After that evening, something shifted between Stephen and Nadia.
Not all at once.
Just little things.
Small things.
But enough for both of them to notice.
Stephen stopped leaving class immediately after lectures. Sometimes he waited outside, pretending to check his phone until Nadia appeared.
"You're still here?" she asked one afternoon, surprised.
He shrugged. "Thought maybe we could walk back together."
Another day, she found him waiting outside the library.
"You read now?" she teased.
"I'm trying," he said seriously. "Don't make fun of me."
She laughed.
And somehow, after that, it became normal.
They sat together in the library, pretending to study while whispering about everyone else in the room.
They walked back from class side by side.
They talked about nothing.
Everything.
The kind of small conversations that should not matter—but somehow did.
"What is your biggest fear?" Nadia asked one evening as they sat outside the hostel.
"Public embarrassment," Stephen replied immediately.
She laughed. "You are lying."
"I am not."
"You are too handsome to be afraid of embarrassment."
He looked at her.
"You think I'm handsome?"
Nadia froze.
Then rolled her eyes dramatically. "You know exactly what you are doing."
He smiled.
A real smile.
The kind that made her heart race every single time.
And Stephen noticed.
He noticed the way her face lit up when he waited for her after class.
The way she tried not to smile too much when he sat beside her.
The way she looked at him like she still could not believe he was finally letting her in.
It made something warm settle inside him.
He liked making her happy.
More than he wanted to admit.
Across campus, Tiana and Dare were becoming impossible to ignore too.
They were still taking things slowly.
But there was something easy about them now.
Dare always saved her a seat in class.
Tiana always looked for him first in a crowd.
Sometimes they walked so closely that their shoulders brushed, and even that was enough to make Dare smile for the rest of the day.
People noticed.
Of course they did.
And unfortunately—
so did Joshua.
At first, he told himself he did not care.
Then he saw Tiana laughing with Dare outside the department building.
Later that same day, he saw Stephen walking beside Nadia.
Both of them smiling.
Both of them moving on.
Without him.
Joshua stood at the far end of the corridor, hands in his pockets, jaw tight.
He did not know which one angered him more.
Stephen and Nadia getting closer.
Or Tiana looking happier with Dare than she had ever looked with him.
By the end of the week, he could not take it anymore.
So he started talking.
At first, it was subtle.
A few careless comments in the barracks.
"Oh, Tiana?" he said one evening, leaning back in his chair like he did not care. "We dated first. Long before all this."
The boys laughed and asked questions.
Joshua answered every one.
Bragging.
Acting like Tiana was some story he had finished telling.
As if she were something he had owned.
"She used to follow me everywhere," he said. "Ask anybody."
Word spread quickly.
And in Tiana's department, there were girls who already disliked her.
Girls who had wanted Dare's attention and hated that he had chosen her instead.
Joshua gave them exactly what they needed.
The next morning, as Tiana walked into class, she heard them.
Not loudly.
Just loud enough.
"Who does she think she is?"
"She left Joshua and moved to Stephen."
"I heard Stephen and Joshua used to be close in the barracks."
"So now she has hurt him too?"
"And now Dare?" another girl said with a laugh. "Is she not embarrassed?"
"She acts innocent, but I heard she likes attention."
Tiana stopped walking.
For a second, the corridor felt too quiet.
Too small.
The girls looked at her, pretending not to.
Pretending they had not said anything.
Tiana looked away and kept walking.
But their words followed her all the way into class.
By lunch, the rumours had become worse.
People were saying she had played with Joshua.
That she had almost ruined Stephen and Joshua's friendship.
That she was only with Dare because she liked attention.
None of it was true.
But truth did not matter once people decided they wanted a story.
And somewhere in the middle of it all—
Joshua sat quietly in one corner of the cafeteria, watching.
Watching Tiana lower her head when people stared.
Watching Nadia grow quiet.
Watching Stephen's face darken when he overheard someone talking.
Joshua said nothing.
He simply leaned back in his chair.
And smiled like none of it had anything to do with him.