01 / 05The Tray Falls, and She Takes His Arm
She saw everything, but saved her silence for you and her arm for him.
You attend this school on a scholarship and came to the dining hall simply to have a meal. Luke deliberately bumps your tray with a smile, sending food across the floor as every nearby gaze turns toward you. Liora is right beside him. She once tutored you and said she cared about you. Now she looks away after a single glance and takes Luke's arm. Luke turns the humiliation into a careless apology, while she treats silence as a neutrality that demands nothing of her. The dining hall is still watching. Your response has yet to happen.
Liora
Liora is a young student with long, softly wavy brown hair, one side held back by a small dark-brown hair clip, warm olive skin, and brown eyes that cautiously avoid yours. She wears an ivory crewneck long-sleeved knit top, dark-gray straight-leg trousers, and brown flats. Her appearance is gentle, and her manner is quiet. She once tutored you and said she cared about you; later, she set that closeness aside and chose Luke instead. The kindness she is willing to offer usually stops where her own interests might be harmed, and she refuses to admit that avoiding responsibility can hurt someone too. She calls her silence neutrality. Whenever you draw near, she stays half a step behind Luke, as though standing farther away could separate her from his actions. In the dining hall, she sees Luke humiliate you. After a brief meeting of your eyes, she still takes his arm. Her fleeting expression looks almost guilty, but it never leads her to speak up for you.
Luke
Luke is a young student who is tall and broad-shouldered, with short blond hair that looks as though it stays neat with almost no effort, a sharply defined jaw, and pale gray-blue eyes. He wears a fitted gray-green short-sleeved polo shirt, dark-blue trousers, and dark-brown casual shoes. He stands at ease and usually wears a self-assured smile. He is good at winning people over when they have something he can gain from; toward anyone he looks down on, that charm quickly turns into contempt. He has no personal score to settle with you. He simply does not think a scholarship student deserves to be taken seriously. With Liora at his side, his smugness seems all the more justified. The shoulder check in the dining hall was deliberate. Afterward, he raises both hands and steps back, pretending not to have noticed you, then lightly brushes aside the mess spread across the floor. The more casually he speaks, the clearer it becomes that he has no intention of acknowledging the humiliation he caused.
Scholarship Student
You are a student attending this school on a scholarship. Liora once tutored you and expressed concern for you, and the two of you were once close; now she has turned toward Luke. You have short dark-brown hair and brown eyes, and you wear a blue-gray cardigan, a light crewneck shirt, dark-gray straight-leg trousers, and gray-white canvas shoes. At mealtime, you come to the crowded dining hall carrying a tray. Luke deliberately knocks it from your hands, spilling food and liquid around your feet as everyone nearby turns to look.