The putative couple were still recognizable as being the same people on both screens, but there were some notable differences. Shinjiro developed this subtle afterglow effect that put him on the sexy side of cute, while Kit's transformation was much more pronounced with both his body and with what he wore. It seemed like he'd finally finished growing into an adult.

Both looked healthier now, with Kit appearing especially so. His once sunken cheeks now looked almost supermodel attractive, and with the T-shirt and shorts he wore, his skin was visible enough to illustrate how exceedingly talented Shinjiro was with the use of makeup. Nonetheless, he still showed signs that he was resisting Shinjiro's makeover, but overall, that war had already been lost.

On the older paused footage, my friends looked somewhat mismatched, but on the real-time feed they looked liked they belonged together.

Even seated at a table, their usual dynamic was always there. Shin was the skinny and short one, while Kit was taller and far more muscular. This contrast alone was noticeable, but not in a “David and Goliath” kind of way. Both were still fairly average in height, but what they wore could accentuate their differences, or make them less apparent. Back then, before my meddling, they had almost diametrically opposing styles. Now they almost look like they coordinated their outfits, but in reality it wasn't “they,” it was all just Shinjiro. He deliberately chose those outfits so that they would match without seeming like they were.

In the old footage, Shin wore a tight fitting black T-shirt with a mess of gray, red, and blue that was some sort of printed logo or design. His black hair was shorter than it is now, but still styled fashionably in a meticulously messy way. To most, he looked vaguely Asian or Hispanic, but few ever guessed that he is actually part Asian and part Hispanic. His father is a Japanese immigrant turned naturalized American citizen, while his mother was a Hispanic immigrant who'd been separated from her parents at a very young age.

Kit originally had a sort of grungy and disheveled appearance, but now that's been mostly abandoned. It wasn't that his clothes looked old or dirty, but rather that they didn't fit him very well. Just as he had in the frozen frame of the video, Kit sometimes wore an undershirt that was either too big or very loose on him. However, what compounded the issue was that whatever he wore on top of that tended be too small.

Still, even beneath his grungy appearance, it was hard to hide his athletic build. His sharp facial features and high cheek bones would have made him very attractive, but there was also a hollowness there that, overall, made his face seem only slightly attractive. This worked against him, in a sense, because his good looks hid health issues that neither he, nor Shin, were aware of. However, his unflattering attire was kind of deliberate because he did not like the attention he garnered when he appeared as attractive as he really was. There's more to it than that, but the gist was that Kit was just as fucked up on the inside as he looked on the outside.

In the video, he wore a gray T-shirt beneath a camo colored hoodie, unzipped, with its long sleeves rolled up enough to show a few scars on his forearms. Both the shirt and the hoodie were baggy on him, practically draping his frame, but the hoodie seemed slightly smaller. His large biceps and wide chest were often difficult to hide, and this time the sleeves on the hoodie were tight enough to show hints of his muscular physique.

He looked to be well-tanned, but that was just his complexion. His light-brown hair was messily unkempt, and with the way it hung over his ears and piercing amber eyes, it desperately needed to be cut.

Mr. Author sat hunched over examining the still image, but he seemed hesitant to touch the device. He was former alumni from some bygone era—probably the stone age—where they might, or might not, have used writing slates instead of paper. Actually, I doubt it was that long ago since the school name still had the word “Zephyrus” in it. Even though he is not part of the faculty, he has some sort of long-term relationship or association with the university, the details of which I did not care to learn. The only relevant bit was that he has been on campus regularly enough to know that security cameras were not common in the classroom or cafeterias.

He turned to me, his eyebrow raised, giving me a look of distrust. Before he could say anything, I pressed a button on the video player—a real button and not the fake digital kind—and the footage immediately began to play. Just as in the real-time feed, the two sat next to each other on the same side of the table having some sort of discussion. Shin was talking animatedly, while Kit sat motionless, like the play button had no effect on him.

Kit sat with his elbow on the table, using his hand to prop up his head, facing away from Shin while staring off into the distance. At first glance, it appeared as though he wasn't even listening to his friend, but based on his expression, he was simply trying to hide his amusement.

Shinjiro was in the midst of explaining something, his hands moving lively while he talked. "… numbers! Seriously, the first week was just about numbers; real, imaginary, natural, and blah-blah, whatever. Then he added stuff like addition and multiplication and called them groups, and I was like, ‘Am I even in the right class?’ thinking this was some low-level remedial course."

Without hiding his amusement, Kit turned to face his friend directly. It was sudden like he'd just come to life. "Hahaha. Well, you weren't totally wrong there. Did you even think that it might be a high-level advanced course?"

Shin crossed his arms and grumpily said, "No, not really. I just … ," but then didn't bother finish the sentence.

Kit did not hesitate to finish his friend's thought. "—you just assumed you wouldn't do something as dumb as take a high-level math course?"

"It's called ‘Modern Algebra.’ Algebra! I thought it was like, solving-quadratic-equations, algebra," he said, and then reacted to Kit's amusement, adding, "Fucking hilarious, right?" his words dripping with sarcasm.

The audio was pretty clear but slightly tinny and distant in that way people tend to associate with hidden or clandestine footage. Some of that effect was added artificially during editing because expectations needn't always be subverted.

Shin's mood changed quickly, and he said, almost pleadingly, "Are you sure you don't know any high-level math?"

"Yeah, … I'm sure," Kit said with a sad and defeated tone. "And you're sure you can't drop it?"

"It's been almost a week since the end of the add/drop period. I tried the professor but he didn't seem to be very … sympathetic. The registrar says, ‘sure you can drop it, but you'll just fail that course for the semester.’ Very helpful."

Kit sat up and said, more seriously, "We'll just have to find you a tutor."

"I think the people who'd tutor that subject, are also taking that class."

Kit said, with a goofy smile, "Technically, they can't tutor a class they haven't taken yet," which made Shin glare at him. "Okay, okay," he added, placatingly. "I get what you mean. But there's got to be someone that's taken it already."

Shin's attention shifted to something in his hands that he was fiddling with. After a few seconds of that, he spoke, but was sadder and less lively than before. "I asked a few people in the class and they said I was pretty much fucked. This course is taught every other year, and only juniors and seniors take it." Then he looked back at Kit, concern evident on his face as he said, much more quietly, "All the students that took the course have already graduated."

"Shit, man," Kit said, sitting a bit straighter. "I don't think you'll be able to pass that class without some help—like divine intervention—so you might have to think about taking a different math course over the summer to replace it." He looked away and added, "But yeah, … that's for your degree requirements. As for your GPA … I don't know, man."

Clearly displeased by this response, Shin changed the subject.

"How's organic chemistry 2 going?"

"I think everyone in the lab course hates me."

Shin laughed and nearly choked on some chips he was eating. "Pfft! Hehehe, why do you think that?"

"They all sort of stare at me when I'm not looking."

Shin mumbled something unintelligible, and Kit gave him a grunt-like "Huh?"

Instead of responding, Shin quietly finished off the small bag of chips, but his expression had become noticeably gloomy again. Like that they sat in companionable silence, which was a common occurrence for them.

Finally, after taking a drink from his water bottle, Shin said, "Maybe they see through your awful disguise," his voice nearly monotone, but tinged with what I now recognize as regret and resentment. That was always the tone he used when he talked fatalistically about his friendship with Kit and the impossibility of their being something more.

Completely oblivious to this, Kit said, "It's not like that," somewhat defensively. "You know how it was back then," then they lapsed into another of their periods of companionable silence, both appearing distant and contemplative.

It took me a moment to recall what I've learned, since then, about the taboo topic Kit mention.