"You've been having me watched all day," Nathan said finally. It wasn't an accusation—simply the opening of a conversation, the establishing of shared facts between two people who both preferred clarity over pretense.
Rena's chin lifted by perhaps two millimeters, a movement so precisely calibrated it communicated volumes about how thoroughly she rejected the framing.
"Who was watching you?" she scoffed, her tone carrying the particular dismissive quality she wielded like a practiced instrument. "I was simply ensuring that those two idiotic sisters weren't planning something behind our backs with a foreigner and betraying us all. Nothing more."
"You were watching me specifically," Nathan replied with mild pleasantness. "And that's actually quite admirable in its way. Dedicating an entire day to surveillance, carefully managed, professionally maintained. You must be tremendously popular among your classmates to have that much free attention to spend."
