Knock, knock, knock.
The dormitory door was knocked on at an unhurried pace.
The three of them froze simultaneously, turning their heads in unison toward the door.
Bianca leaned lazily against the doorframe, her silver eyes sweeping over the bizarre scene in the room with great interest—
A dumbfounded Victor, a red-faced Enid clutching one side of his collar, and an expressionless Wednesday standing on the other side with her arms crossed.
"Sorry," Bianca's voice carried a faint hint of a smile, as if she were enjoying an interesting play. "Am I... interrupting you?"
She shook a brightly colored flyer in her hand, walked in, and placed it casually on the cabinet by the door.
"A preview of the weekend's Parents' Day activities," she explained, her gaze sweeping over the three of them again, the corners of her lips curling. "You guys... continue."
With that, she turned elegantly and left as silently as she had come, leaving the air in the dormitory frozen once more.
The unstoppable courage from a moment ago was completely dissipated by this sudden interruption, and Enid's hand gripping Victor's collar let go.
Her cheeks were red enough to smoke, her eyes darted around, and she no longer had the courage to finish that kiss.
Victor seemed to finally reboot from his crashed state.
Looking at Enid, who was so shy she seemed ready to shrivel up, he suddenly blinked, and his mouth curled into that familiar, slightly mischievous smirk.
He took the initiative to lower his head and quickly pecked Enid's soft, pink lips.
A touch and then gone.
"Victor!"
Enid suddenly covered her mouth, her eyes wide, looking at Victor with disbelief and an instant explosion of radiant surprise.
Victor just gave her a playful wink, as if he had only just completed a trivial little experiment.
To hide the suddenly heating, sugary atmosphere, or perhaps just to cool down his own somewhat overloaded CPU.
Victor cleared his throat and turned to pick up the flyer Bianca had left on the cabinet.
His gaze swept over the colorful patterns and large, bold fonts on the paper.
"Oh, my god!"
"Weekend Parents' Day?! This sounds fucking terrible!!!"
"Oh, wait! Maybe it's not that bad!" Victor tapped his forehead, his tone light. "My parents won't be coming at all!"
His "just remembered" look was as exaggerated as a stage actor's.
"Why?" Enid blinked her azure eyes, asking curiously. "Are they busy and can't make it?"
Victor remained silent for a long moment.
"Who knows?" Victor shrugged, his smile still bright.
"I haven't'seen' them for many years. Maybe..." He drawled, speaking in a deliberately relaxed, self-deprecating tone.
"They wouldn't want to travel all this way to see a crazy son and his... uh... black, gooey parasite friend?"
"Hey!" A low growl, carrying a sense of being offended, came directly from inside Victor's body.
"Sorry, old pal!" Victor apologized without any sincerity, strolling toward the door as he spoke. "As an apology, how about I buy you a chocolate ice cream cone?"
"Make it a double scoop," Venom's muffled voice came through, seemingly temporarily bribed.
"Of course! No problem!" Victor replied cheerfully, reaching out to twist the dormitory doorknob. "Be right back!"
The door closed with a "click" behind him, isolating that overly bright smile.
The dormitory fell into a brief, subtle silence.
Enid frowned slightly, her gaze still lingering on the closed door, her face carrying a hint of lingering confusion and faint worry.
She turned her head toward Wednesday, who had been unusually silent throughout, and spoke softly: "He just..."
"A low-level change of subject."
Wednesday's cold voice interrupted her, her dark eyes devoid of any ripples, as if she were merely stating an observed fact.
"Obviously, Mr. Black does not wish to discuss any topics related to his parents."
Enid was stunned.
She thought back to how Victor had looked just now—the exaggerated smile, the light tone, and... and those eyes.
Those eyes, always dancing with madness, playfulness, or various intense emotions, had a flash of something else for a split second when he said that.
Something completely opposite to that bright smile.
"But..." Enid's voice grew even lower, "Even though he was smiling just now... I feel like... his eyes looked like they were crying."
Wednesday's movement of adjusting her black mesh gloves paused for an imperceptible fraction of a second.
She didn't argue.
She simply looked away from the door and toward the perpetually gloomy sky over Nevermore Academy outside the window.
The dormitory became quiet once more.
Only the faint sound of the wind outside and the satisfied, subtle muttering of a certain symbiote temporarily appeased by a cone inside Victor's body were faintly audible.
And the youth who seemed to have escaped the topic was now leaning against the cold dormitory door in the hallway.
Outside the door, the heartless smile on his face had long since vanished, leaving only a weary blankness.
He tilted his head back, resting it lightly against the door, his Adam's apple bobbing as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
When he opened them again, that brief vulnerability had been quickly suppressed back into the depths of his eyes.
He twitched the corners of his mouth, put back on his usual, slightly silly smile, and walked toward the academy's convenience store.
"Double-scoop chocolate cone..."
He muttered under his breath, as if this were the only important thing in the world.
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