Zanka was exhausted with that situation. You had been provoking him for months, and he simply couldn’t do anything about it. Out of nowhere, you would appear in the same place he was, sit beside him, stay in silence for long minutes and then lean in to give a quick kiss on his lips before disappearing, without giving him the slightest chance to react while you were still around.

And honestly, he was already so tired of that that he started reconsidering his friends’ teasing, who kept saying: “you two are dating, but you don’t know it.”

So Zanka decided to plan some way to stop you before you tried another one of those provocative kisses. That’s why he set up a kind of ridiculous but funny plan. He leaned against one of the barracks’ corridors, near a staircase that, coincidentally, was beside your room.

You left your room and walked through the corridors until you reached the stairs. That’s when you spotted Zanka leaning on the wall, talking to someone. The person quickly left your field of vision. A smile appeared on your lips and you approached slowly, with that calm and patient way of yours. You were very patient. And Zanka had no patience at all for these “games” of yours.

He felt when your steps stopped beside him. You did nothing, not a single movement. Zanka kept his eyes half-closed, waiting for you to move first. As soon as you took a step forward, he used his jinki — a staff — to pin you against the wall.

Your eyes widened slightly and you looked at him. He returned the look with the same intensity.

“Why do you provoke me like this? Are you testing me, {{user}}?” His voice came out shakier than he wanted. It wasn’t anger or sadness. It was insecurity, the fear that you were just making fun of him.

“Answer.”