"Meiko, was Taro this much of a playboy back in Sundara?"
Julia was genuinely just curious.
She didn't notice Meiko's face darkening.
Whitney, however, caught it immediately.
She found Meiko's reaction incredibly suspicious.
If she really wasn't close to Taro like she claimed, why was she getting so angry about his business?
"He is a playboy. If he wasn't so obsessed with Solenian culture and didn't have decent grades, he never would have gotten the exchange student spot,"
Meiko said, her tone laced with righteous indignation.
"Did he steal someone else's spot?"
Whitney asked, intrigued.
Meiko's expression stiffened for a split second before she smiled and shook her head. "No, nothing like that."
He definitely did!
Julia and Whitney exchanged a rare, knowing glance.
The moment she had the chance, Julia immediately spilled the new gossip to Claire.
She used the excuse of practicing her Solenian to make the call.
In reality, it was mostly just Julia running her mouth nonstop while Claire listened, only throwing in a comment here and there.
"Don't you think there's something fishy about this Taro guy? Like maybe he stole Meiko's spot originally."
"But then he went crazy, so Meiko finally got her chance to come."
Claire disagreed.
Even if Taro really had stolen someone's spot, the school wouldn't just send a replacement for no reason.
Unless this Meiko girl had even stronger connections than Taro did.
And if that were true, there was no way her spot could have been stolen in the first place.
"You said Taro is a massive flirt. Maybe they used to be a couple, and things just ended badly," Claire offered casually.
Julia thought that actually made a lot of sense.
"But that seems impossible, right? Meiko is so pretty and gentle."
"Someone like Taro doesn't even deserve her."
"Why wouldn't he deserve her?
As long as the two people involved were fine with it, anything was possible.
When it came to relationships, who could really say?
"Alright, I've gotta run. I'm heading to the hospital," Claire said, wrapping up the call.
"Why are you going to the hospital?" Julia pressed. "Are you sick?"
Claire was speechless. "I'm not sick. I'm visiting a patient."
She was a doctor herself; why would she need to go to the hospital if she were sick?
Julia realized how dumb the question was.
"Okay, let's catch up when you're back."
Julia couldn't shake the feeling that there was definitely some juicy drama between Meiko and Taro.
Ever since coming to Solenia, she had become much more down-to-earth.
Even Whitney had commented that her curiosity had gotten completely out of hand. Claire, on the other hand, just felt there was something deeply wrong with Taro. Why else would he be so terrified of ghosts?
She remembered hearing him frantically mutter the name 'Lilith' that day.
There was a solid chance this Lilith girl had died because of him.
And he had fled to Solenia just to escape his guilt.
Before hanging up, Claire shared her theory with Julia.
A lightbulb went off in Julia's head. "Wat
four ghost story actuallet
scare him into a mental
breakdown?"
"I heard from his roommates that he keeps having manic episodes in his dorm."
"Crying and screaming things like 'don't come looking for me' and 'I didn't mean to do it"."
Claire hadn't expected things to escalate that far.
"Did you tell Meiko that we were the ones who scared him?"
If Meiko and Taro really were a couple, she might just come looking for revenge.
"I'm not stupid."
Julia definitely hadn't breathed a word.
What if they demanded compensation?
She wasn't short on money, but she refused to be anyone's sucker.
After ending the call, Claire drove straight to the hospital.
Upon reaching the specialized VIP ward, she had to grab a temporary badge before
she was allowed inside.
She was here today because Dr. Sterling Senior was away, and
General Darwin had been in
agonizing pain that he personally
called her.
It wasn't even time for his scheduled acupuncture session yet.
Finding the situation strange, Claire
immediately sought out Noah the
moment she arrived to ask
What
was going on.