As he said it he made a show of dragging his oversized bean bag chair deeper into his already cramped corner, clearing a wider aisle for Ethan, the gesture hovering right at the edge of reverent.
Ethan made himself some tea, sat back down, and looked calmly at the still-red chart for Valley Fresh Produce on the screen.
He was way past the age where small flattery like this made him feel anything particular.
A ten dollar cigarette and a twelve dollar lunch, and a person could produce that level of humble gratitude, deliberate warmth, and actually rearrange their own space to make room. It was both funny and quietly sad at the same time.
Human nature in certain situations could be startlingly cheap.
He picked up his cup, blew the steam off slowly, looked out the window, and waited for the turnaround he already knew was coming at the afternoon open.
...
1 PM. Market reopened.
Just like the morning, Valley Fresh Produce continued its slide. Red numbers, steady and heavy, like a weight pressing down on the screen.
Less than an hour in, the day's decline had pushed to -5.5%.
Marcus, who had been sitting in the classroom, had already mentally flown back to the dorm.
He was typing under the desk with both thumbs, hunched over his phone, sending Ethan a message that was basically a cry for help: "Ethan. I'm done. Please just sell it. We take the loss, call it a lesson, and tonight BBQ is on me. Two cases of beer minimum. I'm begging you. Just sell it."
Ethan's phone lit up. He glanced at it, a quiet smile at the corner of his mouth.
No reply. Screen locked. Eyes back on his own computer.
The moment Marcus's message came in, the downtrend stopped.
The chart line began climbing back. Slow at first, but steady. Unwavering.
Marcus spent the next stretch of class time refreshing his brokerage app every thirty seconds. Staring at the -5.5%. Staring at Ethan's unread message. Burning up quietly at his desk.
He caught the moment the professor turned to write on the board, hunched low, and slipped out the back door.
Ethan hadn't been in class today either, for the record.
Marcus jogged the whole way back to the dorm, hit the door hard, and burst in gasping: "Ethan — sell it! Everything's down today — nearly six points! If it opens tomorrow at the limit down we won't be able to get out even if we want to. We lose everything!"
He stopped.
Ethan was leaned back in his chair, completely relaxed, talking to Kevin about some game strategy, tone easy, like outside the window wasn't a financial emergency but a perfectly pleasant afternoon.
"Relax. Already sold." Ethan turned his head and looked at the sweat-drenched Marcus.
"Hoo——!"
Marcus let out a breath so long it could have deflated a tire. The weight that had been sitting in his chest all day finally dropped. He folded into his chair and wiped his forehead: "Good... good... okay. We take the small loss, call it tuition. Honestly, we need to study this properly before we go near it again. Can't just throw money around like that..."
He was already building the philosophical framework to make peace with the damage.
Ethan added, casually: "No time for that. I reinvested everything into a dairy company. All in."
"WHAT." Marcus launched out of his chair like someone had electrocuted him, eyes going wide: "Are you serious?! We just bled out six points on the last one and you're going all-in on something else right now?! My heart literally cannot handle this! This is how people die!"
He could already see himself eating plain rice for the next month.
Ethan calmly pulled a cigarette from the pack and stuck it directly into Marcus's still-moving mouth.
Then he turned his monitor around so Marcus could see the transaction screen: "Who said we lost six points?"
His voice had a quiet edge of amusement. He pointed to the numbers on the screen: "Open your eyes. We made twelve percent."
Marcus's gaze snapped to the screen. His brain stopped.
On the intraday chart for Valley Fresh Produce, in the exact window of time between Marcus leaving the classroom and arriving back at the dorm, the stock price had completed a deep V reversal — dropping all the way to -5.5% and then rocketing up to a peak of +13%.
Ethan's trade record showed a clean exit near the top. Around 12.5%. Perfect timing.
"No..." Marcus nearly dropped the cigarette out of his mouth, standing completely frozen, like the ground had moved under him.
How. It had been bleeding red the whole time he was sitting in that classroom. And now it was showing a green profit? And Ethan had sold near the peak and walked away?
That was...
Ethan looked at his expression — a man questioning reality itself — and nodded with a small smile: "Exactly like you said earlier. Turned the loss around and got out in time."
Marcus reached into his pocket on autopilot, pulled out a lighter, hands slightly unsteady, and lit the cigarette. Took a long slow drag. Even that didn't seem to reach the shock sitting deep in his chest.
He sank into his chair, eyes vacant, not moving for a while.
The stock market was something else entirely. He had watched it from the outside plenty of times, seen wild swings that sounded insane, but it never hit the same way. Now with real money in it, every point was physical. The reversal felt like having the floor disappear and reappear under him in the space of an afternoon.
Kevin seemed to finally register that something had shifted in the room. A brief death-timer appeared on his screen and he used the gap to spin his chair around: "You two good? Did you fight? Come on, log in — I'm in the zone today, genuinely carrying everything. There's nothing a good gaming session can't fix. And if one isn't enough, we play another."
In his world, the only things that mattered were whatever was happening in the game.
Ethan smiled and waved him off: "We're fine. Go do your thing. We're having a philosophical discussion."
Kevin said "oh," turned back around, and threw himself immediately back into the chaos of his team fight.
...
Evening. The last light of the day came through the dorm windows at a long angle.
Ethan straightened up, grabbed his jacket, and headed out to find food.
There are 130 advance chapters ahead in my Patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
patreon.com/B_A_3439