The Bond That Even Gods Cannot Break

Although it was her first day of high school, she was late. 

(Damn, I miscalculated the time it would take to get there.) 

Hiding among the trees, Melissa frowned as she observed the entrance to the auditorium being guarded by two teachers. The introduction lecture for the freshmen had undoubtedly already begun. 

(Should I just hide in the bathroom? No, that won't work. This damned place uses electronic cards to enter all the buildings. If I don't get mine, I'll be in trouble.) 

Since it was the first day, she hadn’t had trouble getting through the school gates, but without entering the auditorium on time, it would be impossible for Melissa to obtain her card without enduring a lengthy lecture from her teachers. She knew that the cards were individual and non-transferable, so they would be handed out directly to the students at some point during the lecture. As long as she could get in and get hers, everything would be fine. 

As she watched Melissa sneak along the wall toward the back of the auditorium, Sophia, still seeing everything through the girl's eyes, couldn't help but sigh.

So this was how she concluded it was the best option... 

Carefully navigating around the building, Melissa finally found a small rectangular window. Although it was tiny, its width was enough for a person to slip through. It was two meters off the ground, and from the lack of light on the other side, Melissa guessed it led to one of the storage rooms. 

Since jumping to reach the window was impossible, the girl knew she would need another alternative. Looking around, she spotted a tree a few meters away with long branches that would serve as the perfect ladder. 

Cautiously, Melissa balanced herself on the branches, using her legs for support. The height of over three meters didn't scare her, and slowly she found the branch that would bring her closer to the window. 

She really is adorable when she tries her crazy ideas. 

Sophia, who hadn’t even realized she thought that, watched as Melissa stretched one of her legs with all her might to slide the window open. Sweat began to bead on her forehead, and fatigue was starting to show. After much effort, a gap finally opened. Using her hands to hold on, Melissa started to maneuver her legs through the small window. 

With almost half of her body inside, all she needed to do was let herself slide in. Releasing the branches, Melissa managed to get the rest of her body through the window. However, completely focused on entering, she didn't consider how the landing on the other side would be. 

The moment her body slammed against a steel shelf, Melissa knew she had made a mistake. Instantly, the chaotic noise of dozens of sports items crashing to the floor flooded her ears. Without even having time to dust off her clothes, Melissa ignored the pain spreading through her body from the fall and began frantically rearranging the items that had fallen.

(It's impossible that anyone heard that, right?)

She could still hear the applause coming from the auditorium. The presentation was still happening, so that must have masked her noise. The storage room was small and filled with gym mattresses and carpets, so the floor should have been muffled. However, her hopes were shattered the moment that voice reached her ears. 

"What are you doing?" 

Melissa's body froze in place, her mind questioning if she had been caught by one of the teachers in the end. Anxiously, she reluctantly turned to the source of the voice, but what she saw made her body freeze again. 

The girl had blue eyes that reminded one of the deep ocean as well as the sky on a sunny day. Her gentle features calmed the heart, and the faint rays of sunlight entering through the window seemed to bless her body, adorning it. 

Melissa was left speechless. 

In the gray, dark storage room, what caught her attention the most was something she found unbelievable. 

"Beautiful..." Her voice, dozens of times softer than a whisper, was only heard by the one who saw the world through her eyes. 

At first glance, it seemed like looking at a purely white landscape. Like a frozen lake extending to the endless horizon. 

(It’s like a silver waterfall, as gentle as the first snowflakes falling on a snowy day.) 

If she were to put such beauty into words, the only way her vocabulary could respond would be... 

"Snow curls..." 

Hearing the voice of Melissa's heart, Sophia felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her. She didn’t even have a face at that moment, but she felt it burning intensely from the words she heard. 

Melissa calls me that because she thinks I’m beautiful... 

The girl who could hear the train of thought that led to those words understood perfectly that Melissa hadn’t spoken in an offensive tone; however, that didn’t apply to the one who lacked that context. 

"Are you insulting me because of my hair? That's funny coming from the girl who couldn't even be bothered to fix hers." Sophia's irritated voice reached her ears, her placid face betraying none of the disdain in her words. 

Sophia, watching the situation through Melissa's eyes, felt as if thorns were being pressed against her. She now knew that the words she spoke at that moment were anything but trivial for Melissa. 

"You have a high ego for a spoiled girl who's so insecure she needs to cover her face in makeup!" 

"At least my makeup didn't make me arrive late, unlike someone who just snuck in, right?" Her voice was cold as her gaze drifted between the open window and the dirt on Melissa's clothes. 

"I just got lost on the way to the auditorium and opened the window to air this place out a bit." Melissa shrugged before starting to walk toward the door behind Sophia.

As she watched the girl leave, Sophia curved her lips into a smile and raised her right hand; the unmistakable jingling of small keys began to echo in the room. 

"I'll refrain from asking how you managed to get lost in a room locked from the outside."

Hearing the subtle laugh, the girl hurried her steps to leave. 

Melissa decided to believe this would just be a short encounter with an annoying woman. However, her expectations couldn't have been more wrong. 

"Melissa, what don't you like about Ms. Sophia that makes you fight with her so much?" 

As she walked through the hallways, a group of girls asked her a question, and she quickly replied, 

"Absolutely everything!" 

No matter where she went—whether in class, the cafeteria, or the bathroom—every time they crossed paths, the silver-haired girl would scold her. 

(Why the hell can't she just leave me alone?) 

During her three years in high school, the perfect-looking girl never stopped pestering her. If Melissa got a bad grade, Sophia would flaunt her good results and force her to go to the library after school to study. If she tried to skip class by hiding, the girl would find her, no matter where she was in the school, and make her return to class, saying Melissa should think more about her future. All of this irritated her. 

Melissa felt that Sophia was like a buzzing fly, no matter how far she moved away, she always ended up coming back. 

"Mr. Cosmos, you can't just hand in the form and leave like that!" 

Hidden among the trees, Melissa laughed at Sophia's irritated outburst as she kicked the ground while still searching for her inside the classrooms. 

(Serves her right for forcing me to come to school on a Sunday just to submit a stupid career form.) 

So even she can laugh like that... 

Sophia thought as she watched Melissa walk back home. 

The girl walked down the streets absentmindedly; it was late afternoon, the sun nearly sinking on the horizon when she finally reached the orphanage street. However, her calm expression suddenly darkened the moment her eyes focused on the entrance of the orphanage. 

There, a tall man dressed in a suit was waiting with his hands in his pockets. Even though Melissa was inexperienced in such matters, she could tell that the man's black suit was extremely expensive. 

With no choice but to pass by him to enter, she approached cautiously. 

"Sir, we don't process adoption requests at night. You'll have to come back in the morning." 

"Are you Melissa Cosmos?" 

Completely ignoring what Melissa said, the man abruptly closed the distance, his sunglasses masking any hint of his expression. 

"I've been tasked with delivering this to you. I ask that you read it carefully and give us a response exactly one year from today." 

Reaching into his suit, he pulled out a beige envelope and handed it to Melissa. The girl turned pale immediately upon reading the contents, her words choking in her throat as she imagined this could only be a joke. 

"W-What is this?" 

"As stated in the document, your parents requested constant loans from our company twenty years ago. The total amount includes the initial loan that was never properly repaid along with the interest accrued over all these years."

“Wait, you can’t make me responsible for the debt; I’m an orphan! I don’t even have any memories of either of them!” 

“Ms. Cosmos, although you no longer have a direct relationship with your biological providers, a few years after the first loan, your name was listed by them as responsible for the debt due to their inability to make payments. This agreement has already been signed and cannot be altered.” 

This is absurd; this kind of logic cannot be applied. Parents' financial responsibilities cannot be transferred to their children. This is violating several laws! 

Sophia’s thoughts were chaotic; she knew the laws and understood that this could be contested in the judicial system. But the girl, who couldn’t even afford a lawyer, could only tremble as she stared at the colossal numbers on the paper. 

“I-I can’t pay all this!” 

“As I mentioned, we will await contact from you exactly one year from today. Have a good evening.” It felt as if Melissa was hearing a venomous snake poised to strike her neck, ready to end her life. 

Without saying another word, the man left. Melissa, who could barely keep her body upright, felt her legs weaken and collapsed to her knees on the ground. 

(A twenty-year debt. I inherited a debt that started long before I was even born!) 

Melissa crumpled the sheet of paper in her hand in fury, her heart—frozen for so long—began to boil with the rage that lay dormant within her. 

Sophia knew how far companies and powerful individuals could go to obtain whatever they desired. The exorbitant interest rates were merely a means to ensure that the debt would never be settled; it wasn’t the money they wanted, but the girl herself. 

No matter how hard she worked in the year they had given her, she couldn't amass that kind of money. 

Could she report it to the police? Would her words even be heard against those of a large corporation? Would the disappearance of an orphaned girl even be noticed by anyone? Even if Melissa tried to run away, without money or knowledge of the world, she was certain she would only find a terrible fate just the same. 

Her mind couldn’t find an escape, no matter how desperately she thought. Her already exhausted body could only manage to walk to her bed and finally collapse from exhaustion. 

When she woke up in the morning, Melissa just wanted to believe that it was all a bad dream, but the paper that marked the end of her days was still by her bed. If she stayed home, nothing would change, so clinging to the monotonous routine she had built, the girl headed to school. 

(Right... Today they start setting everything up...) 

The incessant sounds of preparations for the school festival pained Melissa’s mind. The girl, who barely had the strength to stand, sought a secluded spot to hide. 

Climbing up to the lighting platform in the gymnasium , Melissa laid down a gymnastics mat she had taken from the storage room. The relentless noise of the preparations below was still loud, but she couldn’t care less at that moment. However, just when she thought she would be alone, a voice reached her ears. 

“What are you doing here?” 

She knew exactly who that voice belonged to. 

(No, just today, let me be alone!)

Turning to the side on the mat, she didn’t even care to pay attention to the words spilling from her own mouth; she just wanted to avoid that voice. 

“Don’t ignore me! If you miss more days, you won’t be able to recover your grades and will be held back. This is supposed to be your last year of high school too—what will you do if you don’t graduate?” 

(What will I do if I don’t graduate? What do you know? What can a girl with enough money to buy the world possibly know about living in hell?) 

Her heart ached bitterly; Melissa could no longer bear to hear it. She tried to push that voice away by protesting even more, but it was useless. 

“It’s the student council president’s responsibility to take care of the school environment. This includes making delinquents like you attend classes and respect the school rules.” 

(Why do you insist so much? Just abandon me! Like my parents, like the kids, like all the adults! Leave me alone like they all did!) 

“What do you mean leave you in peace? I won’t abandon someone who wants to give up, no matter the reason!!” 

(Why are you different from the others? Why won’t you leave me?!)

The girl’s words were just like everyone else’s, so why did they hurt more than any of them? 

Stop, Sophia! Don’t do this, please! 

Sophia desperately tried to reach herself somehow throughout this time, but the moment she saw her body start to fight with Melissa, she knew her prayers had gone unanswered. 

Melissa! 

Her current state rendered her incapable of crying. Her heart sank deeper and deeper as she tried with all her might to deny the fate she knew was coming next. 

If those moments stretched out over seconds, they were undoubtedly the longest seconds of her entire life. 

Inevitable destruction flooded the gymnasium as the platform gave way. Amidst the dust and screams, the two girls could only stare at each other's bloodied faces as they awaited the end. 

(In the end... it was me who ruined everything, wasn’t it...?) 

With her last breath, the world she had observed for years through that girl’s eyes... vanished.