Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Graduate entrance exams had me wound so tight that I kept sneaking kisses from the gorgeous upperclassman everyone thought was mute.
The rush of hormones took the edge off my anxiety.
And since he couldn’t talk, I figured he couldn’t tell anyone I’d kissed him.
Then it happened again.
I’d bombed a practice exam, cornered him in the secluded campus garden behind the library, and kissed him until my head spun.
His hand trembled at my waist.
Then, in a low, clear voice, he said, “Kieran, don’t stop.”
We both froze.
Because the guy I thought couldn’t speak had just spoken.
And Kieran wasn’t my name.
I let go of him, the damp warmth still lingering on my lips.
For a second, I had no idea what to do.
For nearly three years, from freshman year through junior year, I had never heard Adrian Sinclair say a single word.
Everyone in the graduate exam study group knew him as the handsome mute.
That was why, when I’d done badly on my first practice exam, I’d dared to pin him down and kiss him.
Now my palms were slick with sweat.
“You… you can talk? Why were you pretending to be mute?”
Adrian wiped a finger across his lips. “If I talked, I was afraid it would ruin the mood for you.
“Bullying someone who can’t expose you is much more fun than bullying someone who can.”
He knew me a little too well.
I cleared my throat, suddenly mortified. With my head down, I kicked a pebble across the path.
“Don’t tell anyone about this.
“Or I’ll tell everyone you’re secretly in love with someone!”
The moment I finished threatening Adrian, I turned and ran.
I had no idea whether he would actually be intimidated by me.
This was awful.
Who would have guessed?
A guy with a face like his had spent three years being treated as some kind of special case by the entire university just because he pretended he couldn’t speak.
And he wasn’t mute at all.
Three whole years.
He’d managed not to say a single word.
How calculating did someone have to be to pull that off?
I trudged away, miserable. In my head, I cursed him out while also mourning the loss.
There went my favorite way of blowing off stress.
There was only one guy on campus with that clean, delicate look, pink nails and pale lids like he’d been drawn with a softer hand.
I probably couldn’t bring myself to kiss anyone else.
Hmph.
Why did he have to be in love with someone else?
I could make a pretty good guess who it was.
Kieran. Kieran Vale.
Ever since joining our graduate exam study group in sophomore year, he’d stolen the title of group favorite in one clean sweep.
Chapter 2
He was neat and fair-skinned, with dimples whenever he smiled. Compared to the rest of us burned-out grad-school applicants in thick glasses and permanent bad moods, it was no surprise everyone adored him.
Back in the study room, I opened my practice exam and began working through the missed problems again, one by one.
Footsteps stopped beside my desk.
I looked up. Adrian Sinclair was staring at my paper, one long finger resting on a problem I’d gotten wrong.
“Your series expansion is wrong. The remainder isn’t o(x^n); it should be o(x^(n+1)). If you’re expanding Taylor’s formula through the nth term, the Peano remainder has to move up one order.”
The rustle of turning pages died instantly.
Someone gasped. “Wait. Was that Adrian Sinclair talking?”
“He’s not mute?”
Every eye in the room swung toward him.
Adrian’s expression didn’t change. He withdrew his hand without a word and returned to his seat.
“No, seriously. I didn’t imagine that, did I?”
Someone turned to me. “Morgan, did Adrian just talk to you?”
“Yeah. And was he explaining a problem to you?”
Cold sweat prickled along my forehead.
For a moment, I had no idea how to explain it.
I’d never had any interaction with Adrian in this study room. Not once.
The silent guy had suddenly spoken.
And he’d spoken to me, of all people, someone he barely knew.
There was no explanation anyone would believe.
Just as I was floundering, Kieran Vale turned around and smiled at the group.
“Yeah, Adrian can talk. He just thinks his voice sounds unpleasant, so he usually chooses not to.”
The clean-cut boy only had to smile for people to crowd around him.
“Kieran, how do you know that?”
“Seriously. Has Adrian talked to you privately? We’ve been in the same group for three years, and none of us has heard him say a single word.”
Kieran smiled again.
His soft hair fell neatly over the edge of his practice exam.
“Our residence halls are close together.”
Someone immediately chimed in, “That explains it. I see you two having meals together all the time.”
Kieran pressed his lips together, lashes lowering. “Shh. Get back to your work.”
Oh.
So that was it.
I looked away.
Something sour and tight swelled in my chest, and then I felt ridiculous for it.
Adrian had always had a crush on Kieran. Of course they were close. There was nothing strange about that.
I was only someone who secretly used him to calm myself down. What right did I have to feel jealous?
I shook my head and picked up my pen again. Following the steps Adrian had given me, I worked through the problem from the beginning.
Then I checked my answer against someone else’s.
They matched.
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
Maybe Adrian stayed silent because he didn’t want people constantly asking him for help with their math problems.
Kieran Vale and I weren’t close.
He’d joined our graduate exam study group during sophomore year, and our only real interaction had been the few times I’d shared study materials with him.
Chapter 3
That afternoon, I returned from the print center carrying a thick stack of practice exams.
As I reached Kieran’s desk and handed him his copy, he suddenly looked up, his eyes curving with a smile.
“Morgan, why don’t you give me Adrian’s exam? I’ll take it to him.”
I said nothing.
He blinked innocently at me.
“After all…” He drew out the words. “Adrian hates it when people approach him with ulterior motives. I wouldn’t want him to get the wrong idea about you.”
A dull ache spread through my chest.
I turned to look at the guy I’d forced kisses on dozens of times.
Adrian had his head lowered, completely absorbed in the math problem beneath his pen.
As though he sensed my gaze, he looked up.
Our eyes met.
For one suspended second, my heart leaped into my throat.
Then Kieran laughed. “Adrian, perfect timing. I need to return the dining card I borrowed this morning.”
Adrian’s gaze shifted to Kieran’s face, and something like amusement softened the corners of his eyes.
“Okay.”
Oh.
So he’d been looking at Kieran just now.
I turned away and pretended nothing had happened, but someone tugged at the exam still in my hand.
I looked down.
Kieran was frowning at me. “Morgan?
“I’m not trying to take over handing out the exams. I’m only going over to Adrian’s desk anyway, since I have something to return.”
He tilted his head.
“You won’t give it to me.” His voice remained light. “Could it be that you really do have ulterior motives toward Adrian?”
That accusation was far too serious.
I released the paper in a panic.
The exams scattered across the floor.
“N-no. Of course not.”
I crouched hastily to gather them, but a spotless white sneaker quietly came down on one of the pages.
A dark footprint appeared across the previously pristine exam.
Only then did Kieran lift his foot.
“Oh. I didn’t mean to do that. Sorry.”
Even I wasn’t oblivious enough to miss his hostility now.
I scooped up the exams and dumped them onto his desk.
“Enough! What exactly are you trying to do?”
The study room fell silent.
Every eye in the room turned toward us.
Kieran’s smile vanished in an instant. His lips trembled, and his face went slightly pale.
“W-what’s wrong, Morgan? I… I didn’t do anything to you, did I?”
Footsteps approached from the back of the room.
A moment later, Adrian’s voice sounded just behind me.
“What happened?”
Kieran’s eyes immediately reddened.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Morgan just started yelling at me for no reason.”
I clenched my fists, anger simmering beneath my skin.
Who would have thought Kieran could provoke someone and then turn around and play innocent?
I ran through everything that had happened, trying to put the sequence straight in my head. But just as I opened my mouth to explain, Adrian frowned.
“Morgan, stop picking on the new guy.”
Every word lodged in my throat.
I had never bullied Kieran.
Besides, he’d been in our study group for a year. How did that make him the new guy?