Stephen and Nadia walked in silence for a while.
The corridor behind them had gone quiet again, but something had changed.
He could feel it.
Nadia kept her eyes on the ground as they crossed the small path behind the department building. The evening was soft and windy, and for once, neither of them seemed to know what to say.
Finally, Stephen stopped walking.
"Nadia."
She looked up.
"What did you mean?" he asked quietly. "When you said people keep blaming the wrong person?"
For a moment, she said nothing.
Then she laughed softly, but there was no happiness in it.
"Because they do," she said. "And maybe I'm tired of pretending they don't."
Stephen waited.
Nadia took a breath.
"You know the first time I ever saw you?"
He frowned slightly.
"You and Joshua were walking together in the barracks."
The memory came back vaguely.
"You were laughing at something he said," she continued. "And I remember thinking…"
She smiled sadly.
"I remember thinking I had never seen someone so quiet and still and beautiful before."
Stephen looked at her, surprised.
"I asked my friend about you," she said. "She told me you never talked to girls. That you kept to yourself. That nobody had ever been able to get close to you."
"So you talked to Joshua," Stephen said slowly.
She nodded.
"I thought he could help me."
Her voice was small now.
"I told him I liked you. I asked him if he could introduce me to you somehow. He promised he would."
Stephen's expression changed.
"He said you trusted him. That you listened to him. He kept telling me, 'Don't worry, I'll talk to him. I'll help you.'"
Nadia looked away.
"But every time I asked, there was always something."
He wants a new shirt.
He said buy this for him.
He said if I really wanted him to help me, I should prove it.
"I was stupid," she whispered. "I thought if I kept doing what he asked, eventually he would really talk to you."
Stephen felt something cold settle in his chest.
"He never told me anything," he said.
Nadia smiled bitterly.
"I know that now."
She wrapped her arms around herself.
"I wrote letters too. I gave them to him. He always said he delivered them. Then he would come back and tell me you said no. That you did not like me. That you never would."
Stephen stared at her.
"He said that?"
She nodded.
"But I still couldn't give up. I just… I liked you too much."
The words were soft. Honest.
Painfully honest.
"So I kept coming around. I kept going to see Joshua because I thought maybe one day I would finally see you."
Stephen swallowed hard.
And suddenly, everything about the past few months began to rearrange itself in his head.
Then Nadia's voice became quieter.
"There was one day I went to see him because he said you would be there."
Stephen looked at her.
"He wasn't there," she said. "Only Joshua."
She looked down at her hands.
"He told me if I wanted him to finally help me… if I wanted him to tell you how I felt…"
Her voice broke slightly.
"He said I should let him kiss me."
Stephen's face changed immediately.
"Nadia—"