“We passed! We passed! Yay, yay, we passed!”

Nao watched Wen Xulong perform a jaunty little victory jig, holding his graded exam papers and nearly crying happy tears. Nao couldn’t help giggling a little. 

He was very glad to have a friend like this on some days.

“Shini-sama, isn’t this great?” Wen Xulong leaned over to speak to Rin. The latter was sitting at his desk with his cheek in his hand, face hidden in his hair. He didn’t answer.

“Shini-sama?”

Wen Xulong waved his hand in front of Rin. When the other boy still showed no response, Wen Xulong smacked him. “Hey, wake up! We passed!”

Nao gaped. “Xulong-ge—”

Rin startled awake and punched Wen Xulong without much force. “Quit that, you dumbass!”

Wen Xulong waved the papers in front of Rin. “Exams are over! We passed!”

Rin glared at Wen Xulong, but nonetheless looked down to check his own grades. He’d gotten As in most subjects, but only a B in math.

“. . .My aunt is going to kill me,” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah, my granny’s gonna beat me with a baseball bat,” Wen Xulong said cheerfully. “I got Bs in chemistry and social studies. Nao-chan, what were your grades?”

“Ah, um. . .” Nao hesitated for a moment, then said, “I got A+s. . .”

Wen Xulong put his hands together and bowed to Nao. “Nao-chan, you’re a god too. . .”

Nao chuckled, self-conscious. “Well, I did study a lot. Your grades were still very good, please don’t judge yourself based on comparisons.”

“You’re right, I actually did better on this exam than usual,” Wen Xulong said. “Maybe my granny won’t beat me up. Nao-chan, please continue to tutor me in the future!”

“Don’t get too excited yet, Long-xiong,” Rin said. “We still have our simultests after this period ends.”

“Right, I almost forgot,” Wen Xulong said. “I bet we’ll do great!”

“Sorry if this is a dumb question, but. . .what are simultests?” Nao asked.

He’d heard the other two mention them numerous times, and he also knew that he had to take one. But he’d been so busy between work and school that he hadn’t had a chance to look it up.

“Simulated tests,” Rin answered without looking up. “They take place in a virtual environment that’s mostly indistinguishable from reality. You wear a thin bodysuit that sends electric signals through your nerves to emulate sensations such as touch and pain. It’s basically a safer version of field testing.”

“They’re trippy as hell,” Wen Xulong said with a grin. “Shini-sama threw up after his first one.”

Rin pushed Wen Xulong, flushing. “So did you, dipshit.”

Nao suddenly felt apprehensive. “Will I throw up too?”

“. . .It’s not too likely,” Rin said. “You won’t be filling an offensive role—you’re there as support. Protecting you is a priority, so you probably won’t be wounded.”

“Even if you were on offense, you’re so cute that your team would protect you with their lives anyway,” Wen Xulong said.

A few of their nearby classmates who overheard this chimed their agreement; Nao couldn’t help grinning shyly, a blush spreading over his face. That grin faded a bit when he caught sight of Rin’s irritated expression. He watched as Rin got up and slung his bag over his shoulder.

“Gonna grab a bite to eat before the tests,” he said lazily. After that, he spoke a couple of syllables Nao didn’t understand. "じゃあね."

Then, as if remembering something suddenly, Rin stopped, then glanced over his shoulder and met Nao’s gaze.

“Nao, you should eat something too.”

Rin’s gaze lingered for a second longer before he turned and left. Nao found himself staring off into space.

Something in Rin’s eyes had changed.

Normally, there was a trace of distance, guardedness, within them. No, not quite, it was more like. . .some sort of hard bitterness, not aimed at anyone in particular but there all the same.

But all there had been in Rin’s aquamarine gaze just now was tacit empathy and understanding—like the night when they had met in the rain after visiting their parents’ graves. Just as it had then, that look softened Nao’s heart, warmed him to the bone.

It hadn’t made his heart race like this the last time, though. . .

Nao frowned in thought while he dug his lunchbox out, but he couldn’t figure out why his heart had started pounding out of nowhere when Rin looked at him. He only snapped back to reality when Wen Xulong spoke.

“Don’t worry about the simultests too much, Nao-chan,” he said. “The first time around, it’s scary, but it’s not so bad after that.”

He'd actually forgotten all about the simultests for a moment; now that Wen Xulong had mentioned them, he tried to focus once more.

“. . .You mentioned teams?” Nao said. “Do we get grouped up randomly, or. . ?”

“Sometimes,” Wen Xulong answered. “Anyone who isn’t already part of a team gets a random group or partner. Shini-sama and I teamed up at the beginning, so we’ve been testing together since the start.”

“. . .I see.”

Nao took a bite of his lunch and chewed with a pensive expression.

He didn’t actually have many friends other than Rin and Wen Xulong. He’d chatted in passing with a few of his classmates, and he texted in the school’s group chat once in a while whenever someone pinged him for help. But the only person he talked to regularly besides Rin and Wen Xulong was Kit, and she was in a different level. He couldn’t think of anyone he might be able to team up with that wasn’t basically a total stranger.

While Nao was still gnawing on this issue, a bright red rectangle fell in front of him.

He looked up. Rin was sliding back into his previous seat with a stick of mitarashi dango in his hand. Expressionlessly, he said, “You like these, right?”

Wen Xulong grinned and mock-punched Rin’s shoulder. “Shini-sama, have you taken a shine to our beloved Nao-chan?”

Rin’s face reddened and he glared at Wen Xulong. “It fell out of the machine with mine, so I brought it to him.”

Wen Xulong laughed heartily, accusing Rin of lying, while Nao picked up the Pocky. “Thank you, Rin-san.”

Rin glanced at Nao with a noise of acknowledgement before tearing one of the dumplings off the stick with his teeth. For a moment, Nao was distracted by Rin’s lips.

A sudden dizzy urge rushed over Nao. He tore his eyes away, and a question abruptly popped into his mind.

Holding his tablet under the edge of the table and munching on Pocky, Nao sent Wen Xulong a message.

[You: Xulong-ge, I have a question that’s maybe a little odd]

[Xulong-ge: Shoot]

[You: . . .What makes people want to kiss each other?]

Wen Xulong read this message and choked on his water.

Rin frowned and leaned over. “What?”

Nao panicked for a second, but Wen Xulong’s reflexes were good. He lifted his tablet so Rin couldn’t peek and easily said, “Accidentally opened the front-view camera. I forgot how ugly I look.”

He grinned when Rin rolled his eyes, then typed out a reply.

[Xulong-ge: Nao-chan, lets talk about this later, k? Lmk a good time and place and we’ll meet up over the weekend]

[You: Ok, thank you]

Nao locked his tablet and stowed it away, though the question still lingered in his mind.