"Again?"

I still could not believe the words that had just left Ace's mouth. 

He continued to speak but the rest of the things he was saying did not register in my mind. I could see his mouth move but I couldn't hear anything.

"Can we please not joke about things like this?" I started to shake my head, giving him a disappointed look. 

I was expecting him to start smiling and laughing like how he usually does when he tries to pull a trick on me but he didn't. Instead, he continued to look at me with both pain and concern. 

Before coming here I made a mental pact with myself that I was not going to cry. If only I knew he was going to break up with me, I wouldn't have made that promise. 

I still tried to contain my tear but it gave away after a few seconds. Tears started to stream down my cheeks and I began to sob. I knew I looked like a mess. I cried even harder when Ace wrapped his arms around me. 

I wanted to push him away and scream at him but instead, I stayed still. If this was going to be our last hug, I wanted to enjoy every last second of it. It was only when he pulled away from me that I began to talk again.  

"Tell me you're lying," I begged.

"Tell me that's just another joke," I wiped my tears away with my arm roughly. 

I was not a pretty crier, I knew that for sure. 

"Listen to me," Ace said in a soft voice but I didn't give him any time to explain.

"Is there something wrong with me? Is that why Abigail was here? Is she the new girl you love? Am I not enough? Did I do anything wrong?" I sounded like a kid who was about to throw tantrums. 

This was not like me. I knew how to think logically, I was smart and rational but this guy, this man, turned me into the mess I was right now. He made my brain weak and my heart strong, he made me irrational, uncalm, unwise. 

He taught me how to fall in love. 

I bet if I was sorted to a house right now, I would not fall into Iota at all. 

He fixed my hair and waited for me to calm down again before he started to speak. 

"No," he laughed a little but the pain in his eyes was still apparent. 

"Gail, is my cousin, don't you already know that? She was here because she wanted to tell me about the risk I was taking on if I continued this case."

"She said a  few words and now you're dropping it?" I scoffed.

If he drops the case, it was going to be worst than our break up. He was my only hope in helping Edward get his justice, he knew politics better than me, he had all the right resources and all the right help. We wouldn't have even been able to meet Edward if it was not for him. 

"I am,"  he looked on the ground. 

"Why? Did Mr. Macklet threaten you as well? If you are doing this because you are afraid that I would get hurt you better stop it," I grunted and pulled away from him. 

He was from the House of Beta, he should be the one who was braver. Why was he backing off just because of a threat? 

"It's not just you Vandia, they threatened Joey's life as well. He is barely a kid, I don't want him dead because of me," he sighed and stood up. He looked like he was getting frustrated as well.

"What? Do you think I am not risking my family, my friends, and you? I am, but I would never be able to sleep tightly at night knowing that I had turned a blind eye on someone who needed my help," I hissed and stood up as well. 

We faced one another, standing strongly for our different beliefs. I could see the pain and exhaustion in his expression. It was true that we have always answered one another during banters. We have always fought back then before we got in a relationship so I should be used to the two of us fighting in this manner but I was not. Ever since we got into this relationship, we never had any fights. This was painful for both of us, we have never answered each other this way before. 

"We can hire bodyguards to protect them while we file a case," I reasoned but he was already shaking his head. 

"We don't even have any proof yet," his voice went calmer, he was trying to compose himself. 

"I'm gonna put this case down Vandia and so should you," he said firmly. 

I turned around, I didn't want to face him. He frustrated every cell in my body. 

Why can't he understand my point?

How could he easily turn his back on Edward?

Why was he giving up?

Since when did he become a coward?

I was biting hard on my lower lip until I tasted blood. My old self would have just walked out but I wanted to try again, I wanted to convince him and make my point. 

"So what now? You're just going to leave Edward to rot in that room of his?" I faced him with a huge scowl on my face. 

He gulped hard which made his adam's apple apparent, "Yes."

"Pathetic, are you really from Beta?" I gave him a disgusted look. 

"Aren't you from Iota? Why can't you calculate where you are standing right now?  Make a table on all the pros and cons, maybe you would realize things better," he hissed. His words stung and it made my heart drop. 

"I asked you before what you would do if the two of us gets caught in this relationship and you said you would happily take both our punishments, was that all talk?" I hissed. 

"Vandia, you don't know how far I am willing to go for you but this, having your life involved, this is beyond it. I taught you to use your heart, but you still have to use that head."

If we had not gotten into this relationship, I doubted anything he said would have hurt me but right now he was still the guy I loved, and every single word that came out of his mouth was like daggers. 

"I said this to Mr. Macklet and I am saying this to you as well. I am decided and nothing is going to stop me, I will not drop the fucking case."

I was about to walk out when he pulled on my arm, "If you don't, our relationship will really end right now."

"It already did, Ace. It ended when you became this coward that is standing right in front of me," I snapped and pulled my wrist away from him. 

I left his dorm, making sure I slammed the door shut. There were students from Beta in the hallway when I had left, they all looked at me but I couldn't care less. I made a run to my dorm. 

I tried to take in everything that had happened, starting from Mr. Macklet's threat to my break up with Ace but I couldn't take it all. Both my heart and brain were faulty, they were out of order. The only thing that was working was my eyes, producing millions of tears as I cried at the foot of my bed. 

My heart was burning, at times I felt like I couldn't breathe. The words Ace said just now were repeating non stop in my head and I wondered if my words stung him as well. I never thought a love like ours would end, it had felt so perfect, so surreal. I should have guessed I was just living in temporary happiness. 

I continued to overthink what had happened.

I had not realized I had fallen asleep because when I woke up it was already night time. I stood up and stretched myself a little, I had been curled up in a ball at the foot of my bed when I woke up. I was making my way towards the bathroom to take a shower when I found three notes at the bottom of the door. 

It was from Tony, Anne, and Ace.

Seeing his name triggered the memories of this morning. I suddenly wanted to cry again but I suppressed it.  I took my phone and found 103 notifications, they were from the same people who had left a letter through the door. 

I took a quick shower and calmed myself down before checking the letters and the messages I had received. I lied on my bed in my bathroom robes and looked through the papers. 

Anne asked me if I was alright, Tony asked the same thing. 

Ace, on the other hand, asked me to meet him because he wanted to talk. I found myself rolling my eyes at his request. 

We had nothing to talk about, I didn't want to see his face ever again. 

I looked through his messages and it had the same thing typed on it. 

From Ace: I'm sorry about yelling just now.

From  Ace: Are you calm now?

From Ace: Let's talk. 

From Ace: I'll wait at the Garden, no matter how long it takes. 

There were still a lot more before that but I didn't bother to read it. 

It was still snowing here on Scion Island since it was only the second week in January, the snow here only stops before February arrives.

I could picture Ace sitting at the Garden bench, snow piling on top of him. I could see him freezing, wearing just a long sleeve shirt. I could see him getting paler with every passing moment. 

It was going to be cold out there and I felt guilty making him wait for nothing but I stood my ground. I didn't even bother to reply to his messages. I had no plans on going to the Garden. He should have told me everything he wanted to say when we were talking just now. I said everything I needed him to hear, I had no regrets. 

We were done. 

I called Anne and Tony to my room and told them everything that was going on. I ended up crying again but this time I had two of my closest friends to comfort me. I told them to be more vigilant because I was not planning on letting the case go. They pushed me on and told me they were going to help as well. 

We spent the whole night trying to figure out what we could do about Mr. Macklet and Edward's case. It was close to midnight before Tony and Anne left. I gave them a brown coat, it was the same coat that Ace had lent me back then when we were in London. 

"Give this back to him, he should be at the Garden. Tell him I no longer need it and tell him I have no plans on seeing him, he should go back." 

Anne and Tony sighed before leaving my room. 

Deep inside, I knew I wanted to give it back to him in fear that he was getting cold outside. I wanted to do it myself but I could not bring myself to do so, not after what had happened this morning. 

I was not able to sleep the whole night, I lied awake starring at the ceiling. I watched the sunrise at my terrace, I literally did not have a wink of sleep.

I walked towards my first class feeling a little dizzy when Ace stopped me on my tracks. He had the brown coat on his arm and he looked very listless. His maroon long sleeve was drenched from the snow. He looked like he did not have any sleep as well. 

Was he out there the whole night?

"I don't want to talk to you," I sighed pushing past him but he grabbed onto my wrist and pinned me against the wall. Those students that were in the hallway, stared at the two of us in disbelief. We were lucky there were no teachers.

"What?" I snapped, looking straight into his eyes. For a mere second, I thought he was going to back off but he remained still. 

"We need to talk," he said sternly, his voice almost cracked.

"There is no 'we' and I don't want to talk to you," I tried to break free but he still didn't let go, his grip on me got tighter. 

"It hurts," I stated which made him pull away. He sighed before looking down and I started to walk away. 

I thought he would stop bothering me but he didn't. Right after my class ended he approached me again, he had already changed his clothes but I could still see how tired and sad he looked. 

"Vandia, talk to me please," he stood in front of me. I rolled my eyes and tried to go the other way but he went right in front of me again. My classmates were starting to stare at the two of us. 

"What do you want me to do? Do you want me to kneel? Beg? Vandia, we need to talk this through," he tried to take a hold of my hands but I quickly snatched it away. I gave him a look of distaste and was about to make a turn and leave again when he fell to the floor. 

He kneeled in front of me and everyone stared in disbelief. 

"I will stay here until you finally talk to me," he said firmly. 

"Then you might as well die there," I left. 

I could still feel everyone starring at him. It made me roll my eyes when I heard a few students from Beta saying that he was making a fool out of himself and their house. I only found out a few days later that his friends had forced him up to leave the spot. 

The same pattern repeated for a whole month though he never kneeled again. He would always try to stop me whenever he sees me but I had never let him. He also tried to visit me in my room but I managed to train myself to always keep the doors lock so he never had the chance to enter. He never stopped messaging me to eat and sleep on time and to always take care of myself until one day he finally stopped. 

It was on his birthday, February 27. 

I was expecting his good morning greeting to come but it didn't.

I was expecting him to stop me on my way to my first class that morning but he didn't. 

I was expecting him to at least look at me during the mixed meeting but he still didn't. 

I was so used to him chasing after me that I suddenly felt empty that day. I pounded on the idea of greeting him since it was his birthday, I had even typed it down but I still was not able to send it. 

It made me feel like a jerk, ignoring him for almost two months and then suddenly messaging him on the day that he finally stopped.  

I concluded that he no longer cared about me when a week passed and he still continued to ignore me. He treated me as if I didn't exist, even during meetings he was pretending that I was not there. Days passed, months passed and we still acted like strangers. 

We would walk past each other on the hallways as if nothing had ever happened to us. As if we had never held each other's hand. As if we had never kissed. As if we had never exchanged our I love you's. There would always be a pang of pain whenever this happens but eventually, I learned how to ignore it. 

I had no idea why but Mr. Macklet never talked to me after that day we spoke to each other at his office. He had also not told the school about Ace and me which was a good thing because our house scores were not restarted. 

I had the theory that the only reason why they never restarted the house points for Beta and Iota is that they did not want to have history repeat itself. If they had cleared the house points, the student would start to talk and wonder why. 

They would figure out my relationship with Ace and if they dig deeper they may find out about Edward's case too. On top of that, there would also be those people who may become inspired. They may start to go out with other people from other houses as well. 

Time passed by in a flash because soon, Ace and his batch mates were already graduating. 

Of course, I was not there when he did, I was already back in New York. I had taken an early flight, a day before his graduation. I did not want to see him on stage, it might just break my heart. 

It felt horrible knowing that I was not going to see him at our University the following school year but at the same time it was also a relief. 

My final year at Scion University was very memorable, there were a lot of things that had happened though I never really gotten involved in most of them.

I did not run for President that year because I knew I wanted to focus on my studies more so instead I had run for the secretary, of course, I won. Before graduating, our batch of executive committees was able to trash a lot of rules that we never liked. This made most of the houses become more harmonious, but of course, the rivalry still remained. 

Soon enough, I was already graduating. I graduated together with Anne and Tony. 

We were finally away from this hell hole. 

We knew it was going to be tougher in the real world but we also knew we could handle it better. There was nothing we could do for Edward as long as we were in this school so when we finally got out, he was our first task. 

We can finally set him free. 

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:"))