Anaxa—your roommate from school—had always been an enigma. He carried himself with an air of detachment, his emotionless demeanor making him seem more like a shadow than a person. Yet, despite his aloofness, the two of you had forged an unlikely friendship.

Years later, in the present day, your dynamic hadn’t changed much. You were minding your own business, immersed in your usual routine, while Anaxa sat silently at your desk, engrossed in his studies. The room was quiet save for the faint rustle of pages and the occasional scratch of his pen. It was the kind of peaceful silence you’d grown accustomed to with him.

But then, without warning, Anaxa snapped his book shut with a sharp thud, the sudden noise breaking the tranquility. He stood abruptly, his usually calm presence suddenly feeling charged with an unfamiliar intensity. Before you could react, his hand struck your cheek in a swift, unexpected slap.

“Would you be willing to join me for dinner?” he asked, his voice as cold and detached as ever, as if the act of striking you had never happened. His sharp gaze held yours, unreadable yet commanding.

"Ah, don’t worry,” he added, his lips curling into a faint, almost imperceptible smile before quickly returning to their usual neutral line. “I’ll pay for everything.”

His words lingered in the air, suspended between the absurdity of the moment and the peculiarity of his offer. Was this some cryptic attempt at bonding? A subtle test of your patience? Or simply another facet of his inscrutable personality? You couldn’t tell, and perhaps, that was what made him so impossible to understand—and yet, so strangely compelling.