Innocence

Ksenia had thought Hesta's dejection was because she herself had been too busy to spare the time, but Hesta had not yet had the chance to consider that. As she watched Ksenia's silhouette in the distance, discussing the script with others, a thought struck Hesta's heart like thunder:

It seemed like she was turning me into someone else...

Once this thought appeared, Hesta found plenty of evidence: it was not as if she had never panicked before, but she had never been as frantic and desperate as she had been in the study room last time; she had also agonized over replying to friends' messages, racking her brains over every word, but never to the point of spending over an hour on a single "Okay" like she had last night.

It seemed that every simple matter became complicated when it came to Ksenia. At the same time, many complicated things suddenly became simple the moment they encountered her. For instance, when Ksenia finally spotted her and waved at her from afar, Hesta immediately threw all those thoughts to the back of her mind.

None of that matters, Hesta thought. She's calling me.

At first, Hesta had worried that her presence here as a non-member of the Drama Club would seem too abrupt. But today, Ksenia was clearly not the only one who had called in friends. A batch of new props Teacher Wu had ordered had arrived today, and many Drama Club members had brought friends over to help.

The moment she saw there was physical labor to be done, Hesta thought this was where she shone. But the instant she picked up a box, four or five Drama Club members rushed over and stopped her. They refused to let her carry anything heavy, only handing her a few