Alina sat at her little dining table with her laptop open, her diary beside it, and a half-finished cup of tea slowly losing warmth. Evening sunlight trickled through the curtains, casting a gentle orange glow across the room. The clicking of her laptop keys could be heard as she typed, her brows knitted in concentration.
She had already completed the science paper earlier, then the language paper, and now math was staring back at her like the final mountain she needed to climb. Even though the exam was made for tiny babies with simple concepts like addition, subtraction, counting objects, and matching shapes, Alina felt oddly nervous on their behalf. She wanted everything to be fair, she wanted her little students to succeed, and she did not want them to cry over questions that felt too hard or confusing.
Her pencil tapped against her diary as she murmured ideas under her breath.
"Question three... match the pictures... no, that one is too easy... okay, maybe addition with fruits..." She scribbled quickly, then typed it into her laptop with careful attention.
Suddenly her phone vibrated.
A ssage from the parents group appeared on the screen, one of many. She had already sent the exam titable earlier after eting Dante and the other teachers. The parents replied with polite confirmations, emojis, and reactions, so enthusiastic, so panicked.
Her thoughts drifted for a mont to the small things happening in her life recently. Her mother was getting better day by day, her health improving enough to make Alina relax a little. And Georgia... Georgia had been staying with her aunt for weeks now, helping like a cheerful whirlwind.
Georgia claid to be staying because she "found her mate," but she had not revealed who it was yet. Every ti Alina asked, Georgia simply giggled and said, "You will faint when you find out."
"A mate... and a human one too," Alina whispered with amusent as she wrote down another math question. "That is going to be interesting..."
She shook her head lightly, returning her attention to the laptop screen.
Her fingers typed slowly but surely, forming neat lines of questions tailored for her babies.
"What if they still panic?" she whispered to herself.
She placed her cheek in her palm for a mont, gazing at the glowing screen.
When she finally leaned back, stretching her tired fingers, she glanced at the clock.
She had been working for hours.
Her diary was full of scribbles, erased ideas, neat final versions, and little doodles she had unconsciously made. Her laptop screen now displayed a complete exam sheet, fully formatted.
Alina let out a deep breath, her shoulders softening.
"Only a few more questions to check..." she murmured.
After double-checking every question for the tenth ti, Alina finally exhaled, letting her shoulders fall back as she closed her laptop. Her eyes had started to sting, the familiar uncomfortable ache that ca whenever she worked too long on a bright screen. She rubbed them gently, blinking away the dryness.
"I really need to buy screen protection glasses..." she murmured to herself, squinting at the faint afterimage of the exam paper glowing behind her eyelids. She pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed. "Why do humans have such weak eyes?"
She turned off her laptop, cleaned her little table, stacked her diary neatly, and decided to head to her room to rest a bit before dinner. She collapsed on her bed with a soft thump, hugging her pillow for a mont before unlocking her phone.
Just a few minutes of scrolling. Just to relax her tired brain.
But of course, relaxation was impossible when Celeste existed on the internet.
The first post she saw was Celeste’s latest update:
"Who knew falling in love with an unknown person would feel so good? Who knows who he is, what he is? I was just drawn to his mossy eyes."
Alina blinked.
Then blinked again.
Then made a face so confused it could have been turned into a reaction sticker.
"What... unknown person?" she muttered, her brows furrowing. "What mossy eyes? Who writes like this on social dia? Is she writing a poem or flirting?"
Her nose scrunched.
Her lips twisted.
She felt sothing weird, a mixture of annoyance and secondhand embarrassnt.
Unknown man? Where did she find unknown man? Grocery store? Bus stop? Behind a tree?
"She really thinks she is the main character," Alina sighed, rolling her eyes. "Always posting... always grabbing attention. Unknown this, unknown that. Just say you t soone and move on."
She clicked on the comnts.
People were overreacting as usual.
"OMG WHO IS HE???"
"Mossy eyes?? Sounds dreamy"
"PLEASE UPDATE US CELESTE!!!"
Alina made a tiny gagging noise and tossed her phone aside. "Not my business anyway."
She rolled onto her back, covering her face with her hands.
But why was she even annoyed? It was not like she liked drama. Or cared about Celeste’s love life.
She absolutely did not care.
But why was she feeling annoyed for no reason?
"Argh," she whispered, burying her face into her pillow. "Why am I reacting like this? I need sleep."
She grabbed her phone again, this ti to avoid overthinking, and plugged in her earphones. A soft playlist filled her room, llow notes brushing softly against her tired mind. The tension in her shoulders loosened. The thoughts she did not want to examine drifted away easily.
Soon she was curled on her side, one arm beneath her pillow, the music lting over her like warm sunlight.
Alina closed her eyes, letting the music drown everything.
anwhile, sowhere across the city, Celeste sat curled on her velvet sofa with her phone pressed so close to her face it nearly touched her nose. She had opened Alina’s profile for the thirty-seventh ti that evening, and the empty tiline glared back at her like a personal insult. Not a single post. Not even a boring story. Nothing to stalk, nothing to investigate, nothing to gossip over. It irritated her to no end.
Why was that woman so private?
Why was she acting like a secret agent?
She tossed her hair over her shoulder with a dramatic sigh, her earrings jingling. "Ugh, so boring," she muttered to herself as she refreshed the profile again, as if Alina would magically upload sothing just for her. "Why does she hide everything? Who even does that in this century?"
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