The morning light over SIMS was clean and severe, the kind that turned glass into a blade and polished every corridor into something that looked almost too precise to be real. Ren noticed it the moment he stepped out of the lift and into the executive wing, Fang at his side, both of them dressed with quiet restraint rather than ceremonial excess. The institute had the stillness of a place that knew a major decision was being made within its walls, and even the staff who moved through the hallways seemed to soften their steps as they passed the doors to the boardroom. Fang glanced once at Ren, then forward again, his expression composed, but Ren could feel the current beneath that calm, the same subtle tension that lived in him whenever a chapter of their life was about to close.
