As the car glided toward the school, Fay pulled out her phone.

“Are you at school already?” she sent to the group chat.

‘Pimm.’ The notification chime echoed in the quiet cabin.

“Not yet,” Angel and Len replied almost in unison.

Fay’s thumbs hovered over the screen before she opened a different chat. “Good morning, Kei. Are you at school already?”

The response was nearly instantaneous. ‘Pimm.’ “Morning. Yeah, I’m already in the room.”

A bright, uncontrollable smile tugged at Fay’s lips. Suddenly, the drive felt too slow. As soon as the car pulled up, she was a blur of motion, rushing through the hallways until she reached her classroom. She pushed the door open, the hinges creaking softly.

The room was nearly empty, bathed in the soft morning light. Kei was there, sitting alone, her gaze fixed intently on the world outside the window.

Fay’s pace slowed. A mischievous heat rose in her chest. She crept toward Kei, her footsteps ghosting over the floor until she was standing right behind her. Leaning down, Fay tilted her head, bringing her lips inches from Kei’s ear.

“Good morning,” she whispered.

Kei flinched, startled by the sudden breath against her skin. She whipped her head around to face the intruder, but Fay hadn’t pulled back.

The world stopped.

Their faces were so close that their breath mingled in the narrow space between them a shared, rhythmic heat. Fay didn’t move; she couldn’t. She was trapped in the gravity of Kei’s gaze. Kei’s eyes didn’t just look at her; they searched her. It was a physical weight, a slow, burning inspection that felt like a silent promise.

The spell snapped. Fay gasped, recoiling as if she’d been burned. She stood abruptly, her face flushing a deep crimson. “I...uh....right!”

Tripping over her own feet, she scrambled toward a desk, nearly knocking over a chair, only to realize with a jolt of horror that it wasn’t hers. She pivoted on her heel, stumbling toward her actual seat with a clumsy desperation.

Kei didn’t turn back to the window immediately. She remained as she was, head tilted, watching Fay’s frantic, nervous movements with an unreadable expression. Only when Fay pointedly looked away did Kei finally return her gaze to the glass, her fingers beginning a slow, rhythmic tap against the wood of the desk.

The silence in the room was deafening, yet it was nothing compared to the thundering of Fay’s heart.

As the minutes ticked by, the vacuum of the room began to fill. Angel arrived first, offering a clipped “Good morning” before taking her seat. Soon after, Len walked in, her greeting equally sparse, her eyes shielded by a mask of indifference.

Fay watched them, a frown creasing her brow. There was a chill in the air that had nothing to do with the morning breeze. She sensed a rift between them, a jagged edge where there used to be a smooth friendship but she pushed the thought aside, blaming it on her own heightened nerves.

The tension only solidified during lunch. The three of them sat in the crowded canteen, yet they might as well have been on different planets. The air was frigid.

“Today’s food is actually really delicious, right?” Fay asked, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the vacuum of their silence.

“Yeah,” Len and Angel replied in a flat, synchronized monotone. They didn’t look at her; they didn’t look at each other. They simply stared into the distance, their expressions guarded and cold.

The school day ended with the same heavy atmosphere. At the gate, the goodbyes were brief and hollow. Len and Angel departed together, yet the distance between them as they walked was wider than the pavement allowed.

Fay remained, leaning against the gate, her eyes searching the exiting crowd. When she finally spotted Kei, the tension in her shoulders melted. Kei saw her and smiled a genuine, soft expression that made the earlier awkwardness feel like a distant dream.

“Let’s go?” Fay asked as Kei reached her.

Kei nodded, her smile lingering. “Let’s go.”

Together, they walked toward the white car, leaving the silent chill of the school day behind them.