The exams began with Ren fully confident despite everything changing, and there was a good reason for his extra confidence.
Throughout the entire semester, Ren had remained focused on understanding crystallization.
At first, Min, Taro, and Liu worried seeing him so distant. They'd find him at his desk at odd hours, surrounded by papers filled with symbols none of them recognized. He'd stop responding to questions mid-way as if his mind had gone somewhere else completely, lost in thoughts and theories they couldn't understand.
"Think he's okay?" Min had asked one night, looking toward where Ren was hunched over his desk with an intensity that bordered on unsettling.
"He's just very concentrated," Taro had responded after a moment, recognizing something familiar in Ren's posture. "I've seen him like this before when he's working on something important, like the first time he prepared my crystals."
And he was right.
