I Wonder

Nuer's Intuition

It was very obvious that Syn disliked Nuer, regardless of his precepts that seemed to be imprinted inside his eyelids. Calling something an evil demon to his face is...less than subtle.

Nuer sat in the garage at his station, where he typed away on his laptop to complete the project for another course. He had wanted to impress everyone with his dedication to getting through the obligatory coursework for auto engineers by taking on an incredible number of classes, so he would at least graduate on time.

It was a lot, and Nuer couldn't remember the last time that he slept a full eight hours.

The door at the end of the room opened with a loud creak.

Nuer looked up, seeing Syn walking in on his phone, typing away.

He stopped at his own station, digging through the paperwork there, when Nuer called out to him.

"Syn, hi!"

If he was going to get anywhere with this final group project for the end of the semester, he was going to need to get on Syn's good side. He realized that very early on.

Syn looked up, his eyes settling on Nuer before his jaw clenched tightly. He snatched a manila envelope from the bottom of a stack of papers and headed over to Nuer's station.

"Good afternoon, P'Nuer," Syn stated, lacking any interest as he waiied to the senior.

"What are you up to today, Syn?" Nuer asked, forcing a smile to his face.

He didn't like Syn any more than Syn liked him, but there was very little that he could do about his own circumstances anymore. Getting on Syn's good side would at the very least make being here less stressful socially.

Syn blinked, obviously caught off guard.

"Uh...homework, I guess. What about you, P'Nuer?"

Nuer found Syn adorable, but he was very clearly an adorable nuisance most of the time.

For the first month that he was here, he couldn't understand why Syn even hung out with the guys that were in his group. They were mean, unintentionally but nonetheless, and teased him constantly. This poor guy whose only flaw was being too pious, it didn't make any sense.

But the moment the project had started, or really the moment that Nuer started flirting with Kuea, it all made sense.

Without Syn, the group would never have any direction, would likely never get anything done.

Now that he's been here for a couple of months, Nuer came to two conclusions:

One: if he was going to make friends with anyone in this group, he was going to have to get on Syn's good side.

Two: Kuea really had no interest in anything that wasn't happening to him or to his best friend.

"I'm finishing stuff for some other courses," Nuer replied, pointing with his pencil to a list next to him that was really quite extensive.

Syn blinked, then craned his neck to look at all that was on the list.

"Oh, you still have to take auto intro?" Syn asked.

"Yeah," Nuer shrugged, "It's not hard, but the board would only replace so many of my credits with the courses I already took. On the bright side, I don't have to take calculus again."

Syn broke a smile on his face, for a brief moment, then pulled his buzzing phone up.

He answered the call and turned away from Nuer, starting to head to the exit. He paused and spun around on his heel, sending a mouthed goodbye to the senior along with a wai, then hurried on his way.