4: 4
When I found Merlin on duty in the student council office, another student was still there, gossiping with him, more than happy to keep it going.
"Merlin, is that thing about Harrison for real? And you're still friends with him? Doesn't it disgust you?"
Merlin spread his hands, helpless.
"There are pictures. It's the truth. Lying's really not my thing."
"What can I do, I feel sorry for him. I mean, I heard his mom was a whore who caught some filthy disease and died, that's why his dad dumped him at the orphanage. Guess you get the son you'd expect from a mother like that."
Rage shot straight to the top of my skull. I kicked the door open.
"You're lying. My mother was nothing like that. I won't let you insult her!"
I rushed at Merlin and threw my arm up high.
But the next second, someone shoved me to the floor.
Maureen glared at me, her eyes full of fury.
"Harrison, what the hell has gotten into you?!"
My forehead struck the corner of the desk, and a hot stream poured out at once.
The blood on my face startled Maureen. She reached for me, anxious.
"...Harry, are you okay? I didn't mean to—"
But Merlin grabbed her arm, his eyes reddening as if he'd been wronged.
"Maureen, I was afraid Harry was still angry, so I went to his dorm this morning to say sorry."
"I was worried people would spread rumors about last night, so I even went out of my way to explain things for him in our own department group chat. And instead of appreciating it, he stole the cuff links you gave me."
"I didn't want to blow it up and make things worse for him, so I called him aside on his own. We're all friends. I figured he could just give them back and that'd be the end of it. But he actually tried to hit me..."
As he said it, he threw a glance at the other student.
The guy was his friend, and he nodded right away. "Yeah, I saw it with my own eyes. Harrison's the one who stole the cuff links!"
He snatched my bag without a word and turned it upside down.
And there, mixed in with everything, were the diamond cuff links.
I looked at Maureen in a panic, trying to explain. "I didn't. He was the one who first—"
"Enough!"
Maureen cut me off, her eyes full of disappointment.
"Harrison, Merlin looks out for you every step of the way, and you just can't leave him alone. You'd even steal your own friend's things? Do you really hate seeing him do well that much?"
"You really are a fatherless, motherless nobody, no upbringing at all. Apologize to Merlin right now!"
I stared at her, unable to believe it.
Back before I found my mother, when people called me a bastard, I felt small too. I envied everyone who had family that loved them.
It was Maureen who had held me close, aching for me, who said,
"Harry, you're the most wonderful boy I've ever known. In my heart, you're better than any of the people who have parents."
"From now on I'm your family. I'll love you double, enough for the parents you never had too."
So it's true. The person who knows you best.
Is the one who knows exactly where to sink the knife for the most pain.
I looked at her without any expression. "And if I won't?"
Maureen held my gaze for a long moment, then turned to the others who had come running.
"Call the police now."
"And put it on the broadcast. Announce it to the whole school. Harrison Harding, design department, is a thief."
Someone tried to reason with her. "Maureen, are you sure? If you do this, Harrison won't just get a major disciplinary mark and forced leave."
"He'll have a record too. It could hurt his job prospects down the road. The things have already been found anyway, so maybe..."
Maureen's face was cold.
"No. If he dares steal from Merlin now, who knows what he might do to hurt him later."
"He needs to be taught a lesson. Only then will he learn."
Before long, the whole school knew I was a thief.
Amid a chorus of curses, the police put me in the car.
But Maureen chased after me and said in a low voice,
"Harry, Merlin has a good heart. He's willing to settle this with you. But because those cuff links are fairly valuable, you'll have to stay inside for a month before you can be released on bail."
"Use these days to really reflect. I'm doing this for your own good. A record's nothing to be afraid of. Worst case, I'll take care of you in the future."
Watching her choose to believe Merlin without a moment's hesitation, without a single thought for my future.
I let out a soft laugh.
"Maureen, let's break up."
Maureen froze. Before she could get anything out, the car door had already closed in front of her.
Watching the car pull away, something in her went hollow for no reason she could name.
As if she were about to lose something in that moment.
Inside the car, I turned to the young officer beside me.
"Hello. I have solid proof that I'm innocent."
...
An hour later, I was released, cleared of all charges.
I called my academic advisor and asked him, once my withdrawal application went through, to mail the papers to me overseas.
I boarded a flight to a foreign country alone.
This place, I didn't want to stay in it a moment longer.
Three days later, Maureen had no classes that morning and thought she'd go visit me at the station, only to run into my academic advisor in the hallway.
When he heard what she was planning, he frowned.
"You don't need to go. The police already figured it out. Harry was innocent."
"He left to study abroad that same day."
