Over the days, Ning had been making a point of trying to get closer to Jason.
There was no grand reason behind it. Jason had been the first person at the academy to speak to him honestly, even if what he had said was mostly a warning to stay away, and Ning had found that he simply wanted to be his friend.
Jason, for his part, did everything he could to avoid letting that happen.
He left the cafeteria early whenever he saw Ning approaching, took different routes between classes, and on more than one occasion turned around in the middle of a hallway the moment Ning came into view.
Unfortunately for him, it was very difficult to escape someone who always seemed to know exactly where he was going to be.
More often than not, Ning simply ended up sitting beside him anyway, falling into step with him on the way to the training yard, or waiting at the door of a classroom that Jason had been certain he would reach first.
