A few days after rejecting Sophia at the coffee shop, Ethan sat in Professor Henderson's marketing lecture and felt her eyes boring into the back of his head.
She'd been staring at him for the entire class period; he didn't need to turn around to know it. Enhanced Perception tracked the weight of her gaze like a physical pressure, cataloging every shift in her attention, every time she glanced away and then back.
The old Ethan would have been flattered.
The reborn Ethan knew exactly what it meant: confusion had transformed into challenge, and Sophia Chen didn't like being dismissed.
"Someone's persistent," the System observed as the lecture ended. "She's looked at you forty-seven times in the past ninety minutes. That's obsessive territory."
Ethan packed his laptop slowly, deliberatel
