Blythe and Jessica settled down at the table with their trays of sushi. It seemed the others were still in line for food, because only Albert and Leopold were here. The boys had already started eating, an indication that they didn’t wait for everyone to be seated with their food to dig in at this table.

  Taking their cues from them, Jessica and Blythe began on their own lunches as well.

  At first, Blythe thought she’d have to endure awkward silence until the rest returned, but it turned out she didn’t have to worry.

  “How is Lucia doing in Patisserie Arts, Jessica?” Leopold asked in between sips of the chocolate milk in his glass bottle.

  Raising an eyebrow, Jessica nibbled on the end of her hand roll sushi. “Couldn’t you ask her yourself?”

  “She doesn’t talk to me about anything! I tried asking her how she was doing with school yesterday, but she just walked away from me.”

  Jessica’s lips twisted into a smirk. “Haven’t you apologized yet?“

  “Wha—” Leopold’s concerned frown turned defensive. “I don’t need to apologize for anything! I’m her older brother. I was just doing what’s best for her.”

  So that’s their relationship.

  “You’re older by ten minutes. As far as Lucia’s concerned, you’re the same age.”

  Ah, they’re fraternal twins.

  The bluefin fatty tuna belly—ootoro—melted in her mouth, creating the perfect combo with the firm yet chewy rice. Blythe could feel the rest of her body go slack as the luxurious texture and flavor satisfied her tastebuds. She’d only ever seen ootoro in various media forms, never getting to try it for herself in her original world. It was even better than she’d imagined it to be.

  She wondered what Leopold was supposed to apologize for, but she couldn’t ask Jessica in front of these two guys.

  “I’m still older! I can’t believe she’s holding a grudge against me for caring about her. It’s been five months!”

  “You should prepare yourself to be ignored for the rest of your life,” Jessica said heartlessly before taking a bigger bite of her food.

  Blythe bit her lower lip to keep from smiling.

  “How could you say that! All I did was warn off that shady boy from having bad intentions with her!”

  There it was. He’d come out and said it.

  “He offered her his class notes because she’d missed lessons for a whole week due to her stomach flu.” As if for dramatic effect, Jessica paused. “In front of a class of twenty.”

  Blythe couldn’t hold it back anymore—the huff of laughter burst out from her lips. Leopold and Albert both turned to stare at her again, and she averted her gaze.

  “You sound just like Lucia,” Leopold groaned, dropping his spoon into his bowl of tomato soup to clutch at his face. “Could you stop attacking me with these off-tangent arguments?”

  “I think you meant to say ‘relevant facts.’”

  “It’s all his fault that Lucia isn’t talking to me! And he’s still shameless enough to smile at me when we pass each other in the hallway. Who does that?”

  Jessica just shot him an exasperated glance.

  Blythe noticed Albert hadn’t said a word so far. Was he that shy?

  “Are you talking about Elliot again? When will you let it go, Leopold?”

  Blythe automatically raised her head at the sound of a familiar light drawl.

  Titus, the game's yandere love interest, slid into the empty seat next to Albert in one graceful motion, his tray barely making a sound as it made contact with the table. He had Gavin the raccoon cradled to his side with his other hand.

  Leopold spluttered. “Let it go? He’s turned my sister against me!”

  “Be reasonable,” Titus said with a laugh, brushing some of his pink hair out of his eyes. “Lucia is the one with a crush on him, not the other way around.”

  “Which also explains why she won’t talk to you,” Jessica added with a cough.

  Blythe got it now. Leopold was some type of overprotective brother.

  “Hi, Blythe, Jessica,” Titus said, nodding at them. “I’m surprised to see you sitting with us today.”

  Jessica greeted him back before smirking at Leopold again. He sulked.

  “Hi, Titus. Cole invited us,” Blythe said by way of explanation.

  “I see. That’s interesting.” Titus’ gaze lingered on her face for a couple of seconds before shifting to his food.

  What is?!

  She was going to assume this probably had something to do with Magnus again. So far, every person she’d interacted with in this world was convinced that her life revolved around him.

  That aside, it was more surprising to Blythe that Titus was apparently a regular at this table. In the game, his only interactions with others, apart from with his fangirls, were with Magnus and Jude. However, he’d just talked normally to Leopold and acted like he belonged here.

  Maybe it was because Leopold and Albert didn’t appear in the game. His in-game dialogue also made a couple of references to Cole, but they never interacted within the game itself.

  Sophie came back before the other boys did and exchanged the briefest of greetings with Titus.

  Titus focused on his caramel pudding, not engaging in the conversation—argument?—Jessica and Leopold were having. He left the rest of his lunch alone while demolishing his dessert first. Gavin had slipped out of his hold and was now flopped over Titus’ left shoulder, his front paws on Titus’ arm.

  Upon returning, Magnus came to a halt next to Blythe, who was making her way through the pair of tamago sushi on her plate. She glanced up as she chewed on her mouthful of tamagoyaki and rice. He didn’t even attempt to mask the confusion on his face.

  Seeing that he was still standing there with his lunch tray as seconds passed, Blythe swallowed her food and annoyance to ask, “Is something the matter?”

  He just looked even more baffled by her question. “You …”

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  Jessica burst into a slew of choking noises.

  Whirling around in shock, Blythe rubbed her back. “Are you okay?!”

  Her friend had a hand on her chest, and the other hand grasping onto a pair of chopsticks with nothing on the ends except for a rice grain. Her eyes became glossy with unshed tears.

  Echoing similarly concerned words, Sophie leaned in slightly to check on her.

  “Sorry, I choked on my sushi,” Jessica said, getting the words out in between coughs. “Sophie, why don’t you move down a seat?”

  Sophie frowned, looking just as confused as Blythe felt by the sudden suggestion, but then she raised her gaze to Magnus and promptly scooted over with her own tray. “Oh, yes, yes, thanks for reminding me, Jess.”

  Blythe’s mouth fell open. Even as she contemplated on what had just happened, a vague realization bloomed in the back of her mind.

  As Jessica heaved herself over to the seat Sophie had just vacated, she slid her tray to the corresponding space on the table in front of her. The vague comprehension materialized into something more concrete when Magnus then moved towards the empty chair next to Blythe.

  Blythe was sitting on a corner chair, which meant that there was only one seat beside her. Not wanting to be separated from her friends by Magnus, she plopped herself down on Jessica’s old seat. Then she waved at what used to be her chair, tugging her tray along the table to her side.

  “Sorry for not saving you a seat,” she said to Magnus, conscious of the fact that she’d told Jessica she wanted to be a good fiancée. “I was, um, too … too hungry to think.”

  He gave her another odd look, something she was accustomed to getting these days.

  “I understand,” he said, settling down beside her. “It’s no issue.”

  She sat there staring at her nigiri sushi pieces, trying to wrap her mind around his insistence on sitting beside her in the first place. He could’ve just chosen any one of the available seats.

  Fine, so he had essentially promised to be on good terms with her again, and he was her fiancé, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary to expect to sit beside her …

  Fine.

  It looked like she would have to adjust her mentality to consider things like this in the future.

  Gloomily, she ate her second tamago sushi.

  Feeling Magnus’ stare burning a hole into the side of her face, Blythe raised her head to meet eyes with him. As she did so, she noticed Titus watching them from his spot, his hand cradling one side of his face while his other hand scooped another spoonful of caramel pudding from its serving cup.

  The scrutinizing look on Magnus’ serious face said that he was studying her like some strange life form he was encountering for the first time. Once he realized he’d been caught staring, he offered her a smile and turned back to his roasted chicken and butternut squash.

  The stifling sensation in her chest grew and filled up the space within her ribcage. She tried to focus on the tender and smooth texture of her scallop sushi. To check if he was still observing them, she shot another glance at Titus.

  He was in the middle of licking the bowl of his metal spoon, the action languid. His caramel pudding cup was empty. Now, his eyes were on Gavin, who had hopped down from his shoulder onto the table. The raccoon sat down next to his tray, not touching anything.

  Gavin was adorable. She was kind of jealous of everyone who had a beast-taming talent.

  Cole came back with a boy at his side, and they both settled down on the remaining empty spots at the table. It took a second for Blythe to realize the other boy was Clyde, Jessica’s crush. Clyde acknowledged everyone at the table, but his jaw went slack upon noticing Jessica’s presence. He was seated diagonally opposite Jessica at the rectangular table.

  “Jessica,” he said. “Good afternoon.”

  “Clyde,” Jessica stammered, her voice suddenly higher-pitched than usual. “Good afternoon.”

  “What a pleasant surprise to see you here,” he said, sounding sincere.

  He raised his hand and smoothed down his wavy, brown hair.

  “Oh, yeah, you’re friends with Jessica,” Cole said. “I suggested that Blythe and her friends join us for lunch.”

  “Well, I’m glad they did.” Clyde smiled at Jessica, who blushed in the most obvious manner.

  He struck up a conversation with her about their shared Beucian class, and they quickly ended up in their own little bubble while everyone else chatted around them. Sophie made Jessica switch seats with her so that Jessica would be sitting directly opposite Clyde.

  Cole took the initiative to make small talk with Sophie about their homework assignment on art history in their shared art class. Leopold and Albert chatted quietly with each other—well, Albert was talking softly while Leopold spoke at a normal volume. As far as Blythe could tell, they were arguing over whether the librarian or one of lunch ladies was hotter. Stuck sitting between Albert and Clyde, Titus looked sufficiently happy to focus on eating his meatball sub, his movements graceful even as he ate with his hands.

  The silence between Magnus and Blythe felt thick enough to choke her lungs out.

  She picked up another piece of ootoro, suddenly realizing that she was able to use these chopsticks without a problem so far. She’d been horrible at using them back in her original world, so it was probably muscle memory from the original Blythe.

  She was in the middle of chewing the melt-in-the-mouth fish when Magnus turned to her and cleared his throat.

  “How was your weekend, Blythe? I didn’t have the chance to ask you about it yesterday.”

  She’d been too naive to think that lunch period would pass by quietly if she didn’t initiate a conversation with Magnus. Evidently, he had every intention of putting real effort into restoring their relationship.

  She smiled and somehow managed to swallow the sushi without choking. “It was fine, thank you. What about your weekend?”

  His eyebrows drew together. “Great, but I was more asking what you did over the weekend.”

  “Oh, sorry.” Talking to him was like fumbling in the dark. “Um, I did some cardio and resistance training in the mornings. And then I studied. It wasn’t eventful, really.”

  He pulled back, his stare growing more intense.

  A green light.

  “You’re actually exercising on your own free time?”

  “Yes. I did say I want to become healthier, didn’t I?” She smiled, trying to soften the accusatory nature of her reminder. “I have to be consistent with it.”

  “You’re really taking it seriously.”

  If he weren’t the crown prince, she would have gone with sarcasm. No, I said that to you for fun.

  “What did you do last weekend?” she asked instead.

  “Oh, the usual. I shadowed my father and focused on my studies as well. Marcel came home for the weekend, so we had a few sparring sessions. I enjoyed getting to spar with him again.”

  Blythe’s bland smile stayed on her lips as she tried to recall who Marcel was. Her ‘buffering’ state had to be obvious, because Magnus squinted at her.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Yes, I’m alright,” she said, the cogs in her brain spinning to provide some kind of useful information.

  Thankfully, she finally remembered—Marcel was Magnus’ brother. Since he was younger by a year, even though he attended Novalbus with the rest of the characters, the player basically never crossed paths with him in the game even though he was mentioned in passing. In Magnus’ route, it was explained that Marcel aspired to great knighthood and had zero interest in politics. There was no fighting over the throne whatsoever.

  Blythe was exhausted. She’d had to dig deep to recall that bit of trivia.

  “I’m glad you had a good weekend.”

  “I’ve been thinking,” Magnus said, disregarding her polite but empty words, “about becoming a boarder myself now that you’ll be one too.”

  Her chopsticks froze in mid-air. “Sorry?”

  In the game, Magnus had remained a day student throughout.

  “Wait, really?” Cole’s eager voice chimed in. “Well, don’t just think about it—actually do it!”

  He was leaned over the table, beaming at Magnus as if he’d heard some great news. To him, it probably was.

  Blythe merely didn’t want it to mean more trouble for her. Would Magnus expect her to spend more time with him because they were both staying in school?

  “Gavin.” Titus’ deep, stern voice cut through the chatter happening at the table.

  Everyone turned.

  Gavin shrank back from the bottle of milk he’d been attempting to stick his narrow snout down and retracted his paws. He sat back down on his behind, looking every bit the innocent animal that he was pretending to be with his large, round eyes.

  Blythe’s heart melted. What an adorable baby!

  “I apologize for that,” Titus said to Clyde, grabbing the bottle of milk on his own tray and offering it to him. “I should have kept a better eye on him. I’ll switch with yours—I haven’t touched mine yet.”

  “It’s alright.” Clyde accepted the glass bottle. “I hadn’t noticed it myself. If you hadn’t said anything, I’d probably have drunk from it.”

  Jessica looked a little embarrassed. “I should’ve noticed as well, since he was right in front of me.”

  “The same goes for me,” Clyde said gently. “I knew Gavin was undergoing training for this. I suppose I was simply enjoying our conversation too much.”

  Blythe wished she could ask exactly what kind of training ‘this’ was.

  Pink crept over Jessica’s face.

  Titus sighed, grabbing Gavin and putting him back on his shoulder. “He’s been doing so well the last few weeks. I’ll have to start all over with his training. Gavin. If you try to get on the table again, you won’t get a treat for a week.”

  Gavin whimpered but stayed put.