Disclaimer: Shin Seki Evangelion (English title: Neon Genesis Evangelion), all the characters in the anime, and anything else associated with it is the property of Gainax studio, and Hideki Anno. This story is for entertainment purpose only. It is for non-profit.

Eva Fanfic Episode 1: Incohesiveness.

2nd day of Shinji's new school year.

Ring…ring…the sound of the alarm rang in his ears, as he slowly flipped his body away from the annoying sound.

"Oh, let me sleep a little more…please. I need it." Shinji mumbled. "I need my sleep, my life depends on it." He pulled the comforter over his head, his body curled back to the fetal position it was in.

"Oh whiny, are we?" The loud, insistent voice came as sudden as the alarm's ringing itself, as the door to Shinji's bedroom swung wide open; Shinji flipped his body facing the door, but his eyes remain closed. A girl rushed in, she got next to his bed faster then her voice to his ear. Her hands were already on his comforter. The thermometer pointed to 29 degrees C.

"Now get up, ya lazy pupil!" She grabbed for the comforter, and made the mistake of pulling it far away from Shinji. She gasped, and instantly, her body became rigid. Oh no, she thought, I forgot that the same damned thing happened yesterday! How stupid of me!

Shinji's member stood attention; it was pointing at her.

"Huh, what did you say, mother?" Shinji mumbled. His eyes was half opened, half closed, his hair was sticking up all over the place. "Did you call me, 'pilot'? What's a pilot?" Shinji yawned the sentences out, his breath smelled like the fried tofu he had last night. Because the window was wide open, the wind sent the unpleasant smell towards Asuka's already beet-red face. Shinji sat up; his member was sticking up through the pants of his pajamas. It pointed straight at her.

"You…you…you!!!" Asuka screamed, "PERVERT!!!" She struck Shinji's face; her hand was faster than her words. The impact snapped Shinji's face sideways, as his body slammed awkwardly into the window.

Asuka was gone before Shinji slammed into the window. She left Shinji with a glimpse of the trail of her fiery red hair in the air.

After a couple of minutes, Shinji slowly walked downstairs, with Asuka's hand print still fresh on his face, just like yesterday, when Asuka first slapped him. Without pausing to greet his parents, Shinji shifted his body slowly towards Asuka, who was standing by the door.

"Shinji-kun, aren't you going to have some breakfast before you go?" said Shinji's ever so helpful mom Yui, with a warm voice. Shinji's father, Gendo, with his head buried in the paper, mumbled something that resembles an agreement, or maybe something about the headlines. The sound of TV from the living room reached Shinji as he lazily opened the front door; the tail end of the morning news was on. As the bright and hot sunlight streamed into the living room, Shinji simply waved goodbye, "We are going." he said before he shuffled out of the door. Asuka waved enthusiastically, "Thank you for the French toast! We are going! See you later!" She was gone before her voice had trailed off.

Shinji caught the image on the TV before the door slammed shut after him – it was a giant-sized robot standing in some factory, with…a weird helmet. He thought to himself. "That looks like fun. More fun than school, that's for sure." Shinji mumbled sourly.

"What did you say, Shinji? Asuka turned towards to Shinji; their faces were almost touching.

"Whoa…I mean," Shinji said, he drew back from her, "nothing, I didn't say anything at all. Why do you ask?" He turned his face half away from her, "Mind your own business sometimes, ok?"

Asuka stared at him for a moment, almost ran into another student. Then she said loudly: "You are such an idiot, you know that? Do you understand why I was asking you about what you said?" She paused; Shinji did not bother to look at her at all. "Are you listening to me?" Shinji nodded, but stared straight ahead without saying a word. Asuka stared at Shinji again, but he kept his eyes looking straight ahead. She threw her arms up. "Oh man, I just don't get you sometimes, I give up." As soon as she put her arms down, she rushed a few steps in front of him, turned her head, stuck out her tongue at Shinji, and quickly turned her head towards the road in front of her. Then she marched forward, arms swung up and down like a soldier.

Shinji looked up when the two of them passed under a billboard. The billboard showed some men and women wearing some tan uniform, saluting something in the distance; the lady in the middle was in her late 20's or early 30's, with blue-ish, flowing locks of hair, big, child-like eyes, a cute nose, nice warm smile, and a fit but slim figure. She is the only person in the group wearing a black skirt and a red jacket. The cross on her chest screamed for attention. It looked really out of place, Shinji thought. Why he didn't know. "She sure is cute." Shinji said in a low voice.

"Did you say I was cute?" Asuka turned, and asked. Her eyes searched Shinji's face. He kept looking at the road. She waited, after a long moment of silence, she sighed, and turned toward the road again.

A light blue haired girl was charging at Shinji, as he and Asuka turned the corner. When Shinji tore his eyes away from that woman on the billboard, and stared at the road again, it was too late for him to get out of her way; the girl's whole body had already met his chest. But since the two of them were about the same height, their foreheads also met each other at about the same time.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow…this hurts!" moaned the girl. She was holding her forehead. Her butt fell hard on the pavement; her skirt-covered legs were wide open.

"Man, what's your problem? Watch where you are going when you walk!" Shinji tried his best to yell at her, but that wasn't easy considering how much a weakling he was, and the pain to his forehead was unbearable to him. Instead, his voice came out as a loud grumble. Then, he noticed something white between her legs. He swallowed hard. Her panties were accidentally showing.

The girl apologized profusely, as she started to get on her feet, then she noticed Shinji's gaze at her panties. A look of astonishment and embarrassment erupted on her face, as she quickly covered her crotch, and stood up faster then Shinji can say: " sorry, I didn't meant to look!" She was already a few feet away from him; she quickly turned and ran toward school.

As other junior high schoolers giggled and laughed amongst themselves, looked and pointed at Shinji and Asuka, Asuka waltzed on triumphantly into the classroom. She was holding her bag in one hand, her other hand was dragging Shinji by his left ear. Shinji stumbled after her into the room.

The wooden chairs with somewhat uncomfortable backs lined up neatly with the wooden tables, which had many scratches and kanji carved in them by other students. Shinji's table has no words or scratch marks on it. Asuka's table on the other hand, has names, scratches, and some Japanese "wood prints" on it, mostly done by Asuka.

"Can you let go please? Asuka, come on!" Shinji whined, and begged, like a 5 year old asking for candy before sleep. "This is so embarrassing!"

"Well," Asuka turned to Shinji, she thought for a moment, her face frowned, and then she said with a sneer: "this is for you being a PERVERT AGAIN! Looking at that girl's white panties!" Asuka shook her head in mild disgust, her right hand still got Shinji's left ear. "You are so stupid and perverted and sick, you know that? You sneaky coward!" She snorted. A girl with two ponytails approached them; she was the class representative, Hikari. She stood akimbo, and said disapprovingly: "You guys better stop before the teacher gets here!" She lifted her chin and said: "Now cut it out!"

Asuka's eyes got bigger than rice balls as she stared at Hikari. She let go of poor Shinji's ear, and retorted: "Hey, mind your own business! I don't need you, and I don't need this! You Japanese are so strange, don't you guys ever have fun with your classmates?"

Hikari stood there, thought to herself: "this girl is unbelievable!" Then she walked away in dignified disgust. "I must've done something to deserve this. Ugh." Then as if she remembered something, she turned around, and stuck her tongue out at Asuka, forgotten her dignity as the class rep.

"Uh-hum" the throat clearing sound entered the classroom before the teacher did. As the startled class rep rushed to the front row of the chairs to find her seat, Asuka stuck her tongue far out of her mouth; she had not a care about the teacher.

Shinji, who had rubbed his left ear to relive the pain, shook his head, and held his forehead. "Ugh…she's always like that…even in front of the teacher." Shinji muttered, with some amusement. Of course, all these are just so familiar to him. Everyday, Shinji and Asuka went through the same routine: 7:00 AM, Shinji's alarm goes off, Shinji turns away from it, curls up with the cover pulled over his head for more sleep, 7:30 AM, Shinji's mom, Yui, goes up to his room and tries to wake him, only to walk away in frustration, as the need to prepare breakfast for Shinji's father, Gendo, becomes a nagging priority. 7:45 AM, Soryu Asuka Langley, Shinji's best friend since childhood, comes over to Shinji's house and rushes through the door like a hurricane, then rushes upstairs before Yui can ask her for to join them for breakfast (Gendo wouldn't say anything much beyond a simple muttering of "hi", having his head buried in the newspaper before heading to work). There would be about 5 seconds of silence in the whole house, except for the TV, if it is on. But after the welcoming silence is over, the sudden explosion of the girl screaming, Shinji's things crashing, and the boy yelping in pain can be heard even from a mile away. 7:50, Shinji shuffles out of the door, unwillingly, more bothered by Asuka's enthusiastic attitude than going to school itself. 8:05, both Shinji and Asuka arrivals 5 minutes late to school.

Shinji sighed to himself, stood up with the rest of the class to salute the teacher, felt kind of dizzy, remembered that once again, he forgot breakfast. "Oh well, at least there will be lunch." He thought to himself. At least that may help brighten his day in school…

Uh…wait…Shinji, looked into his backpack after he sat down, and searched for a moment, only to come up with frustration, at the fact that he has forgotten to bring his lunch. Again.

It has became almost a routine for him to have to eat with Asuka everyday, because he never wakes up on time, he always forgets to take his lunch with him to school. The thought of eating with that pushy, pompous, over-confident girl of half German blood, with flaming red hair and loud voice, really drove him nuts. Now how the hell did we become friends? Shinji mused to himself. Since we were…hmm, I can't seem to remember when we became friends…Shinji continued to think it over with his head down…unaware that the teacher was noticing his absent mindedness. Having called his name 3 times, Mr. Takeda was starting to get really angry over Shinji's unresponsiveness.

Shinji ignored Asuka's frantic hand gestures, and the class rep's demanding gaze, and pondered on, with a dreamlike gaze toward the window: "well, I think I met her during the first grade…no, I think earlier than that, kindergarten maybe? No, I think when we were 4…that's not right either…I kind of having this feeling as if we'd just met yesterday…"

"IKARI-KUN!" A loud boom of voice violently snapped Shinji out of his thoughts. Startled, he stood up, knocked over the table in the process, yelled: "Ye…yes…I…am here, the answer is Hokkaido!"

The sound of his voice startled him. Did he just yell? Somehow, that seemed odd to him.

"Ah…yes, indeed," the teacher said sarcastically, "Now we can see that you are wide awake, and ready for some learning…and ready to meet the new member of our class." Over the sound of the whole class' laughter and jeers, Shinji saw Asuka's hand covered over her face in slightly frustrated resignation of the situation. "Idiot…what a idiot!" Said Asuka, then she joined the rest of the class, and laughed maniacally at Shinji. This had became a routine as well – Shinji would get absent minded, teacher would scold him lightly, and the whole class would just laugh it all up. All in a harmless fun.

With face beet red, Shinji sat down, head lowered. He just didn't care about what people thought of him; actually, he didn't care about people that much. But hey, at least most people wouldn't bother him as much as Asuka would. She seemed to have taken delight in picking on him and make fun of him from time to time, which embarrassed him a lot. She liked to call him names, but her favorite name for him was the "Big Idiot." Shinji never reacted with anger or defiant annoyance towards her, however. He mostly just protested mildly, or ignores her totally.

It was hard to ignore her right then, as she leaned over from her side, and whispered to Shinji: "I think, Mr. Idiot, this time you've really made yourself out to be a class joke. How embarrassing!" She laughed out aloud.

"Oh, what do you know about it!" Shinji protested weakly. This is how I normally react to her, he thought.

Neither of them was aware of the light blue haired girl who had walked into classroom. She was standing in front of the chalkboard, facing the rowdy crowd of 15 year olds. She's got a big smile and a bright attitude. Her uniform was completely spotless, and shiny, which was unusual, considering the fabric was plain cotton, without any shiny materials such as rayon mixed in. Her skirt was noticeably shorter then knee high, again unusual, because the regulation dictated that skirts in the summer have to reach below the knees, half way between the knees and the ankles. Her book bag was rather large for her 5"4' frame. The word 'Nerv' was inscribed on the front of the bag.

Over the class rep's loud admonishing about possible punishments for people who wouldn't shut up, the teacher cleared his throat, "Ok, class, now quiet down! Like I said before, I am going to introduce a new member to our class." He took the blue haired girl to the very center of the front of the board, and waved a hand toward her: "Class, this is Ayanami Rei. Ayanami, introduce yourself to the class."

With a calm and somewhat cool smile, she cleared her throat, but just when she was about to speak, a loud tire screeching came suddenly from the parking lot.

Almost as soon as the sound reached the boys' ears, Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke, along with rest of the boys, rushed to the window, yanked the window up, and pokes their heads out of the rather small window. "Ugh, come on guys, get off!" Kensuke complained loudly, "let me get a shot of her!" he had pulled out a camcorder from nowhere.

"No way, buddy boy, this view is all mine!" Toji yelled and grunted. He tried to push both Shinji and Kensuke away from the window.

"Hmmm…mmmm…. let me see her, too!" Shinji grumbled. The three of them had all six eyes fixated on the 'winged' Porsche 911 that had skid itself into the parking spot.

All the boys 'ah' ed and 'ooh' ed when the door opened. A very beautiful pair of legs appeared in between the door and the drivers' seat. Then, almost as soon as the car gracefully came to a stop, a young woman stepped out of the car.

"It's her! IT IS HER! She's from the billboard!" Kensuke said, excitedly and breathlessly.

"Oh shut up you idiot, no one comes out of a billboard, she is for real!" Toji shouted.

"Oh wow, she's hot!" said Shinji: "That's Ms. Misato! Out hot new gym teacher!" a big flow of blood to his face, as his heart pounded rapidly.

Both his buddies stared at him as he commented. With an eyebrow cocked, Kensuke looks at Shinji with a rather intrigued look: "You know her by first name? Are you guys on first name basis? Now how did that come to be?"

Toji almost yelled Shinji's ears off: "What, you know her name? No way! There is just no fucking way that you would know her before I do! I am the lady-killer in this class! You shrimp!"

Shinji protested: "Shrimp! Who are you calling shrimp? Damn it Toji, I am telling you her name is Misato! Katsuragi Misato, of Nerv, that big company that sells everything from the digital camcorder that Kensuke is holding to the ugly sneakers that you are wearing! It is her!"

"Ok," said patiently Kensuke; "if she's from Nerv, then why would she be our new gym teacher?" he stared at Shinji intensely.

"Yeah, man, tell me, tell me!" Toji joined in, he stared at Shinji eagerly.

"ah…uh…um…"realized that he was in a jam, Shinji mumbled: "well, I am not supposed to tell you, but my father works at Nerv. And, well…" Shinji paused, to the impatient and unpleasant looks of both his friends. "Misato…I mean Ms. Katsuragi works at the same research department as my father's. I think she comes to our school to be a temporary gym teacher because she's here to do a research on the 'youth' market…"

Katsuragi Misato looked up at the young male students, who were fighting for her affection. She smiled big, then lifted her sunglasses over her head, and waved at them.

"OH WOW! SHE WAVED at ME!!!' Said all the boys, as Hikari held her forehead, shook her head in mild disgust. "Boys…so immature!" She exclaimed, to the agreement of the girls in the class, especially Asuka and Rei.

"Shinji, you…YOU BIG IDIOT!!!" screamed Asuka, as she charged toward the window, lunged herself at Shinji.

Shinji turned to her in wide-eyed horror, "wait, Asuka, wait! You are going to push us out!"

With the collective screams of Shinji, Kensuke, Toji and Asuka, accompanied by the whole class' yelling and laughter, the 4 of them fell out of the 2nd story window.

As Shinji landed first on the flowerbed, he thought to himself, what a typical weekday indeed. Isn't it just so plain yet so wonderful?

The rest of day was pretty eventless, except for the excitement of the boys about the new gym teacher, and the jealous girls' gossips. The last bell rang at 4:00 PM.

"Whew," Shinji thought to himself. "Finally, this day is over." His face brightened up a bit. "Now I can relax and go grab a bite with Toji and Kensuke before I go home and study, and…" watching over his shoulder for any trace of Asuka, Shinji relaxed some more when he didn't see her; his thought continued: "and maybe I can get some peace and quiet…" He started toward the exit of the school.

Just then Ayanami Rei came out of nowhere, collided with Shinji. Both of them fell hard to the ground.

"Ow ow ow ow ow…" Rei held her head as she sat on the ground; her legs were wide open. Again, her white panties were exposed to Shinji's gaze.

"Man, what the…it's you again! Why didn't you look where you are going this time?" Shinji said, more less glad that he didn't bump into Asuka, because Asuka would've kicked his ass.

Rei paused to rub her head, then she looked up at Shinji, and then followed Shinji's gaze to her crotch.

Both their faces turned apple red instantly.

Shinji turned around quickly. He covered his eyes, and said hastily: "I am sorry, I am sorry, I am so sorry! I didn't meant to…"His voice trailed off.

"Give me a hand here, " Rei said coolly, "help me up." She said without any trace of anger.

Shinji hesitated, and then slowly turned around. He took his hands off his face, and reached out with his right hand.

The afternoon sunlight shined brightly unto Rei, just as her smile shined brightly unto Shinji. "Oh my," Shinji thought, "she sure is cute."

As he helped Rei up to her feet, Rei smiled slightly. Shinji couldn't help but feel somewhat proud about having helped a girl out, at the same time, something was bugging him about her. "Hmm…I have seen her smile before, but where?"

A dark and chilly feeling immersed all over him, it came as sudden as the thought. The chilly feeling was totally out of place in the May's afternoon warm sunshine. …?… Shinji simply couldn't place his fingers on it. Something…

He found Rei stared at him with a warmth and friendliness he never felt before; she moved her face close to his.

"Ah…hello…um…what…?" Was all Shinji can manage before Rei's smiling face turned a deep shade of red, and then, with a loud thud, he felt the sting of her hand on his face.

"Wha…?" Before Shinji can react, Rei said quickly: "Sayonara, you pervert!" half a smile crossed her face as she quickly turned and ran toward the exit away from him. Sayonara? That was not the goodbye that he expected from her. Maybe she thought he was a pervert and didn't want to see him again, ever. Shinji thought miserably. She was really cute. Shinji thought more miserably. Something about that goodbye really bugged him…

"Hey Shinji-kun, what the hell was that all about?" Before Shinji can answer, a hand fell heavily on his back, causing him to cough in pain. Toji always greet people with a smack on the back.

"Uh, come on, shrimp! That wasn't so bad! Not as bad as you how you ran into that girl!" Toji said easily. After all, he wasn't the one on the receiving end of his own special greeting. Kensuke just laughed at Shinji's red-faced reaction to that comment.

For once, Shinji just laughed with them. "Well, I didn't see her coming, that's for sure." Then he mumbled: "But she said, 'Sayonara'. I wonder why?"

The three of them walked out of the school gate, and toward the direction of the S district, where they usually grab a bite before going home to do some homework.

The sun has gone further down, the big clock on the Nerv building showed 4:30 PM. It was windy in Tokyo 3, and people were walking in their usual fast pace. They were near the subway station where on weekends; Shinji would take subway to the shopping district. As the three of them walked past the station entrance, Shinji caught a glimpse of something that made him pause.

The word "Evangelion", written in blood, on the wall of the entrance.

"What?" surprised, Shinji strained his eyes to look closer.

Only to see an ad about the evangelization of Japan.

"The Savior is our only hope. In this corrupted society, citizens need evangelicals to protect them with the abundant powers of Kami-san." Shinji read to himself absently-mindedly. "Please support our cause – sponsored by the people of…Nerv?"

Shinji blinked, and read it again.

"Why are we stopping here, man? Come on! I am starving!" Toji grumbled loudly.

"What is it, Shinji?" Kensuke asked with some concern. "Something not right about the ad?" he asked alertly with more interest.

Shinji gasped to himself. It did say Nerv! Now when did father's company got involved with these religious people? As far as Shinji can tell, he never liked any religion; he especially hated this kind. A savior, he thought, that's useless, the best thing people can do is to save themselves.

He turned to his friends, and was about to tell them his thoughts on the evangelicals…but he sighed instead. "Nothing, guys, let's go." He started to walk away from the entrance.

"Shinji, doesn't your dad work for Nerv?" Kensuke inquired. He has seen the ad many times before.

"Oh yeah…hey wait! Ms. Misato, too, right?" Toji asked excitedly. He rubbed his hands, and continued: "Man, Ms. Misato looked great today at the gym class! White tank top, white gym shorts, with light blue sports bra…her blue eyes was following my athletically build body all over the place! She's so cute with her hair tied back like she did!"

"Followed you? Followed you? Oh shut up, you brainless jock! She'd never pay any attention to a moron like you! She came over, and talked to me! She was very interested in my new database that can store massive data and can access them from anywhere in the world fast, with my new compression scheme and all…" Toji interrupted Kensuke, and put his head in a headlock: "Shut up you stupid fool! You think she would care about your stupid codes and geeky laptop?" The two of them started a wrestling match right there in the front of the subway entrance. Shinji was embarrassed for the two of them, and tried very hard to tell them to stop, but there was no way that his mumbling was going to reach their ears.

"Oh look, the three stooges at it again!" surprised, Toji and Kensuke stopped. The three of them turned and saw Asuka's sarcastic and disapproved look.

Asuka somehow had already gotten home, changed out of the blue uniform, and changed into a bright, expensive yellow dress, red clogs, and had put on some make up.

She continued. "Well, well, boys are so immature. Gentleman, we are on the urge of becoming high school students, and you three still plays in the dirt like children? Do you know that I have never played with childish things such as dolls even when I was a little girl? I have always been very mature, but the three of you…"She paused, shook her head in adult-like disproval, "are just three stupid idiots, and childish, too." She looked at them as if she was older, and a lot taller than all three of them.

"Oh yeah? Well, look who's talking, say, weren't you and the class rep. Hikari-chan giggling about that American singer/dancer Dick Saucer? What about our English teacher, Ryoji Kaji? Weren't the two of you flirting with him?" It was too late to stop Toji, Shinji thought, as soon as Toji opened his mouth, the disaster could not have been prevented.

After Toji's comment about Asuka flirting with Ryoji Kaji, Asuka's eyes grew to about the size of dinner plates, as she charged at Toji; she swung at Toji with her right fist. Shinji winced at the inevitable fate of Toji: "Boy, he's really going to get it this time…"

Just as Asuka's fist was about to hit Toji's defenseless left cheek, another hand came out of no where, grabbed Asuka's wrist, accompanied by a cold voice: "Stop. Why do you do this?"

All four turned to the newcomer to the group. Shinji gasped.

"Ayanami! Ayanami Rei!"

She came so suddenly that Asuka was completely taken by surprise, but she recovered quickly. "LET GO! LET GO OF MY WRIST NOW!" Asuka said angrily, almost threateningly to Rei. Rei was silent. Her eyes stared at Asuka with a sense of cold intensity. Her eyes weren't warm and friendly anymore, they were cold and piercing

I've seen this look before… But where? The thought flashed quickly in Shinji's mind. However, Rei's icy cold stare didn't seem to faze Asuka. She stopped yelling and screaming at Rei. Instead, she said, in tone that matched Rei's own: "Let go of my arm, Wonder Girl."

The two of them continued to stare down each other, while the three boys swallowed hard in observation.

Finally, Rei slowly opened her hand. As Asuka quickly pulled back her arm, her wrist had deep finger shaped bruises on them. Asuka didn't even bother to look at her wrist at all. She continued to look at Rei with hellfire in her eyes. Rei returned the favor with a frozen Siberian winter night in hers. Neither of them moved.

Finally, Asuka said:" Alright, I will forgive him this time, but next time he better not talk garbage about me that way."

All three boys breathed a heavy sigh of relief. While Kensuke mumbled something about feminists are scary.

"Come on, Shinji. Let's go!" Asuka said without looking at him. She turned around and started to walk. After few steps, she realized that Shinji wasn't following her. She spun around.

Shinji did not move an inch toward her direction.

Asuka looked at Shinji, then she looked at each of the 4 in return. Then with a loud "hmpf", she spun around, and left as fast as a summer's thunderstorm would come and go, the only traces of her left was the smell of her perfume and trail of red hair in the air.

Rei looked after her direction for a moment, and then she turned the other direction and started walking. Shinji hesitated, and then called out after her.

"Um, Ayanami…Ayanami?" Shinji said with some uncertainty. Rei turned around to face him.

"Yes?"

"Well, about today…"

"Yes?"

"The two times I ran into you…I…I didn't…"

"…"

"I mean, I didn't meant to…"

"…"

"I didn't meant to look. I am sorry. Really."

"…Ok. Sayonara."

Rei turned around, and walked away from the boys, in the opposite direction of Asuka.

The three boys stood there for about a minute, then Toji spoke: "…Uh, can somebody tell me what the hell is going on today? What's with these girls anyway?"

All three of them shrugged. Oh well, time to grab a quick bite before going home. The three of them left the front of the subway entrance, leaving the questions unanswered.