Jacob hadn't been back to the school dormitory in quite some time. As he reached the door of his room, he heard Kyle's voice from inside, loud and fully committed to whatever was happening on his screen.
"Amira, heal me — heal me! Give me HP!" A burst of rapid keyboard clicks and mouse clatter followed. "Penta kill — penta kill, don't you dare steal it!"
"Penta kill!"
"Nice! How good am I?"
Jacob stood outside the door for a moment, smiling to himself. In some ways, Kyle might be the most content person he knew. No grand ambitions, no complicated goals — just his own comfortable little world. If being able to play games freely with Amira every day was Kyle's idea of happiness, then maybe he had it figured out better than most.
Jacob pushed the door open.
"Who's there?" Kyle yanked his headphones off and spun around. When he saw Jacob, his face broke into genuine surprise. "Jacob! You're back? Haven't seen you in ages — come in, sit down!"
"Jacob's back?" Amira's voice came faintly through the headphones.
"Yeah." Kyle leaned toward the mic. "Give me a minute."
"Sure. I'll go let Julia know," Amira said.
"So what's going on with you and Amira?" Jacob asked, settling into the room and looking at Kyle.
Kyle had gotten a bit more relaxed since Jacob last saw him — not quite dishevelled, but comfortable in the way of someone who had settled into a routine he enjoyed. He was grinning.
"Cough. We're online friends. Gaming together, eating together." He said it casually, but the smile on his face made the words unconvincing. A few months ago, Kyle had declared, with considerable feeling, that he was done with romance. And yet here he was.
Some people just couldn't stay away from it, Jacob supposed.
"What have you been doing with yourself?" Kyle asked, looking at Jacob. "You've been so busy you couldn't even come back. Sit, sit."
"Don't ask me that," Jacob said, exhaling. "I don't even know. Every day there's something."
"That's because you're not like the rest of us." Kyle leaned back in his chair, amused. "We can barely find things to keep ourselves busy. It's games all day, living in a virtual world." He grinned. "But it's rare you're actually here. Let's go out tonight — get some food, have a few drinks, decompress. You look like you need it."
Jacob smiled. Kyle was one of the few people around whom things felt uncomplicated. Their friendship had always been easy like that.
"Alright. You choose the place. I have something to take care of this afternoon, but I'll meet you."
"Deal. I know you're busy, go do your thing." Kyle waved him off, already reaching for his headphones, his grin taking on a slightly knowing quality. "I'll invite Julia too."
He didn't give Jacob a chance to comment on that.
"Amira! One more round — I'm jungling this time. Let me show you what a real jungle carry looks like."
Jacob left the dormitory and walked along the campus path.
The sycamore trees lining either side stood bare, their branches stripped clean by winter. Against the grey sky, they looked a little forlorn. Each breath Jacob exhaled turned to a small cloud of mist that dissolved into the cold air.
He had dreamed about university in his previous life. Now, walking through one, it felt strangely distant — like something that belonged to someone else.
Maybe it was the news about the child. Something had shifted quietly inside him over the past few days, and he hadn't fully sorted out what it was. A restlessness, a vague sense of being slightly out of place in his own life.
He wasn't from this world, not originally. He had lived in it long enough that most days it felt like his own, but every now and then — in quiet moments, in cold weather, in the kind of stillness that gave the mind too much room — the awareness resurfaced. And with it came something close to unease.
Jacob reached into his bag, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it. He found a bench off the path, sat down, and tilted his head back. The smoke curled upward and dissolved.
The sky had darkened. The snow was coming down heavier now, slow and quiet. A few flakes landed on his face, cool against his skin.
He stared up at nothing in particular.
What was wrong with him? Since when did he get like this?
A wry smile crossed his face. He shook his head slightly. The older you got, the more your thoughts ambushed you in the quiet.
"Is something wrong?" A gentle voice reached him through the snow. "You're sitting out here smoking by yourself."
"Jacob — since when do you smoke? That's terrible for your lungs!" A second voice, livelier than the first, carried a natural warmth that was hard to deflect.
"Back on campus and not in class, smoking on a bench." A third voice, cooler, with a faint undercurrent of dry amusement.
Jacob blinked.
He had been more tired than he realized. He was hearing things. There was no way Nina, Julia, and Eleanor were all standing behind him at the same time.
He exhaled slowly, closed his eyes, and tipped his head back further, letting the snowflakes settle on his face.
When three voices called his name again — one after another — he opened his eyes.
They were all there.
Nina stood closest to him, wearing a long dark coat that suited her height and made her look quietly put-together despite the weather. She had her hair pinned up, light makeup, and her long neck was bare to the cold. There was a flicker of concern in her eyes as she looked at him — something about the expression he'd been wearing before he noticed them had apparently been visible enough to catch.
Julia stood beside her, shorter and bundled up in an off-white puffer jacket. She had fleece-lined socks pulled up over her legs, a soft white scarf wound around her neck, and a Pachirisu-shaped hat perched on her head with matching snow boots. She was frowning at the cigarette in Jacob's hand with the focused disapproval of someone already composing a lecture.
And Eleanor — Nina's best friend — was wrapped in a wide, puffy down jacket that swamped her frame entirely, large black-framed glasses on her face, no makeup, and an expression that could only be described as quietly entertained.
Jacob sat there for a moment, genuinely disoriented.
"Why are you all here?" he asked.
"Class just ended," Nina said. "Julia had a few questions, so we went to the faculty office together."
"Jacob." Julia stepped forward, her frown still in place. "Please don't smoke. It's not good for you. If something's bothering you, you can just say so." She shifted, pouting slightly. "And you didn't even tell me you were back. If Amira hadn't messaged me, I'd still have no idea."
Eleanor, listening quietly beside Nina, let her gaze drift between the two. Nina wasn't Jacob's girlfriend — not officially, not as far as anyone had established — and yet Julia was talking to him the way she was. Eleanor looked at Nina's face, which was perfectly calm and giving nothing away, and something clicked.
She turned back to Jacob with a small, private smile.
He was going to have a complicated time with this.