ch 1

Professor Aria was known for her silence. Her students often whispered that she could teach an entire class without raising her voice above a soft note. She was brilliant, precise, and a little untouchable.

Professor Adrian, on the other hand, was her opposite. Sharp, confident, with a voice that filled lecture halls and a smile that stirred whispers among students. He teased, he challenged, he provoked—especially Aria.

They were rivals. Everyone knew it. Their debates in seminars became legendary, intellectual duels that lit sparks across the faculty. And yet, underneath the barbed words, there was something else. A tension neither dared to speak of.

They showed it in smaller ways. Aria, quietly slipping him a rare book she’d found, pretending it wasn’t for him. Adrian, casually defending her research at a meeting, pretending it didn’t matter. Their eyes lingered longer than necessary.A secret crush has started between them.They both knew. But neither confessed.

Then one morning, Adrian wasn’t there. His seat in the faculty lounge sat empty, and though Aria told herself she didn’t care, she found her steps slowing by his office door. She searched, pretending she wasn’t searching. For a week, he didn’t come.

And then, when her old friend came from another state to visit, Aria thought the distraction would help. They wandered into the college gardens, laughing softly together—until they stumbled upon something impossible.

A helicopter. Hidden, disguised among the trees.

Inside, a secret lab. Metal walls, humming machines, and in a cage— a chimpanzee. But its eyes were wrong. Too intelligent, too knowing.

Before they could retreat, shadows fell across them. Two men stepped out, strangers with cold smiles. The next thing she knew, rough hands dragged her inside.

Kidnapped.

The hours blurred together. A virus, they overheard. One that could twist humans into beasts, beasts into humans. And the chimpanzee in the cage… was already infected.

Adrian came. Reckless, furious, a storm breaking into their prison. He fought, he pulled them out—but it was too late. Somewhere in the chaos, the chimpanzee’s blood had brushed against Aria. She felt it in her veins, a slow-burning fire.

The four of them—Aria, Adrian, her friend, and the strange, shifting chimpanzee—were forced to hide together in a single apartment. It was small, suffocatingly close. Too many bodies, too many secrets.

The chimpanzee, in its human form, was nothing like Aria. She was bold, exposed, shameless. She wore revealing clothes and draped herself against Adrian’s side, whispering with sly smiles. Aria said nothing, only tightened her grip on her teacup, watching silently.

Adrian, however, never looked at the creature the way he looked at her. His eyes always found Aria, even when he teased her, even when he smirked across the room.

One night, during dinner, everything cracked.

They sat together at the cramped table. Adrian’s ally had stepped out, leaving just the four of them. Plates clattered, glasses filled. Aria drank more than usual, warmth flushing her pale cheeks.

She ate bowl after bowl of noodles, until finally she leaned back, giggling softly.

“What a tasty noodles,” she murmured, her voice looser than usual. “I can eat more if I want.”

Adrian’s gaze sharpened instantly. His smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he leaned closer.

“Here,” he said, his tone low, deliberate. “Eat this too.”

He offered her food straight from his own plate.

Aria froze, eyes wide.

She refused .

He insisted.

Heat rushed to her cheeks. Across the table, her friend covered a laugh with her hand.

The chimpanzee, in her human form, went rigid. She was seated close to Adrian, almost pressed against his side, but he didn’t so much as glance at her. His eyes were locked only on Aria, teasing, daring her to take the bite.

Aria’s fingers trembled as she reached for the offered food. She wasn’t used to such boldness—not in public, not in front of rivals. Her heart beat hard, too loud in her ears.

The chimpanzee’s hand slid onto Adrian’s arm, nails grazing his sleeve, her body leaning into his. “You shouldn’t waste attention on her,” she whispered, lips too close to his ear.

Adrian didn’t flinch. Instead, he tilted his head, eyes never leaving Aria’s flushed face. “I’ll give attention to whoever I want.”

Her friend burst into giggles at that, enjoying the tension, while Aria lowered her gaze, shy and overwhelmed, but secretly—deeply—thrilled.

It didn’t matter that jealousy simmered at the table. It didn’t matter that danger waited outside the apartment, or that the virus pulsed quietly inside her veins.

In that moment, Adrian had made his choice clear.

And Aria, though too shy to say the words aloud, felt her own walls begin to break.

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