The Girl in the Dream – Episode 1: Double Life

By day, Akihiro Kuroda looked like any other 17-year-old senior at St. Helena Academy. His uniform was always slightly untidy, his tie loose, and his black hair perfectly messy as though the wind itself styled it. Teachers sighed whenever he walked into class late, and girls whispered about him in the hallways. Akihiro was the school’s golden boy and its worst distraction.

But Akihiro wasn’t just a charming student. Behind his easy smile and careless confidence hid secrets that no one in school could ever imagine. He wasn’t fully human. Born into darkness, Akihiro was a vampire, cursed with immortality and an endless thirst for blood. And if that wasn’t enough, he was also the only son of Veloria’s most feared mafia boss. By midnight, while his classmates revised equations and history notes, Akihiro sat at bloodstained tables, listening to men twice his age call him sir. He was the heir to an empire of crime, destined to rule it all.

Two lives. One boy. And yet, for all his power, Akihiro felt strangely hollow.

That night, after a bloody confrontation with rival gang members, Akihiro returned to his room. He threw off his jacket, loosened his shirt collar, and collapsed onto his bed. For once, the endless weight of his double life pressed hard on him. Closing his eyes, he drifted into sleep.

And then—he dreamed.

Akihiro found himself standing in a garden he didn’t recognize. The moon above glowed brighter than any city light, bathing everything in silver. Strange flowers bloomed with an otherworldly glow. For the first time in centuries, he felt… peace.

Then she appeared.

A girl stepped out from the mist, her figure delicate yet powerful. She wore a simple white gown that fluttered with the breeze. Her long dark hair framed a face that radiated innocence, but her eyes—her eyes carried a strength that made Akihiro’s immortal heart stutter.

He stared, uncharacteristically lost for words. “Who… are you?” he asked, his voice breaking the silence.

The girl tilted her head, studying him with a gaze that seemed to pierce through all his masks—the playboy charm, the mafia arrogance, even the vampire’s coldness. Then she whispered words that sent a shiver through his body.

“You’ve been running from yourself… but your darkness ends with me.”

Before Akihiro could move toward her, before he could even ask her name, the garden dissolved into mist. He woke up suddenly, fangs bared, sweat dampening his skin. His chest rose and fell rapidly, his mind spinning.

Akihiro had lived lifetimes, witnessed empires rise and fall, but never had a dream left him trembling. Who was she? Why did her words burn into his soul?

The next morning, Akihiro walked into St. Helena Academy like always, pretending to be the untouchable heartthrob. He leaned against the doorway, flashing a smirk at the girls who gasped at his entrance. But then—he froze.At the back of the classroom, sitting quietly with a book in her hands, was a new girl.

The same girl from his dream.

To be continued…

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