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I am going to kill him for it.
Thursday, I actually show up to class.
The corridor outside the lecture hall is its usual mess of rich little minions.
And there, like a reward for my extraordinary bravery in attending one full academic obligation, is Rei.
I don’t even think about it. I just veer straight into him and sling my good arm around his shoulders.
“Hello, Raiii.”
He flashes me one of his looks, that narrow-eyed, deeply unimpressed little squint he often gives me. “Finally decided to show up to your classes?”
“Yes, actually. I’ve been busy.”
“Busy.”
“Very.”
“Doing what?”
I tilt my head toward him with mock thoughtfulness. “Oh, you know. Nothing I can legally discuss. I’d tell you, but I’m pretty sure the details would make you sick.”
Rei shakes his head. He tries to shake me off a little, but not seriously. I keep my arm where it is and steer him down the hall with me. “So,” I say lightly, “where is your abomination of a brother?”
Rei stops walking and looks at me in a weird way.
I blink. “What?”
“Do you like my brother?”
Somewhere in my head, every alarm I’ve ever owned starts going off at once. I bark out a laugh to drown them out. “Like your brother?” I repeat, pressing a hand dramatically to my chest. “Rai. Please. I have standards.”
He keeps looking at me like that.
Oh no.
I know that look. It’s the same one Alya gets when she notices something before I want her to. Rei’s eyes narrow just a little more. “You’re awfully interested in him.”
I scoff loud enough for the corridor to hear. “Interested? In that parasite? Don’t be disgusting.”
Rei raises one elegant little brow. “Is that so?”
“He pollutes the air around me.”
“He still seems to occupy your thoughts.”
I give him a long, offended stare. Then I lean closer and say in a solemn undertone, “Murder occupies my thoughts too. That doesn’t make it romance.”
His mouth twitches, but he doesn’t let himself smile fully. Instead, he says, “You ask about him a lot.”
“I ask about diseases too. Surveillance is not affection.”
“Mm.”
“Don’t mm me.”
“You’re defensive.”
