Zen was late.
Not fashionably. Not strategically.
Catastrophically.
He cut across the quad at full speed, breath sharp, backpack bouncing against his spine. Behind him, Alex followed with two coffees sloshing dangerously close to betrayal.
"Zen—stop—running!" Alex gasped. "I'm risking caffeine tragedy here!"
Zen vaulted a bench without slowing. "I can't face disappointment while standing still!"
"You're going to face it dressed wrong," Alex shot back. "Your shirt—"
Zen glanced down mid-stride. Inside out.
He shrugged. "Bold choice."
"It's a cry for help."
The bulletin board outside the auditorium was already crowded.
Students pressed shoulder to shoulder, voices hushed, nerves tight. Someone laughed too loudly. Someone else cursed under their breath.
Zen slowed.
Not from doubt—
From focus.
Alex nudged his arm. "Go on. Before I spill victory coffee."
"That implies confidence," Zen said lightly.
"That implies faith," Alex replied.
Zen slipped through the crowd.
The List
Names blurred together at first.
Lines of ink.
Expectations.
Other people's futures.
Zen scanned once.
Missed it.
Again—
There.
ZEN HART — SELECTED (SUPPORTING LEAD)
The noise around him fell away.
Not shock.
Not disbelief.
Something steadier took hold.
A calm certainty—like stepping onto a mark he hadn't known was already measured for him.
Zen lifted a hand, touching the edge of the paper as if to confirm it wouldn't disappear.
Behind him, Alex appeared like a summoned spirit.
"Well?"
Zen turned, grin breaking free before he could contain it. "I'm in."
Alex exploded.
"YES—ABSOLUTELY—THIS IS A HISTORICAL DAY!"
"Lower your voice," Zen begged, laughing. "I don't want to be remembered like this."
"Too late," Alex declared. "Legend status achieved."
When Joy Is Witnessed
Liya arrived quietly.
She'd been heading from the library, curiosity pulling her toward the crowd before she consciously decided to follow it.
"Zen?"
He looked up, expression still slightly stunned.
"I got it," he said.
No flourish.
No pride.
Just truth.
Liya smiled—open, sincere. "I thought you would."
The words landed gently.
Zen felt a brief lift in his chest.
Not excitement.
Not romance.
Appreciation.
"Thanks," he said, meaning more than the word could carry.
They stood there a moment—Alex vibrating with secondhand joy, Liya calm and observant, Zen caught between momentum and disbelief.
Then the air shifted.
A breeze crossed the courtyard, sudden and cool. It threaded through Zen's hair and raised a line of awareness along his spine.
The space around them stilled.
Just briefly.
As if something unseen had paused to take note.
Zen's smile faltered.
He blinked.
The campus noise rushed back.
Alex clapped his shoulder hard enough to jolt him forward. "We're celebrating. That's final."
Liya laughed softly.
Zen let the moment go.
Some questions didn't belong to good days.
Zen didn't realize his hand was shaking until Liya gently closed her fingers around it.
The warmth steadied him instantly.
And for the first time, the dream didn't feel like it was chasing him —
It felt like it had found him.
The First Shift
They walked toward class together—Alex narrating future fame, Liya listening, Zen quietly absorbing the fact that something in his life had tilted.
He didn't notice the email arriving on a phone in another city.
Subject: Hospital Branch Review — Immediate Attention Required
Nor did he know that the path he'd just stepped onto was already intersecting with someone else's.
Not yet.
But the sequence had begun.
And once it did—
nothing stayed accidental for long.