With furrowed brows and eyes narrowed, Myra stood in the classroom with an opened letter in her hands. Anyone could tell what that look on her face meant. It was one of thinly-veiled contempt, as her facial muscles twitched ever so slightly.

This varied greatly from the perfect image she usually portrays to the average onlooker. After all, Myra was an attractive girl who scored well amongst the male populace; her complexion was smooth and supple like porcelain under light make-up, and her hourglass figure drew in longing eyes wherever she went.

A popular beauty who smiled often and had a cheerful demeanor to the way she conversed with others, it wasn’t surprising that Myra was the target of affection for many her age. Studious, outgoing and easy to talk to; the holy trinity that defined a campus diva. In the eyes of a typical 16-year old pubescent like Haru, Myra was the definition of perfection.

Haru had always been made fun of for fancying Myra since middle school. As honest as he is, his declaration on the first day of school, to one day make Myra fall in love with him during self-introduction made him the joke of the class. Despite all his shortcomings, he was always loyal to his friends and would always offer a helping hand to those in need. This made him a lot of friends in school and teachers trusted him enough to assign him as the class monitor. His academics were also decent but most of his time was spent on Myra, thus he hovered around the top 10 and never made it to the top 5 best performing student list.

Realising her guard was down, Myra quickly reverted to her disguise, but as agile as she is, Haru caught on.

"Haru... that's very kind of you to say," Myra replied awkwardly. Her hands reached playing with her hair like she always does when she was nervous.

"Haru I just... don't think you are the type of guy I am looking for... you know?" Myra replied timidly. Politely rejecting Haru who had a crush on her for two long years, before sneaking a glance at Benny.

Noticing this, Haru turned silent. He was in incredible pain but subdued his emotions and offered to stay friends with Myra. Haru then dashed desperately out of classroom B in shame and with anger but no matter how fast the man ran, the moment will forever come back to haunt him. Flashlight from cameras continued as Haru tried to escape what seemed like an endless maze of people.

"Why?! Why did I lose to Benny! Is it because I am not rich?!"

His meticulous studying and planning, even going so far as to get into the good books of Myra's friends flashes rapidly in his mind. At that moment, Dante turned into the corridor. Haru tried to stop but instead tripped due to the inertia. Flashes in his mind were replaced by adrenaline as Haru tensely closed his eyes and braced for impact.

BAM!

"Arghh, I'm so sorry Dante, are you alright?" Haru slowly opened his eyes.

In front of him stood a wall and Dante was nowhere to be found.

"Behind you idiot"

Haru, unable to contain his emotions rushed up and hugged Dante.

"I'm ... so glad you're alright... I'm so sorry!" Gut-wrenching sobs tore through his chest. His throat tightened with attempts to take a short intake of breath in between as he fell to the ground. He had always loved Myra with all his heart, abiding to all her requests and giving up study time just so he could tutor her for her schoolwork. He would also wake up early in the morning to cook for her, bring it over to her house before coming into school together.

Haru started tearing and briefly explaining the situation to Dante despite only knowing him as an acquaintance.

"They were right, girls are only after money. Why else would Benny, Haru's classmate notoriously known as a playboy be popular among girls with many subtlety chasing him."

"I always... thought Myra was different! Everyone was right, girls only go after money." Tears were forming but he wouldn’t let it fall.

Dante had witnessed the event from a live stream one of the students had started and understood what was going on. It was the live stream that gave him enough reaction time to dodge the incoming Haru.

"That's where you are wrong Haru." Dante coldly proclaimed before leaving for his delegation of the week to clean his classroom.

Wait! Haru screamed. What do you mean?

Dante conveniently took out the pen in his pocket and quickly, without looking back, Dante tossed Haru a piece of paper.

"Solve this, make it there and I’ll explain further. If you're good enough… I'll wait for an hour." His voice echoes through the corridor.

"Also, considering your plight, I’ll give you a hint. One is the magic number, orders go up or down and things might not be what it seems"

Haru looked on as Dante's figure got further and further away. Haru then crawled to the piece of paper and started analysing it.

It reads:

oppo dmbttsppn c upnpsspx

End

What in the world!