Yor Briar, 16-year-old Eden College student, kissed her mother's cheek as she grabbed her bag. "And you're sure you'll be all right with Yuri today?" she asked.

Her mother smiled and gently pushed her toward the door. "Now, Yor, who's the mother here?"

Yor reddened. "You."

"That's right. And I am feeling just fine. Go off and do great things!" Her mother hurried her out the door closing it in Yor's face.

Today was her first day volunteering at the hospital. With everything that happened with her mother a few years ago, it just seemed the right way to spend part of her weekend. Some students volunteered because they coveted the all-important stellas, but Yor couldn't count herself one of them. No, Yor was interested in the hospital for a particular reason: she wanted to do good in the world and that was what hospitals did. Of course, it didn't hurt that it would let her pay forward the life and opportunity that the hospital had given to her family.

As Yor entered the conference room where the volunteers would be assigned tasks, she noticed several other Eden students. She took the path that would keep her out of as many lines of sight as she could manage to get to a seat in the back where she waited for the hospital staff.

Despite her efforts, one boy did notice her. "Look." He nudged his friend and nodded in her direction.

The friend looked her way. "She'd be hot if she weren't so quiet."

"You heard what Camilla said about her?"

Yor sighed. Yes, her friend Camilla loved to spread rumors to keep everyone in their place, and, yes, it felt as awful as it sounded.

One of the staff entered not long after with a blonde-haired, light-eyed student.

Yor felt herself flushing deeply. The truth was this wasn't just any blond-haired, light-eyed student: it was Loid Forger, the boy she'd had on her mind for the last three years. She saw him comfort a crying 1st grader who was lost and help her find her classroom. 'He'll make a great father,' she had thought. 'Why did I just think that?'

From that day on, she kept an ear out for any mention of such a boy. That's how she learned his name, that he's from Westalis, and that even though he could be an imperial scholar with his quick wit and athleticism, he isn't one.

She realized she had been staring at the boy, and when he began to turn his head in her general direction, she snapped her head away letting her hair disguise her blush. She only looked up when she heard the thud to see that boy had tripped and fallen rather inelegantly. She looked away again quickly before he had the chance to make eye contact. That was the big problem with her crush: she had a curious inability to make eye contact with him. Well and the other thing: he clearly was unwell. A person doesn't fall and run into walls and drop things as frequently as he does without having a condition. She wouldn't want to distract him from his healing.

No, it was fine that he was here. All she had to do was make it through until the assignments were given, and then she could escape.

Loid Forger, 16-year-old Eden College student, packed away the leftovers from the breakfast he made for his mother this morning. With him at Eden, his mother had to work extra hard to keep food on the table. Loid tried to do as much as he could to help her out, so much so that he tried to talk her into letting him get an after-school job. She staunchly rejected him multiple times.

He looked back at his mother quickly eating her meal. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay? I could clean the kitchen."

His mother put her fork down. "We've talked about this, Loid. You need to do something that you want to do for you. I still don't think volunteering at the hospital counts, but let's call it a step in the right direction. Now get out of here. You don't want to miss a chance to pester the doctors about medical school."

"Hey, this isn't about medical school. It's about…"

"Making the world a better place so that children don't have to cry anymore. I know. And honey, that's beautiful, but you're my child, and I want to see you do something that makes you smile."

Loid flashed a big fake smile to his mother.

"Funny. Get going. I better not see a clean kitchen when I get home."

Loid rolled his eyes and made for the door.

"I'm not kidding, young man! Meet up with some friends and cause some havoc or whatever it is teens do these days!" she called after him.

Today was his first day volunteering at the hospital. He knew that some students volunteered because they coveted the all-important stellas, but he was interested in the hospital for a particular reason: he wanted to make the world a better place and that was what hospitals did. Of course, it didn't hurt that it would let him see how hospitals operate and, as his mother suggested, rub elbows with doctors and maybe even psychiatrists.

He was fortunate to run into the staff member in charge of assigning volunteers on her way to the conference room. Her name was Dr. Yee. She was in orthopedics but volunteered to assign and monitor the Eden volunteers because she was an Eden alum. Loid could be charming sometimes. Adults commented on this fact often. And he was certain he was doing a fine job of it until he entered the room. He saw several Eden students milling about, but his traitorous eyes snapped to the one black-haired, garnet-eyed girl seated in the back.

This girl was special. He had seen for himself three years ago how in gym class she kicked a boy into a wall during a judo lesson, and he bounced back. Most people would probably cower at the sight of such strength, but Loid froze. Normally reasonably good at dodging, Loid was just as shocked as anyone when his sparring partner's hit connected with his nose landing him in the nurse's office.

He spent the rest of that day casually asking around about the girl with the strength of a bear. They told him her name is Yor Briar, she is a commuter student, and other students find her quietness unsettling. He continued to keep tabs on her even now, but he did have to become more subtle with his questions as his friends began to tease him about her.

As Loid felt her eyes on him, he also felt the tell-tale signs of his big problem: his body always seemed to stop working around her. Predictably, he stumbled, landing on gangly teen legs. When he had the courage to pick himself up and look her way, her head was turned away from him. And that was the other problem: she hated him.

He shuffled to the nearest open seat and buried his face in his hands. She would be here on the day he chose to volunteer, and now he'd get sent home for being too clumsy.

Dr. Yee, who had presumably been introducing herself and the hospital during Loid's embarrassment, began calling out the assignments, "Forger and Briar, you're delivering medicine for the pharmacy."

Loid couldn't help but look back at Yor who was looking anywhere but at him. 'She must despise me. I wish I knew what I did to her,' he thought.

Delivering medicine for the pharmacy happened to be busy work which both Eden students were grateful for. Their deliveries were completed separately and took them to different parts of the hospital such that they only encountered each other when being assigned the first delivery, which Loid dropped almost immediately, and when they crossed paths at an elevator.

Yor had just finished her delivery and was exiting the elevator to get another delivery while Loid had just received a delivery and was entering the elevator to ascend to the 6th floor. Both froze and stared until the door started to close with Yor still inside.

Loid knew rationally that all he had to do was place his arm between the doors and the anticollision measures would keep the doors from closing. The less rational part of his brain viewed the situation differently. 'Yor is in danger, and I'm the only person who can save her! I've got to act fast,' he thought. He did intend to stick his arm between the door until she got out, but his body had a different idea: throwing the bag of medicines between the doors.

Yor was snapped from her paralysis by the sight of a bag of medicine flying towards and past her. The doors stopped, and she stepped out. "What?" she said to herself.

Loid opened his mouth to respond but stopped when the doors to the elevator closed with the medicine inside. He was going to be in so much trouble for his. He found his hands grasping his skull.

Yor pressed the button for the elevator before continuing toward the pharmacy all while completely red and avoiding Loid's eyes. 'I can't believe I stared at him.'

Both students hoped against hope that they wouldn't see the other for the rest of the day. To their dismay, the pharmacy hit a lull, and they were assigned to work on tasks together like cleaning the pharmacy bathrooms and folding medication brochures.

This, predictably, did not work out well for either student. They got through the bathrooms by working on opposite sides of the room and pretending that the other wasn't there, but when they carried the flat brochures from the printer to the table they were told to work at, that's when things began to go awry. The table was a small square one in the corner with the two chairs kitty corner and quite close together. The thought of sitting that close to the other student affected both students. Yor became quite red at the thought of sitting so close which would make it difficult for her to look elsewhere but him. Loid felt his heart rate increase and his palms sweat. Yor had stopped walking in front of him, but his feet didn't get the memo to stop.

They collided, and all the brochures cascaded onto the floor. Loid, landing on top of Yor, quickly positioned his knees on either side of her body and pushed himself up to check on her. He gently helped her to turn over.

"Are you okay?" he asked before he saw that her face was redder than he'd seen someone's face before. "I'm so sorry. Are you hurt? Can I help you?"

She continued to stare at him, trying to will her face into it's usual hue.

"I'm so sorry. I should've been more careful. Please let me know if you are in any pain, and I'll get a doctor." He began visually scanning her body for bruises or any signs of fractures. He could hear Frankie chortling in his head when he imagined telling him about today. It would be better if Loid didn't tell Frankie about today, but he would because he couldn't seem to stop talking about Yor. When his eyes reached her neck, he found his hand reaching for it and gently touching it. His hand continued to follow his gaze up to hold her jaw. This is when he noticed that she was still red and had her mouth pressed firmly together. 'Good job, Loid. She hates you even more now.'

Yor found herself meeting his eyes for the first time. And what nice eyes they were. Grey or blue, she couldn't quite tell, but she could tell that they were looking at her with such gentleness. 'Don't go reading anything into that, I'm sure he looks at everyone like that because he's nice. I just haven't seen it before because I couldn't look into his eyes.'

That's how the assistant pharmacist found them a moment later: Loid leaning over a deeply red Yor on the ground with his right hand beside her head and his left holding her face.

"All right children, that's enough canoodling. Back to work," the assistant pharmacist said.

"We weren't…!" Loid and Yor said together.

"Canoodling? Yeah, sure." The assistant smiled to themselves. Young love was precious.

Loid stood first and offered a hand to Yor. She looked away from him and took it, putting the smallest amount of pressure she could on his hand to get herself up. After all, she didn't want to aggravate his condition.

They both bent to pick up the brochures. Yor found herself laughing at the whole experience as her mortification had to be released somehow. What were the odds that a staff member would find them in such a position?

Loid paused when he heard it. 'Is she crying?' he thought. "Hey, it's okay. I'll make sure you don't get in trouble for this. We both know whose fault it is…" He stepped enough to the side to see her face and saw that she was laughing. And what a beautiful laugh it was. So much so that Loid felt himself laughing along.

Both students continued laughing almost to the point of tears. When the fit subsided, the pair found themselves meeting each other's gaze again.

Loid swallowed the lump that had seemingly formed instantaneously and began speaking before he realized he was doing it, "I don't think we've been introduced. My name is Loid Forger. I would like to apologize again for knocking you over."

Yor blinked twice. "Y-yes. Hello, I'm Yor Briar. It's nice to meet you. I've seen you around. You're in Cecile Hall, right?"

"Yes, just like you." Loid realized what he had said. "I mean—because I've also seen you there—in classes at school."

Yor laughed again, this time a dainty giggle elegantly concealed behind the top of her hand.

Loid couldn't help but smile.

Yor looked away from him. "I think—well it's brave of you to volunteer here with your condition."

"My condition?"

"Yes—I mean—oh wait—do you not have a condition?"

'Only if you count a crush as a condition,' he thought in Frankie's voice. "No, I'm afraid I'm just clumsy."

That was as much conversation as either could eek out. They gathered the brochures, set up at the table, and folded them. The only audible noises in the room were the folding of paper and the frequent knocking of elbows that punctuated the folding since Yor had chosen to sit on the left side despite being right-handed and Loid was too nervous to ask her to change seats to prevent his left arm from bumping her right.