Chapter 3

On the way home from school, when Lucas was waiting for me at the school gate, I saw the silhouette of another girl beside him.

Emma, Lucas's deskmate.

When we entered high school, Lucas was assigned to a different class from us.

Lucas met his new deskmate Emma, who seemed to be a very quiet girl.

Emma came from a single-parent family, living with her mom, but was occasionally harassed and abused by her divorced father.

Her tragic background immediately aroused Lucas's sympathy. His sense of justice exploded, and he decided to help Emma.

He even brought Emma along when hanging out with us, saying he wanted to help her make friends.

From that day on, everything started to change.

Emma was petite and quiet, with timid eyes like a little cat, easily arousing people's protective instincts. She spoke softly and weakly, forming a stark contrast with my outgoing personality.

When I got excited about something, my voice would naturally get louder. At these times, Lucas would pretend to be angry and glance at me, then protect Emma.

"Can't you lower your voice a bit! You're scaring our Emma!"

Emma's unfortunate family background always made Lucas indignant. Even Gabriel would comfort her a few words and tell me to speak more softly.

I frowned as I watched the two of them revolving around Emma, but couldn't say anything.

I had no reason to reject Emma's joining.

She was already miserable enough and didn't have many friends at school.

If I resisted her, wouldn't I be a terrible person?

I could only endure.

Even when speaking, I had to lower my volume for Emma, who was easily frightened. I couldn't talk about topics Emma wasn't familiar with, otherwise, she would become sensitive and overthink.

I could no longer laugh and joke around freely with Lucas, and Gabriel wouldn't stand aside laughing and calling us crazy anymore.

Now they would speak softly to Emma, having long forgotten how we used to interact so freely.