comfortable silence. Afterward, they would distract themselves by playing games, fooling around, and talking about everything and nothing until they finally laughed the tension away, completely recharged and ready to face another day.

​Leo, however, never shared his own problems with Kai. He only complained about his hardships in front of the other villagers, driven by a deliberate motive: to exploit their conscience and weaponize their kindness. But for some strange reason, when he was around Kai, he could neither be genuinely honest nor entirely fake. Because of that emotional deadlock, Leo had simply defaulted into the role of the quiet listener. But today, too much venom had accumulated inside Leo, and staying silent was proving to be a brutal task.

​Kai sat down, staring blankly for a moment before he began to speak. There were fresh crises at home, and once again, his family had dumped the entire burden squarely on his shoulders. He kept rambling on, his voice eventually cracking with raw emotion as he mentioned that his mother had fallen ill, leaving him paralyzed with anxiety.

​At first, Leo remained dead silent.

Then, his expression turned freezing cold.

Then, he snapped.

​"You know what’s hilarious?" Leo said, his voice dangerously low. "Whenever you feel like it, you just show up, dump your baggage on me, and leave with a lighter chest."

​Kai blinked, taken aback. "What does that have to do with anything?"

​"And then you just walk away, Kai!" Leo raised his voice, the anger finally boiling over. "Meanwhile, I'm stuck here. You only ever remember my existence when you need something. You only care when I'm here to fix your problems!"

​"That's not true!"

​"Maybe not to you!"

​Kai shouted back, matching his anger, and Leo completely unleashed his suppressed fury.

​"You don't have a damn clue what it feels like to be completely abandoned, to have absolutely no one!" Leo screamed.

​"And do you have any idea what it’s like to be responsible for everything?!" Kai countered fiercely.

​One step forward.

One violent shove.

And then, the first punch landed.

​The fight erupted into a brutal, chaotic blur as they traded vicious blows and even more agonizing words. Kai eventually pinned Leo to the ground—physically, he was much stronger—but Leo retaliated by using his razor-sharp words to cut Kai to the core. Hands, shoulders, and knees clashed in a desperate scramble. There was no technique to their strikes, no calculated direction; it was just pure, unfiltered wrath pouring out of them. Leo tried to scramble back up, but Kai's heavy, relentless strikes pinned him back down. Kai yanked him back violently, and they rolled side by side, slamming hard against the floor.

​Suddenly, Leo lost his bearings. His entire body froze rigid as a wave of intense heat radiated against the side of his face. He slowly turned his head.

​The wood stove.

​His skull was barely a finger’s width away from the scalding iron. Kai saw it too. His fist was locked in mid-air, cocked back and ready for the next strike, but he froze. He stared down at Leo’s face, which was already heavily bruised and battered from his punches. The absolute gravity of the situation hit him, along with the horrifying realization of what he had almost done.

​Slowly, their grips loosened, and they let go of each other.

There was no victor.

There was no justification.

There was only a suffocating silence, and a line that had been crossed that could never be erased.

​Kai struggled to his feet, keeping his back turned to Leo. He was the first to speak, his voice strained. "It's better if we..." He choked on his words, walked straight to the door, and finished, "...if we don't talk to each other anymore."

​Without waiting for a reply, he walked out into the night.

​Leo lay paralyzed on the floor, his mind reeling from the aftermath. The side of his face was flushed crimson from the intense heat of the stove, and his entire body throbbed with agony from the fight. He rolled over, away from the heat, without changing his posture, and silent tears began to pool in his eyes, spilling over his cheeks. No matter how severely Leo had been punished or lectured back on his home planet for being a wicked, unmanageable child, he had never once cried. His eyes had always remained fiercely dry, his head held defiantly high. But now, the tears flowed silently, entirely out of his control.

​For the next few days, Leo remained completely locked inside his house. The village grew anxious, but no one dared to intrude on his privacy; they were too preoccupied with their own spring chores, reasoning that his parents would eventually step in to deal with their son. As for their friend group, Kai had only stated that he was cutting ties with Leo permanently, stubbornly refusing to give a reason. The rest of the teenagers decided to remain completely neutral, treating Leo as nothing more than a casual classmate.

​But behind everyone's backs, Lina kept reaching out to Leo. She was deeply worried about him, especially after catching sight of the horrific bruises covering his skin. Knowing that Leo was utterly hopeless when it came to making food, she began cooking meals with her own hands and bringing them over to his cottage, alongside a supply of medical ointments for his wounds.

​As the days bled into one another, the villagers' curiosity regarding Leo reached a fever pitch.

"Poor boy, I wonder what on earth happened to make him skip school entirely," some gossiped.

"Maybe he fell seriously ill. Someone should really go check on him."

"Nah, looks like he just had a massive falling out with his friends. Ah, youth... he’ll lock himself away for a bit and then snap out of it. It’s nothing."

"But what if it's something genuinely serious?"

"The parents are the ones to blame here. Not a single visit to check up on their own flesh and blood!"

​While the entire village gossiped and tried to decode the mystery, Leo remained cooped up inside, meticulously calculating his next moves. Throughout it all, Lina was the only human soul he interacted with. He found the entire situation bizarre. Lina had never struck him as some kind of innocent angel, and because her actions completely baffled him, he began analyzing her behavior with cold precision.

​“She doesn't visit every single day, but we talk daily,” Leo noted internally. “She never asks a single question about Kai. She always brings something she cooked herself, and her gaze...”

“Is her gaze different now, or has it always been like that and I just failed to notice? What exactly is going on in that head of hers? Did Kai send her to spy on me? No... highly unlikely.”

​He dug deeper into his memories, obsessing over every single detail of their past interactions. Then, it clicked. He remembered the time Lina had randomly gifted him a scarf, casually claiming it "just looked a lot better on him." Remembering that piece of the puzzle, the truth hit Leo instantly: Lina was completely in love with him.

​At that realization, a dark, wicked smile stretched across his face.

​The following morning, Leo went back to school with a crystal-clear, calculated agenda. Walking into the classroom, he silently navigated to his seat—but he didn't sit anywhere near Kai. Instead, he took a spot right next to the school delinquents. He didn't sit directly beside any of them, choosing to remain isolated, but he purposefully embedded himself right within their territory.

​During recess, Lina approached his desk, handing him a stack of notebooks containing the material he had missed. "Here," she said quietly. "It wouldn't be good if you fell behind in your classes."

​"Thank you," Leo replied, a soft, incredibly gentle smile playing on his lips.

​Lina turned to leave, but Leo spoke up, stopping her in her tracks. "You're the only one in this entire classroom who actually thinks about anyone else. The only one who truly cares."

​Lina's face instantly flushed bright crimson at his words. Unable to handle the intense praise, she turned and hurried away without uttering a single word.