"Are you going to stop glaring at me at any point today?"
Saji's voice cut through the hush of the library like nails on a chalkboard. Several students nearby glanced up, then promptly looked away, sensing the storm that they didn't want to get caught in.
Across the table, Hina didn't reply. She simply stared, unblinking, from behind the curtain of her bangs. Her expression was flat, carved from quiet disappointment and steady judgment.
Saji sighed and hunched further into his seat, clutching the textbook between them as if it could shield him. "It's kind of terrifying how you're so different towards everyone else, but you turn into a death stare whenever it's me."
"That's because you're the only one who deserves it", she said, at last. Her usually soft voice now sharp and precise like a scalpel.
Saji winced at her words. "That's a little harsh, don't you think?"
Hina said nothing. She reached into her folder and pulled out their assignment sheet, slightly creased at the corners. The words "Proposed Mobile Suit Application for the Orbital Elevator Maintenance Operations" underlined twice, the second underlined far more aggressive than the first.
"You do remember this is due in two days?"
"I've been busy," Saji mumbled, avoiding her eyes.
"With your girlfriend." Hina stated bluntly.
His ears turned pink. "Well... Yeah. Louise has been stressed from some things. I'm trying to be supportive, and..."
"So supportive that we're going to fail a major project?"
She flipped open a sketchpad and laid it on the table in a slightly aggressive way. Saji leaned forward.
"What... is this?"
Hina tilted her head slightly. "An old personal project. An experimental mobile suit meant to compromise the Orbital Elevator's foundations and accelerate its structural failure through vibrational resonance."
He stared at her, mouth agape. "You designed a terrorist mobile suit."
"It's technically sound. If you don't finish your part of the current assignment, this can be my backup plan." Flipping to the next page, she unveiled a detailed cutaway of internal systems, specialized joints to manage drill recoil, and a page of calculations that made him feel sick.
"We can't submit this," he screeched, panicked. "We'd get expelled! Or arrested! Or both!"
"Well, if we don't submit anything at all, I'll lose my scholarship," Hina returned to her usual blank tone, though something dark shimmered beneath it. "So if my future is already ruined, I might as well enjoy it."
Saji opened his mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again, like a fish trying to argue with the ocean.
"You know what," he said at last, voice rising an octave in stress. "Fine. I deserve this. A little. But still! Don't you think you're overreacting just a tiny bit?"
"No."
He groaned into his hands. Hina pulled the sketchbook back and tucked it away.
"You really think I'm that irresponsible?" he muttered.
She didn't answer.
And in a way, she didn't need to.
What she didn't know, what he never told anyone, was that he couldn't afford to fail this course either. Not with the part-time job he took after class. Not with his sister's efforts to maintain his studies. Not after the recent incidents around him and Louise. But it wasn't something he could say, especially not here. Especially not to Hina.
He straightened up, trying to find his footing again. "Okay. You win. I'll finish my section by today, and I'll bring it to your apartment."
Quietly, she nodded. "Don't bring Louise."
"I wasn't going to!"
She looked back down at her notes, making a small correction with a red pen, and in that moment, something softened on her shoulders, just barely.
The drills would stay in the sketchbook. Probably. Hopefully.
-
The sun was a dying ember when Saji sprinted up the narrow stairwell, bag bouncing against his side, breath short, and nerves fraying with every step. The evening air clung to him, warm and sticky, laced with the last golden streaks of light.
It was late. Later than he'd meant. If Hina's fury earlier was anything to go by, he was walking willingly into a minefield.
He adjusted the folder under his arm, took a deep breath, and knocked. Once. Then twice.
The door cracked open.
And the last thing he expected, the absolute last, was to see... that guy.
Setsuna F. Seiei.
His quiet neighbor. The one who never greeted anyone and ignored every attempt Saji made to befriend him. That Setsuna.
Saji blinked. "Wait... what?"
Setsuna stared at him without a word. Then he turned, leaving the door open behind him, and wordlessly crossed the pale wooden floor. He lowered himself beside a large cardboard repurposed into a makeshift table. On top of it sat a single foam cup of instant noodles, barely eaten.
Saji hesitated in the doorway before finally stepping inside.
The apartment was sparsely furnished, white walls, the air faintly tinged with antiseptic and paint. Everything besides Setsuna was still, too still. Like a memory that hadn't quite formed yet.
Saji gestured vaguely. "What are you doing here?"
Setsuna didn't look up. "Eating."
"I can see that!" Saji sputtered. "But did you come all the way here for instant noodles?"
"Hina is busy today," Setsuna replied, as if that explained everything.
Saji's eye twitched. "Does that mean she usually cooks for you? Really? Because when I offered some home-cooked food last time, you walked away without saying a word."
Setsuna stirred the noodles, still not meeting his gaze. "She doesn't interrogate me."
Saji let out a noise of pure disbelief. "I'm not interrogating you!"
No response. Arguing with him was futile and Saji had more pressing matters.
"Right... Where is Hina?" Saji asked, already bracing for another cryptic answer.
Setsuna raised a hand and pointed toward a door on the other side of the living room. "Angry at you."
"Of course she is." Saji sighed deeply and trudged off toward the back room like a man marching to his doom.
The door shut behind him.
And then, again, silence.
Setsuna slurped another mouthful of noodles.
He observed the steam curled upward, catching the fading light as it stretched across the floor.
From the other room, voices rose, muffled but distinct. Hina's tone sharp and clipped. Saji's fumbling loudly, tripping over his words in an attempt to defend and explain his choices.
Setsuna stared at the blank wall across him, back resting against the cool plaster.
The discussion volume rose. A pause. Another wave of back-and-forth. A sigh. Papers shifting. The rustle of blueprints. A pen hitting the floor.
Setsuna kept chewing.
He tilted his head. He breathed in. Out.
The last bite of noodles.
Hina would scold him for drinking the noodle broth from the cup, complaining about how unhealthy it was.
He did it anyway.
"... Too peaceful." He murmured.
For now, he was still waiting on information from Wang Liu Mei's agents so Celestial Being could proceed. There wasn't much he could do except wait for orders.
Though peace never really lasted. Not in a world like this.
More silence.
The cup was empty in his hands.
Then, finally, the door creaked open.
Hina emerged first. Her eyes carried a quiet glow, a thick folder now nestled in her arms. Project finished, lines drawn, equations checked and triple-checked.
Behind her, Saji shuffled out like a man who'd just run a marathon with a refrigerator on his back.
He muttered a hoarse goodbye. Hina didn't respond, her glare spoke louder than words.
As the door clicked shut behind Saji, her attention shifted to Setsuna.
"You're still sitting here."
He looked up from the floor, rolling the empty cup between his palms. "You were busy."
Hina exhaled through her nose, stepping back into the room. The folder slipped from her fingers onto the makeshift cardboard table with a dull thunk.
Outside, the last of the light drained from the sky, leaving the room washed in a dim, blue-tinged quietness.
"Well," after a beat, her voice was much softer now, "thanks for waiting, then."
"That was a close call." Setsuna stated vaguely.
"The assignment?" Hina tilted her head slightly, but took his words as his own way to congratulate her finished work. "Yes, thanks for the emotional support."
Hina stretched her arm towards Setsuna, reaching for the cup in his hands. Their fingers brushed, just barely.
Warm.
Setsuna stilled. Something subtle shifted in his expression, the faint trace of a smile ghosting across his lips–or maybe Hina was just tired. Too tired.
"Wait..."
Her voice cut through the quiet, his shoulders locked instantly. Hina narrowed her eyes, staring at the cup between them.
"What did I tell you about not drinking the broth?"
Peace, indeed, never lasted.
–
"Saaaji!" Louise's voice snapped across the cafeteria as she leaned over the table and grabbed his sleeve. "You're spacing out again! You promised today we'd spend time together!"
Saji jolted, nearly knocking over his drink. "I-Sorry! Sorry, Louise. I'm listening."
He wasn't, not really.
Too many things tangled in his head. The accident during their visit to the True Pillar, the terrorist attack they witnessed right before their eyes, his part-time job, and his schoolwork snowballing. On top of all that, Louise's mother had been insisting she go back to Spain.
Louise puffed her cheeks, unimpressed. "You have been extra weird since you came back from Hina's place, you know."
Right, that absolute fever dream of a place.
Maybe if he told her, it'd distract both of them from everything else. "You won't believe who I saw there."
Louise straightened immediately, her eyes lighting up at the potential gossip. "Someone other than Hina?"
"Do you remember Setsuna F. Seiei?"
"... Setsuna?" she repeated, then froze. "Wait, THAT Setsuna? Your neighbor? That guy?! The quiet boring one?"
"That one."
"No way!!" She leaned forward, eyes wide. "What was he doing there?!"
Saji paused for effect.
"He was eating instant noodles at her place."
"Noodles?! Saji, that's scandalous."
"I know," he said, just as serious. "And apparently she cooks for him. Regularly."
Louise's expression shifted immediately.
"...She cooks for him."
"Yeah. When I offer him food, he just walks away." Saji still sounded resentful of the fact.
"How do those two even know each other?" she demanded.
Saji leaned in slightly, lowering his voice like he was about to reveal classified information. A small, proud smile tugged at his lips. Even though Setsuna and Hina were both difficult to deal with, he learned a thing or two on gathering information thanks to his journalist sister.
"Okay, so. A while ago, remember I told you she came to drop off our assignment?"
"Mm-hm."
Louise had insisted Saji skipped classes that day. Hina handed the papers to Kinue, Saji's sister.
"But nobody was home before my sister arrived. Instead, my sister pointed out that Hina came out of Setsuna's door..."
Louise's expression shifted immediately.
"She went inside his room? Doesn't she know better not to go into an unknown guy's place?!"
"I said the same thing!" he insisted. "But neither of them thought it was weird."
Louise leaned back slowly, processing.
"... No." Her eyes narrowed.
"What?"
"No way!" She pointed at him like she'd just solved a mystery. "They're dating! They have to be!"
"What?!" Saji choked at his drink. "Louise, it's Setsuna. Can you actually imagine him dating anyone?"
"... No," she admitted. "... Which is exactly why this is so suspicious. You need to investigate more! I expect a new scoop and full report once I'm back from talking to my mom!"
"... I regret telling you."
"You will regret not telling me more."