𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈-𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎 ▷ 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐬

𝟏 | 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐌

It was a cold winter morning. The snow had fallen the previous night and now it settled into a thin veil over the grounds of Hillerska. The air was fresh and still smelled like rain, a remnant of the autumn days that passed. There was a sporadical speck of green as one's eyes moved from one fir tree in the distance to another, even farther one. The only birds which remained were crows, settling on the naked branches all over campus, shrieking from time to time to signal a person passing by.

Kia loved winter. There was no strong sun and no abundance of colors that endlessly tired her eyes. She could feel every breath she took as cold air stung her lungs and cooled her down. Everything slows down during winter; everything becomes calmer.

She was already dressed in her uniform, sitting on her made up bed with a long forgotten book laying spread open over the white sheets. Her phone remained on the nightstand, untouched since previous night when she texted goodnight to her father. Next to it stood a picture frame, occupied by a picture of her parents from when they were still a family.

She stared through the window above her bed. It was calm, almost too calm. This morning the calm made her uneasy.

As soon as she decided to stand up next to her bed, the headmistress knocked on her door.

She stopped by to tell her that breakfast is about to start.

Kia nodded silently and followed her to the dining room.

♔

Breakfast wasn't anything special. It was like most breakfasts, full of chatter from other girls and a lack of appetite on her part. For the most of it she moved the omlette around on her plate, rearranging it into a number of different shapes to pass time.

Somewhere in the middle of it, she made the mistake of looking up and meeting the gaze of a first year further down the table. The first year blinked a couple of times before quickly looking in the other direction.

Kia understood why most people around Hillerska stared at her. Her family was a public spectacle and despite it nobody knew anything about her, other than the fact that she threatened a third year girl once during her first year. She still thought the girl deserved it.

Thankfully everybody forgot about her when prince Wilhelm showed up. He swept everyone off their feet with a tsunami of audacious behavior and scandals unlike anything the royal family has seen before. She admired him, somewhat, because he always weighed towards being his true self.

As soon as breakfast ended, Kia was headed for the library. She was rushing to occupy her favorite spot in the far corner of the room, tucked in between a wall and a shelf. She usually got there before anyone and then observed as students slowly trickled in and out before their first classes.

Today was different.

"You're occupying my seat," she spoke for the first time since yesterday. She was almost disappointed she had to waste her words on a person like him, but her morning was too calm and she needed to wake up her brain.

His beautiful cold eyes looked up at her and crinkled slightly as he smiled. "I'm sorry, I didn't see your name on it." His shit-eating grin was begging her to punch it off his face. He was so pretty it made her sick.

"Such a lame comeback." She walked over and put her bag on the side of the table next to the shelf.

He closed his book and placed it down on the table, leaning over it to get a better look at her as she sat down. "Kristina, isn't it?"

She felt like smiling but didn't, "Yeah. What's your name? August, was it?" She knew it would piss him off.

"You're trying to be funny?" He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. He was wearing a black turtleneck that clung perfectly to every curve of his biceps and the slope of his neck, leaving his Adam's apple exposed. "You don't remember that one time I had to pull you off a third year girl at that party?"

She remembered. In pieces. To be fair, they were all drunk. Besides, she only threatened that third year. There was nothing physical.

She shrugged, "I remember dealing with a disrespectful person. Not sure there was a need to pull me off of anyone."

A flash of impatience flooded his gaze. "You almost punched her teeth out."

"Then I probably don't remember. Look, I'm not sure what you're trying to do, but I would like to work in peace."

"And I would like you to know that this kind of attitude isn't tolerated towards a fellow student, much less a prefect," he said, scratching his neck absent-mindedly.

She stared at the red marks his fingernails left on his skin after he lowered his hand. His skin was so pale, like porcelain. "I don't care," she cleared her throat, "Even if you were the crown prince himself, and not some knockoff, I still wouldn't care."

His previously cheerful expression faded and he leaned over the table to be closer to her once again, "I would watch your tongue if I were you."

She smiled, "Don't frown, you'll get creases on your forehead," she said and tapped him between his eyebrows with her index and middle finger.

The touch obviously startled him and he quickly grabbed her wrist and pinned her hand to the table. "Don't touch me."

A thousand thoughts cascaded through her head within a millisecond, the sting of his firm grip sparking something within her. An unfiltered sense of blinding rage and a curiosity that made her heart beat faster. At the end she had to keep her composure.

Her smile widened, "What was it about the attitude when speaking to fellow classmates? Besides, is this really the way a student prefect should behave?"

He let go of her wrist and quickly stood up, adjusting the sleeves and the hem of his turtleneck as if nothing happened. "I'll see you around, Kristina."

She stood up to sit in the chair he just left, stepping to where she was mere centimeters away from him. She could smell his cologne and see the faded scratches on his neck from up close. "See you around, August."