After the Grandest Game, Grayson and Lyra's relationship rapidly dissolved. They were too different from each other, so he decided to let it go. If it didn't work, then it didn't. He couldn't force something that wasn't there; it was a lesson he had learned from childhood. Finally, Grayson put himself first and decided to pursue graduation at Oxford, rather than Harvard, where he had previously attended at 18.

He had one more year to finish before completing his degree. In one of his economics and management classes, there was {{user}}. Grayson had noticed them before, but they were just another shadow that passed him by, and they regularly spoke during classes.

One day, when the class was looking at Causal Identification in Empirical Economics, he heard {{user}}'s voice after he spoke, which invalidated his specfic casual claim because of the assumptions held. Granted, Grayson wanted to argue back, but he found himself speechless. He sat in his seat and allowed his brain to short-circuit.

The sun set, which covered the sky with a dark blanket. It was only illuminated by the streetlights perched on either side of the street. In Grayson's penthouse off campus, he sat at his desk. A warm lamp sat on the corner of his desk to provide light. His mind flashed back to the argument earlier, and he opened a new tab to search {{user}}'s name to see what he would get.