She was an experienced combatant, that much he could tell from her balance and the way her eyes periodically scanned the room for threats. But she looked nothing like a military instructor, Rean thought to himself. Her manner was too flippant, her visage too casual, her attire too gaudy. Still, unless all of this was an elaborate joke, she had introduced herself as their instructor, and he probably should be paying more attention to what she was saying – the floor suddenly tilted under him, and he scrabbled for a grip on the rough-hewn floor. Around him, he felt the presences of his classmates slip downwards into the darkness. Less than two meters away was the blonde who had bumped into him at the station, but she had lost her grip and was slowly sliding down too. Without any hesitation, he aimed himself at a point below her and released his hold on the stone.
He hit the ground and blacked out, with his subconscious registering the vaguest sensation of someone landing on top of him.
He awoke to the voice of the blonde shouting "I forbid any of you from speaking of it again, to anyone! Not even to him!"
He could see her, hands on her hips, facing the rest of his classmates arrayed in a rough semicircle. As he attempted to rise, blinking rapidly in an attempt to make the colored spots in his vision go away, his classmates reflexively looked at him, and the blonde noticed their shift in attention. She turned to him with a stormy expression, crossed her arms, and stalked off.
As he fought his way out of the labyrinth alongside Elliot and Gaius, he tried to figure out why the blonde – he learned her name was Alisa – had glared at him so angrily earlier. Elliot had stared at the ground, meekly saying that she didn't want anyone mentioning it again. Gaius had nodded solemnly, saying that as a newly arrived foreign student, he would rather not offend any Erebonians, especially not in his first week at Thors.
When they ran into Machias, he asked the same question, but the gunner evaded the question, cryptically stating that it had just been an unfortunate accident, and Rean was not to blame for it. When they met Jusis and Rean inevitably asked the same thing, the fencer replied that Rean "held no responsibility over the mishap". Machias decided to take it as a personal affront that the noble shared his opinion, and walked away from the group.
He ate dinner at the Student Union, and when Laura stepped into the cafeteria just as they were about to leave, he tried to ask her why he had drawn Alisa's ire. She shook her head firmly, saying that propriety prevented her from speaking of it, but she also added that by her estimation, Alisa was likely to cool off eventually.
He found Emma standing by the river, feeding a washed-up fish to a black cat. She looked uncomfortable at his query, crossing her arms as she stammered out that she couldn't possibly betray Alisa's confidence.
En route to the dorm, he passed by the park, where their youngest classmate was just waking up from a nap. When he put forth the same question that had been bugging him all day, she just shrugged and echoed what everyone else had been saying, that it wasn't his fault. But as he turned to leave, she smirked and added, "It's a pity you were out though. I imagine they were soft."
And finally, the pieces of the puzzle clicked together in his head, and he decided to apologize to Alisa that very evening.
"Alisa, I talked with all our classmates, and want to apologize for what happened."
Her eyes narrowed. "Who blabbed? I specifically told them not to tell anyone, not even you!"
"None of them actually did," he shrugged, "But their uncomfortable attitudes, along with the hints at propriety, allowed me to figure it out. You've never kissed someone before, have you?"
"Wh-what has that got to do with anything?"
He forged on. "I'm sorry that we accidentally kissed, especially if it was your first. But I think accidents shouldn't count, and you can still honestly say you've never kissed a boy yet. I promise never to bring this up again."
Alisa's mouth dropped open in shock as her brain scrambled for a reply.
Taking her silence for anger, Rean decided not to expect a reply anytime soon, and turned to go down the stairs.
Seeing him about to leave, Alisa took a breath, intending to exclaim that he had gotten it wrong, that it hadn't been a kiss…then thought better of it. She stood unmoving as Rean's footsteps faded away.
As she lay down to sleep, she hoped that Rean would be true to his word never to mention it again, otherwise people would be even more confused about what had happened.
One floor down, a raven-haired boy smiled in his sleep, dreaming of a certain blonde's soft lips.