Chapter Text
The first thing Neda ever remembered was opening her eyes beneath a sky she didn't recognize.
She had been five years old.
No name. No memories. No family.
Just a strange ache in her chest and the certainty that she'd lost something she couldn't even remember.
A hunter from a small mountain village found her wandering at the edge of the forest, barefoot and silent. She didn't cry, didn't ask for anyone, didn't even claim to remember where she'd come from.
He took her in.
The villagers whispered.
Her hair was white - too white, soft as silk and untouched by sunlight. Her left eye was a cloudy, pale blue that never focused on anything. She couldn't see through it. Her right eye, however, was a vivid green unlike anything they'd ever seen.
"Albino," some of them guessed.
But albinos didn't have warm, sun-kissed skin...
Nothing about the child made sense.
The hunter didn't care.
He named her Neda.
For eleven years, the village became her home.
Then everything changed.
Her adoptive father fell in love with a wealthy widow from the city. Within months they were married, and Neda found herself leaving behind the only place she'd ever known.
She hated the city.
She hated the polished streets.
She hated the endless noise.
Most of all, she hated her new stepmother.
The woman smiled sweetly whenever her father was around, but the warmth in her eyes disappeared the moment they were alone. Neda caught the lingering glances—the way the woman stared at her white hair, her face, the attention strangers gave her without meaning to.
Jealousy.
Neda knew the look even if no one else did.
So she kept her distance.
A week after moving, she started her first day of high school.
The classroom fell silent the moment she walked through the door.
Dozens of eyes fixed on her.
Some whispered. Some openly stared.
Someone muttered, "Is that her real hair?"
Neda ignored them all.
Instead, her attention drifted to the very back of the room.
One student hadn't looked up.
A girl with short, dark brown hair sat curled over a notebook, shoulders slightly hunched as if trying to take up as little space as possible. She seemed to disappear into her notebook, completely absorbed in whatever she was writing.
While everyone else watched Neda...
She didn't even glance her way.
For some reason, that was the first thing in the room that caught Neda's interest.