Chapter Text
Today is just another regular day at the University for the 18-year old Athanasia.
After studying hard her entire life, she managed to get into the top university of the country to study law. On top of that she has extracurricular activities and is a part of the university dance crew which has weekly practices.
Her week mainly consists of those things - studying, dance practice, hanging out with her two friends, Helena and Jarvis, and more studying alone while drinking her coffee every single day like clockwork. She’s grown to be dependent on it and she has to have it everyday or else she gets a headache.
Doing club activities on top of studies is hard especially since law has a lot of reading materials, but that’s nothing on Athy because after all, that’s the two things she does best. In fact, she never felt so alive and happy like this being busy and working hard.
The last four years of her life made her like this, she wanted to forget it but like an unwanted memory, it keeps on haunting her and it keeps her to push forward.
The arrival of a stepsister at 14 years of age, who easily obtained her father’s love that she wanted her entire life, the everyday image of them being harmoniously happy made her sick to the stomach everyday.
From then on, she decided no to give a fuck about them any longer and worked hard for herself and to be independent as soon as possible.
Fortunately, Claude knows his responsibilities as a father and provided her with financial stability. She now lives in a luxurious condominium unit given by her father near her university which is supposed to be a gift for her getting into the best school. However she rather believes that is a consolation for doing his father a favor and getting out of his sight.
‘Ha! You’re welcome! It’s actually a pleasure to get out of that damned house.’ His favorite daughter, Jennette even has houses and properties named after her and she’s pretty much gonna inherit the company. Damned favoritism.
But at least Jennette is not studying here because she’s dumb! ‘Well, I guess that’s a bit harsh, she’s just a little bit of a slow learner.’ She cried a lot when the news came out that she didn’t pass and CLaude had to reassure her that it’s okay. He enrolled her into a private school with high quality education but does not require high grades to enter. He also hired private tutors for her.
Good for her. Remembering how much of a hardship she gave her during their high school years is grueling, she frequently needed to tutor her and she gave her a really hard time teaching her.
Not only that, she had to babysit her during those years because she’s so oblivious and gullible and always got dragged by guys! She always received confessions and the way she answered them is always misunderstood that she agreed to date. That was a really a mess, the guys got angry and she’s the one to clean up the mess.
From that, she earned the nickname, Icy Jewel, from the way she treated the guys.
Thinking about it always gives her a headache. But not to get her wrong, she doesn’t hate Jennette. When she first met her, she actually felt bad for her to be raised by other people her entire life, so she helped her and took care of her in the household. And the rest is history, she’s finally redeemed all those years of sadness and is living her best life, and way happier than Athy will ever be.
She already got hers so Athy will make sure that she’ll get her own happiness! She’s gonna graduate and become a lawyer. After that she will apply to a great firm and earn lots of money, maybe she’ll start her own firm someday, on the side, she can invest in business and be rich!
‘I’m going to show Claude that I’m better off without him and be successful!’
She’s gonna be a rich auntie who will travel the world with her future dog. And she’ll donate to a lot of charities and be a philanthropist. And she’s gonna do it all by herself and won’t rely on anyone! ‘ That’s right, who cares about family? That invertebrate of a father only has his good looks as his only redeeming quality. Go die Claude!’
Athy grinned sinisterly at her plans while omitting an ominous aura, gaining worried looks from her friends. But they already got used to her being weird like that sometimes.
After a good minute she finally snapped back to reality. She’s in the library studying with Jarvis and Helena but she knows that she sometimes needs to give these two their private time.
“Guys, I’m going to study outside,” she packed her stuff as she informed them.
“Are you going to that cafe again?” Helena asked and she immediately said yes.
“You sure like that place,” Jarvis added, “Well, their coffee is not that bad,” I smiled at them and went off.
Those two are her only friends she made when she came here, and now those two are dating. They always sit together during classes and eat lunch and dinner together most of the time, but Athy always remembers to give them space and stop being a third wheel from time to time. And she loves some alone time too.
Since Claude is still supporting her, might as well take advantage of it and splurge on expensive drinks and sweets! ‘This Icy Jewel will get ice cold coffee!’ She laughed at her own pun and happily skipped while making her way towards the cafe ’ Autumn leaves of orange hues fell down on the sidewalks that she passed.
It’s been a while since she’s been there and actually the first time this semester since the second term just started. The little local cafe shop about a kilometer away from her condo is always her go to when she wants to relax and drink coffee.
She opened the door like usual and expected to see the same environment but-
‘Why is it so full and noisy today?’
She looked around eyeing the change suspiciously as she made her way towards the counter. When she reached it, she finally knew the reason why. There’s a new barista and he’s insanely hot.
He has unruly jet black hair with a pair of ruby colored eyes and facial features on par with celebrities. He looked at me anticipating an order without even asking or a greeting the customer in front of him.
A snob guy? Well, it doesn’t matter how he does his job as long as he does it properly. And his existence in this cafe as well as his good looks does not matter to me.
So she ordered like she usually would, “One, iced black and a slice of chocolate cake. For here”
Without wasting time, he checked it out and after the transaction, he handed her out the coaster. She then went and took a seat, luckily, her favorite spot is not taken. Dismissing the appearance of the new guy from her mind, she proceeded to enjoy her time here while taking in the good ambiance in the atmosphere.
But unfortunately, that ambiance is gone and is replaced by muffled whispers.
“Is that the lone solitary wolf of the faculty of sciences?”
‘What the fuck is that nickname?’ Athy unwillingly eavesdropped.
“Yes! That is Lucas-sama and he’s studying chemistry. I heard he aims to get into medicine.”
“Isn’t getting into medicine hard? That must mean he’s smart!”
“People around him say he’s a genius! Ah, he’s really dreamy, aside from good looks he has brains too!”
“Does she have a girlfriend?”
“From my source, they say he doesn’t have one!”
“That’s great. We have a chance!”
“But I also heard that she rejects all girls without even giving them a chance to talk or approach. He’s also anti-social and prefers to hang out with only a few classmates and most of the time he prefers studying alone.”
“Is that so? We gotta try at least!”
‘Girls, I think you’re not trying your best to whisper, at least a radius of two tables can hear what you are talking about,’ Athy sighed, ‘If this place will be this noisy everyday I might be forced to get my coffee somewhere else.’
Her coaster buzzed and lit up signaling that her order is ready. ‘Oh well, let’s think about that later,’ she immediately stood up and took the tray from the counter and went back to her seat.
‘What a marvelous sight! The cakes and desserts here are really delicious, especially this chocolate cake. Their coffee however is nothing special like how most coffee in all cafe’s taste like. Doesn’t matter, it keeps me up, and it’s still better than the coffee at a mcdo takeout.’ She took a bite of the cake and gushed how delicious it was after that she took a sip of the iced americano.
‘Hm? It tastes great today.’
She glanced at the new barista, ‘Is he good at brewing coffee because he is a chemistry student? Does that even make sense?’ She chuckled at her own thoughts. ‘Now that I think about it that guy kinda resembles coffee with his black hair, a cold aura and a bitter attitude.’
‘Well, I guess I can just wear earphones and continue to hangout here,’ her lips pursed into a smile, enjoying the delicious coffee and cake, ‘Lucas, is it?’
And so a few weeks passed and Athy’s university life continued on as usual, studying, dance practice and hanging out with her friends, except that she’s hanging out at the cafe more frequently than she did before.
“You’re frequently going there Athy.”
“There are news of hold up cases around the campus, be careful,” Jarvis mentioned.
“That’s right! Don’t stay out too late okay!” Helena worried over her friend.
“Yes, yes. I’ll be fine. I won’t stay out too late I promise,” Athy reassured them thinking lightly of the danger.
She has to drink coffee everyday and she doesn’t like making it herself and drinking it alone in her place. She’s here to study and work hard like usual, no distractions, no other reason aside from the delicious coffee, okay?
Midterm exams are coming so she’s studying in advance, with earphones plugged in, she spent her usual time here while enjoying coffee and desserts.
From the time she spent here she noticed quite a few spectacles, some girls would write their numbers in tissue and hand it to him, he accepted them only to throw them away later after they’ve gone, it was such a funny scene and that happened frequently too. The way he kept his composure at work when girls shamelessly flirted with him and how his looks of irritation when they’re out of sight and no one else was watching.
It’s entertaining. But it doesn’t matter to her.
So she continued on with her own business and studied without a care for time. By the time she finished, she noticed that the cafe is almost closing, and that barista guy isn’t even here any longer. She quickly packed up and wore her coat, it’s getting chilly outside these nights.
It’s past midnight night now, street lights flickered as cars passed by the street. This is the capital city after all, even late at night, a handful of people are still out and there’s a few establishments still open.
‘Nothing could happen right?’ Athy worried as she remembered her friends’ reminder ‘My place is just a kilometer away, a 15 minute walk.’ She started walking at a fast pace while being alert of her surroundings, ‘If she’ll encounter someone, it’s probably drunken people from nearby bars.’
And as if she jinxed herself, she was abruptly dragged in an alleyway where a streetlight is broken. ‘ Great luck, I haven’t even walked 10 meters away from the cafe.’
Three men cornered her down the wall, by the looks of it they don’t have any weapon other than they’re ugly selves, they reek of alcohol and cigarettes too.
“Give us all your money and belongings and we’ll let you go,” the one that looked the leader spoke up. Lowlives preying on a single girl. She looked down, keeping her composure while thinking of a way to settle the situation.
One grabbed her chin and looked at her face, “Well, look at you, aren’t you a pretty one.”
‘Tsk. How dare they lay their dirty hands over my pretty face. And to think, I'm even thinking to go easy on them!’
With a swift movement, Athy grabbed that man’s arms and slammed his body on the floor, putting her knee on his back effectively locking him down, she pulled his arm enough to strain a muscle as he groaned in pain, after that she pulled him up and threw him to his two companions.
That aikido lesson she took when she was young is finally useful. And great timing that she wore high heeled boots today. They stood up and cursed at her before throwing a punch, in which Athy effectively dodged, he knocked the guy down with a kick on his ankles. The other guy attacked her as well but she kicked him where it hurts before he could even land a hit.
“Do you want more?” Athy removed her boots holding it in her hands like a weapon. The guys got scared and then left in a frantic state. ‘Serves them right.’
She dusted her clothes and looked at her surroundings, there she met red eyes.
‘Huk! Did he see everything? Did he see a girl cornered and he just watched?’ Athy debated on her head. The guy is sitting on his motorcycle presumably in a parking lot at a distance, he then looked away and continued on with his own business.
‘Well whatever, I handled it all on my own,’ she took a step and she felt a sharp pain from her ankles. ‘Crap, did I injure myself while fighting?’
She freezed knowing that the guy is still over there and she doesn’t want anyone to see her limping. After a minute, the engine roared and the guy finally drove away. She sighed and assessed her foot. She can still walk albeit really slow and carefully, the 15 minute walk could turn into half an hour.
Her friends sleep early so she can’t ask them for help. No choice then, let’s walk.
After 15 minutes, she’s finally halfway and she is grimacing in pain. Her ankles are now swollen and every step feels like stepping on a landmine. She decided to take a rest and sat down on the sidewalk.
‘If my friends see this, I’ll definitely get an earful. Maybe I should buy a taser or pepper spray next time and bring it along with me?’ she wonders in regret of injuring herself, ‘I can’t attend dance practice for a while.’
She let out a long sigh and watched as her breath fogged up in the cold air. She mentally prepares herself for the second half of her walk and as she is about to stand up a blinding light flashed before her.
“Yo, jewelled eyes, can you stand up?”
The guy removed his helmet revealing red eyes and jet black hair. ‘Jewelled eyes?! ’ He’s staring at me but I can’t read his expression. ‘ Is he concerned? He’s trying to help me right?’
The sound of the engine is blocking my brain from thinking and I unknowingly nodded as I stood up. He offered me another helmet which is colored black the same as his. Without having any exchange of words, I took it from him, wore it and sat comfortably behind him. He wore his helmet back and as I held tight on the back handle he started driving.
“Where do you live?” he asked.
“Lapleia’s Suite it’s near-,” she explained it to him as he drove seemingly knowing the place. Athy still couldn’t process what’s happening, this guy just helped her when he just stared at her earlier while she was fighting. This is the first time something like this happened to her, getting help from someone she barely knew, and the sound of the engine and the wind gushing is clouding up her mind.
In less than five minutes, they arrived at her place. Athy slowly went down and she removed the helmet and handed it back to him.
“Thank you,” she muttered in gratitude, after all he still helped her even so belatedly. The guy just nodded in response and as she was about to head back he said something.
“Ice -ack.”
“Pardon? Ice black?” Athy didn’t hear it properly due to the sound of the engine or maybe from her heart beating from adrenaline.
He let out a soundless snicker as if amused. “Ice Pack, you should put an ice pack on it,” he shortly advised.
“Ah, yes,” Athy replied in embarrassment.
Guess she drank too much coffee today.