Page 77 of His Untoward Hate

“What? Really? I’ve only heard about him before, but seeing him in person is making my hormonal pills go crazy.”

“Just be careful around him, Gianne. I’ve heard he’s a gangster and a fuckboy.”

Those were only a few of the whispers, murmurs, and hushed conversations drifting through the locker area. Sky had thought the attention would die down once he graduated from primary school, but it had only gotten worse, far worse than he had expected. Pretending not to hear them, he continued down the hallway. As he passed, students instinctively stepped aside, clearing a path for him while their eyes remained fixed on him. Some looked at him with admiration, others with curiosity, and a few with a kind of desire that made his skin crawl.

Sky kept his gaze lowered to the floor and quickened his pace. The crowd had practically split in two, leaving him an entire way to himself. Instead of feeling pride, it only made him uncomfortable.

What made it worse was that many of the students staring at him were not even his age. Most of them were seniors and college students, their lingering gazes following him wherever he went. The attention felt suffocating, and all Sky wanted was to get out of their sight as quickly as possible.

“Oh my God, look!”

“Wait…are they about to bump into each other?”

“That guy is so cute. Who is he?”

“That’s Jude Finn. He was the famous valedictorian at Saint Therese.”

“No way. He’s handsome and adorable at the same time. He’s a walking green flag.”

“Exactly. But smart people intimidate me.”

“Jude! Watch out!” someone suddenly shouted.

The whispers spread through the hallway in an instant, growing louder with every passing second. Curious eyes shifted between the two boys, anticipation hanging heavily in the air as the distance between them rapidly closed. Sky lifted his gaze, his brows knitting together at the sudden commotion. That was when he noticed a boy with kinky hair walking straight toward him. The boy had earphones plugged in and was completely absorbed in studying a crumpled sheet of bond paper that appeared to be a school map. Oblivious to the crowd, the whispers, and the path he was taking, he continued forward without looking up. Sky stopped in his tracks, his hands creased, still buried in his pockets, watching the stranger who seemed entirely unaware of the world around him.

Someone from the crowd moved as if to pull the boy away, but they were too late.

A collective gasp swept through the hallway.

The boy walked straight into Sky, his forehead colliding with Sky’s chest. The impact caused him to stumble forward, his face pressing against Sky before he quickly pulled back.

Rubbing his forehead and simultaneously fixing his eyeglasses on the bridge of his nose, the boy finally looked up.

“I’m so sorry,” he said immediately, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

Then he smiled.

It was a small, sheepish smile that softened his features. His eyes curved into crescents, dwindling as he softly grinned, completely unaware of the stunned silence that had fallen over the crowd.

Tug. Dug. Tug. Dug. Tug. Dug.

Everything around him fell eerily silent. The whispers, the chatter, the noise of the crowded hallway. All of it faded away until the only thing Sky could hear was the slow, heavy thud of his own heartbeat.

This is fucking impossible. Sky blinked hard, trying to shake away the strange thoughts creeping into his mind, and forced himself to meet the boy’s gaze.

That was a mistake.

Sky had never seen eyes like that before—vivid gray eyes, soft, innocent, striking, and beautiful. Staring at those eyes conveyed a lot of emotions and stories. Sky was curious about them. Behind those lenses, there was something that made Sky feel as though he were being pulled under, sinking deeper and heavier the longer he looked. His throat tightened, and he swallowed hard before forcing his eyes elsewhere, afraid that staring any longer might drive him insane.

A few strands of the boy’s kinky hair danced in the breeze. His glasses rested neatly on a freckled nose, framing features that seemed almost unreal. Then there were his pink lips and that gentle smile.

Everything blurred.

Time slowed.

Sky could not understand why his eyes refused to look away. He could not explain why the rest of the world had suddenly disappeared, leaving only the boy standing in front of him. All he knew was that, for the first time in his life, he felt completely and utterly lost.

“Oh my gosh, he’s crazy.”