Leuthold Preparatory | ✓

Chapter Seventeen

"Where are you from?" Noah asked as he still avoided the bathroom and went slowly down the steps.

"Moldova," she replied.

"Oh," he paused, "I don't know where that is."

She stared at him for a moment and he gave an apologetic shrug. In their silence, Noah could hear voices down the hall and he quickly identified the first as Mi Na's, the Headmaster Berg's, then, to his surprise, Hannil's. They were talking lowly but it wasn't a whisper, only a private conversation between the three that Noah couldn't pick the words apart.

"You know them?" She asked, seemingly baffled by the expression on his face.

He nodded before beginning to slow down. He thought that Headmaster Berg would neither like Noah having his own ideas nor him being close with Hannil. To avoid them, Noah walked around the hallways and went back down the stairs, opening the lower part of the library.

"Library," Noah said to her.

She looked nervous before she stepped inside, Noah saw her shoulders drop after a moment.

"How quiet," she commented. "Where are the librarians?"

"I do not know," he shook his head.

Inside the library, Noah saw a few students that seemed to be the same students he always saw inside the library. His interest stayed on Hanna's words before his eyes narrowed in on Liam sat quietly with his hand on his book and several books piled around him. Noah walked by the woman despite that she still seemed to need help, the library was large but it wasn't that large. He assumed she could find what she was looking for without a librarian.

"Liam," Noah said as he grabbed onto his shoulders.

Liam jumped slightly at the contact but sighed soon back int his relaxed state.

"There should be an idiom in your language about not sneaking up on the blind," he said as he turned his page.

"Sorry," Noah whispered as he sat down beside him.

He opened his mouth to let when Hanna had told him spill out, but paused as he remembered his coming-to after six months. Liam hadn't believed him about the girl in the hallway, somehow he had convinced him not to talk to Hannil, not to believe the incident to be real. In reality, Noah hadn't told Liam what he had told Hannil; within a moment, Noah was convinced Liam wouldn't believe him once again. He remembered how Hanna said that Mi Na convinced her, he wondered if Liam convinced him in the same way.

"Have you seen Hannil?" Noah said when it was obvious Liam was waiting for him to say something.

"And here I thought you had gotten used to the fact that I have seen nothing—ever."

Noah took in a deep breath.

"Is something bothering you?" Liam asked, he seemed pleased with his jokes.

"No," Noah replied as he put his elbow on the table.

"You sound like you've been running around again."

"Looking for Hannil," he explained.

"If the Headmaster catches you with him, he'll be angry."

"The Headmaster can't control who I do and don't be friends with."

"He'll be angry," Liam repeated.

"What's he going to do if he sees me talking to him?"

"Talking to whom?" Hannil's voice came in like a sledgehammer to the peaceful scene.