Chapter 69: Innocent Curiosity
Kali sat in the corner of the common area, legs crossed beneath her as she flipped through the pages of one of the few books Talia had given her. It was a colorful, illustrated guide about animals, filled with drawings of creatures Kali had never seen before. She paused on a page about wolves, her eyes widening as she read about packs and how they lived together.
“They hunt in groups,” she said aloud, tilting her head. “Is that why they’re so strong?”
Claire Langley, standing by the window, glanced over at her and smiled faintly. “It’s more than just hunting. Wolves take care of each other, too. They protect their pack.”
Kali’s brows furrowed as she pondered the idea of living in a group like that. “That’s nice,” she said, her voice soft. “They have a family.”
“Yeah,” Claire replied, her tone wistful. “In their own way.”
Kali continued flipping through the book, but a different question had started forming in her mind. Her eyes skimmed over the words, but her focus shifted as she thought back to a word both in her book and she’d overheard earlier in the week. She hadn’t understood it at the time, but the word had stuck with her.
“Claire?” Kali asked, looking up from the book.
“Hm?”
“What does… ‘flirting’ mean?”
Claire blinked, clearly taken off guard by the question. She turned away from the window and crossed the room, sitting down beside Kali with a look of mild amusement. “Where did you hear that?”
Kali shrugged, closing the book in her lap. “I think I overheard some of the scientists talking. They said one of the guards was flirting with someone, but I didn’t know what it meant. Is it like being friends?”
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Claire’s lips curled into a soft smile, though there was a shadow of something else in her expression—an awareness of how little Kali understood about the world. “Not quite,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “Flirting is when someone likes another person in a romantic way, and they act playful or say certain things to get their attention. They want to date them.”
Kali’s brow furrowed again, her eyes filled with innocent curiosity. “Romantic? Like love?”
“Exactly,” Claire nodded. “It’s like a way of showing someone you like them, but… not the way you like a friend. It’s more… special.”
“Oh…” Kali looked thoughtful for a moment, processing the new information. “So people flirt when they want to date with someone? Like how wolves stay with their packs?”
Claire chuckled softly, shaking her head. “Not exactly. Wolves stay with their packs for survival, but people flirt because they want to be close to someone… in a different way. It’s about feelings.”
“Feelings…” Kali repeated, her voice trailing off. She glanced down at her hands, fidgeting slightly. “Do people here flirt with each other?”
Claire hesitated for a moment. She looked at Kali’s wide, innocent eyes and felt a familiar pang of sadness. “Not really,” she said carefully. “It’s not something the Academy encourages.”
Kali tilted her head. “Why not?”
“Because the Academy focuses on other things,” Claire explained. “They don’t think things like flirting or romance are important here. They want us to focus on our powers, on training.”
Kali nodded slowly, accepting the answer even though she didn’t entirely understand. The concept of people choosing to be close to each other in that way was foreign to her, much like the world outside the Academy itself. But she trusted Claire, and if Claire said it wasn’t important here, then she believed it.
Still, the idea lingered in her mind, adding to the growing list of things she didn’t fully grasp about the world. There was so much she didn’t know—so many words, concepts, and ideas that seemed normal to everyone else but were strange and new to her.
Kali sighed softly, her gaze drifting back to the book. “Do you think people outside the Academy do it a lot? Flirting and dating and stuff?”
Claire’s smile faded slightly, and she glanced out the window again, her expression distant. “I think they do. The world outside is different. People have more freedom to do what they want, to feel things we don’t get to feel here.”
“Freedom…” Kali repeated, the word hanging in the air between them. It was another one of those concepts she didn’t fully understand. Freedom, choice, feelings—things that seemed far away from her life in the Academy.
For a moment, she wondered what it must be like to have that freedom. To choose things, like who to be close to or where to go. But then she pushed the thought away, reminding herself that the Academy was her home. It was all she had ever known.
Claire, sensing the shift in Kali’s mood, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You’re safe here, Kali,” she said softly. “That’s what matters.”
Kali nodded, though her mind continued to wander. She didn’t know what it meant to feel unsafe. The Academy had always protected her, cared for her. But there was still a part of her that was curious—about the world, about people, about things like flirting and freedom.
Maybe one day, she’d understand it all.
But for now, this was enough.
She opened the book again, her fingers tracing the illustrations of the wolves on the page. “They’re strong because they take care of each other,” she murmured. “I like that.”
Claire smiled, though her eyes were heavy with thoughts she didn’t voice. “Yeah,” she said softly. “I like that too.”