“I’m sorry,” he manages, wishing—not for the first time today—to hurl himself off the ship and let the ineo take some chomps out of him. Seokga expects Kisa to stiffly stand up and move, but to his surprise, she stays where she is: perched at the edge, hair a mess of soft curls that fall to her waist as she fidgets with the hairband in her fingers.

He has discovered that he quite likes her hair: an untamed lion’s mane, streaked with so many shades of brown…like coffee, Seokga realizes with a strange swelling of his heart. There are strands of mocha intermingled with warm macchiato. And her roots are somewhat lighter than the Irish coffee ends, reminding him almost of a frappé…

Seokga jerks back to himself as he realizes Kisa is saying…no, thinking something.

—squash—just—squash—squash—

It’s not the first time he’s heard this particular mantra. “Out of curiosity,” prompts Seokga, “I was wondering if you could explain your fixation with squashes.”

She blinks. Frantically. “It’s a—just a—”

“Mmhmm,” says Seokga. “Do you prefer acorn or butternut?”

“It’s a method,” Kisa finally settles on, sliding off the bed to stand on the floor (ah, he thinks, there it is), shifting her weight from foot to foot. “Of, well, staying focused. On the mystery. And not on, erm, other things.”

He feels a slow, dangerous smile stretching his lips. “Am I distracting?”

“No…” Yet the pained grimace of annoyance and something else on her face is confirmation enough. He blinks. Is Kisa…attracted to him? Subtly, he shifts in his seat to better pose for her admiration.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if she’s taking any notice. His disappointment flares down the bond, a morose and humiliating shade of gray-blue.

Immediately, Kisa’s eyes are shining as she tracks the color, and Seokga guesses that she’s about to launch into a detailed explanation of the red thread’s new ability to share their feelings down the bond. He’s proven correct. “First cerebration transference,” she says excitedly, past awkwardness forgotten, “and now emotional transference! It’s a brilliant discovery—”

He dearly wishes to believe that Kisa is excited about feeling his tangled emotions down the bond, but he suspects she’s more thrilled by the sheer discovery of it. As she excitedly speaks on, pacing the length of the room, Seokga stares at his cellphone, wondering what in the seven hells he’s going to say to Hwanung and wishing that Yoo Kisa didn’t possess the unique ability to make him feel like a science experiment.