Chapter 2

She blinked, startled, then stood up with an apologetic, embarrassed smile.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I thought you weren't coming in this morning. Julian told me you were busy writing your Master's thesis and wouldn't be in the lab much."

"Julian told you that?"

"Yeah," she tilted her head. "Sera, could you help me look at this data model? I've adjusted the parameters so many times, but the fitting curve is still totally off."

I looked at her.

Her eyes were clear, her expression incredibly sincere. She looked exactly like an innocent junior student asking a senior for help.

But then, my eyes fell on her finger.

She was wearing a ring.

It was silver, delicate, and very elegant.

I recognized that ring.

For Julian's birthday last year, I spent half my monthly allowance to buy us a pair of matching couple's rings.

At the time, he said it was too childish and refused to wear his. I told him I'd wear mine anyway, and he just shrugged and said, "Whatever."

Later, I ended up losing mine somewhere.

And now, that exact same ring was on Chloe's finger.

"That's a nice ring," I said quietly.

She looked down at her hand, a soft blush creeping up her cheeks.

"Julian gave it to me," she whispered. "He said he just bought it on a whim. I don't even know if he was serious..."

On a whim.

The ring I bought with my own hard-earned money was given to another girl.

"I'll look at the data model this afternoon," I said, turning to my locker to grab my lab notebook.

"Thank you so much!" her voice piped up behind me, sweet as honey.

I didn't look back.

At noon, I was eating lunch at the campus cafeteria.

Julian slid into the seat across from me, placing his tray down.

"Sera, don't overthink the paper thing."

He cut into his steak. "Chloe really needs this publication. Her family isn't doing well financially, and she needs this to secure a spot in the fast-track PhD program. She can't do it without a paper."

"So my hard work should just be handed over to her?"

"It's not handing it over, it's resource sharing!"

He looked at me, his tone condescending, like he was lecturing a stubborn child. "You're the senior student here. What's wrong with helping out a junior? Besides, your name is still on it. Even if you're not the first author, having your name in the acknowledgments is still good."

I set my fork down with a sharp clink.

"Julian, eighty percent of the work on this paper—from the initial idea to the experiments and the actual writing—was done by me. You didn't even do enough to deserve first authorship, yet you kicked me off completely and gave it to her. Do you honestly think that's fair?"

His face shifted, turning impatient and slightly guilty.

"Sera, can you stop being so aggressive? Our advisor, Higgins, approved the author list. He thinks it's fine."

"Higgins approved this?"

"Yes," he avoided my eyes. "I discussed it with him. He feels that as a newcomer, Chloe needs a heavy-weight paper to build her profile. You're graduating soon anyway, you don't need this one."

I stared at him.

He couldn't even look me in the eye.

"Fine," I said, standing up. "Since Higgins agreed to this, I'll go talk to him myself."

"Hey!" He reached out to stop me, his voice rising. "Stop throwing a tantrum, okay? You're making things awkward for everyone."

"Awkward?" I looked down at him. "Julian, you stole my research to please another girl, and now you're telling me I'm throwing a tantrum?"