To Wish Upon a Fallen Star

Chapter 2: Moonblessed

Tala's hands were clenched into fists as she turned around, glaring at where Noctis sat. While she sat at the front-most part of the classroom where the windows were, he sat at the back, and his only companion was a wall. His sharp red eyes, ones that always returned her look of contempt, were wide as she glared at him. Even his lips were just a thin line. One of his hands was in his pockets, while the other was scratching his white hair.

Noctis Nakagawa? Him? The idiot who was always second to her, no matter what? The guy who didn't even try to be first, and was seemingly content with being second? Him. That guy was the one who scored higher than her?

Her hands clenched into fists, and she could feel her fingers wanting to tear at something. Anything. Her magic boiled alongside her blood in her veins, and her teeth were grinding against each other. She could feel some bits of her magic leaking out of her fingers, and more of it wanted to just burst and explode.

She could have accepted it if it was anyone else. There were thirty people in class, and at least thirteen of those were honor students. There could have been eleven other people who scored higher than her. But of all the people in the room, it had to be—

"Miss Tala, can you please sit down before you destroy the classroom?"

Her eyes widened. After blinking a few times, she looked around. Everyone was looking at her, even their UTS teacher. Perhaps it was just her vision because of the magic that leaked out, but her vision somehow darkened. A chill went down her spine, followed by her body turning hotter. Sweat trickled down her back as she felt her cheeks burning up, and she sat down before turning away from everyone. Silence filled the room, and she didn't know if that was better or worse than if everything was quiet.

She held her hands together, reeling her magic back before it could burst even more. She didn't need that right now. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Deep breath in, deep breath out.

That was so embarrassing... She definitely needed to meditate again once she had the time.

As she felt her magic calming down, she turned to Noctis, watching him walk from his seat to grab his test paper. The moment he reached the front, her eyes locked with his. The corners of his lips twitched, and she resisted the urge to scowl. Maybe it was just her imagination, but it looked like there was a perfectly punchable smirk on his face as he shrugged at her.

She groaned, clenching her hands into fists. Her magic was calmer now, maybe she could use some of it for something. Reading other people's minds was easy and barely took a lot of energy, anyway.

She took another deep breath. The magic that flowed in her was thinner compared to the one earlier. As it flowed in her body, she kept her eyes locked with Noctis and—

She blinked. Wait, what?

It seemed like he realized what she was doing, as he immediately turned his gaze away from her, breaking their eye contact. But it wouldn't have mattered, anyway.

She placed a hand on her face, and her brows furrowed down. That was strange. Usually, whenever she tried to read people's minds, it was always successful. The only times it never worked was with her teachers, parents, and the other Starblessed students she knew in school. But that made sense. They were all older than her, her teachers even by decades, so they already knew how to counter mind reading or anything similar. Noctis was, what, a few months—maybe a year?—than her. And even then, they had never been taught either mind reading or its counter as they were both advanced and difficult abilities if someone wasn't a Starblessed.

So the fact that Noctis knew how to do it...

Turning around to face him would be difficult. She sat at the frontmost seat. If she turned around to face him, it would be obvious. So, she kept her gaze in front.