Adam entered the classroom with the professor.

Most of the students were already inside.

The whispers that had followed him through the corridor reached the classroom before he did. Some students looked at him openly. Some looked away the moment his eyes moved in their direction. A few smiled like they had just found something interesting to watch.

The professor walked to the front and placed his book on the desk.

"Adam has returned to class," he said. "The college has reviewed his matter. There is no need for anyone to disturb him about it."

The words were not loud, they were enough.

The classroom quieted down.

Adam noticed it.

The professor was not simply allowing him to sit. He was drawing a line for the others. That was useful, but it also made Adam feel the shape of the new situation more clearly.

When he had entered the college earlier, he had gone to the office first.

The dean had spoken politely.

Too politely.

The staff near the office had also behaved carefully. They had not looked at him like a student returning from suspension. They had looked at him like someone connected to a place that had just given the college something valuable.

Now the professor was taking his side in class.

Adam knew what that meant.

The college was tilting toward him.

Not because of truth.

Because of what Kenji had arranged.

Kenji had already told him enough. What the college had accepted. What Aster Core had offered. How quickly the tone had changed once donation and long-term support entered the room.

Adam sat alone.

He placed his bag beside the desk and looked forward.

A college should not be biased.

That thought came to him and almost made him smile.

It sounded good.

The college was biased now, and for the moment, that bias was working in his favor. Adam was not foolish enough to reject a shield simply because it was dirty. He only had to remember that the same shield could turn against him if someone stronger held it from the other side.

There were people in this college who had influence too.

John was one of them.

Adam did not look at him immediately.

John was sitting on the other side of the room. From the outside, it looked like John had barely noticed Adam. He was speaking to someone near him in a low voice, as if Adam’s return did not matter much.

Adam knew better.

John was ignoring him too cleanly.

That was also a way of watching.

Then Adam noticed Monica.

She had looked at him once when he entered.

Then again.

Then again after a few minutes.

Every time Adam’s eyes moved near her side, she looked away a little late.

She wanted to say something.

Adam could tell that much without effort.

The class passed slowly.

The professor taught. Pens moved. Pages turned. Students whispered less than before, but the attention did not disappear. Adam kept his face calm and answered when the professor asked him one simple question. The professor nodded at his answer like nothing unusual had happened.

That made a few students stare again.

Adam ignored them.

When lunch came, the classroom emptied in groups.

Adam went to the canteen.

He bought food and chose a seat.

For a few minutes, he only ate quietly.

Then he saw Monica sitting a short distance away.

She was looking at him again.

This time she stood up.

Then she sat back down.

Adam paused with the spoon in his hand.

He almost sighed.

In his previous life, he had heard this about Monica many times. Whatever came into her mind came to her mouth sooner or later. She was blunt, not cruel. She did not hide questions well. There was a clean part in her that made her different from the other people.

Before the suspension, Adam had known that side of her better than most students.

Monica was not friendly with many boys. She kept distance from most of them. With Adam, things had become different over time. At first, she had looked at him like someone from a life she wanted to understand. A scholarship student. A boy from a lower middle-class background. Someone far away from the family heritage she was hiding from everyone.

That curiosity had slowly become friendship.

And that friendship had become one of the reasons Adam’s life had begun to fall apart.

Adam picked up his plate and stood.

Monica looked surprised when he walked toward her table.

Adam stopped beside the chair across from her.

"Can I sit?" he asked.

Monica straightened quickly.

"Yes. Yes, of course."

Adam sat down and placed his plate on the table.

For a second, Monica only looked at him.

Adam started eating.

"You know," he said, "I can read your actions pretty easily."

Monica gave an awkward smile.

"I was thinking about coming to talk to you," she said. "But I felt like maybe you would get angry."

Adam smiled faintly and kept eating.

"I know this habit of yours."

Monica blinked.

"What habit?"

"You cannot hold questions in your mind for long."

For a moment, she looked embarrassed.

Then the embarrassment turned into a small, honest smile.

Adam looked at her and let out a slow breath.

"You have many questions," he said. "Ask."

Monica did not waste the chance.

"Why were you suspended?" she asked at once.

Then the next question came before Adam could answer.

"If you were suspended, how did you come back?"

She leaned forward a little.

"Why did John tell your father that you had gone outside for college work? Why were you not contacting your father?"

Her eyes stayed on him.

"Were you innocent, or did you really cheat?"

The questions came out one after another.

Adam stopped eating and looked at her.

For a second, he almost wanted to laugh.

She really had not changed.

Then he placed the spoon down.

"I will answer one by one," he said. "Yes, I was suspended."

Monica listened carefully.

"About why I came back, the college called me back. You heard the professor too."

She nodded slowly.

"As for John," Adam continued, "I do not know why he said that to my father."

"And I was not avoiding my father," Adam said. "My phone broke."

Monica immediately said, "I tried calling you too. Your phone was switched off."

Adam’s hand stopped near the plate.

He looked at her.

That small line touched a memory he had not expected.

In the previous life, he had met Monica again after everything had already gone wrong. At first, she had not even recognized him. His condition had become that bad. After she realized who he was, she had tried to help him in whatever way she could.

But there had also been anger in her then.

Adam had never understood that anger fully. It had felt like she believed he had done something, but he had never known what truth she was carrying inside her heart.

Monica’s voice brought him back.

"Did you really cheat?" she asked again, quieter this time.

Adam had been about to take another bite.

He stopped.

Then he looked straight at her.

"What do you think, Monica?" he asked. "Do you think I cheated?"

Monica became quiet for a few seconds.

She looked down at the table, then back at him.

"If I am honest, my opinion does not matter," she said. "But no. I do not think you cheated."

Adam nodded once.

"I did not cheat."

The moment he said it, Monica leaned forward.

"Then why did you not fight?"

Adam looked at her.

Her voice had become sharper, almost upset.

"If you were innocent, why did you not fight?" she asked.

Adam repeated softly, "Why didn’t I fight?"