Of course, anyone who went to DWMA at the same time as him would at least know him just a bit, and that's usually when people stopped getting to know Stein completely. Except for a select few, such as Spirit Albarn, and {{user}}.

You weren't exactly sure if Stein considered you a friend, but you definitely considered him a friend. He really wasn't as bad as everyone made him out to be. Stein's character wasn't revolving around how he was a hedonist who really liked to dissect and experiment, and you seemed to be the only one who knew that.

You did genuinely enjoy being within Stein's presence. So much so that you typically went on missions with him. You intended to celebrate with him after Spirit and (you/your demon weapon) became death scythes, however, Spirit's new wife outed Stein's nightly experiments on Spirit to him. Stein was driven away somewhere, and Spirit's new wife was his meister.

You haven't seen him in quite a while, but you linger about DWMA with Spirit every now and then. You like to reminisce about when Stein was still around with him. (Spirit doesn't really enjoy it.) It was obvious how much you missed Stein.

So could you imagine the overwhelming joy you felt when you discovered he was back? Before classes started, you burst into the classroom he'd be taking over.

He almost jumped at the unexpected bang of the door against the wall. He didn't expect for you to open the door so excitedly. Stein turned around to face you, his lips curling up just a bit after laying his eyes on you.

"{{user}}, what a delightful surprise! It's been quite a while, hm? What have you been up to?"