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“Can I have it?” He still held onto the book like it was a precious object.

I shrugged, not knowing what to say as he slowly slid it inside his jacket.

Something about having Arkane in my childhood bedroom felt both vulnerable and comforting.

He smiled, nodding toward the picture.

“You look just the same. You never smiled a lot even back then, did you?”

“Not really,” I said.

“I thought it was because of your Valerian training.”

“The Valerian Mountain teaches you not to let life change or control you.”

“You all ready to go back?” a voice called out, and I jumped, almost having a heart attack when my gaze flew to see Shouma-kun standing by the door, with a proud look on his face. Arkane, on the other hand, hardly looked affected as he glared at Shouma-kun.

“Shouma-kun,” I chided, holding a hand to my chest. “Did you really have to do that? I thought you were going to page me.”

“Sorry, I had to interrupt the happy couple.” He held up his hands, grinning. “But it’s time to head home.”

I exhaled heavily. It was like he joined this trip just to rile me up.

On the train ride back home, Shouma-kun disappeared somewhere once again, leaving Arkane and me sitting opposite each other in the cabin. And he wouldn’t stop staring at me.

“You should stop.”

He simply raised a brow.

I sighed. “Looking at me that way,” I explained.

“Can’t help it,” he mumbled.

My heated cheeks were making it hard for me to breathe. “I’m not yours, Arkane, and we’re no longer friends or anything,” I reminded him. “Not like we ever were.”

His lips tugged into a smile. “Do you want us to be?”

“Yes, but not just friends. I want us to be more,” I said honestly. “But since that’s impossible for you and me, I want nothing.”

For a second, he just stared, something unrecognizable crossing his eyes. “Do you think I’m incapable of love, Bella?” he asked, a rare vulnerability in his tone.

I paused, shaking my head. “Everyone’s capable of love, Arkane.”

He nodded and thought for a long, hard moment before he pulled out something from his suit pocket and extended it to me. “I lied to you.”

I frowned. “I know…”

He shook his head, smiling sadly. “Not that. I lied to you when I said that all I wanted from you was this.” He waved at the familiar-looking chip that I had carried along for more than a decade before he placed it in my palm. “It’s not.”

I swallowed, my finger tracing over the chip. Something so small that it had the power to change the world or ruin it altogether.

“I don’t want this, Arkane.”

“It’s yours, Bella—your mother made it,” he said it with conviction. Even his eyes told the same. He knew the value of this. This was what his family had been fighting for all this time, so why give it to me like it was nothing?

I sighed, rising before I took the seat next to him. “What would I even do with it?” I mumbled, my fingers twisting the small chip.

“Anything you want,” he said softly. “I won’t hold it against you.”