Breakfast wasn't just for food. It was for rituals. For Kriss, that meant carrot soup, smooth jazz, and doomscrolling through campus gossip on his iPad.
"Let's see what today's circus looks like," he muttered, lazily flicking his thumb across the screen.
The headline hit him before the flavor of his soup did: Campus Idol Collapses in Public!
His spoon paused halfway to his mouth. "…Huh."
Aidera—the untouchable princess of the Physics Faculty, had fainted yesterday and caused a campus-wide meltdown. Apparently, she'd been carried bridal-style through half the institute by… an early-semester nobody.
Kriss didn't need to guess twice. "Oh no. Zeyn, buddy, what did you do this time?"
A laugh bubbled out of him, loud enough to earn a few glances from the other cafe patrons. He didn't care. "Hahaha! You poor bastard. You hate attention, and now you're literally trending. This is beautiful."
