Eager to get to her room as quickly as possible to check if Erik had called while she ate dinner, Maya propelled herself in the air, entirely skipping the last flight of stairs to their dorm room. However, as she swung the door open, she stopped in her tracks.

What awaited her was beyond her comprehension.

Right before her stood Erik and Elena. Elena was fresh out of the shower, wearing only a towel. Their position was overly familiar for a pair of mortal enemies, while Erik's hand even conspicuously held one of Elena's bralettes.

"Maya?" Erik was momentarily stunned. His hold weakened, allowing Elena to slip past him and snatch her bra away

"Wh…what's going on here?" Maya's voice was shaky, battling to make sense of the disheartening scene in front of her.

Without a word, Elena moved past her to shut the door that Maya was too shocked to close herself.

"What are you doing here?" Erik blurted out, crushing her last hope that he might've come here to find her.

"I live here," she replied, her voice barely audible.

Erik's gaze flickered to Maya's side of the room. As Elena flipped on the light switch, his eyes found the family portrait and the superhero illustration pinned above her bed.

"Ah…"

Elena's side of the room was so overwhelming that he hadn't yet bothered to look carefully at the other side. It was a careless oversight. Suddenly, another concern crossed his mind and he turned sharply toward Maya.

"Please don't tell me you've revealed your identity?" Deep concern was present in his tone.

"My identity?" Maya's eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"That you're a Prima!" he clarified, as though she should have understood from the start.

"I didn't," Maya declared, wondering how he'd come to that conclusion.

"Then why would they give you this room?"

Annoyed and impatient, Elena mixed in. "They gave it to me. She was just unfortunate enough to come in last."

Erik blinked at Elena, then narrowed his eyes. "What for? Being undead?"

"Don't be stupid. I'd be burned to a crisp if they knew that." Elena glared back.

"How did you manage to get this room?" Maya was suddenly curious.

She remembered that Elena was forced to leave the room she previously shared with Sarah last summer. Given that there were likely still vacant rooms available at that time, it struck Maya that Elena's placement here must have been intentional.

Elena shrugged. "To make me give up digging around, Daria promised me anything I wanted. What I requested was an atelier and a mini-fridge. And so she delivered." Elena suggested toward the room.

"Ah, that reminds me," Erik cleared his throat dramatically, capturing their attention. "Elena Ivanovna Petrova," he articulated her full name with a touch of Russian inflexion. "An orphan on a relentless quest to find her parents."

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Elena twitched, hearing her full name—including even the useless patronym only present in her belatedly appended Russian Birth Certificate that she had never disclosed to anyone.

Maya, too, was taken aback. It was the first time she'd heard Erik say Elena's name, rather than something derogatory. A twinge of jealousy sparked within her as the way he pronounced Elena's name was undeniably alluring.

'Is this how it should be pronounced?' she wondered.

"Quite an interesting case."

Erik casually strolled to the back of their room, his eyes falling on a thick file left on the window seat. He picked it up, the corners of his mouth lifting into a smirk.

"Look at the size of this thing. At first, I suspected someone had mistakenly slipped in a whole novel."

Elena's body stiffened as his words registered, her face paling.

"Is that my file?!" A note of panic seeped into her voice, her eyes wide as if Erik had just brandished a live grenade.

Erik's smirk grew wider as he continued, "I've flipped through it a bit…"

But Elena lunged forward, desperate to reclaim her file. Erik, however, simply lifted the file out of her reach with a fluid motion, his playful demeanour unchanging.

"But now, my interest is piqued. Nowhere in here did I come across…" he reached out, poking her right shoulder, just below her collarbone, "this gunshot wound."

Maya, who had been observing the scene unfold, gasped. "Th-that's from a g-gun?"

Elena didn't react to Maya's inquiry, only gave Erik a glare of pure venom. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't grab her file away from him. He effortlessly dodged every attempt, his attention drifting to the back of her shoulder.

"I don't see an exit wound. Did you dig it out yourself?" he mused. "It looks quite messy."

"None of your business," Elena's retort was terse.

Erik ignored her resistance. "It can't be older than a year," he speculated, leafing through the file. "According to your timeline, you must've stowed away to the US by then, right? Care to elaborate?"

By this point, Elena had given up her attempts to retrieve the file, recognizing the futility. Her scanty outfit didn't allow much room for vigorous movement without a risk of compromising it.

"I never told that to anyone, and I certainly won't start with you," she snapped.

"Her timeline?" Maya interjected, puzzled.

"She left a trail of colourful documents all over," Erik explained as he began flipping through the pages. "This looks like Russian or Ukrainian, this seems to be Polish, perhaps Chechen, German, French…" He leafed through the pages in bulk. However, on the last page he opened, something disconcerting caught his eye and the teasing smile disappeared from his face.

At that moment, Elena finally managed to snatch the file back.

Maya, having learned more about Elena in mere minutes than she had in months, was compelled to ask, "Why did you dig through her file?"

"I conducted background checks on you," Erik responded, shrugging nonchalantly. "I must admit, your file wasn't as intriguing as hers, but I suppose that's a good thing." A devilish grin spread across his face. "I was interrupted before I could return her file. But it's immaterial now. Only troubles for her, I suppose."

"What!?" Elena's eyes dilated, her already pale face turning a shade lighter. Stopping frantically sifting through her file, she snapped it shut and hastily extended toward him. "Return it," she demanded, her voice a mixture of fear and rage.

"Um, I don't feel like it. Sorry, love," Erik replied, now ignoring the file. He was clearly provoking her further.

Realizing the potential consequences if it were found missing, she let out a curse. In a flurry, she grabbed the first clothes she could find and sprinted to the bathroom, muttering in Russian.

Moments later, she emerged fully dressed, pulling on her boots while clutching the file and her coat. She stormed out, her mutterings a blend of various languages and obscenities.

"She truly is unhinged," Erik remarked, watching the door slam shut.

However, Elena reappeared almost instantly. Grabbing an object from her desk near the door, she tossed it to Maya, who fumbled to catch it.

"If he lays a finger on my stuff, spray him," she instructed, before vanishing.

Maya examined the object in her hand—a canister of pepper spray.

Recognizing it too, Erik's laughter echoed in the room.

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