The air was thick with the smell of natural gas.

"Irene Spencer, are you crazy!" Nathan Leafcastle stopped at the staircase, frowning as he looked at Irene Spencer standing before the open kitchen, "If you do this, we’ll all die!"

"I can’t live, so don’t think you can!" Irene Spencer’s face was twisted with emotion, "What I can’t have, you won’t get either!"

Kris Cooper stepped forward, grabbing Vera Wave and shielding her behind him.

"With you all to accompany me in death, it’s worth it!" Irene Spencer said, her voice breaking into laughter.

As she stared at Irene Spencer’s face, Vera Wave’s gaze fell on her crazed eyes, and a face flashed before her eyes.

That face, behind the light, through the windshield, was also smiling like that, twisted and mad.

"It’s you!" She stepped forward, standing beside Kris Cooper, raising her hand to point at Irene Spencer, "That night... the person who tried to hit me, it was you, wasn’t it?!"

"You’re just realizing it now?" Irene Spencer sneered, "That’s right; it was me."

"Why?!" Vera Wave demanded in fury.

"Because I hate you!" Irene Spencer said.

Vera Wave could only shake her head, "I treated you so well, and still you hate me, has your conscience been eaten by dogs?"

"Conscience?" Irene Spencer scoffed, "What good is a conscience, this world doesn’t need one. Once, I believed that if I worked hard, I could change my life. So I studied desperately, when other girls played, I studied, when other girls dated, I studied, when others bought new dresses, new shoes, new hairbands... and what did I do, I bought books, books, and more books. But what was the result?! Everyone laughed at me, laughed at my ugliness, laughed at my poverty, laughed because I’m a bookworm... Even when I went to America, it was the same, no matter how hard I worked, I couldn’t compare to you who was born with such privilege.

You don’t have to do anything, and you have endless clothes to wear, and can buy whatever you like? What about me?! I lived in the cheapest apartment, and had to check my wallet just to buy some fruit..."

"That’s your own incompetence, don’t blame Vera," Kris Cooper snorted, "I’ve met a lot of poor kids who work and earn a living for themselves."

"Nonsense, the world has never been fair!" Irene Spencer shouted, cutting him off angrily, "Your eyes are on her, yet you won’t even look at me! If she wasn’t more beautiful, if her family background wasn’t better than mine, would you treat her that way? I’ve secretly loved you for a year, and it couldn’t even compare to you setting eyes on her once?!"

Kris Cooper, along with Andre Colin and Kenton Maverick, were legendary figures among Ebba students studying abroad.

Among them, Irene Spencer most admired Kris Cooper, because he, like her, studied computer science and achieved such outstanding results.

She saved her living expenses to join the student council, just so she could see him, but he was too exceptional, and she was too proud, she could only watch him from afar, quietly.

In over a year, he had never looked at her, not even once.

Vera Wave attended that birthday party, and so did she, also going for Kris Cooper.

That day, she used her scholarship to buy a dress she liked, took off her glasses and wore contacts, got her hair done, and even had her makeup done. It was the first time she mustered the courage to try and greet him.

But his eyes only focused on the girl descending the stairs, stepping forward to speak to her, shattering her courage into pieces.

^

^

Good afternoon