Chapter 218: A Firefly in the Middle of Winter
Chapter 218: A Firefly in the Middle of Winter
Iris had barely wrapped up hours of paperwork, budget approvals, and event planning in the Student Council room. With her shoulders slumped from exhaustion, she set out to fulfill her final task.
In her hands, she carried a thick stack of files that the Magic Theory department needed to approve. Her steps led her toward the office at the end of the corridor that usually smelled of coffee, to Professor Pharsa’s door.
After knocking gently twice, Iris slipped inside with her usual positive, cheerful energy.
"Good evening, Professor Pharsa! I’m from the Council, you just needed to sign these papers..." she greeted cheerfully.
However, the atmosphere inside the office was the complete opposite of Iris’s cheerful energy. It was dark inside. Only a small magic lamp was lit on the desk, and Pharsa was slumped over her desk, her face buried in her hands, looking utterly defeated.
Seeing the professor in this miserable state, Iris slowed her steps. The smile on her face gave way to a worried expression. Setting the files gently on the edge of the desk, she asked hesitantly.
"Professor? Are you alright? You don’t look so good. Is there a problem?"
Pharsa slowly pulled her hands away from her face. The dark circles under her eyes were more prominent than ever, and her face had an intense redness, as if she had just scrubbed it with soapy water hard enough to peel her skin off. Her eyes were bloodshot, gleaming with anger.
"Am I alright?" Pharsa hissed, her voice trembling. "I just experienced the greatest humiliation, the greatest disaster of my life, Iris! That... That damn kid!"
Iris frowned, curiously pulling up a chair and sitting down. "Which kid? What happened, tell me."
Pharsa took a deep, shaky breath. Gritting her teeth, she started to speak. "You know that student I told you about the other day in the registration room? That little arrogant brat with pure white hair and red eyes! The soulless kid who saw the doodles on my face and didn’t say a single word to me, letting me wander around like that!"
Iris’s heart involuntarily skipped a beat the moment she heard the description *’white hair, red eyes’*. Cassian’s silhouette flashed in her mind like lightning. But immediately after, she shook her head to herself. It couldn’t be him. Thousands of students were coming to the academy. She didn’t want to get her hopes up unnecessarily.
"Y-yes, I remember," Iris said, trying to keep her voice level. "What happened with him?"
"He managed to get into the academy!" Pharsa yelled, slamming her hands on the desk. "And into one of the most elite classes, no less! And guess what? I taught his first class today! I’m teaching him!"
Iris tensed a little, clasping her hands tightly in her lap. But she still resisted clinging to that slim hope. "So... did the class go badly?"
"No!" Pharsa said, running her hands through her wavy green hair like someone having a nervous breakdown. "When the class ended, I wanted to get revenge, mess with him a bit. I called him over and made him carry my heavy bag. Honestly... after chatting a bit on the way, I even thought he was a good kid! Even though he has a bit of a weird, soulless vibe, he wasn’t disrespectful. When we got to the Teachers’ Lounge, I even gave him a fruity candy out of the goodness of my heart!"
Iris was completely confused. "And? What’s the problem then, Professor? Sounds like you resolved that little misunderstanding between you."
Pharsa’s eyes widened as if they would pop out of her skull. She pointed at her reddened cheeks with her hands.
"What’s the problem?! The problem is... the person who drew that funny, disgusting mustache and goatee on my face when I fell asleep in the registration room... was that bastard himself!"
Iris’s eyes widened in shock. "What?! Really?"
"Yes! And do you want to hear the worst part?!" Pharsa’s voice had turned into a wail. "While chatting with me on the way, behind that innocent expression... He drew those doodles on my face again! He must have used a magic, invisible ink or a spell! After I gave him a candy and smiled, I turned around and walked into a room where dozens of professors were having a meeting, looking like that!"
Pharsa wrapped her arms around herself and started trembling. There was pure trauma in her eyes.
"The moment I walked in... They turned and looked at me. That silence... And then that massive wave of laughter that erupted! The history professor fell out of his chair laughing! The head mage laughed until tears came to his eyes! God... I can still hear that laughter!" Pharsa murmured with a shudder. "Because of him, I was humiliated in front of the entire academy and my colleagues!"
Iris couldn’t contain herself in the face of the professor’s pitiful yet equally comical state. Although she had a sympathetic expression on her face, a high-pitched giggle escaped her lips.
"Pfft... Haha... I understand, Professor, that must be truly awful," Iris said, trying to suppress her laughter. "Um... But how did you manage to fall into the same trap? You said you chatted on the way. Did you fall asleep while walking down the corridor despite being a professor or something?"
Pharsa suddenly grew serious at Iris’s question. Squaring her shoulders, she cleared her throat with fake pride. "What do you take me for, Iris?! Even though I might not look it, I am an extremely careful and exemplary professor! I never sleep on my feet!" Pharsa slumped her shoulders again. "Well... At least I was, until that little bastard completely ruined my career and reputation."
But right after, Pharsa’s defeated demeanor vanished. A dark, demonic, and vengeful glint appeared in her eyes. Interlocking her fingers on the desk, she smirked like a villain.
"But! I have a trump card too!" Pharsa said, her voice turning into a dangerous whisper. "I know his name and which class he’s in now! I won’t fall for that theater act with the candy! I’ll never let him get away with this. For the whole year, I’m going to turn Class 1B, his entire academy life, into a nightmare for him!"
Iris’s heart started beating faster when she heard the detail *"Class 1B"*. The possibilities and suspicions in her mind were snowballing now. Hesitantly, trying to keep her voice from trembling, she asked with a bit of hope and pure curiosity.
"His name... What’s his name?"
Pharsa leaned back with the air of a victorious commander and spat out the name with immense hatred.
"Cassian! I mean... that’s how I remember it. Cassian."
The world stopped for Iris in that exact second.
The dim light of the lamp in the office, the tick-tock of the clocks on the wall, Pharsa’s breathing... Everything was erased in an instant. Only that name echoed in her mind.
*’Cassian.’*
Iris’s body stiffened completely. Her pupils began to tremble violently.
"Cassian...?" she whispered, unable to even recognize her own voice. It was as if she were dreaming.
"Yes!" Pharsa said, misunderstanding Iris’s shocked state. "What is it?! Don’t tell me you know him, that you’re friends with him or something! Even if he’s your friend, I won’t show him mercy, I’ll punish him in the harshest way possible!"
But Iris wasn’t hearing a single word the professor was saying. The heavy, ice cage over her heart had suddenly shattered. Her eyes welled up. The warm tears gathering in the corners of her eyes began to stream down her cheeks silently, unstoppably.
Seeing the tears streaming down the girl’s cheeks, Pharsa instantly snapped out of her vengeful mood and shot up in a panic.
"Iris!" she shouted in panic. "Hey, are you serious?! Why are you crying?! For God’s sake, I’m just joking! Hey! Calm down, okay, I won’t punish him, I was just going to play some little pranks on him! Please don’t cry!"
Just as Pharsa hurried around the desk and reached out her hands to calm the girl down and hug her...
Iris quickly wiped her tears with the back of her hand. She raised her head and looked at Pharsa. She smiled in such a way that... Pharsa froze in place. This smile was so bright, so indescribable; it was impossible to tell if it held a sorrow as big as worlds or the greatest happiness in the universe. It was a perfect, dazzling mix of longing, pain, and pure joy.
"Thank you, Professor!" Iris said, her voice tearful yet equally exuberant.
Without any explanation, leaving Pharsa’s extended hands hanging in the air, she jumped out of her chair. She spun around like the wind and quickly bolted out the office door.
Listening to the girl’s rapidly fading footsteps through the open door, Pharsa just stood there with her hand in the air, completely bewildered. "Teenagers... are really so weird," was all she could mutter.
---
Iris was literally flying as she ran through the academy’s wide, high-ceilinged stone corridors.
Her heart was beating wildly, as if it would tear through her ribcage. She was out of breath, her lungs were burning, but the thought of slowing down didn’t even cross her mind. There was only one thought, one face, one name spinning in her mind: *Cassian.*
She had to see him as soon as possible.
*’If it’s really him...’*
Iris didn’t know what to feel. Anger, joy, resentment?
Her mind was a complete mess. But amidst all this chaos, there was only one thing she was sure of: she wanted to see him, touch him, and confirm with her own eyes that he was real.
She didn’t know which room or which building he was staying in. She had heard he was in Class 1B, but classes had ended a long time ago.
If necessary, she would knock on the doors of the hundreds of rooms in the massive first-year dormitory one by one; if necessary, she would wake up the whole academy, but she was going to find him.
She wasn’t even completely sure the person she would see was Cassian. There could be others with the same name in the world. But this many coincidences... It couldn’t be real.
Pure white hair, soulless red eyes, weird personality...
And above all else... Snow.
Iris paused the moment she burst out the main building’s massive doors into the courtyard. Those freezing snowflakes falling heavily from the sky hit her face. This snow that fell suddenly in the hottest, driest time of the year, defying all laws of physics...
Just like that day she first met him. Like that winter day. The weather was freezing and snowy back then too. Iris knew it now with all her heart, with all her soul. This snow wasn’t a natural phenomenon. This snow was his signature.
"Cassian!"
Iris quickly turned onto the long, tree-lined path over the snow heading toward the dormitories. The deepening snow slowed her steps, the cold wind made her eyes water, but she didn’t care. With every step, at the familiar *crunch crunch* sound of the snow, her heart felt like it would stop, her breath catching in her throat.
As she ran, her mind was so preoccupied, her eyes so careless as she scanned her surroundings that...
She tripped over an invisible patch of ice, or a hard rock hidden under the snow.
Her feet were suddenly swept out from under her.
"Hiiih!" she let out a weird, small, and comical sound, faceplanting straight into the thick, fresh blanket of snow without even being able to reach her arms out.
The fall wasn’t that hard; the snow had enveloped her softly like cotton. Iris just stayed there, her face completely buried in the snow. She didn’t get up right away. She couldn’t.
She stayed in the snow for a few seconds, trying to calm her frantically beating heart and her panicked state.
Even though the freezing cold snow touching her cheeks and nose burned her skin, it felt strangely, inexplicably pleasant and familiar. As if it were whispering the aura of the person she was looking for to her.
Just as she was lying silently in the snow...
*Crunch... Crunch...*
Very close by, the sound of heavy, measured footsteps crushing the snow was heard. The steps slowly approached her and stopped right next to her.
Iris’s breath hitched. Her body stiffened. Even the howl of the wind fell silent for a moment.
And then... That voice was heard.
A foreign, yet equally familiar voice.
"Hi... Little firefly."
As a new wave of tears slipped from Iris’s eyes and melted the snow, her hands pressed against the ground shakily. Her body was trembling like a leaf. She slowly lifted her head out of the snow, her gaze trembling as it traveled up from those black boots, to those black pants, the black jacket, and finally... upward.
And she saw him.
Blood-red eyes shining in the pale evening light. Long, pure white hair blowing in the wind, mixed with snowflakes. And that face.
Cassian had dropped to one knee in the snow. There was no sign of emotion on his face, no smile. He was exactly the same as before. He was waiting, his hand slowly extended toward this small, messy-haired girl in the snow, offering to help her up.