Kyle looked at Joseph.
"What?" Joseph said. "It’s relevant."
"It’s not relevant," Kyle said.
"It explains the hobody thing," Joseph said. "He’d rather be wherever she is."
"That’s—" Kyle paused, seemingly deciding that debating the point would only escalate the situation instead of letting it go.
"I’m just private about it," he said to Mike specifically. "That’s all."
"Fair," Mike said, and dropped it in the clean way that made Kyle’s shoulders relax slightly.
"So about his girlfriend?" Mike said to Joseph, turning it around.
"Situationally complicated," Joseph said, which was clearly a well-worn phrase for sothing he had said many tis. "I et many people. It’s difficult to be specific."
"Captain of the football team in his first month," Kyle said to Mike, with the tone of soone quoting back a piece of information for context. "It’s been a busy social calendar."
"I can imagine," Mike said.
"It’s a professional hazard," Joseph said, entirely without guilt.
"I know the feeling," Mike said.
Joseph looked at him. "Do you?"
"I’ve had busy periods," Mike said. "I’ve been here in this country for two weeks."
"You’ve been here two weeks?" Joseph said. "That seems odd."
"It’s been a productive two weeks," Mike said.
Joseph stared at him for a mont before laughing again—his laugh was genuine and easy, just like before. "Okay, I like him," he said to Kyle. "But don’t think of it as gay, though."
"I’m reserving judgnt," Kyle said, but he was smiling.
"Smart man," Mike said. "Judgnt should be reserved."
"See," Joseph said. "That’s what I an. He just says things."
"Most people don’t," Mike said. "They think and then decide not to."
"Why do you speak that way?" Kyle asked, his tone not challenging but genuinely curious.
Mike looked at him. "Because the things worth saying are usually the ones people are deciding not to," he said. "If you only say the safe things, you only know the safe version of a conversation."
Kyle sat with that for a mont. "And you’re not interested in the safe version."
"Eh... Not usually," Mike said.
The three of them sat in the loose, comfortable arrangent of people who had been talking long enough that the initial structure of the conversation had dissolved into sothing more informal. The quad was thinning out as the midday period shifted.
Sowhere across the campus, a bell marked the next hour.
"You eat yet?" Joseph said to both of them.
"No," Mike said.
"Canteen or the place on the east path?" Joseph looked between them. "The East Path Place does a thing with grilled chicken that’s actually worth it."
"East path," Kyle said.
"East path," Mike agreed.
They went there.
During lunch, Joseph elaborated on the football program and his vision for the new captaincy. His plans were specific and well-considered, demonstrating that his ambitions extended beyond re headlines; he had actually put in the effort to map them out.
Kyle posed insightful questions regarding the organizational aspects, indicating he had contemplated institutional structure in ways that aligned with his policy interests.
Mike listened more than he spoke, which both of them were now starting to recognize as a pattern without treating it as a problem.
At one point Joseph said, "You’re quiet for soone who says what he thinks."
"I say what I think when I have sothing to say," Mike said. "I don’t say things to fill the space."
"Most people do," Kyle said.
"I know," Mike said. "You don’t, either. I noticed that."
Kyle looked slightly surprised. "I talk plenty."
"When you have sothing to say," Mike said. "Not otherwise."
Kyle considered this. "That’s true," he said. "I didn’t know it was visible."
"Only if you’re paying attention," Mike said.
Joseph looked between them. "Is this what economists do? Notice each other’s conversational habits?"
"It’s what people who pay attention do," Mike said. "Program doesn’t matter."
"Terrifying," Joseph said pleasantly, and finished his chicken.
They parted at the end of the lunch break. Joseph headed toward the sports complex, while Kyle went toward the afternoon lecture block. Mike watched them go from the path junction.
"Kyle Hudson," he thought. "Private and specific, he values quality over quantity. He is protective of what he has. Trusting slowly, he gives his complete trust once it’s earned."
He contemplated the impression further. ’Joseph Hayden. Casts a wide net, exudes genuine warmth, and has a knack for reading people quickly and accurately.’
’He either knows about Madison or has strong suspicions. He refrains from getting involved because he respects Kyle’s privacy, rather than out of ignorance.’
’Both are worth knowing,’ Mike thought. ’For different reasons.’
He started back toward the library.
’The Madison situation is its own thing,’ he thought. ’Kyle doesn’t need to be a casualty of it. The goal was never Kyle.’
He put it away. There was a seminar at three and material he hadn’t finished, and Wednesday still had several hours left.
He went to find a bench and read until it was ti.
...
The transit ho was quieter than the morning version, as it always was.
Haruka was next to him, having t him at the campus gate at the end of the day, a coordination that had developed without either of them formally proposing it.
She was scrolling through sothing on her phone, displaying the focused expression of a student juggling ssages and coursework, as students often do when they have more tasks than available ti.
Mike gazed out the window for a while. The city in the late afternoon held a different quality than in the morning. It felt less purposeful and more transitional, with people moving toward their destinations rather than away from them.
He pulled out his phone and opened his ssages.
Madison Reed appeared in his contacts under her real na, as disguising it felt like an unnecessary effort.
He typed, "I need to speak with you. Co by this evening," and added the address before sending it.
Then he looked at Haruka.
"I’m going to have soone over tonight," he said.
She didn’t look up from her phone right away. After a mont, she did. "Soone..."
"Yes," Mike said.
"The sa soone as last night?"
"Different soone," Mike said.
Haruka stared at him. "Different."
"Different," Mike confird.
She glanced at her phone, then at him, and back at it again, as if hoping the screen might provide so context to make this situation clearer.
"Mike," she said.
"Yeah."
"How long have you been in this country?"
"Two weeks and two days," Mike said.
"Two weeks and two days," she repeated.
"And you already have—" She paused, seeming to determine that the sentence could lead to too many interpretations, and then let it go. "Different people. On consecutive nights."
"The first one was last night," Mike said. "Tonight is the first ti for this one."
"That’s not actually clarifying anything," she said.
"You asked," Mike said.
"I did," she agreed. "I’m regretting it."
She put her phone in her lap and looked at him with the expression of soone recalibrating their understanding of a situation.
"Is she from the building too?" Haruka said. "Please tell she’s not from the building."
"She’s not from the building," Mike said.
Haruka let out a sigh. "Okay, that’s sothing," she said, pausing for a mont. "Is she from the campus?"
"Adjacent to the campus," Mike said.
"What does adjacent an?"
"It ans I know her from sowhere near the campus," Mike said.
"You’re being very deliberately unclear," Haruka said.
"I’m being appropriately private," Mike said.
"That’s your word for unclear," she said.
She picked her phone back up, then set it down again, clearly still deep in thought. "How do you manage this? Two weeks. Two people."
"You attend seminars, walk to transit stops, and eat in the canteen. When is there ti for—" She gestured vaguely. "All of this."
"You make ti for what matters," Mike said.
"Won matter to you," Haruka stated, her tone not judgntal but rather observational.
"People matter to ," Mike said. "Won specifically tend to find that interesting."
She looked at him for a long mont. "That is either very charming or very dangerous."
"Can’t it be both?" Mike said.
She pressed her lips together. "That’s what you said to Ellie about sothing yesterday."
"It applies broadly," Mike said.
She shook her head slowly, but the corner of her mouth curled in a way that indicated she found sothing funny and was trying not to acknowledge it.
"Okay," she said. "Fine. Different person tonight, near campus."
She glanced out the window. "Is she going to be there long?"
"Don’t know yet," Mike said.
"Mike."
"I’ll be considerate," Mike said. "I told you this morning."
"You told this morning about the one from last night," she said. "This is a new variable."
"The sa principle applies," Mike said.
She looked at him. "You just said the sa principle, like this is a mathematics problem."
"Ain’t it?" Mike said.
"No," she said. "It’s not."
But the corner of her mouth had given up trying. "Okay... If I knock on the wall twice, it ans I need to sleep and the noise needs to stop."
"Oh wow." Mike looked at her. "You worked that out fast."
"I’m a practical person," she said. "I decided this in transit this morning, actually."
"As a policy... In case of future events." She t his eyes with the frank, slightly resigned expression of soone who had correctly predicted they would need a contingency plan. "If I knock twice, you need to keep it down."
"Deal," Mike said. ’Hell nah, hahaha! I’m going to make her start to feel frustrated until she’s going to be on her knees to soon!’
’This is the approach I’ve planned for this girl.’
"Good." She went back to her phone. "Who is she?"
"Private," Mike said.
"Right, of course." She typed sothing. Then, without looking up, "Is she nice?"
’This fucking girl... she really is curious about anything.’
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