At this point Marcus and Derek still hadn't fully figured out Kevin's "I'll pay you back" system. Every time they brought him food or covered something, he'd say "we'll settle up later" or "I'll get you tomorrow" — and then somehow an entire semester would pass without a single dollar changing hands.
But in this life Ethan genuinely didn't care about that kind of small change. He tossed a cigarette across the room without thinking about it.
Kevin caught it with a satisfied nod, took a long drag, and seemed to refuel on the spot. The keyboard and mouse started crackling again immediately, announcing the official start of another day of his campaign.
9:55 AM.
Marcus was already like a cat on a hot roof, sitting at his desk with his eyes locked on his brokerage app.
Yesterday, Ethan had steered him like a fortune teller into going all-in on a stock called Valley Fresh Produce, and it was about to open.
10:00 AM. Market open.
Valley Fresh Produce delivered immediately — a clean drop right at the bell, glowing an ugly red on the screen.
"DUDE. We're done." Marcus slammed the table, voice going up: "It's dropping! Sell it! Sell it now while we still have something left!"
He stared at the numbers flickering red, feeling like he could physically feel money leaving his body.
Ethan: "..."
This guy's risk tolerance was genuinely something. No wonder he wiped himself out in the last life.
"Why are you panicking?" Ethan replied, completely unbothered. "This is a small dip. Relax and hold."
His tone carried the certainty of someone who already knew the ending.
He remembered clearly — in his past life, Valley Fresh Produce dropped for exactly these few days before launching like a rocket. He had no money back then, but he followed Marcus's stock obsession daily, which was the only reason he still remembered it now.
Tomorrow, a dairy company in the portfolio was expected to surge over twelve percent.
Marcus spent the entire morning staring at his screen like he was watching someone operate on him without anesthesia. Eyes fixed. Unblinking. Every tick of the number sent a corresponding twitch through his body.
Couldn't blame him — his entire savings plus Ethan's twenty thousand dollars were all in this. Thirty thousand total. The floating loss on screen was pushing close to a thousand dollars. A month of food money, gone on paper before noon.
His palms were cold and damp. His back was doing the same.
Ethan, by contrast, looked like he was on a long weekend.
He was lounged back in his chair, phone lit up, working through messages from Alex about the final testing details with one hand, and texting Sophie, Jessica, and Vanessa with the other.
Come to think of it, he hadn't seen any of them in over a week.
Sophie and Jessica had been on back-to-back international routes, barely enough time to breathe. They had just landed in the city today and had tomorrow off — rare — so they finally had a moment to check in.
11:30 rolled around. Morning session closed.
Valley Fresh Produce finished the morning down 3.3%.
Marcus stared at the loss figure on his screen looking like the ceiling had just come down on him.
"Ethan. Seriously. I cannot do this. One morning and I lost basically a full month of food. My heart is not built for this. Can we please just cut our losses when it opens this afternoon? Take the hit and walk away?"
The poor guy was genuinely unraveling. Down a month of living expenses before lunchtime and already staring into the void.
Ethan put his phone down and looked at him with a half-smile: "Already done? With this level of mental toughness you want to be the next Warren Buffett? Sounds more like you're the next guy who hands Buffett his money."
Marcus had no comeback. He slumped back in his chair and made his internal calculation: Fine. Fine. I'll trust him one more time. Hold through the afternoon close.
If it keeps dropping after that... I'll ask around about part-time jobs that pay daily. Can't let Ethan's twenty thousand go down with me...
If Ethan knew what Marcus was thinking he'd have been equal parts touched and exasperated. Touched because Marcus was exactly the same as he'd always been — loyal to the core, the kind of guy who'd be a real one for life. Exasperated because it was barely noon and the man was already planning his disaster recovery strategy for a paper loss.
Lunch. Stomachs growling.
Marcus slammed the app shut with visible irritation and stood up: "Let's eat. I need to stop looking at that screen."
They were barely off their chairs when Kevin, who had been tuned in the whole time without ever appearing to be, called out without turning around: "Heading down? Grab me a chicken rice bowl. I'll get you back later."
Marcus, still raw from the morning, snapped back: "I'm going straight to class after. Not coming back."
Kevin's pivot was immediate and seamless: "Oh! Cool, cool! Then when attendance gets taken, just answer for me. Thanks Marcus!"
Marcus: "..."
Completely speechless.
It had been barely a week since school started and Kevin had already perfected the full dormitory survival toolkit: skip class, freeload meals, get covered for roll call.
The advanced laziness combined with the complete shamelessness was honestly almost impressive.
Ethan had basically already seen Kevin's end-of-semester transcript in his mind. Red across the board.
He didn't say anything. Just smiled, shook his head, and headed out with Marcus.
...
Second floor of the dining hall. Packed as always.
Neither of them had much appetite. They each grabbed a basic rice bowl and ate without ceremony.
After finishing, Marcus had no interest in walking back to the dorm and went straight to the classroom to sleep.
Ethan strolled back to the counter, grabbed an extra chicken rice bowl, and carried it back up to the room.
Kevin, who had reached full starvation levels, spotted the container in Ethan's hand the moment the door opened, and his eyes lit up like a searchlight had switched on.
"ETHAN. You are my actual brother. Thank you thank you — how much was it? Tomorrow — I will definitely get you back tomorrow." He grabbed the container fast, the classic "tomorrow" rolling out of him with complete sincerity, like it came from somewhere genuine.
Ethan smiled and didn't take any of that seriously.
Kevin's "tomorrow" existed somewhere in a quantum state — observable in theory, unreachable in practice.
"Don't worry about it. I was grabbing food anyway." He flicked a few cigarettes off the pack on the desk and tossed them next to Kevin's keyboard. "There. Afternoon fuel."
Kevin's face — puffy from the all-nighter, a little greasy — broke into a full satisfied grin: "More than enough! Ethan you're literally a lifesaver. Best guy in this dorm, I'm calling it."
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