Chapter Three – Apologies Aren’t Easy

I didn’t cry.

At least, not right away.

I walked until my legs ached, until my shoes soaked through from the wet grass, until the sound of the campus faded into the hum of traffic beyond the gates. I told myself I wasn’t crying, that the sting in my eyes was just leftover rain.

But then I blinked — and the tears came anyway.

Not because of what his friends said, but because of his silence.

Because for one second, I thought Axel Knight saw me. Really saw me.

And then he didn’t.

I ended up at the park near the student housing, the one with the broken fountain and the old bench that always leaned to the left. I sat there, clutching my phone, staring at a text I’d typed and deleted at least ten times.

> You don’t get to do that to people, Axel.

You don’t get to make them feel something real and then pretend it’s a joke.

But I didn’t send it.

I just watched the blinking cursor until the words disappeared.

The sun started to set, soft orange bleeding into pink. The air smelled like wet leaves again — the same scent as that night in the rain. My chest hurt.

“Are you planning to stay out here all night?”

The voice was quiet, hesitant.

I froze.

When I turned, Axel was standing a few feet away, hands shoved into his pockets, hair slightly messed up like he’d been running. For once, he didn’t look cocky. He looked… lost.

“How did you—”

“I asked Riza,” he said simply. “She wasn’t exactly thrilled to tell me.”

I exhaled sharply, shaking my head. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Probably not,” he admitted. “But I’m here anyway.”

He took a cautious step closer. I didn’t move. The sound of the fountain dripped somewhere behind us, slow and steady.

“Liana, about earlier—”

“Don’t.” My voice cracked, betraying me. “Don’t try to fix it with one of your clever lines. I’m not another one of your campus games.”

His jaw tightened. “I never said you were.”

“Then what am I?” I asked, voice rising. “Because to everyone else, I’m the girl from the picture. The one who fell for the bad boy. The one you—”

I stopped before the word used could leave my mouth.

Axel looked like I’d hit him. “That’s not what happened.”

“Then say what happened,” I shot back, standing up. “Say something real for once.”

He dragged a hand through his hair, eyes flicking away. “You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

He was quiet for a long time. The kind of quiet that makes your heartbeat sound too loud.

Finally, he said, “They weren’t wrong, you know. About the trick.”

The words hit like a slap.

I swallowed. “So it was fake.”

He shook his head quickly. “No. Not with you. The rain thing—it started as a bet, okay? I’m not proud of it. I used to mess around, make people laugh, play the part they expected. But that night—” He met my eyes. “That night, something changed. I didn’t expect you to… fight back. Or care. You weren’t supposed to stay in my head after I walked away.”

I didn’t know what to say. My chest hurt again, but in a different way now — like hope and hurt had tangled themselves up.

“Why didn’t you just say that earlier?” I whispered.

He laughed bitterly. “Because I don’t exactly have a great record with being honest. It’s easier to hide behind the sarcasm. People like that version of me better.”

“I don’t,” I said before I could stop myself.

He blinked, caught off guard.

“I don’t like the version of you that everyone else sees,” I said softly. “But for five seconds in the library, when you looked at me like I wasn’t invisible… I liked that one.”

The air between us stilled.

He stepped closer — slow, careful — until he was just an arm’s length away. “You make me forget I’m supposed to be someone else,” he murmured. “That’s dangerous.”

“So is lying.”

We stood there in silence, neither of us sure how to move forward. The world seemed to shrink until it was just the sound of our breathing and the faint hum of the city lights in the distance.

He finally broke the silence. “I don’t know how to do this, Liana. I don’t know how to be the person you think I can be.”

“Then don’t try,” I said quietly. “Just stop pretending.”

He nodded once, eyes glimmering under the fading light. For a second, I thought he’d reach for me. But then his phone buzzed.

He looked down at the screen — and whatever he saw drained the warmth from his face.

“What is it?” I asked.

He hesitated. “Nothing. Just… something I have to handle.”

“Axel—”

But he was already stepping back. “I’ll explain later, I promise.”

He turned and walked away before I could ask anything else.

The park suddenly felt colder.

---

The next morning, whispers started again — louder this time, sharper.

“Did you hear? Axel Knight got into a fight.”

“They said it was bad.”

“Someone from the old team showed up last night—”

“Police were called.”

My heart sank.

By noon, the rumors had reached my classroom. I couldn’t focus on anything. My phone buzzed with messages from Riza, but I didn’t reply. I just packed my bag and ran.

The campus gate was half-crowded with students when I got there. And in the middle of them, standing beside a police car, was Axel.

His lip was split, his knuckles bruised. His hoodie was half-zipped, and there was a look in his eyes I hadn’t seen before — not arrogance, not mischief. Just… pain.

When he saw me, his expression flickered. He looked like he wanted to say something, but the officer beside him motioned him toward the car.

He didn’t resist. He just gave me one last look — tired, soft, full of a hundred unsaid things — before the door shut.

And just like that, he was gone.

I stood there, frozen, the noise of the crowd fading around me. The only thing that stayed was the sound of my heartbeat, loud and terrified.

Because for the first time, I realized that Axel Knight wasn’t just the bad boy everyone warned me about.

He was something much more dangerous.

He was someone I could lose.