"A knight's duty is to protect his princess. Don't worry—with me around, I'll never let you lose."

Following the successful conclusion of the morning assembly evaluations, midterms had finally come to an end. Eden had barely slept the night before, so on the afternoon following the last exam, she arrived at the classroom early, hoping to steal a quick nap on her desk before the bell rang.

She was drifting in a hazy, half-conscious state when the ringing bell jolted her awake. She looked up to see Lucas walking through the classroom door, clutching a basketball and limping slightly. There was a jagged scrape on his knee, the raw, angry red of fresh blood standing out against his skin.

"Did you take a tumble during the game?" she asked.

"Some kid from Class B rammed into me," Lucas said, setting the ball down with a disgruntled pout.

Eden stared at the injury. "Aren't you going to clean that up?"

"Don't need to." Lucas grabbed a water bottle from his desk and took a swig, acting like it was no big deal. Before he could take another, Eden snatched the bottle right out of his hand, nearly making him choke.

"What are you doing?"

"The water in my thermos is way too hot," Eden muttered, as if explaining the logic to herself.

Under Lucas's confused gaze, she rummaged through her desk, pulled out a small pack of tissues, and moistened one with a little water. She held it out to him. "Clean it up. There's grit in there; it looks filthy."

"I was wondering why you were suddenly acting so concerned, but I guess you were just grossed out by my wound," Lucas teased, taking the tissue. A soft smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. As he diligently wiped away the grime, he kept glancing up at her.

Eden was uncharacteristically quiet, offering no retort. He found it strange and was just about to ask what was wrong when she held out a Band-Aid.

"You actually carry these things around?" he remarked, tearing open the wrapper. He noticed her slumping forward, drooping onto her desk like a wilting flower. "What’s wrong? Bad sleep last night?"

Eden gave a faint, soft hum in response.

The bell rang, and the art teacher strode in, clutching a drawing board. "We’re doing a free-sketch session today, just for practice. No need to turn anything in. Just swap sketches with your desk-mate and give each other some feedback."

The teacher moved to the chalkboard, picked up a piece of chalk, and drew a large set of brackets. Inside, he wrote a single word in bold: *BIRD*.

"Start," the teacher commanded, retreating to the chair behind his desk.

Eden stared blankly at the blank sheet of paper and the oil pastels in front of her. Her thoughts drifted. Language textbooks were always talking about "birds flying freely in the sky."

Flight was free, of course, but only if the bird had somewhere to land.

Eden picked up a pastel and drew a beautiful bird in the upper half of the white page. She only drew one. A solitary, elegant bird flying high, surrounded by nothing at all.

Satisfied, she slid the paper over to Lucas, only to burst into laughter the moment she saw his work.

Lucas had divided his paper into a nine-grid layout. In each square, there was a different bird: a bird eating ramen, a bird chatting with friends, a bird tucked under a blanket asleep, a bird sitting on the couch watching TV…

"Why are your birds eating ramen and watching TV?" Eden asked.

"Birds need to rest too, don't they? You expect them to just fly forever?" Lucas sounded entirely reasonable. "Their resting style is just a bit basic, so I’m using my art to help them level up their quality of life."

Eden watched the birds in Lucas’s drawing, a gentle smile softening her features. He would never know how much she envied the birds in his sketches.

"This is it? You’re done?" Lucas picked up her drawing, his eyes full of confusion.

Eden nodded.

"Just one bird? This is way too plain."

He picked up a green pastel, his first stroke landing directly beneath the bird she had drawn. Lucas began scrawling a messy patch of grass, then switched to various colors to fill the field with red, yellow, and purple flowers.

"That’s where a bird belongs," Lucas said proudly, sliding the paper back to her. He tilted his head, looking at her with a serious expression. "A bird should be flying over a field of blooming flowers."

"It looks hideous," Eden said, eyeing the paper with feigned distaste. She complained, but warmth blossomed in her chest.

When she drew that bird, she had seen herself in it. The Eden who flew high, and the Eden who had nothing. Yet, Lucas had filled the space beneath her with vibrant flowers.

As she stared down at the drawing, she suddenly felt a drip of something wet hit the paper, leaving a bright red smear among the flowers.

Eden blinked, confused, until she reached up to touch her nose. Lucas let out a startled gasp. "What happened? Why are you having a nosebleed?" He immediately began shoving tissues into her hands.

Eden tilted her head back, dabbing at the blood before rolling up a piece of tissue to plug it. Throughout the entire process, Lucas hovered over her, his expression a frantic mixture of helplessness and concern.

"It's fine," she said calmly, once the bleeding slowed. "I get these whenever I don't sleep well."

Lucas looked genuinely aggrieved. "Eden, can you stop trying to scare the life out of me?"

Eden looked at him, baffled. "What am I scaring you with?"

"You just started bleeding out of nowhere! That’s terrifying!" he insisted.

"What’s so scary about a nosebleed? Are you squeamish? You had blood all over your knee earlier and I didn't see you fainting."

"The knee scrape is different—I’m allergic to nosebleeds, okay? If you don’t get some sleep and end up bleeding on me again, that counts as malicious assault! You’ll have to take responsibility for me!" Lucas declared, being completely unreasonable.

Eden laughed. "And how do you want me to take responsibility?"

Lucas suddenly went quiet.

"I want this drawing of yours," she said. "Can I have it?"

Still acting like he was offended, Lucas wordlessly shoved the paper into her hands.

Eden realized that ever since Lucas had become her new desk-mate, she and he had reached a new level of tethered existence.

Back in the old computer classes, she’d always been assigned to a lone station. When the teacher announced "free time," she’d pretend to be reading an e-book while her peripheral vision tracked the games or shows on the screens of the students sitting in front of her. She did this because her mother always told the teacher, "Our Eden never plays games or watches that mindless trash," and the teacher would echo, "Eden never plays games or watches that mindless trash."

She had been stripped of her rights by the narratives others spun about her.

"I’m going to go grab us seats," Lucas said ten minutes before the computer lab session began.

"Does it matter where we sit?" Eden asked.

"Of course it does. I have to get us the best spots," he said, darting off so quickly he left his cushion and textbooks behind.

When Eden walked into the lab carrying their gear, she realized what Lucas meant by "the best spots." It was a "no-man's-land" tucked away in a corner of the room, completely obscured by a massive pillar. It was a place where neither the teacher nor the other students could see them.

She walked over, hiding a smile, and handed him his seat cushion and water bottle.

"I just realized I left my stuff behind," Lucas said, scratching his head sheepishly. "Thanks." He raised an eyebrow. "What do you think? Pretty quiet back here, right?"

Eden nodded, a small, genuine smile playing on her lips.

During the free-play session, Lucas asked, "What do you want to play?"

Eden shook her head. "I don't know."

"How about we play a round of this?" he suggested.

"I... I’m not very good at games."

"Doesn't matter. You’ve got me. I’m on your team—we’re going to win for sure." Lucas opened a two-player online game. "Pick your character first. Who do you want to be?"

Eden pointed to the little princess in a pink dress on the far right of the screen.

Lucas grinned. "Alright, you’re the princess. Then I’ll be... the knight. A knight’s duty is to protect his princess."

Lucas clicked his mouse a few times. "Locked in. Team’s ready."

The rules were simple: players had to dodge obstacles, defend their territory from bombs, and lob their own explosives into enemy lines to win. In the two-player mode, the support character had no territory to defend; his only job was to follow the protected character until the end.

As soon as the game started, Eden focused intensely, her fingers flying across the keyboard. She launched herself fearlessly into enemy territory, dropping bombs left and right, knowing Lucas was glued to her back, intercepting anyone who tried to ambush her.

"You’ve got a real competitive streak, huh?" Lucas remarked, his fingers dancing over his own keys.

"I don't like losing," Eden replied.

Lucas paused for a split second to destroy a monster that had snuck up behind her, then laughed. "Don't worry. With me around, I'll never let you lose."

Eden froze. Just as she was about to turn and look at him, he shouted, "Drop it! Drop the bomb now!"

She snapped back to reality, successfully detonating the last enemy base and clinching the win. Fireworks exploded across the screen, and as the winning player, Eden received 1,000 gold coins to buy decorations for her character.

"That crown looks nice. Or the crystal slippers. They’re both exactly 1,000 coins."

"If you want both, we can play another round..."

Eden shook her head. Instead of the crown or the slippers, she chose a brand-new suit of armor and gifted it to Lucas’s character.

"The new outfit looks better. The old one was all burnt up; it looked ugly," Eden said, resting her chin on her hand as she studied the little knight on the screen.

"So... you don't want the crown or the slippers?"

"I do," Eden said. "Let’s play again. You have to help me win this time, too!"

"Count on it." Lucas clicked 'Start' with total confidence.