The entire floor was empty.

"Why are you fighting me? I just want you to come with me," Kai asked, genuinely confused. But the three people standing behind him—the ones who had been helping him—were exactly what terrified Tera.

Kai wiped the blood from his lips. Tera had somehow managed to land another hit on him.

"You're forcing me. You're scary," Tera answered, slowly backing away.

Once there was enough distance between them, Tera immediately kicked off his shoes and ran as fast as he could.

Running barefoot made him faster, but he was taking a huge risk. He was in such a hurry that his eyes barely focused on where he was going.

He grabbed the railing by the stairs, but his foot slipped. His hand instinctively let go.

Thud!

The sound of the impact echoed through the building.

People heard the crash and rushed toward the noise. Kai immediately backed away with his men, looking for another way downstairs.

---

"SIR! A STUDENT FELL DOWN THE STAIRS!"

Gama heard the shout from inside his classroom.

Since they were still in the middle of class, everyone eventually turned their attention back to the lesson. From the window, Gama could only see a crowd gathering outside.

Several teachers were running around.

The uneasy feeling in his chest kept getting worse.

The Mate mark on his arm was fading.

Then the sound of an ambulance shattered everyone's concentration again.

Gama, sitting near the window, glanced toward it. At first, he looked completely indifferent, absentmindedly twirling his pencil between his fingers.

Until his eyes suddenly widened.

He saw someone being pushed toward the ambulance on a stretcher.

Gama stood up.

"Tera?"

His clothes were filthy, stained with blood from his nose.

Gama immediately ran out of the classroom, ignoring his teacher completely.

His heart was pounding.

But the students in the hallway stopped him.

"Hey! Don't run through the halls unless you want to end up like that new Omega," one of them warned.

"What happened?" Gama asked.

He could hear the ambulance getting farther and farther away.

That sound made him stop.

"He fell down the stairs. The stairs on the third floor. Nobody uses that floor. That kid probably tried to sneak up to the roof. Delinquents usually skip class up there."

"Skip class?" Gama repeated, confused.

'Did Tera run away because he didn't want to go to the special class?' Gama wondered.

"I want to see the CCTV footage."

Gama hurried toward the teachers' office.

There had to be CCTV cameras around the school, right?

But when he got there, he heard exactly what he didn't want to hear.

"The CCTV is down."

Gama rushed to the scene, which had already been cordoned off.

He spotted a pair of shoes lying haphazardly on the floor.

His anxiety grew.

Then panic set in again.

His hands trembled as he picked up the old-fashioned shoes.

Gama pushed past the barrier and ran up the stairs to investigate.

Had Tera really gone to the roof?

What was even up there?

Was it accessible?

When Gama reached the top, he found the door locked with a padlock.

And it wasn't a new one.

The padlock was covered in rust, as if the door hadn't been opened in years.

Then Gama noticed something else.

The door itself was damaged.

It looked more like the door to an abandoned storage room than a rooftop entrance.

Gama quickly took a picture of it with his phone before heading back downstairs.

The police eventually arrived to investigate the incident.

But they weren't called until two days later by the school.

There was something Gama didn't know.

Before the police arrived, the school had already replaced the damaged door.

---

Tera's family was told that he had fallen down the stairs because he'd been running through the hallway.

They believed it.

Ever since Tera had entered the school, he'd been doing one absurd thing after another because of his troublesome personality.

There wasn't much they could say.

All they could do now was wait, terrified and confused about their son's condition.

"We'll take full responsibility."

Dev offered compensation for the school's negligence and its failure to properly handle the students.

He covered Tera's hospital bills, all related expenses, and even the cost of his surgery after doctors discovered that Tera had suffered a brain injury.

"Thank you, sir."

Nobody knew that Dev's generosity wasn't simply compensation from the school.

Tera's older brother could only lean against the hospital wall, looking up as he tried to suppress his anxiety.

His mother sat on a bench with her hands clasped together, praying.

Meanwhile, his father looked completely frustrated, clicking his tongue again and again.

---

[Coma.]

That was the only message Kai could bring himself to send.

He repeatedly exhaled as he drank whisky straight from the bottle.

Kai had returned home and been punished. He was now confined to his room.

His mother scolded him from the other side of the door.

"Your little joke wasn't funny, Kai!"

Kai lowered his head.

He'd only wanted to take Tera with him.

He knew Tera would run away the moment he realized the special class was fake and had been arranged by Kai.

He'd only wanted to take Tera with him.

'What's the worst thing that can happen when someone suffers a hard impact to the head besides a concussion?'

Kai sent the question to his older sister, Lea.

She was a doctor.

[If the head takes the impact first, it can be more than just a concussion. In severe cases, the worst outcomes can include paralysis, blindness, speech or memory problems, depression, amnesia, and even neurodegeneration.]

'Neurodegeneration? Isn't that a little extreme? Are you trying to scare me?'

[Do you even know what that means?]

'Damaged nerve cells that gradually deteriorate. A ticking time bomb.'

Kai stared at the screen miserably.

[Those are only the worst-case possibilities, Kai. It doesn't mean all of them will happen.]

"I'm sorry, Tera."

---

"Sky."

Gama had been restless every day.

He kept checking his phone, but Tera still hadn't sent him a single message.

He couldn't leave the dorm either.

The teacher had promised they would visit Tera once he regained consciousness and his condition was stable enough.

"Do you know how Tera's doing?" Gama asked.

He moved closer and sat down on Sky's bed.

"I don't really know. Yan keeps asking me too, but I can't tell him anything because I haven't gotten any updates."

Sky showed Gama his phone.

Yan had been spamming him with messages.

"Where's Kai, anyway? He hasn't shown up for two days."

"Yeah. What's up with him?"

Gama overheard them.

Only then did he realize that Kai hadn't returned to the dorm either.

Suddenly, Sky's phone rang.

It was Yan.

Yan was waiting outside the dorm.

Sky immediately went out, with Gama following behind him.

Gama froze when he saw Yan crying.

The little fox stood in front of Sky, rubbing both of his eyes.

"Tera's not coming back. He's not coming back here anymore.”

Yan looked like a child who had just lost his favorite candy.

"Sky... huwee."

He stretched out his arms and hugged Sky, seeking comfort.

He needed Sky's calming pheromones.

"Shhh..."

Sky sighed softly and gently stroked Yan's hair.

"He's gone? Who told you that? Why are you talking like that?" Gama asked, confused.

"He's in the hospital. I overheard the teachers talking. They said Tera is still in a coma."

Yan's sobs grew louder.

Gama grabbed the Mate mark on his arm.

Was this why its color was fading?