Lyan kept looking at her without saying a single word.

Sophia held his gaze with her usual calm expression, waiting for some kind of reaction, and he simply shrugged and raised his hands to his waist, palms open, as if to say yeah, so what?

Without another word, he turned his back on her and walked over to the bed, taking a seat.

Not even two seconds passed.

In which Sophia did exactly the same, sitting down beside him with a proximity that left no space between the two, taking his hands before he could even process the movement and bringing her face close to his with a theatricality that was completely unnecessary given how close they already were.

"Did that damn girl already break your fighting spirit?" she murmured, looking straight into his eyes.

’...What’s wrong with this crazy girl?’

Lyan looked at her with enough uncertainty visible on his face for her to notice it, and Sophia tightened her grip on his hands slightly without getting even a hint of a reaction out of him before continuing, now with a tone that mixed drama with something that, for the first time in the conversation, sounded real.

"I saved you from Lyra at school," she said. "That lunatic was secretly taking pictures of you."

That, at least, caught his attention.

Lyan raised an eyebrow.

’Lyra was the one taking the pictures...?’

He didn’t believe most of what Sophia said by default, that was his tendency with her, and it wasn’t without reason, but the specific detail about the photos stuck with him, because it wasn’t the kind of thing someone just made up at random for attention, and if it was true, it meant that at some point, while he wasn’t looking, Lyra had been there with her phone aimed at him.

"Is that true, or are you joking?" he asked, and he didn’t say it as an accusation but as a real question because he needed to know how much weight to give this.

Sophia let go of his hands and crossed her arms with a calm that wasn’t entirely natural either. "That day I came over to talk to you because Lyra was nearby and I saw her doing it, but if I had exposed her in front of you right then, you wouldn’t have believed me."

"I don’t believe you now either."

"You’re right not to believe me," she said, and that answer caught him slightly off guard because it wasn’t what he expected, it wasn’t an argument or a justification or an attempt to convince him, just plain acceptance.

Then she continued in a quieter tone: "But that girl, Lyan... Lyra isn’t trustworthy. Her gaze, the way she is, everything about her gives me a bad feeling."

Lyan didn’t respond.

Sophia looked at him for a moment longer before something in her expression changed, making it more serious, more direct, as if she had decided something internally and there was no going back.

"Do you know why you’re being harassed?"

The question fell into the silence of the room, and Lyan, without fully realizing it, leaned closer to her, ending up just inches away, his face serious and his eyes fixed on hers.

"What do you mean?"

Sophia stayed silent for a moment, one of those silences that aren’t empty but filled with something the person is still deciding whether to say or not, and then slowly pulled away from him, turning her back and ending up at the edge of the bed, staring at nothing in particular.

"Lyra is very good at making others look bad," she murmured, "as long as she gains something from it."

"..."

Lyan looked at her back.

"Did she do something to you?" he asked.

Sophia took her time to answer, and when she turned to look at him, the expression on her face was that of someone making a visible effort to keep it steady, to not let something bigger than what she wanted to show slip out through the edges.

"That bitch took away what I loved most," she said.

A pause.

"You."

"..."

Lyan lowered his gaze to the floor without saying anything and without moving, his hands resting still on his knees, and the silence of the room closing in around the two of them like something with weight of its own.

Sophia looked at him, waiting, and he didn’t lift his gaze.

Slowly, he stood up.

He took her by the shoulders with both hands, and Sophia opened her eyes slightly in surprise at the contact, not moving, looking up at him while he murmured something in a low voice, so low that she had to focus to catch it.

"Are we going to do that?"

"..."

Sophia didn’t answer, not because she had nothing to say, but because something in his tone cut off her words before they could reach her mouth, and Lyan began to move slowly, guiding her in front of him in a direction she couldn’t quite read, until her back bumped into what seemed to be the wall, drawing a short grunt of surprise from her as she instinctively brought her hands to his neck.

"L-Lyan..." she murmured, her voice coming out smaller than she intended.

But before she could finish the word, Lyan’s hand had already moved to the side, finding the knob, and the door opened outward with a clean click.

It took Sophia exactly one second to realize what had just happened, standing in the doorway looking at him with an expression that couldn’t quite settle between confusion and something else, her mouth open about to say something, and Lyan shut the door in her face.

The hallway fell silent on the other side.

Lyan leaned against the closed door and ran a hand over his face from top to bottom, slowly, letting the air out through his nose before dropping his arm.

"So annoying."

- - - -

If you enjoyed the Chapter, it would really help me if you could support me with a Power Stone or Golden Tickets. Thank you for the support!