"What's the matter?" Noah asked carefully, studying her rigid posture. The dim core-friendly lighting cast strange shadows across the corridor, making the moment feel somehow unreal.
"Leave me alone," Lila said, her voice carrying an edge he'd never heard before. She didn't turn around, but he could see her shoulders trembling slightly.
Noah lingered, shifting his weight uncertainly. "You can't just storm out of lab like that. We have a core extraction to—"
Lila spun around so quickly that Noah took an involuntary step back. Her face was streaked with tears, but her eyes held something far more unsettling than sadness. "Is that all you're bothered about?" she asked, her usually melodic voice now sharp as broken glass.
"Well... yeah," Noah responded, trying to keep his tone neutral. "Grades matter. You know that."
