Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Vincent sobered up but couldn’t fall back asleep, staring at the ceiling until dawn.. His mind was a chaotic mess, filled with thoughts that seemed to overlap and contradict each other. Finally, he dragged himself to the bathroom to wash up.

Looking up, he was startled by his reflection in the mirror. His complexion was pale, his eyes sunken, and dark circles under his eyes were painfully obvious. A layer of unkempt stubble covered his jaw, making him look haggard and disheveled.

Vincent touched his face, unable to recognize himself. When had he become like this? Was it the night he realized Kaylee was gone? Or the moment he began to regret everything? After tidying himself up as best he could, he headed to the lab.

At the entrance, Alina intercepted him with a smile.

“Senior, you haven’t had breakfast yet, right? I brought you some.”

She handed over a breakfast she had just bought from the cafeteria, acting as if yesterday’s confrontation hadn’t happened. Vincent kept his expression cold and refused to take it.

“I have a girlfriend. I’d prefer it if we kept our distance. If I want breakfast, I’ll buy it myself.”

Alina froze, her smile faltering.

As Vincent moved to leave, she called out after him, “Are you upset because of Kaylee!? leaving? Now that she’s gone, shouldn’t we finally be together openly?”

She had done her homework last night. Vincent’s distracted behavior these past few days was because Kaylee had vanished. On the day she returned from Disneyland, Kaylee had completely disappeared, with no one knowing where she had gone.

Hearing Alina’s words, Vincent suddenly turned to her, his gaze sharp.

“It was you, wasn’t it? Did you drive Kaylee away? Did you say something to her?”

Alina flinched, her mind flashing back to their poolside conversation that day. Shrugging, she replied, “I didn’t do anything.”

But she couldn’t resist asking, “So… you like Kaylee more, don’t you?”

Vincent looked at her without a moment’s hesitation.

“From beginning to end, Kaylee is the only one I’ve ever loved.” With that, he entered the lab, leaving Alina standing in place, stunned.

After a moment, a faint smile spread across her face. It was hard to tell if she was laughing at Kaylee, Vincent, or herself. When other students approached the lab, Alina quickly composed herself, hiding her emotions. She stood outside the door for a moment before finally going in.

Throughout the morning’s experiments, Vincent’s mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Kaylee. When it came time to measure data, he was distracted, causing mistakes in every calculation. Thiago and the others checked the measurements on their computers, only to find that all the data was wrong.

Pingo pointed out the errors one by one.

“Yiyan, the average value for this lens is incorrect. This RAW format is wrong. The Aude’s values are entirely off.”

edry yesterday’s phone call, Thiago had a general idea of what was going on. He didn’t press the issue, simply patting Vincent on the shoulder. Why don’t we call it for the morning? By Aurbine, two hours of date collection had been rendered useless.

They decided to met first and recaliberated everything in the afternoon.

Vincent hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Alright.”

He had never made such mistakes–his measurements were always fast and accurate. Now, his emotions had caused delays for the entire team. He looked apologetically at his classmates.

“Sorry for this morning. I’ll focus and do better this afternoon.”

The others, aware of his current state, didn’t say much and simply nodded. At lunch, Alina tried to approach Vincent, but his sharp gaze stopped her in her tracks.

Thiago, who was walking beside Vincent, couldn’t help but ask, “Vincent, I’ve been meaning to ask you something. Between Alina and Kaylee, who do you really like?”

“Honestly, I always thought you’d stay loyal to Kaylee. But then Alina came along, and you changed. I figured you’d break up with Kaylee and get with Alina. But now that Kaylee’s gone, you seem reluctant to let her go.”

Vincent paused, his steps slowing. After a long silence, he finally spoke.

“From beginning to end, the only person I’ve ever loved is Kaylee.”