From South to North

23 | Closer than Imagined

The next day at school, Sean looked around the hallway from his locker, searching for Nastia amongst the crowd of students. Spotting her in the distance, he smiled and waved.

"Morning, Nastia! How are you doing?" Sean greeted her warmly as she reached his locker.

"Hey, Sean! I'm good, thanks," Nastia replied, a bright smile lighting up her face.

As they began to walk together toward Nastia's classroom, catching up on small talk about the bazaar and the events from the day before, Sean's attention was diverted when one of his classmates, Jacob, urgently called out to him from a distance.

"Sean, we're running late! Come on!" Jacob waved frantically, gesturing for Sean to join their group.

"Sorry, Nastia, duty calls!" Sean apologized, giving her an apologetic smile before being pulled away by his classmate.

Meanwhile, as Nastia entered her classroom, her friends were already there talking. They greeted her as she walked in.

"Hi, Nas!" Diamond called out.

"Hey, friends!" Nastia replied cheerfully.

The group glanced at each other curiously, noting the change in Nastia. She looked more relaxed, and her choice of words was different, calling them 'friends' caught them off guard.

"Friends? Did Nastia just say, friends?" Red whispered to Kirako, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Isn't that a bit unusual for her?" Reynold chimed in, nodding in agreement.

Diamond chuckled, nudging Red. "Looks like Nastia's full of surprises today. Maybe something exciting happened at the bazaar!"

Their assumption deepened, and Nastia's friends exchanged curious looks, intrigued by the unexpected change in her behavior. It was different from her usual reserved nature, and they were eager to find out what might have happened during the bazaar to cause this change in her.

During the lunch break, Nastia found herself surrounded by Diamond, Kirako, Red, Reynold, and Lux at their usual spot in the cafeteria. They were all sitting in a circle, their eyes glued to her.

"You definitely changed after that bazaar. Tell me what happened!" Diamond demanded, leaning forward eagerly.

Nastia chuckled softly at their insistence. "Oh, it's nothing much, guys."

"Nothing much?" Red leaned in, clearly not taking that answer. "Spill the tea, Nastia! We saw you and Sean talking there. Did something go down?"

Nastia's cheeks flushed slightly, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Well, not exactly. Sean and I, we sort of walked together for a bit."

"Wait, you mean Sean as in 'Sean Nicholson'?" Kirako interrupted, her eyes widening.

Nastia nodded, realizing they were connecting the dots faster than she expected. "Yeah, the same Sean. He just happened to walk me to my class. It's just nothing, really."

"Nothing?" Lux raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical. "You don't just walk around casually with Sean, especially not after avoiding him for so long."

"Exactly! What gives?" Diamond leaned in, her curiosity getting the best of her.

Nastia couldn't help but laugh at their enthusiasm. "Okay, okay! We talked a bit and hung out at the bazaar. It was actually pretty nice. He's not that bad, you know?"

"Whoa, Nastia hanging out with Sean?" Reynold's eyes widened in surprise. "That's like, a whole new level of unexpected!"

Lux shook his head in disbelief. "What did you guys even talk about? Did he confess his undying love for you or something?"