"If one day you have to choose between the world and love, remember: if you choose the world you will be without love, but if you choose love, with it you will conquer the world."

Albert Einstein.

Eduarda sat down on her chair, next to Igor who did not look at her. She felt upset and also regretful for treating him badly because she thought he was the most handsome of all the boys since she saw him at her father's company. Thinking of apologizing, she fixed her gaze on the colleague to see if he noticed, but Igor did not bother to reciprocate. When the class ended, the girl tried to approach him, but he left too fast, not giving her time.

Sad, she went to the library to try to study, but things did not leave her mind, things that made her very confused, especially after the interrogation. She was sure that she had seen the monster and then the blond boy who had saved her, not to mention the kiss she gave him. She did not even see his face, but every time she thought about it she had that strong feeling of love, as if the famous love at first sight happened, in fact, love at first kiss and worse, it was as if she had known him forever. On the other hand, she also did not stop thinking about her co-worker and college mate, wanting very much that he and her savior were the same person. She spent a lot of time like this until she realized that she didn't crack a book. She closed the books and looked at the clock, realizing that was hungry and it was late. She got up and went to the Centro de Vivência to have lunch as soon as possible because, later, she would have Physics I class.

At the exit of the restaurant, she saw many students relaxing on the lawn, some studying, others in small groups or isolated. There were even colleagues playing guitar in a circle of friends, a large plurality of people. Further down, leaning against a tree, she found Igor and one of the stray dogs that always appeared on the Campus.

Smiling at the animal, he threw a piece of wood and the dog ran after it to catch and return. She spent a few seconds watching him with all her attention until she put her foot on the lawn to go to meet him, when she noticed two colleagues approaching, driving away the poor animal with a kick.

She saw that Igor stopped smiling and signaled to the dog to come closer to him, changing his expression. Incredulous and fascinated, she watched the small quadruped obey without hesitation. One of the colleagues tried to kick the dog for the second time, but Igor got up and stood in front of the animal, preventing the act and saying something. By the exalted gestures, Eduarda noticed that the colleagues threatened him, but he remained impassive, answering something that displeased them, since one of them punched him. It was not strong, but it knocked down the boy and aroused a furious and uncontrollable anger in the dog that attacked them on the spot, putting them to run under the laughter of some students who watched.

Thinking it better not to approach to not complicate the situation, she went to her classroom. When she arrived, it was almost full, only having two free places, almost in the back. She looked at all the boys and did not find any blond. Except for Igor, the others were anything but blond. Thinking of him, she concluded that he was not a coward, because, if he were, he would never have defended the dog and that increased even more her feeling of guilt.

Not even two minutes passed and she saw the young man enter, sitting next to her in the last vacant place. She looked at his face, to see if he was hurt, but he did not show a single mark and that left the girl astonished.

For her, Igor was very strange and a great challenge, not to mention the strong physical attraction she felt since the first time she saw him. Eduarda was upset when he did not want to file a complaint, but now she was sorry, even more because she knew she was wrong and felt more and more interested in him.

The class started and the girl had to concentrate because the teacher was very demanding. It was already two and a half when he ended the class and she was so focused on finishing writing down the exercise that did not see the young man leave, getting frustrated when she realized. The girl decided to have a soda at the Centro de Vivência and, while drinking, she looked through the window, finding Igor sitting and leaning against the same tree as before, reading something on the phone and with the dog lying next to him, quiet. He looked so serene and calm that she stood still for a few minutes admiring his features.

With her heart beating stronger, she paid for the water and left, going around the building and down the lawn towards the colleague who was so absorbed that he only noticed her when the girl's feet entered his field of vision. She crouched down in front of Igor, smiled and said, still nervous:

"Forgive me for what I said to you before," Eduarda gave another shy smile and continued. "I think I got angry and didn't think straight."

Igor returned the smile and the girl felt his human warmth in that simple gesture. As he said nothing else, she continued:

"Does that mean I'm forgiven, Igor?"

"You didn't need to apologize," he replied, at last. "I'm not a person to hold a grudge. Sit here, it's cool. The dogs are peaceful, so don't worry, I even play with them."

"Peaceful in terms." Eduarda gave a small laugh as she sat next to him, happy. "I saw one of them attack a jerk who hit you."

"Yeah, but dogs are like that," Igor explained. "They fight to the death for those they love."

"What did he want?" the girl asked. "And why did he hit you?"

"Those five that you showed me in the photos were just some and they didn't like it when they came to get us for questioning. They wanted to know if I was going to testify."

"And what did you say?"

"I said that next time I would leave them invalid." Igor laughed at her face when he saw her look of disbelief. "They didn't believe it and hit me to intimidate me. Then the dog freaked out and attacked with everything."

"Could you defend yourself from them?"

"Yes, without any difficulty, but, at this moment, I'm not going to gain anything from it," he replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"But you shouldn't let them hit you—"

"Look, Eduarda, do you see there on the first floor, that niche at the end of the external corridor?" he asked, pointing away. "The two cups stayed there, hidden and watching me. They always suspected me of the disappearance of my parents, thinking that I had an interest in the family fortune and they already turned my life upside down. So, the less they know about me, the better."

"I'm sorry about your parents," she said. Then, frowning, a gesture that left the young wizard melted and even more in love, she thought. "How strange, but where did I hear that before?"

"It's okay. For me it was a shock to return from Europe and find the house empty. They disappeared as if they had never existed."

She looked into his gray eyes, feeling hypnotized, crazy to stay with him and even date him. Igor got up and asked:

"Are you hungry?" he pointed to the snack bar. "Let's eat something? It's on me."

"Yes, let's go!"

Sitting with their snacks at the farthest table, the two talked little because Igor was very shy and still withdrawn. Unable to bear it anymore, Eduarda was the first to speak:

"You know, at the party," she began, "I found out that they drugged me when they attacked you, but I was still very conscious when I saw the monster. That was very real and I don't know how you didn't see it."

"And what is real or unreal?" Igor asked, a little more comfortable. "Isn't reality just a predetermined state of the natural order of things? For example: is reality the existence of a monster or its non-existence?"

"Come on, Igor," Eduarda laughed, "you've been watching too many Kung-fu movies and those Chinese sayings or philosophies, I don't know."

"No, it's serious." Igor smiled. "Not to mention that philosophy is a very cool thing. I'll show you something interesting, to see. Wait here."

Igor got up and went to the street, coming back with a round pebble, one of those used to decorate gardens. He extended it and took her hand, shivering a little with the light touch. He placed the stone on her palm and continued:

"What you have in your hand is a small pebble, right?" Although she knew, the girl looked at the nugget. "This is part of your reality, our reality, but we can change the perspective of the real and the imaginary."

Smoothly, Igor closed the girl's hand. Now Eduarda looked into his eyes without being able to deviate an inch. Hypnotized by the gray magic of his gaze, she followed every word almost like a trance.

"Don't squeeze your hand to avoid hurting it because I'm going to change our reality," Igor continued, who also did not take his eyes off her.

"How so?" Eduarda asked, not understanding where he wanted to go.

"Open your hand and tell me what you see," he asked.

She opened her hand and saw the stone again. She looked at Igor, shrugging her shoulders:

"I only see the same stone as before."

"However, I see a beautiful butterfly," he said, pointing to the girl's palm that widened her eyes when she found a very beautiful butterfly. "Did you understand?"

"All I understood is that you are a great magician." She laughed, delighted with the butterfly. "How did you do that?"

"But it's a real butterfly," Igor continued, taking the insect with his hands in a cup and closing them with the utmost care. "But it can change perception once again."

Igor opened his hands and offered her a beautiful red rose, making her eyes shine as she opened a huge smile.

"My God, Igor, how beautiful!" she commented, taking the flower and smelling it, delighted. "But I still don't understand where that monster fits into all this."

"I don't know," he laughed. "I was just rambling about what was real or not.

"Keep the rose, it's yours," the young man continued, when Eduarda made a gesture to hand it over.

"It happens that I was carried by him," the girl insisted, "but the drug knocked me out right then. The way I was scared, it was even better."

"However, he saved you from being violated. But you said it was someone and not a monster—"

"Yes, later it was someone, a blond guy. But, who picked me up at the directory, it was the monster," she insisted.

Four boys entered the Centro de Vivência and grabbed snacks, going to a table in the center of the hall. When they saw the couple in a corner, one of them, by chance the young man's aggressor, made a gesture of a neck being cut and pointed to the two, causing laughter in the others.

"I feel like beating them up," Eduarda said, still furious with what happened. "If I could, that's what I would do."

"Why, Eduarda?" Igor laughed, holding her arm to calm her down. "Everything is a matter of perspective of reality, remember?"

She only understood a few seconds later, when the four sat down and the chairs softened, breaking down on the floor as if they were made of rubber. Everyone fell, but the way each one landed on the ground was the funniest: the first hit his face on a slice of whipped cream cake, looking like Santa Claus; the second plummeted backwards and was breathless for a few seconds; the third tried to balance himself and took two steps to the side, falling with the coffee all over his face and screaming in pain; the fourth fell backwards and the bottle of soda landed on his belly, starting to expel the liquid violently straight into his nose, choking him and causing him a desperate cough.

The audience burst into a thunderous laugh, while Igor pulled Eduarda by the arm to leave before the confusion formed.

"How did you do that, dude?" she asked, still laughing a lot, so much that she had tears in her eyes. "If I knew how to do that, I had some perfect candidates, actually several."

"The probability of the four chairs being at the same table and with identical problems is, perhaps, one in ten raised to the twelfth power, but it exists." Changing the subject, he continued. "Tell me what happened after the monster caught you. He must have been scary!"

"At the time it seemed so, but then I think he saved me, you know?"

"Maybe that was his goal all along, have you ever thought about it from that angle?" Igor asked. "After all, I said that a little while ago."

"But I wanted to know who was the guy who took care of me," she said, thoughtful and with a loving look. "He was very blond, I remember that, but you are the only blond in the freshmen! There is you of blond, ten light brown, two redheads and the rest dark brown or black. Tell me," she joked, laughing a lot, but hopeful, "was it you who turned into a scary monster and where quixotic to save me?"

"Do you think I have the face of a hero killer of monsters?" Igor laughed and looked at her, but for a few seconds he was uncomfortable, thinking that he had been discovered. "It would be good to be one of those, but... I don't know, I don't think I have a vocation for a hero."

"What a pity. Now I will need to keep looking for my savior." She laughed making a naughty girl face. "I stole a kiss from him and it was the most delicious thing in the world."

"Really?" Igor asked, shaking a little. "Was it that good?"

"It was," she confirmed, with bright eyes. "It was very special, the best kiss I ever received from someone. That's why I need to find him. Well, I have to go home, are you staying there?"

"No, I'm going too," he replied. "Do you want a ride?"

"Sure," she smiled. "Which way are you going?"

"I'm going to Petrópolis, near Nilo Peçanha avenue, but it's no problem if I need to divert," he said carefully so that she wouldn't know that he already knew the way. "Where do you live?"

"Towards Iguatemi Shopping."

"So it's close. Shall we go?"

In the car, Eduarda watched the colleague, who drove calmly and safely. They both talked about college and the plans they had, trivial things. When Igor stopped in front of her house, the girl gave him a kiss on the cheek and got out of the car, happy. She approached the door and, when opened it, turned around and noticed that Igor was still there, looking at her.

Happy, Eduarda smiled and sent another kiss. As soon as she entered, Igor accelerated and left slowly, ecstatic.

Inside the house, Eduarda leaned against the door, smiling with her eyes closed, thinking about the colleague and sighing. A sudden voice broke all the charm and she jumped in fright.

"Can I know what that silly face is, my daughter?" Fátima, her mother, asked, a woman as beautiful as her daughter, tall and with noble features. Unlike Eduarda, she had blue eyes instead of green, which the girl pulled from her father, besides having much lighter hair.

"Wow, mom, what a scare!" she laughed and gave her a kiss. "It's that there is a handsome guy, but really handsome guy at college who gave me a ride! It's easy to forget my savior."

"Listen, girl, you try to avoid talking about that because your father was very upset. You might not have been that lucky."

"I know, mom," she replied, more serious. "I never imagined that they intended to do that, but it was a minority of troublemakers and four or five have already been arrested."

"And this one?" the mother asked, curious. They both had the habit of sharing things. "What is he like?"

"Very attractive, mom," the daughter replied. "He has very penetrating eyes, an athlete in appearance, loves animals. You know, I liked him since the first time I saw him when he went looking for a job with dad, last month."

"So it must be the new guy that your father calls a genius. According to Levi, your cutie turned three years of research upside down and made the two biggest scientists at 'VE' apprentices, that with a simple equation.

"Really?" Eduarda laughed. "Too bad we are in separate departments. For me, father had a hand in this because he knows that I liked him and he is not in the mood for me to get distracted. If he knew that Igor sits right next to me, at college, he would have a fit."

"That's him, his name is—"

"Yeah, dad said he lost his parents recently and needed the job. Today, the police were talking to us because of the party and he commented. It gave me a sorrow!" The girl sighed deeply. "But there is one thing: contrary to what dad said, he doesn't need the job because his car is worth a fortune!"

"I don't know, honey." Fátima shrugged. "Maybe he just needs an occupation. He may have gone into depression. Losing your parents is not pleasant, especially under these circumstances."

"Maybe, but he is so shy, mom!" Eduarda smiled again. She showed the rose and continued. "He made this rose appear out of nowhere and gave it to me."

"He gave you a rose and he is shy!" It was the mother's turn to laugh. "You know nothing, you fool. I want to see what your father will say."

"Come on, mom." Eduarda got serious. "Leave it like that for now, okay? When it's time and if something happens I'll tell you. I don't want to see him ruining my flirting. Igor is very cute and I need to conquer him."

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