Star-Crossed

Chapter 1

Sela slightly jumped in surprise when she suddenly felt a hand on her hair. She tilted her head only to see a girl around her age, dusting something off her hair.

The girl is wearing a school uniform which is somehow unfamiliar to her.

Pale skin.

Straight long black hair.

Hazel eyes.

Glossy lips.

Sela couldn't help but notice how beautiful the girl is.

"There was...." the girl paused, showing her hand which has white powder."....I think this is flour?"

A faint blush appeared on Sela's cheeks as she hung her head low to avoid the girl's gaze."A-Ah yes. Thank you."

There was silence.

Which Sela finds a little bit weird. She thought the girl would laugh or at least ask her why she has flour on her hair so she looked up only to realize that she was all alone in this waiting shed now.

Sela tried looking for the girl but she really couldn't see her anymore.

'Is she a ghost?' she couldn't help but thought. It's kind of possible too judging how pale the girl's skin was.'Or am I just hallucinating?' she then lifted her hand to check on her hair.

It was clean.

And Sela was once again reminded how much she hates her life.

Sela never got the chance to meet her real parents. Andrea, The one who took care of her, is a single mom who unfortunately lost her real child while giving birth.

Andrea never lied to her about not being her real mother.

Blessing in disguise, that's what she always used to tell her.

That one night, while she was still grieving over losing her child, someone knocked on her door and when she opened it, she was greeted by a crying baby with a little note of 'Please take care of Marsela'

Sela would like to thank her real parents for giving her to Andrea because the latter never failed to make her feel like she's really her own daughter.

Sela, in short, is happy.

Or should she say, was happy.

Sela was only 12 years old when Andrea died. Andrea was sick. And Sela hated herself for not noticing her mother's suffering.

Before dying, Andrea made sure she has transferred all of her properties to Sela.

And that money was what has been keeping Sela alive for 5 years now.

She's enrolled in a prestigious university but it's all thanks to the scholarship that she suddenly received out of nowhere - she couldn't even remember how she got that.

And yet, no thanks as well, because ever since she enrolled in that university, her life becomes a living hell.

Students there, especially the rich and powerful ones, hobby is bullying all of the scholars. And yes, she's included in that.

She even has it pretty rough because the captain of the basketball team, Miggy, has a crush on her. She rejected him already, a lot of times, but still, those witches who like him won't stop bothering her.

It also doesn't help that Miggy, isn't like those male leads in a drama where they will protect the poor girl from the bullies.

'If you go out with me, that's the only time I will protect you'

Yeah, that's what that asshole Miggy once told her when he saw her drenched with water.

She hates them. And she hates herself.

Sometimes she thought if reincarnation is real, then she would like to die now and just be reincarnated.

Her life right now is a trash anyway.




--


It was already 8 in the evening when Sela realized that she doesn't have any food in her fridge.

And she doesn't like sleeping with empty stomach so she quickly put on a jacket before heading outside.

There's a convenience store just a few blocks away from her home so she's planning to settle for a ready to eat food there.

"Goodevening!" the store clerk greeted her in which she just respond with a meek nod and smile.

She took a cup of noodles, donut and fresh milk. She paid them and thanked the store clerk before heading out.

'This will do for the night.' she muttered under her breath.

Sela was walking back home from the convenience store when she suddenly felt weird. She feels like there's someone following her so she kept on looking back only to see a clear alley.

Until she heard a rustle.

Together with heavy footsteps.

And Sela wasn't brave enough to look back. So she kept walking but now, in an obvious rush. That might have alerted the person following her because she heard the footsteps grew louder.

Sela took all of the courage in her to finally look back to see who's following her and terror quickly flashed in her face when she saw a seemingly drunk man around his late twenties, preparing to chase after her as soon as their eyes met.

Sela ran. She even screamed. But it was too late because she felt a hand harshly grabbed her hair.

She was pulled back to a corner and her back hardly hit the wall when the man pushed her into it.

The man removed his hands off from Sela's mouth and she took that chance to scream for help but was quickly stopped when he punched her on the stomach.

Sela winced in pain.

"Be quiet" the man warned her. A strong scent of alcohol invaded her nose and she really wanted to puke.

As much as Sela hates her life, God must have hated her life more.

Being abandoned by her real parents.

The only one she regarded as her family died.

Experienced non-stop bullying from her schoolmates.

And now, Yes, right now. She's about to get raped and probably end up being killed.

'Whatever. It's not like I still want to live anyway.' Sela thought as she tried to accept her unfortunate reality.

But her tears betrayed her.

She closed her eyes.

'I want to die anyway, right?' she continuously told herself as she fight the urge to shed more tears.

She was ready to face her reality but when she opened her eyes again, she saw the sick man who has been trying to rape her lying on the ground while cringing in pain.

She tried to look who did that to the man but failed to see anyone.

Sela stood rooted as she gazed at the cringing man below her. She wanted to run and escape but everything was too overwhelming.

This is not the first time this happened to her. There were a lot of times where the bullies in her school would wait for her outside the university to pick on her but sometimes, they were the ones who would end up in trouble.

It's like she has an invisible saviour.

Sela's eyes suddenly grew wide when she sees the man trying to stand up. And so with her wobbly knees, she tried slowly walking away from her spot while keeping her gaze still on the man.

When she saw that the man had already managed to stand up, that's the time where Sela made a dash.

She ran. She kept on running with her head tilted back to check if the man is following her. When she couldn't see the man anymore, she brought her gaze back in front and that's when she realized that there is an incoming car that was just a few meters away from hitting her.

The light coming from the car blinded Sela's vision and she once again felt hopeless.

'But I don't really want to die' was what her last thought as she waits for the car to hit her.