Seven on Sunday morning was when Kurin woke up, checking their phone to see a string of new messages from Dan. Most of which were about Callie's study date with Athena, they did consider replying to him until they saw the final message probably intended as a joke.

Dan: soo if Callie's scored a date w Athena how long until u ask someone out lol???

They left Dan on read, deciding if their friend was such an idiot that he thought Callie getting a study date with Athena would have any effect on Kurin not wanting to date anyone then he didn't deserve a response. Of course it was far more likely that Dan was joking, but even then it was annoying and the red streaked boy was completely undeserving of a response.

Slowly and quietly they crawled out of bed so they wouldn't wake their roommate who was still asleep and crept into the bathroom to get changed. Today's look was black ripped jeans, a striped purple and white sweater and their usual jewellery consisting of a guitar pick necklace, the silver ear cuff that connected to a stud earring with a chain and their music note hair clips. They didn't bother brushing their hair before they crept back out of the bathroom, took their phone off charge and grabbed their satchel bag, internally cursing as the keyrings attached to it made little jingly noises because the gods above knew how light of a sleeper Noah was.

As quietly as possible, Kurin left the room, then they made their way out of the dorm building into the fresh morning air. Taking a long route through the woods around the edges of the campus as they made their way towards the library just to the side of the main academy building, slipping their earphones in and beginning to quietly sing along to the songs in their playlist as they walked. Glad that no one was around to hear them.
The morning was quite peaceful, the early morning sun shining through gaps in the trees... It would be easy for them to just let themself wander through the woods in the morning sunlight, singing along quietly to Paramore's Still into you.

They laughed to themself, suddenly realising how ironic it was that the number one bane of their existence was people asking about their relationship status yet they'd listen to songs about being in relationships and in love without thinking twice about it. A part of them wondered if maybe it was because songs about love weren't connected to them personally, the same way their friends' relationships weren't or the ships between fictional characters weren't. Their issue wasn't with the idea of love or romance in general, they're just disinterested in their own love life.

Especially disinterested since people started asking about it. It's clear their friends intentions aren't to pressure them into feeling like they should want to be in a relationship but it really feels like it's expected of them to the point where it's genuinely stressful that they don't feel any attraction to anyone as of right now.

And sure their friends would stop if they knew how their words were making Kurin feel but... How could they tell them? Besides, they felt like it'd be wrong of them to bring it up, it wasn't being done on purpose, wouldn't it be rude to ask them to stop out of nowhere? To make them feel bad over joking comments?

Their thoughts came to a forced stop as they realised they'd arrived at the library doors. Switching off their music, they entered the library, ready to start looking for a new book having finished Five Survive yesterday. It never failed to creep them out how quiet it was on these early weekend mornings. The library was open twenty-four seven, although Kurin usually stuck to only going during the daytime.

Apparently, not everyone did though. As they got closer to the fiction section, the non-binary spotted someone with their face down on the desk, all features covered by a hugely oversized hoodie.
Momentarily, Kurin's breath caught in their throat. Their mind flooding with thoughts of Simon's death in One of us is lying, most specifically in the Netflix series adaptation of the books as the setting for Simon's death in the Netflix series had been a library rather than a classroom like in the book. Then they noticed the person was clearly breathing, quite heavily... Perhaps even snoring. They covered their mouth with one hand to stop themself from laughing and waking up whoever it was, heading around the corner towards the mystery and horror sections and dumping their bag and phone down on a table there.

It was decidedly far too soon to reread Bad Blood, they didn't feel like starting Coraline yet and the library still didn't have book two of The Fear Zone. Next they browsed through Murder Most Unladylike, Girl Missing, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder which they had only recently reread and the iconic One of us is Lying series. They were considering going to the fantasy section to restart the Percy Jackson series when a new book caught their eye.

The name on your wrist. The title instantly reminded Kurin of those soulmate au fanfictions they used to read on ao3 for fandoms they used to be in. Yet once they picked up the book and read the synopsis, it basically screamed dystopian fiction.
There was no going back, they knew they had to read it. They hurried back to their table and sat down, opening the book to page one.

"It's the first thing they teach you when you start school,"

Gripped. Hooked. Lost in the story already.

Time seemed to pass quickly without them realising, the next time they were made aware of the world outside of the book was when their focus was interrupted by Loveless's Happier than ever. Which honestly they couldn't even be annoyed about because of how much they loved that song. They were confused as to why it was suddenly playing but that mystery was quickly solved by a familiar startled voice cursing, "Shit! I forgot that was my ringtone." Sounding very much like he'd just woken up.

Kurin stifled the urge to giggle as they realised who it was, they had never heard him curse before. They debated putting their earphones in so they wouldn't hear the other's phone conversation but before they could, he'd answered the phone and Kurin was already hearing things.

The conversation was extremely fast paced, the previously sleeping person seemingly unable to get a word in and it wasn't on speaker. All Kurin heard was one side to a conversation that started with an extremely unenthusiastic greeting...

"Hello, Father?"

Most of the rest of the conversation consisted of long gaps of silence followed by cut off words, apologies or extremely forced sounding agreements including one promise to keep up the family's reputation, then the call ended.

The non-binary frowned, they shouldn't have heard that, they'd thought just yesterday that the conversations that Chet might have with his parents were completely nothing to do with them and that they should mind their own business. But they couldn't deny that the conversation they'd heard sounded awful. Them and Chet weren't really friends, but still a part of them felt tempted to go over and ask if he was alright. Yet again before they could decide on anything, something else happened.

Across the room they could hear Chet groan loudly, "Why's it so important to him?" He complained, his tone bitter but his voice quite soft, Kurin was certain that if they weren't the only two people in the library they wouldn't have heard him speak. "Besides, I doubt it's even true. They were probably just lying to him to make themselves seem better." He added, clearly irritated but also... Kurin's no expert but Chet seemed sad too as he talked to what he thought was an empty room.

For a moment the boy had fallen silent and Kurin thought he'd finished but then he started back up again, in a clearly annoyed mocking tone. "Pretend to be better than everyone else, it'll be good for the family's reputation, it'll make you a proper Chipman they said!" He vented out his frustrations. Each second he continued, Kurin felt worse and worse for hearing what was definitely meant to be a private vent session.

"I do all that and it does nothing but fuck up my life and make me unhappy but of course now there's more, isn't there."

Kurin didn't want to hear this, they wished Chet would stop before they heard even more than they should.

He didn't. Still unaware someone else was in the library, he continued laughing bitterly. "And now the most ridiculous of all, get a girlfriend for some stupid event just so he can pretend his family is better than someone else's."

'Stop talking, stop talking, stop talking.
I can hear you. I shouldn't be hearing this!'

"Fucking dickhead, I barely have any friends and I'm..." He seemed to hesitate for a moment. "And I'm gay, how the fuck am I supposed to get a girlfriend." He murmured incredulously, his voice cracking with a hint of undeniable sadness.

A few moments passed, Kurin entirely stunned, before the awful sound of a chair scraping back filled the air and footsteps walked off in the direction of the library toilets, a quiet noise almost like a near silent sob accompanying them.

The toilet door closed.

The nonbinary leaped to their feet, they should not have heard any of that and they knew it. They had to get out of here before Chet got back from... Crying?
Kurin felt awful for him but it would probably be better if they didn't reveal that they overheard all of that to Chet, they're not friends, it would be much simpler and comfortable for both of them if they were to just... Pretend they never heard it and leave before Chet found out Kurin was ever there.

They slung their bag over their shoulder and rushed over to the book checkout machine, placing their phone down next to it so they could hastily scan the book, check it out in their name and then dash out of there, book in hands and bag on their shoulder as fast as they could before Chet could return.

On their way back to the dorm block they chose to rush back through the woods instead of the quicker, more direct route across campus. Not taking a second to admire the weather this time, just desperate to be away from the library. Arriving back at the entrance to the dorm block just in time to almost crash into Athena.

The blonde took a step back, narrowly avoiding being knocked over, "You seem to be in a rush." She commented, amusedly. "Going somewhere?"

Kurin shook their head slowly, attempting to catch their breath before answering, "No, not really." They paused, breathing in heavily again. "I was just.. Taking a walk in the woods around campus." The non-binary half lied. "What about you, where are you going?" They then deflected.

Athena raised an eyebrow at Kurin but didn't comment on the lie or deflection, "Going out for my morning exercise." She answered, "Say, did you take that book with you on your walk?" The blonde girl asked, adjusting her glasses on her nose as she looked down at the book in Kurin's hands.

They nodded in confirmation, not giving anything up through words, Athena watched their expression carefully for a moment before breaking eye contact. "Well, have a good morning." She smiled, already starting to jog away.

"You too!" They called out after her before turning back into the dorm building and returning to their room. The lights were all still off but in the dim light from the crack between the curtains, Kurin could see Noah sprawled out on his bed, still sound asleep. The clock on the wall reading ten past eight. Quietly, they sat on top of their own bed and opened their book back up, switching on their bedside lamp so it was bright enough to see the pages...

But their mind couldn't focus.

They'd heard something they absolutely shouldn't have and now it was playing on their mind.

It appeared they'd had Chet Chipman wrong, everyone had. In most other's opinions Chet was rude, arrogant and dismissive of those he thinks to be beneath him. Knowing Chet through Callie, Kurin knew that was more how he'd used to act and nowadays Chet preferred to keep to himself and although he'd still make the occasional snarky remark he'd mostly stopped acting like an asshole. Even though that change had been made, no one had ever considered that wasn't his actual personality and that Chet was much better of an actor than he let on in drama class.

Now Kurin thought of it, everyone had also assumed Chet was cishet, as awful as assuming anything was, that assumption had been accepted as a fact. It was wrong of them and hypocritical to assume things about others when they hated people assuming things about them.

They shouldn't know any of this. It wasn't their business to know, it wasn't their life. The things they'd heard were personal... Technically Chet had been outed to Kurin by accident. The only thing Kurin could do now, the only decent thing to do would be to keep it a secret and never repeat what they'd heard to anyone.
Maybe they should bring it up to Chet that they'd overheard him in the library... He deserved to know that he'd been heard.

A decision was made, they'd tell him after lunch.

But as it would turn out, that plan ended up being quite pointless.