At the night club, Hector makes out with a girl he doesn't know anything about. He stops when her hand tugs at the waist of his pants. He's done for the day and there's an early practice tomorrow.

Hector leaves the unsatisfied girl behind, and lets his friends know he's leaving. Outside, he gets up on his bike and rides to his home, a large mansion at the North East Square where all the rich people of the city live.

The gates part at the sight of the familiar black Ducati. When Hector walks into his home he's greeted with a bow by a couple of his father's henchmen who guard the mansion.

Hector doesn't stop anywhere. Not at his mother's side of the house or his father's. He goes straight to his room, takes a shower and hits the bed.

After a minute, he cusses himself as he realizes he's not tired enough since his eyes want to stay open.

Hector turns his head and sees on the desk the Physics notes that Rachel gave him a day ago. He grabs them and returns to the bed. While lied down he roughly flips through all the pages before going back to the first page and starts reading.

ON SUNDAY, RACHEL inserts the key and opens the front door of her sister Agatha's apartment. She's greeted by empty boxes of takeout food and bundled up dirty clothes loitered all over the surface.

Agatha is a senior set designer at one of the TV series currently being produced at the Hermikk Studios. Agatha has odd and grueling working hours. Rachel drops by at her sister's place whenever she can so she could tidy it up.

Rachel immediately starts collecting the trash. When she reaches the coffee table she winces at the topped up ashtray.

Her sister smokes and so do her acquaintances. Rachel was here once when Agatha was with her friends from work. The apartment was covered in a fog of cigarette smoke. Even though Rachel had never particularly abhorred the smell before, after that day she has come to dislike it. It reminds her of how different her sister is from her. How grown up. How changed. How distant.

It's like they no longer have anything in common anymore. If they didn't need each other for trivial things like a ride or cleaning up, Rachel wonders if they would even still be in touch.

It scares her - the thought of growing apart from her sister.

After she's done, Rachel closes the door and takes away her copy of the key. At the bus stop Rachel looks across the road. The crates are gone. The garbagemen must've taken them away along with her yellow umbrella. The cat probably had relocated the kittens soon after that night, she thinks.

An approaching motorbike stops by the spot where the crates were. Rachel hides herself and glances over to across the road.

She recognizes the bike, and the brown leather jacket its rider is wearing.

Hector gets off the bike, and takes off his helmet. He looks around. Then he walks over to a little farther in from the pavement. Searching.

Rachel wonders if he's looking for the kittens or his jacket.

Hector fingers through his hair. He should've taken those kittens to the rescue center instead of taking them to their mother, he thinks. He regrets his decision. And he hopes the cat didn't let the kittens stray away again, or worse abandon them. He puts on his helmet and returns to his bike and drives away.

Rachel starts biting her nails. What is this feeling? She thinks. At school she's terrified of him. And yet she just saw him return to check on some stray animals he reunited with their mother during the heavy rain on that day.

Who is he really? The guy who snapped at her in the library or the guy who gently carried those kittens in his arms against a rainstorm?

MONDAY, AT SCHOOL, when Hector reaches the library much earlier than usual in the evening he thinks he's the first to arrive until he sees Rachel at their table.

She has her arms crossed. Her eyes are closed. She's asleep. Rachel didn't sleep well last night because of nightmares. She doesn't hear Hector come over, slide out the chair and sit down.

Hector stares at her.

She looks as fragile as a blown out glass statue under sunlight. He wonders if he reaches out and touches her she'll crack down to pieces. Good thing he won't have to see her anymore, he thinks.

Hector and his friends only needed one week of tutoring. Today is the last day. He looks down at the bundle of papers in front of her. They are probably more notes she made for them.

Even though he doesn't want to admit, her notes are indeed good, and the way she explains everything, too. Her soft and calm voice is relaxing to hear. Hector understood everything she said.

She's not terrible as a tutor, Hector thinks. As a girl... He looks at her lips. Smooth and pale pink. He looks at her nose. Small, straight. Nothing special so far. His gaze then turns over to her closed eyes. He remembers them.

She has doe-like, light-brown eyes, almost orange.

Rachel suddenly wakes up and opens her eyes.

Hector quickly looks away, his heart skipping a beat and then beating faster.

He was startled. Not by the suddenness of it. But by the sharpness in her eyes as soon as she opened them. As if they could burn him.

Hector looks at her again. She's looking down and arranging the papers, looking a little startled herself. Now that he thinks about it she often avoids meeting his eyes. She's probably scared of him. Good, he thinks. She should be.

Rachel awkwardly waits for Vince and Tate to arrive. She's not sure why Hector is so early today. She would've understood better if he hadn't even come at all on the last day.

The last day. Rachel feels elevated thinking about it. No more staying back in school after school hours. Or walking on eggshells around three jocks for an hour. Life will be peaceful again.

But it would also mean she will loose her last ever chance to confess. To come clean about what she did to Hector. He is right there, across her on the table. They are alone.

She won't get a chance like this again. But how could she even begin? She can say she didn't know it was him that night. That she had just accidentally picked it up, only to recognize the bike of the jacket's owner the next day at school.

He can't be upset about that. And she won't be lying, entirely, Rachel thinks.

Rachel takes a deep breath to get the first word out. But Hector speaks instead.

"Must be nice," he says, "to avoid PE training unlike the rest of your class."

Rachel decides against saying anything.

Hector says, "Don't you think it's unfair? Even me and my teammates have to keep up with our studies in spite of training hard each day. So how come you get to skip PT?"

Rachel nervously scratches the corner of the file at the top. She doesn't respond, thinking that'll only anger him more. Also, he wasn't entirely wrong.

"You always do this?" Hector says, "Stay silent when things don't go your way?"

He knows she's not trying to offend him but it irks him she doesn't talk much.

Soon enough Vince and Tate arrive together, causing Rachel to feel relieved.

The three boys, as usual, get busy on their phones and Rachel explains the last chapter she has to cover.

After the session ends, Rachel hurries back home without even wishing luck to her students on their upcoming tests. She would've if Hector hadn't said those things to her.

At home, Rachel keeps recalling what he said.

It was never her intention to receive partial treatment from any of the faculty. Neither does she believes she has in this instance.

If there's anyone who has received any free pass then it's the athletes. The school prides in its champion football team.

Nobody cheers for the students or welcomes them in the hallway with applauds when they win in the academic competitions.

Rachel gets up, goes to her closet and opens it. She glares at the tote that's hiding his jacket. Even if it was cursed like in her nightmares she should throw it away, she thinks.

Then she groans, knowing she can't. She's not like Hector. She can't just carelessly say or do things inconsiderate of others. She most definitely can't throw away what belongs to someone else.

That jacket was a kind gesture from Hector to the stray animals. She should properly return it to him, even if he most definitely won't appreciate it.

She closes the doors and goes back to the chair. One day, she thinks. One day she will give it to him.

End of chapter