Four little turtles
Hyde has a theory about people.
They are scared. All of them. Every smile, every ambition, every carefully constructed personality — armor built over something soft and afraid underneath. He figured this out young, earlier than anyone should have to, and it cost him every ordinary connection a person his age was supposed to have.
When he enters Westgate University's IT department at eighteen, alone in an apartment his parents pay for from abroad, he arrives with a plan. Not for grades. Not for friendships. Not for the future in the way the orientation banner promises it.
He arrives to learn.
Specifically — to learn people. Up close. In a controlled environment. On his terms.
The Problem Solving Club is his solution. Three members. One room. Cases that walk through the door voluntarily. He gets to observe human behavior at its most desperate and most honest without ever having to explain himself or be explained. Kael — his oldest friend, loyal beyond reason and rich beyond comfort — sits beside him because that's what Kael does. Sae — sharp, warm, the only person who has ever managed both of them without losing herself — handles everything Hyde's methods break on the way out.
It works. Cleanly. Efficiently. Exactly as designed.
Until Rei sits down across from him in a park on a Saturday afternoon and asks if he wants help.
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Orientation2026-04-13 11:54
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