Different Not Less

Tea is trapped in a loop where she continues to live different lives. Sometimes, she is young and sometimes she is old. Sometimes, she is a man and even worse, a dog. She doesn’t know why she appears in different places all the time or why her life changes when she closes her eyes. All she wants is to sleep and never awaken. -- But she doesn't know, there are conspiracies lurking beneath the calm world she lives in and a world outside that is waiting for her return.

The legendary jewelry I ordered for my little sister had finally arrived at the boutique, so I brought her to pick it up. The moment we stepped into the mall, someone walked straight into me from the opposite direction. A cup of scalding hot coffee in her hand splashed all over my clothes. Seeing that the other person was a woman, I was just about to brush it off and say it was fine. However, the very next second, her crimson-painted fingernail jabbed straight at my forehead, and she spat right into my face. “Are you blind? Can’t you see where you’re going? Do you know how expensive this coffee is? It’s a special blend from the jewelry boutique! Someone like you can’t afford to drink it in your entire life!” She kept going, her words getting harsher by the second. Beside me, my sister’s eyes immediately turned red with fright. Not wanting to argue in front of her, I decided to call the police and let them deal with it. However, before I could do anything, the woman suddenly grabbed my sister by the arm. “So young and already with a kid so big, huh? Did you finish school before becoming someone’s mistress? Since you bumped into me in a mall owned by my family’s company, Jennings Group, I shall educate you on behalf of your parents today! Or you might cause even bigger trouble out there someday!” I froze. Jennings Group? As a daughter of the Jennings family, why haven’t I seen this so-called relative before?

Clara Sterling is twenty-seven, polished, and on the move. After being wrongly blamed for a student’s breakdown at her previous school in Boston, she accepts a mid-semester teaching position at Blackwood, a prestigious private academy known for its reputation and the secrets. She hopes for a fresh start. Instead, she encounters Gabriel Vane. At nineteen, Gabriel is sharp and carries an unexpressed grief. He is the student who resists management and demands attention. After losing a year to his father’s death, he returns to Blackwood feeling incomplete but more unpredictable. When Clara steps into Room 14 on her first day and meets his intellectual challenge, something inside him stirs for the first time in a long while. What starts as a battle of wits over a poetry anthology evolves into a connection neither can put into words or control. Gabriel hacks into her private file, and instead of reporting it, Clara replies to his note. The distinction between teacher and student blurs gradually until one rainy Tuesday afternoon in a locked classroom, it vanishes completely. Yet Blackwood is keeping an eye on them. Someone has reported their interactions to the headmistress. Even worse, someone removed pages from Clara’s file before her arrival, indicating that she didn’t get the job despite her scandal in Boston. She was chosen because of it. As their relationship deepens and threats converge, both Clara and Gabriel must confront the same question: what does it cost to want something you were never meant to have? The Lesson Plan is a dark, slow-burning forbidden romance about desire, grief, and the precarious space between authority and intimacy.

My mother-in-law, Eleanor, was having a heart attack, and my husband, Ben Dover—a heart surgeon—was the only one who could save her. Did I call him? Nope. I just stood there, watching her gasp like a fish out of water. In my last life, I'd begged Ben to come save her. He brushed me off, accusing me of interrupting his time with his mistress, Ima Schit. No matter how much I pleaded, he wouldn't come. Eleanor had died in the hospital. And when Johnny, my father-in-law, demanded answers, Ben flipped the script, saying I'd never even called. He made Eleanor's death my fault. Johnny, blinded by grief and fury, killed me. But plot twist—I woke up. Right back to the day this circus started.

Few days to the term closure, something spread throughout the school like wildfire. The Janitor's body had been found behind the seniors' classroom. That Friday evening when a junior found the Janitor's body, Jason Joe, the only different kid in Baronville highschool, had been around the crime scene before other students arrived. Everyone has a suspect. They know the suspect is watching even though they think it's not Jason Joe. It can never be Jason Joe. Jason Joe would never kill his guardian — the janitor. What if it was somebody else? What if it was some faceless being?

Sebastion Jones is a 28-year-old CEO of the company which he inherited from his father at the age of 21. He studied, worked and arrived where he is now, with perseverance and at the expense of his youth. Theodore Hanson is the youngest son of a wealthy family, who puts money in his account and kicks his ass when he confesses to being gay. Both are lonely. Both are very different, and yet they have so much in common. When they meet, Sebastian feels an enormous desire to help the boy, and Theo only wishes that Sebastian was gay. As circumstances brought them closer, Sebastian felt confusion set in. That kid messed with him more than he wanted to believe. He had been a womanizer, not a gay. What he felt for the kid was nothing more than affection, he thought from the height of his heterosexuality. What will happen when you bring together a loner who lives surrounded by gold diggers and a boy who is desperately looking for someone that loves him?

My son is severely allergic to pollen, and because of his rare blood type, he must receive a specific desensitization injection at a bigger hospital in a different state. To make that happen, I deliberately booked the same flight as my wife just so our son could get help as soon as possible. But she insists on waiting for her late-arriving first love, refusing to let the plane take off. When I confront her, she says, "All passengers are equal. If the plane can wait for you, why can't it wait for him? Cam still needs to celebrate Josie's birthday. It's just ten minutes. Nothing will happen!" However, by the time we arrive at the hospital, the doctor tells us we missed the critical window for treatment. We were just ten minutes too late. Our son has now become a vegetable.

Triana, a 20-year-old alpha of the Silver Pack, was independent, smart, and straightforward. Her strength was not less than that of the male wolves. She was kicked out of the pack due to the betrayal of her mate. The pack members she cared about the most turned against her. Her awful fate compelled her to become a rogue. While roaming through the woods, she ran into Blaze, the most ruthless and powerful alpha of the Blood Pack… who despised women and rogues because his wife cheated on him with a rogue. Despite Blaze's indifference, Triana falls madly in love with this cruel alpha. Can she heal Blaze and restore his trust in women? Or does fate have something even worse in store for her, something that will destroy her?

They grew up as siblings, but fell in love. Meg lived in an orphanage until she was adopted by James' mother. They were inseparable in childhood, but as they grew up James became cold and distant, suddenly marrying Angelina, a woman of the same social class as his. When William, a childhood friend, returns to London and proposes marriage to Meg, James is overcome with the fear of losing her. In the midst of this internal conflict, James must deal with his own feelings and decide whether he will suffocate this love or fight for it, even if it means confronting his own inner demons and facing social conventions and moral taboos.

Claire was caught in between her past and her future. It was her past that made her strong but has been also the very first thing that holds her back for her to pursue her future. Would she succumb in her past or let the flow take her away?