Lyrelle notices it first.
How Prince doesn't sit beside her anymore.
He stays near the door, arms crossed, like he's ready to leave at any second. When their eyes meet, it's brief. Polite. Almost formal.
Like they're classmates again.
Not a couple.
She hates that it hurts more than if they were fighting.
Prince clears his throat. "I'll, uh… check on Ryan later."
Lyrelle nods. "Yeah. Sure."
That's it.
No are you okay.
No don't go.
No touch.
Kaida watches the exchange quietly. Files it away.
Across the room, Jake and Kyra sit close but not touching. Their knees brush accidentally and both of them flinch, then freeze.
Jake glances at her. "About earlier…"
Kyra shakes her head fast. "Not now."
He nods. "Okay. Later."
But his hand lingers on the couch between them, close enough that if she moved an inch, they'd be holding hands.
She doesn't move.
Thorian leans closer to Kaida, lowering his voice. "You're spiraling again."
She exhales. "Am I that obvious?"
"Only to me," he says.
That makes her look at him.
Really look.
He isn't smiling. He hasn't been much lately. But his shoulder is warm, steady, like something real in a room full of ghosts.
"You don't have to carry this alone," he adds.
Kaida swallows. "I don't know how to put it down."
He doesn't answer. He just stays.
Across the room, Zyren and Summer are pretending not to notice each other.
Summer stands by the window, arms wrapped around herself, staring outside like she's watching for something to go wrong.
Zyren breaks first.
"You've been avoiding everyone," he says.
She doesn't turn. "I'm still here, aren't I?"
"Physically," he replies. "Yeah."
She spins around. "What do you want from me, Zyren? A breakdown? Tears? A confession?"
He steps closer, voice calm but sharp. "I want you to stop acting like you don't care."
Her laugh is brittle. "That's rich, coming from you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you see everything," she snaps. "You analyze everyone. You think you're smarter than us. But you don't feel anything."
That one lands.
Zyren's jaw tightens. "You don't get to decide that."
"Then prove me wrong," she says softly.
The air between them changes.
Not anger.
Something closer. Dangerous.
Prince notices the tension and looks away, annoyed. Lyrelle notices and doesn't.
Jason shifts in his seat, restless. "We're all acting like we don't care, but we do. That's the problem."
He rubs his hands together. "Saph would've called us out already."
Silence.
Kyra's eyes fill before she can stop it. Jake notices immediately.
He reaches for her hand this time.
She lets him.
Lyrelle watches that too. Her chest tightens.
Everyone is paired in some way.
Except her.
Prince checks his phone again, then blurts out, "I still think we should tell the police."
The room tenses.
Zyren responds first. "And tell them what? That an app knows our secrets?"
Thorian adds, "If we involve outsiders, we lose control."
Lyrelle finally speaks. "We already lost control the moment we stopped talking to each other."
Prince looks at her then. Really looks.
For a second, it feels like they might say everything they've been holding in.
But Kaida's phone buzzes.
Just once.
Everyone freezes.
She doesn't pick it up.
Summer's voice comes out barely above a whisper. "It's waiting for us to break, isn't it?"
Zyren nods slowly. "Or for us to choose."
Thorian looks around the room. "And judging by this… we're doing exactly what it wants."
Jason exhales. "We're drifting."
No one argues.
Outside, the sky darkens.
Inside, love exists in fragments. Unspoken. Unresolved. Heavy.
And somewhere in the shadow between them all, the game learns something new.
Not who they are.
But who they're afraid to reach for.