Aida helped the other girls clean up the picnic as the boys headed back up to the school.

“So how was Old Moon Festival? Did anything happen?” Lily inquired, waggling her eyebrows.

“Lily! Keep your voice down,” Vanita said reprovingly, before glancing inquisitively at Sue and Aida.

Sue adopted a pretty pink blush. “Well, it was pretty small since there weren’t that many people there. So not much happened.”

Lily blew a raspberry. “You know that’s not what I meant! Did anybody get together?” Her eyebrows waggled more aggressively.

Sue was red now. “…I spent most of the Festival with Caleb.” Lily and Vanita squealed. “But all we did was talk,” she added quickly. “We took a walk around the school after the teachers dismissed us, but that was it.”

“So just to make sure,” Lily leaned closer, drawing all of the girls in with her, “you didn’t kiss? Or wear his jacket?”

Sue shook her head, tomato-red. “No, but that’s okay - we just said we’d see how it went, with no pressure.”

“Caleb didn’t give you his jacket?” Aida asked in disbelief, her hands stilling as she stacked clean bowls into the basket. She was so certain Sue would - didn’t they look super cozy during the moongazing portion?

“That’s okay!” Sue responded quickly, waving her hands to bat away any sympathy. “I’m not upset or anything - if things work out, they work out, you know?” She reached forward to lug the massive basket away from Aida. Despite not having a successful romance event, Sue still had a pleased smile on her red face and engaged in playful banter with Lily and Vanita, who seemed particularly engrossed in the topic of love.

Aida followed the girls wordlessly, utterly confused. Based on the argument with Levi, she would have expected that a home-run, knock-it-out-of-the-park successful Old Moon Festival would be to have the boy offer his jacket on a chilly night. But Sue seemed genuinely thrilled and satisfied with whatever transpired between her and Caleb.

What even counted as a successful romance event?

Maybe Caleb did give Sue his jacket? After all, despite what Sue said, there were no witnesses. All Aida could confirm was that Sue and Caleb looked very intimate during the Old Moon Festival; and Sue did mention that they had career goals that were incompatible with dating, so perhaps, as part of their effort to take it slow, they agreed to keep some of the more significant details under wraps?

“Aida, you stayed here too, right? Did anything happen with you?” Vanita asked, interrupting Aida’s reverie.

“Ah…” Aida pressed her lips together, unsure what to say. Sue was looking at her with curiosity as well, not a hint of suspicion in her face. Was Sue so busy with Caleb she didn’t even notice me and Levi? “Well, I was…” Aida trailed off, feeling the blush coming up. When was the last time she talked about boys and romance with friends? Because even if she just described the act of receiving a jacket from a guy, the girls were going to read more into the meaning behind the action than the intention. And she couldn’t very well explain the intention in a sensible way without revealing her secret.

“Ezra!” Aida blurted, catching sight of the silver-haired boy standing next to a bush. “What are you still doing here?”

“I was waiting for you,” Ezra said, ignoring the gazes that bounced back and forth between him and Aida. “…Can we talk?”

Aida looked at her girlfriends helplessly, and they all nodded eagerly, converging on her to take the bundle of blankets from her hands and push her towards Ezra.

“I’ll catch up with you later!” Sue called, waving cheerily at Aida before she dashed after Lily and Vanita.

Aida stood awkwardly, looking after her friends, their brightly colored heads bobbing together in the distance. They just abandoned her!

“Aida?”

She snapped her mouth shut, looking up at him. He was looking at her seriously, and…

Aida focused, trying to get her own emotions under control so that she could confirm what she was sensing. It was a constant refrain from the professors that they had to keep their own feelings in check, so that they wouldn’t introduce any errant signals into their mana senses. That was how mana practitioners could be ambushed: they were too nervous in the wilderness, or distracted, and they would miss the slow, steady mana of a monster on the prowl. What was just another day for a monster would end up as a very unfortunate and unlucky day for a practitioner.

Ezra’s pulse was - abnormal, was the best way to describe it. It was steady, albeit with small flutters punctuating the rhythm. His mana was deceptively calm. If Aida wasn’t standing so close to him and able to detect his pulse, she would have assumed this would be just like every other conversation with him.

“What’s up?” Aida asked with forced cheer. His nervousness was making her nervous.

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Ezra bit his lip, a rare instance of seeing him discomfited. “I was going to leave this alone,” he said slowly, shaping each word carefully. He seemed especially uncomfortable, unable to meet her gaze for longer than a moment. He was acting like Caleb, and it was disconcerting. His next words came out in a rush. “But I had to ask. Is there anything going on between you and Levi?”

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Aida felt the blood rush through her ears. Ezra’s eyes flickered at her silence, slowly dimming.

“Nothing’s going on,” Aida managed to get out, right as Ezra turned away. He froze, listening. “We’re just friends.”

He turned back towards Aida, his eyes brighter but still cautious. “But what about the Old Moon Festival? He…” Ezra tapered off, pressing his lips together tightly as his hands vaguely made a draping gesture.

“That didn’t mean anything,” Aida assured him quickly, her cheeks flaming. She did not want to think about that night - the most guilt she’d suffered since entering this world, in how she embarrassed Levi. “You know how he is, he flirts with everyone…”

“Are you sure?” Ezra asked softly. “You’re not…upset? That it doesn’t mean anything?”

“I’m not,” Aida said firmly. “He’s a good friend, and that’s it.” He makes a better friend than lover, probably. Emotionally, anyway - even though Levi had been Annie’s first choice love interest, she didn’t think she would be able to handle him as an actual committed lover. His casual charisma was magnetic, and he treated every girl who fawned over him very well.

Granted, he never explicitly crossed any lines that could easily be misconstrued as meaningful with them - but he also never really pushed anybody away.

That’s what made it so hard to know if he was really serious about “courting” her when he summoned her to that classroom before Old Moon Festival. Aida had enough to worry about with preserving her professional reputation, and she didn’t need the baggage that would come with having that kind of association with Levi attached to her.

Ezra exhaled, sounding almost like a sigh of relief. He gave her the tiniest smile. “That…is reassuring.”

“Why is that? Did you catch Levi mooning after some other girl?” Aida asked, smiling. Now that Ezra was relaxed, it felt like they could joke around again.

He shook his head, silver strands dancing above his eyelashes. “No, I don’t care about him.” He glanced at her again, but this time sending goosebumps down her spine. “I only care about you.”

Aida stared at him, her clever repartee dissolving in her throat. Something about the way he said that - and the way he was looking at her - gave her a feeling that this wasn’t supposed to happen. That he didn’t say what she thought she heard him say. That she imagined it, and all he was doing was just looking at her, in a friendly conversational manner.

She swallowed, trying to get the lump out of her throat. “Um…I beg your pardon?”

“I care about you,” Ezra repeated slowly, his oblique glance turning direct. He had ducked his chin, so that there was no way for Aida to break eye contact. “…I like you.”

Aida’s brain froze - all of her froze, actually. She had unwittingly encased herself in an icy stalagmite, causing Ezra to leap back to avoid being pierced.

In the peace of her tiny little ice prison, Aida’s thoughts swirled. Mostly with various iterations of how?! and why?! and what?! and huh?!

She felt like she was in freefall. Sure, she was confused by how Sue’s romantic progress with the leads wasn’t really going anywhere, but the comforting lie she had told herself was that there was still five moon cycles until graduation, when Sue had to make a choice. And besides, she wasn’t in Class 1 with them, so she had no idea what specific developments might look like - and Caleb and Sue had their mini event at the Old Moon Festival, which indicated that at least there was some progress.

Part of her had also wondered if she was truly slipping into the side character role - where she would also start losing sight of the big picture of the plot that was meant to serve Sue, and why she would even actually entertain the thought she might have a chance at love in this world, especially with the leads. Fortunately, all she had to do was think of Lara to keep her delusions in check.

But this? An actual confession from Ezra? It was a literal bolt out of the blue.

Of course, Levi had said some things about how he liked Aida, which was what first planted the seed of a love opportunity for her in her mind…but she had been able to keep that delusion at bay by reminding herself that any possible interest from him was just a phase. If he started getting to know her for real, he would find that she was less available than many other girls whose hearts were ripe for love.

But this couldn’t be a phase. Ezra wasn’t frivolous with feelings like Levi. And furthermore, he didn’t joke. His humor was dry, but never cruel. And he always thought carefully before he spoke; he wasn’t the type to speak thoughtlessly. So if he said he liked her…that meant he actually spent time considering his feelings for her.

Aida wracked her brain, but she couldn’t come up with another explanation as to why Ezra might confess his feelings for her.

He might like you now, but once you two become intimate he’ll see how inadequate you are and lose interest.

The cruel voice in her mind made her sob, if only because it felt true.

Ezra was talented, an unquestioned genius in mana arts. He was from a wealthy and respected family. He was handsome. He had everything. While she was a fraud in some poor teenage girl’s body, barely able to keep up with school and blend in with the culture.

Teena Vega’s merciless golden eyes and shark-toothed smile flashed in front Aida’s eyes, pressing her tighter against the wall, cornered. She’s right. I don’t deserve to be here.

But you earned your place. The quiet voice took offense at Aida’s lizard brain’s hiss. The lizard brain continued on doggedly.

Can you trust him with the truth?

Aida gasped, feeling her heart wrench anew. Levi had handled her secret relatively well, but would proper, knowledgeable Ezra behave the same?

You don’t have to tell him the truth. Just see what happens. The logical part of her brain insisted she take this chance, go on a date or few; it wasn’t like he was proposing to her, after all. She could always back out if Ezra got too close to the truth.

She looked through the ice wall, where Ezra had pressed his hands against her protective barrier. She could see his lips move, and hear his voice reverberate through the ice, but the clarity and transmission of the ice wasn’t very good, so she couldn’t make out what his expression was or what he was saying.

Taking a deep breath, Aida steadied her breathing and clamped down on the anxious writhing in her stomach. She raised her hands, lining them up against Ezra’s.

Don’t mess this up. With one last pep talk, Aida shattered her frozen walls, chunks of ice crumbling around her.