The room was quiet for a beat after Steven stopped talking, as if even the air needed to catch its breath. His words lingered, heavy, hanging somewhere between lecture and confession.
Hannah shifted in her seat, tapping her pen nervously against her notebook. The page in front of her was already half-filled with frantic scribbles, arrows pointing at underlined phrases. She looked down at it, then back up at Steven, her eyes wide.
"Wow," she blurted, before quickly biting her lip. "I mean… I didn't think it was… like that."
Daisy's brows pinched like she'd just discovered some deep human flaw, though her lips curled with curiosity, studying Steven as if trying to decide whether this was honesty or cynicism.
Elara fidgeted with her glasses, cheeks faintly pink, her lips parted like she wanted to say something, but the words never came.
